Latter-day Saint FAIR-Cast

The Greater Sin by Autumn Dickson The Lord talks a little bit about forgiveness this week. Section 64 was given at a time when tempers were running hot and Zion felt far away. What did the Lord have to say about forgiveness? Doctrine and Covenants 64:9 Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I remember being young and thinking that didn’t make sense. I didn’t understand how the Lord could condemn a victim for holding on to their anger against someone who hurt them. As I’ve learned more and more about the gospel, I’ve received a different perspective. That’s not what the Lord is doing at all. It was merely me misunderstanding the Lord. Let’s talk about it. Different kinds of sin My definition and understanding of sin has evolved. It’s probably important to highlight that this is how I define the concept of sin personally. I likely don’t have it all correct, but we’re working towards perfect knowledge still, right? Sin is sin. It is bad. We should try to avoid it as much as possible. Let it be known; I absolutely believe that the Lord cannot look upon sin with any degree of allowance. It would thwart the Plan of Salvation, His perfection, and it would stunt our growth dramatically. But I used to take the concept of sin and tag on extra implications that weren’t necessarily true. I used to connect sin with an inherent badness on the part of the sinner. When there was condemnation, it was the Lord doling out punishments because we had been bad. After becoming a parent, I have learned that it’s not necessarily that black and white. Making mistakes does not mean you’re bad, and the Savior is coaching us towards exaltation. Sometimes He utilizes consequences but not because He’s looking to make us suffer. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Consequences teach us so we don’t have to suffer any longer. And then sometimes He doesn’t dole out consequences at all. Sometimes our choices come with inherent repercussions. He seeks to pull us out of those choices, but another form of condemnation is when we refuse Him and stay right where we’re at. I repeat. Another form of condemnation is when we refuse to accept His healing and grace. We condemn ourselves. In my mind, sin has expanded beyond just a definition of “badness” to “anything that takes us farther away from the Lord.” This expanded understanding has many implications that have shifted how I look at the gospel. One of the implications applies to the verse we just read. There are times when the Lord condemns; we see that most especially when someone is hard-hearted. When you read the New Testament, the Lord would condemn the Pharisees because softer forms of teaching were ineffective. But sometimes condemnation isn’t coming directly from Him. When you read that verse more carefully, it doesn’t say that the Lord condemned the person who refused to forgive. It says that they stand condemned before the Lord. Sometimes, we stand before the Lord condemning ourselves because we refuse the salvation He is offering. My personal interpretation of this verse is that the person refuses peace (and therefore, salvation) by refusing to forgive those who hurt them. Putting it into context I’m going to use a real-world example, and then I’m going to expand upon it. I read a book about trauma a couple of years ago, and there is a story that has stuck with me. It spoke about a girl who had been locked in the closet from the time she was very little. When I studied the effects of abuse, I was surprised to learn that neglect from a very young age leaves deeper scars than actual abuse. This little girl was essentially feral when she was finally found and taken out of the custody of the parents. She was placed somewhere safe and spent far more time in a wholesome environment than she did locked inside that closet. Unfortunately, the first three years of our lives often make the biggest impressions because our brains are developing so rapidly. When neglect and abuse happen in the first three years, it gets built into the brain as a blueprint for how someone looks at life. It can be changed, but because the growth of our brains slows down significantly, it takes far more time to undo the damage than it did to make the damage. This girl grew up, became an adult, and went on to abuse another child. From a person who grew up healthy, it would be easy to wonder, “You know what it’s like to be hurt! Why would you do that to someone else?” But when you study the brain, you recognize a perfect storm. This adult girl was essentially unable to grow up. Her body matured, but her brain did not. She didn’t have the inhibitions of an adult. She didn’t develop empathy (because that develops in your second or third year). And when she wanted to be romantically involved, she was completely unable to relate to adults. She could only relate to a child. She never really had a chance. And even as I speak about her struggles, we don’t allow cycles of abuse to continue. We work to protect potential victims. We do the logical thing and stop her from hurting others. However, it’s possible to protect victims, stop the abuse, and have compassion for the girl who suffered in ways that most of us don’t understand. Here is the part where I expand upon this story with hypotheticals. The Lord is the perfect judge so we’ll ultimately leave this up to Him, but I’m going to postulate so that we can explore the forgiveness principle we were talking about before. Fast forward to the next life. This girl has been healed by the Savior. She is no longer constrained to a brain that is broken and undeveloped because of what happened to her. Her spirit is free to be good and wholesome, and let’s say that’s exactly who she is. How would you judge her? If she were your child and you loved her, would you banish her away from you? I hope not. Now let’s look at the child who was abused