The ministry of Alma & Amulek (Alma 5–16) 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. This post will cover the remaining weeks of June.) Class Notes Handout Additional Reading Robert A. Rees, “Alma the Younger’s Seminal Sermon at Zarahemla,” in Bountiful Harvest: Essays in Honor of S. Kent Brown, ed. Andrew C. Skinner, D. Morgan Davis, and Carl Griffin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 329–43. Why does Alma 7:10 say Jesus was born “at Jerusalem” when the Bible says he was born in Bethlehem? Robert F. Smith answers this question in “The Land of Jerusalem: The Place of Jesus’ Birth,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book / Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992), 170–72. Thomas A. Wayment, “The Hebrew Text of Alma 7:11,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 1 (2005): 98–103. Wayment argues that the translation of Isaiah 53:4 in Alma 7:11 is closer to the Hebrew text than the English translation in the King James Bible is. BYU professor John W. Welch explains the Nephite system of weights and measures in Alma 11:3–19 in “Weighing and Measuring in the Worlds of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 8, no. 2 (1999): 36–45, 86. (See also Robert F. Smith’s “Table of Relative Values” in the same issue.) Alma₂ forbade Amulek from using the power of God to save the believers in Ammonihah from being killed (Alma 14:11). Why does God permit evil to take place in the world? Elder Spencer W. Kimball gave some ideas in his article “Tragedy or Destiny,” Improvement Era 69, no. 3 (March 1966): 178–80, 210–12, 214, 216–17.     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 – Alma 5–7; Alma 8–12; Alma 13–16 – Mike Parker appeared first on FAIR.

The Change of Heart by Autumn Dickson In the chapters for this week, we find various sermons and experiences from Alma as he is traveling from city to city to try and build up the church. In one of the areas, Zarahemla, he found some issues within the church that were plaguing the Saints and taking them away from the Lord. This is another one of those chapters growing up that troubled me and made me worry about my salvation. As I read verses about being stripped of pride and envy (particularly difficult as an insecure teenager), or when I read verses about walking blameless before God, I was convinced I didn’t stand a chance. I never think it’s a bad idea to consider the state of your soul and talk to the Lord about it, but it has to be done right. There have been plenty of times that I’ve examined the apparently black state of my soul growing up and thinking that there was no way I’d ever be good enough to live with God again. This wasn’t uplifting or helpful. It didn’t make me a better person. It just made me focus more on myself. I was doing plenty of good things, but those good things weren’t changing me. Which is rather unfortunate and ironic when you think about the fact that change is literally the entire point of this earthly exercise. A mighty change of heart absolutely includes a desire to do what’s right, to follow the Lord, and serve those around us. However, a mighty change of heart includes much more than that. There is a process to follow that I believe often gets pushed out of order to our own detriment. Let’s observe exactly what Alma is teaching here, and I think we’ll find how to have our hearts changed in a way that is uplifting and joyful. Understanding exactly what Alma is teaching about being prepared to meet God can help us to accomplish more good works than we otherwise would be able to, and it can also help us go about this process in a way that fills our souls rather than leaving us empty. How does the change of heart occur? Alma is addressing the Saints in Zarahemla when he starts talking about remembering the captivity of their fathers. He talks about them being encircled by the bands of death and chains of hell. An everlasting destruction awaited them. Were they destroyed? No. Their restraints were loosed. Alma then asks: Alma 5:10 And now I ask of you on what conditions are they saved? Yea, what grounds had they to hope for salvation? What is the cause of their being loosed from the bands of death, yea, and also the chains of hell? That’s what we’re trying to find out here, right? We’ve all found ourselves encircled with bands that we can’t break ourselves. We’ve all sinned. So how did our fathers escape? Because if we can figure out how they escaped, we can know how to escape ourselves. Luckily, Alma describes it clearly. And if I had been able to observe the answer as a teenager, it would have surprised me. Alma 5:12 And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true. What saved them? It wasn’t an incessant, bullheaded attempt to do everything right. It was faith! It’s so funny because I was absolutely surrounded by Texas Christians growing up who were of the opinion that “works” were completely unnecessary. You were only saved by believing in Christ. We believe in works, and there is a place for works, and we will talk about works. But maybe they were onto something. I feel like we have a culture in the church that talks about our belief in grace and faith as they are related to salvation, but we also inwardly scoff a little. We’re afraid to lean on grace and faith to the extent that we relinquish responsibility for our actions to our detriment. I feel like we profess the idea of grace and faith, and yet oftentimes, our beliefs about our