by this broken woman. Let’s say this child grows up and passes away. He gets to the other side and sees her enjoying the presence of the Lord and being welcomed by good people around her. Let’s say this child is enraged by this. How would you judge him? I would hope you wouldn’t judge him harshly. He has also been through some horrific things. But would you throw her out because he demanded it? I would also hope not. I hope that we would be pleading with this young man to trust that the Lord knows everything perfectly, and she is safe to be around. I would hope that we would be pleading with him to come and join us and be healed and enjoy everything that the Lord meant for us to enjoy. If he refuses to forgive and join in on the “heaven,” then yes, he is standing condemned before the Lord. He is condemning (or, in other words, consigning) himself to hell by clinging to pain and anger. He refuses to accept the healing and the celestial possibilities. He refuses the happiness that’s standing in front of him. He holds the “greater” sin because he is refusing to let go of hell. He is separating himself from the Savior and those in His company, and that’s the definition of hell. We have to change how we interpret sin and condemnation and damnation. Sometimes the Lord does step in and mete out judgment as needed. Sometimes it’s just us condemning ourselves by refusing the path of healing, peace, and goodness. For those struggling to forgive I want to take a moment to talk about forgiveness and what it looks like. Forgiveness is a process that occurs in the heart. Because it’s an internal process, the outward manifestation can look different. Sometimes forgiveness looks like welcoming someone back into your life, and sometimes forgiveness looks like stepping away from someone for the rest of your life. Look at Nephi. He was commanded by the Lord to leave his brothers behind, and they did not reconnect in this life. Forgiveness does not always look the same on the outside, and it doesn’t mean that you have to invite a dangerous person back into your life. But let’s examine forgiveness in the heart for a moment. Doctrine and Covenants 64:11 And ye ought to say in your hearts–let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds. God will judge, and He will judge perfectly. Forgiving doesn’t mean the other person gets off easily. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re enabling them to go on hurting others. That’s not what forgiveness is about. God sees all, and He will judge accordingly. He’s not going to let someone come into heaven and destroy it with manipulation or harm. I think sometimes we’re afraid to forgive because we’re afraid of getting hurt. Fortunately, we have a loving Heavenly Father who separates people according to the goodness they offer those around them. If He has forgiven someone, it’s because they’re prepared to be different. Going back to our previous example, I’m going to postulate again. In this specific imaginary scenario, I believe that the girl (the one who Heavenly Father judged was safe and worthy) will be so grateful for her healed mind. I believe that despite what she went through, she will also feel horrified by how her actions harmed another person. I believe that so much of what we experience in the next life is coming to terms with what happened to us and what we did to others in our mortal life. You can let go and trust God to handle it perfectly. You can trust that you’re safe and will be healed. That is a process, and you don’t need to harangue yourself if it takes a while, but working towards it will free you. Forgiveness has everything to do with you and finding peace again. If you want to heal from damage caused by another person, you have to dig down deep and find love for that person. You have to sincerely want them to heal and make better choices and stop harming others. That is where you’re going to find the freedom and peace the Lord means for you to have. I testify of a loving Savior who will protect and heal the innocent. I testify of a Father in Heaven who is a perfect judge. I testify that He teaches us principles that are meant to bless us, and I testify that forgiveness is one of those principles.     Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 64–66 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

“DNA and The Book of Mormon” by Ryan Parr at the 2005 FAIR Conference I would like to thank the organizers of the conference for being invited to talk about two really great subjects and that is the Book of Mormon and DNA which, when you look at its structure and its design, is no less of a divine inspired molecule! We live in a very exciting age. Now, by the time you finish watching CNN you may not think that, but there is a lot of good that is going on in the world today and actually we call- so this is sort of a public service announcement on DNA—you’ll often hear the word “genome” and genome refers to the entire complement of genes that each one of us has and for humans that’s between 30-80,000 genes and this is really going to be the basis of an economic revolution in countries that will take note. In fact Bill Gates has said that if he had the opportunity to do it over again he would be in biotechnology because with the early days of this type of research, it was pre-1995 (they call the ancient days), and now since we’ve actually looked at and deciphered the entire human genome there are many things that we think we can now do. We can use DNA as a biosensor to detect what we’re thinking; all types of diseases; cancers that now we treat after their clinical manifestations; long before there are clinical manifestations; so we really stand on a cusp and a threshold of a revolution much like the antibiotic revolution of the last century. CONTINUED HERE The post Classic FAIR – DNA and The Book of Mormon – Ryan Parr, 2005 appeared first on FAIR.

The Church in Ohio, August–November 1831 (D&C sections 63–69) by Mike Parker (Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.) Class Notes Additional Reading President J. Reuben Clark Jr., “When Are the Writings and Sermons of Church Leaders Entitled to the Claim of Scripture?,” address to Seminary and Institute personnel at BYU, 7 July 1954. Kirtland, City of Revelation: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is an eight-part documentary miniseries that explores the way men and women flocked to Kirtland in the 1830s to hear the voice of God through the prophet Joseph Smith. The episodes consider Kirtland as a site of abundant revelation and the place where church leaders organized much of the church. The episodes also illuminate how Joseph Smith was intent on teaching church members in Kirtland how to hear the voice of God themselves. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviewed historians and Church leaders for this podcast.     Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 63–69 – Mike Parker appeared first on FAIR.

by Brent Andrewsen at the 2024 FAIR Conference How do we help our young people avoid deception, or keep them from “stumb[ling] exceedingly”? We keep the “plain and precious” parts of the gospel front and center in their lives.   Brent Andrewsen practices at a regional law firm with offices throughout the Intermountain West. He is the chairman of Sutherland Institute Board of Directors, an independent research and educational institution and think tank, whose mission is to advance civility, sound ideas, and principled public policy supporting faith, family and free enterprise. Brent serves as the chairman of Skyline Research Institute and is the former chairman of the Board of Directors at Kirton McConkie. He has an AV Preeminent peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is recognized as one of Utah’s Legal Elite for estate planning, a Mountain States Super Lawyer for estate planning and non-profits, and a Best Lawyer for trusts/estates and non-profits/charities. He was also honored by Utah Business magazine as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star. Brent earned his B.A. in political science from BYU and a J.D. cum laude from the Washington & Lee University Law School. The post Preserving and Protecting “Plain and Precious” Truths In Our Families appeared first on FAIR.

Faith and Signs by Autumn Dickson Ezra Booth was a Methodist preacher who joined the church after witnessing Joseph Smith heal Alice Johnson’s arm. He later left the church and published material that was particularly antagonistic. Despite witnessing a miracle, Ezra didn’t hold on to his faith. We see this time and time and time again throughout the scriptures. Signs are insufficient conversion tools. I’ve spoken about signs before, but I want to talk about it on a more individual level today. Let’s cover the basics and then bring it into our personal lives. Here is some of what the Lord has to say about seeking signs. Doctrine and Covenants 63:7, 9 7 And he that seeketh signs shall see signs, but not unto salvation. 9 But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe. Let’s break these down just a bit. Verse 7. He that looks for signs will receive them, but it won’t bring salvation. In my mind, the Lord is saying, “The signs are already there, and I’ll send you signs, but it won’t do you any good because you don’t believe.” The same people will look at the complexity of the earth and see completely different origins. There are signs, but they’re not going to change you or bring you the full extent of happiness if you don’t believe there is a Creator behind it. Verse 9. You don’t receive faith from signs. You see the signs when you have faith. Faith is a conscious choice that you make of your own accord, and then you start to see. Here is a quote from one of my all-time favorite BYU speeches given by Lawrence E. Corbridge. “I don’t know if pigs will ever sprout wings and fly, but if they do, flying pigs will never be nearly as amazing as the ordinary pig in the first place.” If you have faith, the pig is the miracle. Everything the Lord has already given us is a miracle and a “sign.” Faith comes first. Now, many of us have already made the conscious choice to believe in the restored gospel. We go to church every week and we attend the temple and pray and follow the commandments. We profess that we believe, so what do these verses mean for us? Let’s look at a few different ways that they could apply to someone who already believes in God. Revelation Interestingly enough, there’s another verse from this week that can get tied into the message I’m trying to cover today. A revelation was given on the banks of the Missouri river. The Lord said a few things in this revelation, but one of the things that He taught these elders was that they could choose to travel how they wanted. Doctrine and Covenants 62:8 These things remain with you to do according to judgment and the directions of the Spirit. Revelation can feel tricky, but it’s an enormously powerful