own worthiness and the extent to which we beat ourselves up does not reflect this belief in the Savior’s ability to redeem. And yet, here we have Alma, teaching that it was faith that freed them from their bonds. So let’s cover grace and works again. Where does faith come in and what’s the point of works? How do the two relate together? I’ve only talked about it a million times, but that’s because the relationship between the two is complex. There are a lot of ways to teach it and better understand it. There are layers to it, so we’re going to add another layer here that can hopefully add to what we’ve already studied about grace and works. Works-first method Perhaps we don’t mean to, but I believe we often follow a “works first” method and we believe that the faith (and all the feelings associated with salvation) just kinda descends later. I tried that for a long time, and it never descended. I think sometimes we believe that if we’re following the commandments and standards, those good feelings of freedom and peace and salvation are simply going to show up. Not so. Here is a disclaimer before I start elaborating. Someday perfection will come. Someday, you’ll never have to fall down again. That day is not today, not in this environment on earth. Heavenly Father set you up to fail, not because He doesn’t love you but because we had to fail. We needed to fail in order to become like Him. It had to happen. He wants us to be like Him, and He knew the only way to achieve that all-important goal was if we were placed in an environment with enough opposition to fall down repeatedly. He set us up to fail for a good reason, and He provided His Son to pay for those failures. So stop trying to stop failing. Don’t make that your goal. When we follow a works-first based method, we place all of our hopes on the idea that we’re going to stop falling down. We believe that we have to stop falling down in order to go home. Perhaps we don’t phrase it like that out loud, but that’s what we internally believe. That’s why we beat ourselves up every time we mess up or when we can’t overcome our flaws as fast as we want. That’s why we get discouraged and wonder if we’re good enough. It’s because we subconsciously believe we have to stop falling, and as we covered before, there is purpose in our weaknesses and fallen environment. In a works-first method, we’re placing our faith in ourselves, not in Christ. We claim to believe in Christ. We claim that He pays for our sins and will forgive as often as we repent. However, if we truly believed that, if we truly let His grace seep into our hearts, we would feel joyful about His ability to save us and bring us home. When I say we’re placing our faith in ourselves, I mean that we’re trying to use our own abilities to stop falling down. It won’t work. It will only leave you battered and discouraged until you eventually want to stop trying. Have you ever felt that way? “I can’t do everything. I’m so tired. I want to just give up.” It’s because subconsciously we believe that we have to do everything, and it’s simply not true. Faith-first method Like I mentioned previously, sometimes we internally scoff at people who tell us to stop striving, that belief is all you need. I’m not telling you to stop striving. I’m telling you to change your goal. I’m telling you to switch to a much more effective method of striving. The works-based method and the faith-based method both have the same eventual goal: perfection. However, they approach it in dramatically different ways. Only one is effective: faith-based. When you are following the faith-based method, you know that trusting Christ is the only way to salvation. You stop trying to stop falling down. Instead, you collect strength every time you fall down and get back up. You have faith in a Savior who paid the price so you could be sent here to fail and gain the experience you so desperately needed. And as we choose to focus on collecting strength and developing a deep gratitude for the Savior’s ability to redeem, something absolutely incredible happens. Our hearts change. I have experienced it, and it feels so good. The gospel feels good. Salvation feels good. I do fail. I’m not a perfect mother or wife. I get angry when I feel wronged. I murmur. I can be vain. I can be selfish, and I can hold a grudge. But because I believe in my Savior, I turn to Him. I believe that He adores me, that He thinks I’m wonderful, that He believes in me, so I turn to Him. And as I repeatedly turn to Him with trust, I feel those wonderful feelings of salvation, and I change. It’s difficult to be angry and vain and selfish when faced with the reality of the love of your Savior. My heart changes. I want to do good, and it becomes easier to do good and become good. Faith comes in two forms, or at least that’s how I’m going to describe it so I can make sure I’m really hitting this point home. There is faith in the form of obedience, and there is faith in the form of trusting your relationship with the Savior. Both types of faith are action words. I had to choose to trust my Savior as much as I’ve ever had to choose to be obedient. Trying to choose faith in the form of obedience without faith in the form of trust is the worst. Don’t do it. It’s a miserable way to live the gospel, and it’s completely ineffective. I think sometimes we’re afraid to let go of our own constant nagging towards ourselves because we’re afraid we’ll let go, become comfortable in our sin, and then we’ll actually find ourselves in a ton of trouble. I know I was afraid of that. But it’s not what happens. When we let go of the nagging and embrace the Savior and His ability to save, you find a much deeper motivation to do good and be good. You want to be stripped of envy and pride? Experience the love of your Savior, and you won’t feel a need to compare yourself to anyone. It melts away. Embrace the Savior. Embrace faith and trust in Him. It’s the only happy and effective way to live the gospel.     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. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 5–7 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