tool that is life-changing. I had the fortunate experience of being raised in a home where I was taught to seek revelation, but unfortunately, I occasionally took it to the extreme. I had such a hard time moving forward unless the Lord had told me to do so. I did seek signs for everything, and you can imagine that might cause problems. Sometimes I would “find” signs that I believed He had sent when it was actually in my own mind. I had a hard time accepting the idea that He was choosing to be silent so that I could make decisions for myself. Other times, I would come to the conclusion that He was mad at me or that I wasn’t being good enough to receive revelation. Other times, I would just panic and stay confused rather than making a decision that sounded good to me. I often found signs, but they were not unto salvation. The Lord wants you to make decisions because you’re training to be like Him. He’s not trying to keep you from making mistakes; He is trying to help you gain the wisdom you’ll need to do what He does. There is no other way to do that except for making your own decisions sometimes. Sometimes we’re worried about jumping in. We’re either scared that we’ll make a mistake, take a route He doesn’t want us to follow, or we’ll somehow shoot ourselves in the foot. In reality, the Lord wants us to have faith. He wants us to trust Him to speak as necessary, course-correct when it matters, and rescue us when we paint ourselves into a corner. As we move forward with faith in His ability to save, the signs follow! If we take the time to look back prayerfully, we’ll find that He was leading us along the whole time. Maybe we’re not asking for signs before we’re willing to believe in God, but I do believe that sometimes we ask for signs before we’re willing to believe in Him enough that we can move forward with rejoicing. If we choose to have faith, the signs will follow after. Feeling love or forgiveness Here is another potential example of seeking signs because we don’t quite believe in the Savior enough. I know far too many people who don’t quite feel the love of their Savior. Logically, they can kinda get behind it because it comes along with having a testimony of the restoration. Unfortunately, despite this general testimony of the gospel, it’s still hard for them to dive in and bask in that love and acceptance towards their own person. This extends to other feelings such as forgiveness. When we’ve made a mistake or when we’re falling prey to a particular flaw, it can be difficult to accept that the Lord has moved on. We want a sign that we really are forgiven. We want some indisputable evidence that we’re okay, and He’s not mad anymore. Interestingly enough, even when He does give little signs of His forgiveness, we often don’t accept the signs and we cling to those mistakes and flaws. Trusting that the Savior loves you and forgives you is a conscious act of faith, and the faith comes first! When you have truly chosen that faith, then you have finally reached the point where you’re able to accept the signs. This circumstance doesn’t translate perfectly, but I want to utilize it anyway because I feel like it makes it more concrete. Conner and I have been married for eight years. That’s not long, relatively speaking, but I have learned a few lessons along the way. One of those lessons is to trust Conner and his love for me. When we argue, I have learned to find peace in the fact that I know things are going to be just fine. Arguing doesn’t mean we’re going to get divorced. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be stuck in an unhappy marriage forever. Conner has showed up for me time and time again, and it has taught me that we’re going to come back from whatever we’ve fallen into. I don’t spiral anymore when things aren’t perfect in our marriage. Conner’s love for me was there anyway. There are plenty of ways that he shows up for me and gives me signs of his love. However, I don’t find peace and “salvation” in that love if I don’t have faith and consequently find all the signs of his love. Like I said, it doesn’t translate perfectly, but you get the idea. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you even more than Conner loves me. The love is there. All the signs are there, but you can’t see them (or in the very least, you can’t trust them) without faith. Faith has to come first. You have to choose to look at your situation and believe that He loves you. You have to believe that He loves you enough to send challenges but also a Savior to pull you through it. As you choose to look at each situation as a manifestation of His love, I promise that the signs follow. You’ll see them everywhere once you start to choose faith in His love and willingness to forgive. I testify of a Savior who loves. I testify that He is constantly showing His love. I testify that He is constantly reaching out with that love, but you have to turn on your end of the receiver. Believe and the signs will follow. That extends towards revelation as well. As you trust in Him, you’ll be able to move forward and make decisions. As you keep moving forward, you’ll be able to look back and see the signs that He’s been guiding you all along.     Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 60–63 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

“The Fallacy of Fundamentalist Assumptions” by Blake T. Ostler at the 2005 FAIR Conference I’d like to begin my presentation (there should have been an outline that was handed out that you have in front of you). But I want to begin a bit off outline. I was amused- I was reading this morning that we have (and Chris Buttars is a good friend of mine) and he’s wondering whether he should introduce intelligent design into Utah schools. And I was thinking intelligent design? Chris is a Mormon and he probably doesn’t even realize what he would be teaching isn’t Mormon cosmology. And I was reading another article—as a matter of fact just last night—about how the Big Bang proved this story of Genesis and I was thinking, apparently the people who read- who know all about the Big Bang have never read Genesis. (Laughter) CONTINUED HERE The post Classic FAIR – The Fallacy of Fundamentalist Assumptions – Blake Ostler, 2005 appeared first on FAIR.

Align With Him by Autumn Dickson Trials. There is always something more to say about trials, and that’s what I want to talk about this week. I specifically want to talk about one aspect of trials and how we can sometimes make things harder on ourselves. Some of the Saints have made it to Missouri this week, and they are disappointed about what they arrived to find. They were looking for Zion and were surprised to find that it had not been built yet. They had just travelled hundreds of miles away from their comfortable homes in New York. Their original destination had been changed when they were kicked off of what was supposed to be their home. As they arrived in Missouri, they didn’t find homes. They found that their journey was just beginning. The Lord gave Section 58 as a response, and here is one of the things the Lord says. Doctrine and Covenants 58:3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. As the Saints originally looked around at the undeveloped land, they were probably met with some aches and pains as they remembered what they had back in New York. All they likely saw was a bunch of work they had yet to do. I imagine them receiving these words from the Lord, and I imagine them trying to look at the land with new eyes. They probably tried picturing an industrious, protective community where they could raise their families and build the church. Though they missed their homes, they likely found great comfort in the hope that the Lord had significant plans. Interestingly enough, they would not live to see the end result of the Lord’s plans for Missouri. We have not yet lived to His plans for Missouri, and so this might seem a bit confusing. They went to build Zion, but it kinda seems like Zion never happened for them. Let’s explore that idea and then apply it to our own lives. What was the Lord talking about? I want to bring your attention to the first verse of Section 58 so we can get a better feel for what the Lord is truly talking about. Doctrine and Covenants 58:1 Hearken, O ye elders of my church, and give ear to my word, and learn of me what I will concerning you, and also concerning this land unto which I have sent you. The people had the land sitting in front of them, and that was in the forefront of their minds. They had just travelled and travelled and travelled in order to arrive at this specific land, so that’s what they were listening for. They were asking themselves, “What would the Lord have us do with the land?” However, look at what the Lord said first. He said, “Listen to what I want concerning YOU, and then we can talk about the land I sent you to.” Zion is so much more than some land in Missouri. While the Saints were preoccupied with the land, the Lord was preoccupied with His people. It’s always about His people. The Lord designated the physical place of Zion to be in Missouri but acquiring a “Zion people” is the much harder and far more important work of the Lord. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Missouri if you can’t be kind and compassionate and loving to your neighbor. If you are not a Zion-like person, Zion will never exist even if you’re in the right location. Yes, the Lord speaks about the physical land of Missouri, but try to look at the section with new eyes. Read the section from the Lord’s perspective of trying to build Zion within His people first rather than trying to build cabins, farms, and shops. Utilize this perspective as we look at this next verse in which the Lord describes His purpose for sending His Saints to Missouri specifically. Doctrine and Covenants 58:7 And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand; There is a lot we can talk about, but I want to draw attention to one particular phrase, “…that you might be honored in laying the foundation…” He sent them to Missouri so that they could be honored in laying the foundation of Zion. Maybe they weren’t