Mosiah and Amlici by Autumn Dickson Within the chapters this week, we see two contrasted examples of men who are types of the Savior and Satan. It’s remarkable that these two examples were so closely put together within these chapters, and it’s very easy to observe the Plan of Salvation on a minute scale because of it. King Mosiah First, we have King Mosiah. He is obviously the representation of the Savior. He had all of this power bestowed on him, true power that was valid and recognized among the people. Here are two verses that very clearly put forth the Savior’s stance during the war in heaven as we were trying to decide how to proceed with the rest of our very long lives. Mosiah was king over the Nephites and decided to form a new government. The people would elect judges and acknowledge laws and all live according to those laws. This is what King Mosiah had to say about it. Mosiah 29:31-32 31 For behold I say unto you, the sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their kings; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of their kings. 32 And now I desire that this inequality should be no more in this land, especially among this my people; but I desire that this land be a land of liberty, and every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike, so long as the Lord sees fit that we may live and inherit the land, yea, even as long as any of our posterity remains upon the face of the land. The second verse is very easy to find the parallel. Our Savior wanted us to have our freedom to choose. He wanted us to have the right to design our own eternal lives, to build what we wanted our eternal futures to look like. He was wise enough to understand that this was the only way we could truly be happy, to have the freedom to choose happiness. You can’t force someone into happiness even if you can force them to make choices that were meant to bring happiness. The first verse that I included was also important because it describes the other side of the coin of freedom. King Mosiah teaches his people that sin can be caused by kings which equates to that sin falling upon the heads of the kings rather than on the heads of the people. Responsibility is as crucial to our happiness as freedom. We need the opportunity to take control of our own futures because it is only in the building of those futures that we find true happiness. Let me give an example. I dated Conner for a year and a half before we got married, and I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed for an answer about whether to marry him. I know that some people do receive answers when they pray about that kind of thing which is awesome, but I had a slightly different experience. Heavenly Father never truly answered me, and as I’ve made my way through marriage, I learned why. I chose Conner on my own. I had known him for a very long time. We had seen the worst of each other if I’m being perfectly honest, but we had also seen plenty of good. After we got married, I don’t feel like I was completely caught off guard by choices he made because I knew what I had married. There was beauty in this. I had desperately craved that validation from Heavenly Father, and I think Heavenly Father is wise in whether He chooses to bestow that validation or not because we’re all learning different lessons at different times in our lives. But for me, at this time in my life, He knew that I needed to make my own choice. I needed to make my own choice so that when hard things came up in my marriage (which they inevitably always do), I couldn’t shake my fists at the heavens and ask why Heavenly Father had put me here. I had to look at myself, take responsibility for the choice I had made, and decide what I was going to do with those hard things. That doesn’t mean I leave Heavenly Father out of the equation, to the contrary. I ask Heavenly Father for help all the time. The difference is that I decide to make my marriage what I want my marriage to be. When something difficult comes along, I don’t throw up my hands and say, “Well this is where Heavenly Father put me so I guess I just have to deal.” I decide how I’m going to change, how I’m going to approach Conner, and a million other little choices. I’m very blessed to have a husband who makes these same choices. The Lord let me own my marriage, and because He let me own it, I’ve been able to create something beautiful with my own choices and His help. It’s been an exhilarating and fulfilling process that has brought me far more happiness than I thought possible. It has brought me far more happiness in comparison to hoping that happiness would just fall on me; happiness simply doesn’t happen that way. We need freedom and responsibility to own our lives and build what we want. Sometimes Heavnely Father gives us an answer, and