able to lay the foundation of the temple while they were in Missouri, but they laid a much greater foundation for the rest of us; they did some of the hardest groundwork to prepare for Zion. I don’t think any of us can fully comprehend just how blessed we are to build upon the moral and social foundations that were set down by those who came before us. They did start to build Zion, and they did it in a much more important way than tilling the land and building cabins and infrastructure. Building you So how does that translate to us? My first thought is that we can learn about the differences between the Lord’s focus and what human minds tend to gravitate towards. I suppose I could be wrong, but I would imagine that when the Saints received this revelation, they were gung-ho about physically building up Independence, Missouri. In actuality, the Lord was looking to build His people. And when I say build, I mean that He was going to let them go through really hard things. We all have to go through trials. They were an absolutely necessary, completely irreplaceable portion of the Plan of Salvation. But interestingly enough, we make those trials much harder when our goals are different from the Lord’s goals. When you have it in your mind that the Lord wants you to build a cabin, you’re going to get very confused, disheartened, and disillusioned when the cabin doesn’t turn out (or turn up) at all. The Lord doesn’t care about the cabin; He wants to build you. The Lord can rearrange the elements, soften hearts, and add zeros to a bank account. What He refuses to do is take away your agency. Because of this personally imposed stipulation, it is much more difficult for Him to build you. And if He just lets you build the cabin with no obstacles, then it becomes impossible for your character to get built. So when you run into issues and trials, He isn’t trying to impede your service. He hasn’t abandoned you. He isn’t hiding or uninvolved. It’s not a sign that this isn’t His work or that you’re destined to be a failure. He is doing exactly what He set out to do; He is building you. When you realize that you are His priority, the seeming obstacles pushing back against your goals become stepping stones towards your exaltation. Because of the trials Recap thus far. The Lord wanted to build Zion. The people thought He meant that they needed to build infrastructure in Independence, Missouri. That is an eventual goal of His, but more importantly, He wanted to build a Zion-people. You can’t actually build Zion when the people aren’t ready. Any disappointment on the part of the Saints likely stemmed from their inaccurate assumptions about the Lord’s purposes. As I was reading through this, I thought of my husband. And since he doesn’t read or listen to my stuff, I’m going to talk about him. My husband is an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur can come with a lot of awesome perks, but there are also plenty of downsides. He has met plenty of people who have told him that he couldn’t do what he wanted to do. He has gotten plenty of negative reviews on what he’s trying to accomplish. He has hit obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. And after a while, those things add up and start to affect him. He has expressed the sentiment that he feels like a failure, and he has expressed it hundreds of times. We’ve always had what we needed even when things got rocky, but the combined weight of negative opinions tends to pull his focus away from the ways he’s been absolutely successful. When he says, “I’m a failure,” it’s because he is looking in the mirror and saying, “I haven’t reached the goals I had for this point in my life. I’m not providing the kind of life that I wanted for my family, etc., etc.” When I look at our life together, I’ve seen anything but failure. However, let’s imagine for a second that he has failed as an entrepreneur. It sucks. It’s not fun. It hurts when you have goals that don’t come together in the way that you want them to, and that disappointment can come back to bite you frequently. Do you know what helps that specific kind of trial? Realigning your goals with the goals of the Lord. He’s not specifically looking for successful businessmen, perfect homemakers, or anything else you could possibly have a goal about. He’s looking to build you into someone who can build heaven. Doctrine and Covenants 58:3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. All of those obstacles that my husband has faced combined with all of the times that he has stood back up counts for something. And it counts for something incredibly important. Even if we were to lose everything, the effort he has put into his goals aren’t wasted. Rather, if he can switch his mindset to align with the Lord’s, my husband will find plenty of successful moments. And interestingly enough, if Conner had never met some of those business “failures” he would have never been able to find those spiritual successes. I testify that you can’t lose when you’re aligned with the Lord. Every mistake, failure, flaw, and obstacle can transform into the desperately needed stepping stones towards exaltation when you take advantage of the atonement of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean there won’t be disappointment, but even disappointment turns into glory when you stay close to the Lord. I testify that we do not yet have eyes to see everything that the Lord wants to create within us, but I do know that it’s better than we can imagine.     Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 58–59 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

Zachary Wright interviews Dr. Carl J. Cranney about his paper “The Deliberate Use of Hebrew Parallelisms in the Book of Mormon” available at https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol23/iss1/8/ There has been much said about chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. However, there are 27 other types of Hebrew poetry, which make a much stronger argument for it’s ancient authenticity. These poetic forms appear in specific genres (sermons and narratives) and are absent in others (proclamations and letters). This is exactly the pattern we would expect and shows an intentionality to the poetry that hasn’t been discussed elsewhere.   Carl J. Cranney received a PhD in systematic theology at the Catholic University of America, where he specialized in theological anthropology and moral theology. He earned his MAR in philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School and his BA in philosophy from Brigham Young University. His academic interests include interfaith dialogue, comparative theology, and the varied Christian approaches to the theology of marriage and family. As a stay-at-home dad, he tries to squeeze in co-hosting duties for the “Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree” podcast and teaching for BYU Pathway in his limited spare time. He lives in Springville, UT, with his wife Susan and their four children. Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT.  He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic.  He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history.  His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God. The post Hebrew Poetry and the Book of Mormon appeared first on FAIR.

“‘Believest thou…?’: Faith, Cognitive Dissonance, and the Psychology of Religious Experience” by Wendy Ulrich at the 2005 FAIR Conference It’s an old and frequent spiritual question, and it shows up in many forms. It is the question Jesus asks the disciples who hear his troubling and offending discourse on being someone whose flesh must be eaten and whose blood drunk by those who would have eternal life. The discourse confuses many, who turn back and follow him no more, and then, to those who remain Jesus asks the question, “Will ye also go away?” To the man who seeks out Jesus to heal his deeply troubled son, the question is implied, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” To Nephi, approached by an angel after he is carried away to the top of a high mountain, the question is more direct: “Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken?” And to the brother of Jared, who asks to see the premortal Jesus after hearing his voice and seeing his hand, the question is perhaps most clearly stated, “Believest thou the words which I shall speak?” Believest thou? I am increasingly impressed by the implications of this simple question, and by how often it is at the heart of my mortal dilemmas. Do I believe God’s commandments and teachings, or do I find other explanations of reality more credible for getting what I want or keeping me safe? Do I trust him to tell me the truth, even when it includes improbable and invisible things? Do I trust him to have the love, the will, and the power to save me despite the ways I am not worthy? Do I trust him to keep his promises? Do I believe? CONTINUED HERE   The post Classic FAIR – Faith and Cognitive Dissonance – Wendy Ulrich, 2005 appeared first on FAIR.

Joseph Smith’s first visit to Missouri; Zion & the temple (D&C sections 57–62) by Mike Parker (Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.) Class Notes Additional Reading Aaron L. West, “Questions and Answers about the Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri,” Church History, 14 March 2019. West answers common questions about the temple lot dedicated by Joseph Smith, including who the present owners are of various portions of that parcel of land. Examine the two City of Zion plats prepared by early Church leaders on the Joseph Smith Papers website: Plat of the City of Zion (June 1833). The first plat, drawn by Frederick G. Williams (with north pointing to the left) has marginal notes surrounding the diagram on all four sides. Revised Plat of the City of Zion (August 1833). The second plat, also by Williams, contains no marginal notes, but an attached letter from Oliver Cowdery explained the plat and the plans for the temples to be built at the center of the city of Zion.   Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 57–62 – Mike Parker appeared first on FAIR.