that’s comforting and wonderful and definitely has its purposes in our life that can teach us important lessons. Sometimes He’s silent, not because He doesn’t care or doesn’t love us, but because He’s trying to push us into our big kid shoes. He’s trying to make us like Him, where we get to create what we want. We get to make choices, tell Him what we want, and then He helps us build that kind of future. He does this because He knows it’s an incredible process. King Mosiah also wanted this for his people. Amlici On the other end of the spectrum, we find Amlici. Amlici wanted to get rid of this new system of government five years after Mosiah put it into place; he wanted there to be kings again and he wanted to be king. So everyone got together and put in their votes, and the voice of the people came back. Amlici was not to be king. Not enough people wanted it. When Amlici was not chosen as king, this happens: Alma 2:9-10 9 And it came to pass that they gathered themselves together, and did consecrate Amlici to be their king. 10 Now when Amlici was made king over them he commanded them that they should take up arms against their brethren; and this he did that he might subject them to him. Can we not see the parallels between Amlici and Satan? When Satan lost the war in heaven, he threw a hissy fit and dubbed himself powerful over the world. He enlisted those who had followed him to try and bring as many people under his control as possible. And that is where we observe the true Satan. That is where we get a glimpse of Satan as he truly is, not as he is promoting himself to the people. Amlici wasn’t going around telling people that he wanted to be powerful and rule over everyone. He was arguing the merits of having a king to protect them. He was whispering and promising power to those who would be loyal to him. Amlici’s arguments were attractive. But the second he didn’t get what he wanted, he tried to force them. This is Satan. Satan had an “attractive” plan. Everyone would come home after going down to earth because Satan was going to make sure of it. Anyone who has had a loved one leave the gospel and felt fear or whether that loved one would be coming home can feel the attraction of Satan’s plan. You don’t have to look around you and wonder who is going to be missing. You don’t have to look internally and wonder whether you’re going to be missing. Satan told you he loved you, that he wanted to bring you home, that he would never risk your soul by sending you down to make mistakes. You have a “king” who will protect you and bring you home no matter the cost. And that was precisely the problem. No matter the cost. What was the cost of Satan’s plan? Everything. The point of the Plan of Salvation was to come down here, make mistakes and struggle and grow, and go home prepared to live like our Heavenly Father. It is only in this manner that we can find eternal happiness. Satan’s “Plan of Salvation” would have brought all of us home. But the cost was the entire purpose of the plan. We would have returned unchanged. We would not have been prepared to live like God which means we would have been damned in our capacity to experience happiness forever. We would have been stuck right where we were, forced to do what’s right forever but never tasting the goodness of those right choices because they weren’t really our choices. Amilici didn’t want to protect the people as king. He wanted to own the people as king. He was willing to risk the lives of his followers and those who voted against him because no one mattered to Amlici except Amlici. He didn’t care about those who died in battle. He cared about whether he won. Satan didn’t love us enough to want to bring us all home. He loved himself enough to be willing to sacrifice the happiness of all of his brothers and sisters because he believed that power over us would make him happy. The ultimate narcissist. When he lost, he just went on a rampage working to destroy any shred of happiness on the earth. If he had truly loved us, he would have still worked for our happiness under any conditions he was given. But he doesn’t love us. He loves himself, and he’s willing to sacrifice us. These are powerful stories and characters that can teach us so much about Heavenly Father’s choices for our lives here on earth. We hear people cry about the trauma and devastation on earth, and those are valid cries. But the opposite, a removal of agency, was a fate worse than death literally. It was an eternity stuck in the same state. It was an eternity of boredom and unhappiness and damnation in our progression. Agency was necessary and beautiful. There were some immensely tragic consequences to agency, but we can look to two facts for comfort. One. The alternative was worse. Two. We have a Savior who suffered and promised to take care of everything. No hurt will stay hurt with the Savior. No wound is too deep. No consequence of agency is too far for the Savior to reach. Our Heavenly Parents and Savior love us. They chose this plan for us, and then They took care of absolutely everything. They know how to be happy, and they have provided us with the perfect plan to find that happiness and to build it in our lives forever. And then the Savior paid for it. We are so loved; we have every reason to trust Them.   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. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 29–Alma 4 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

Allen Hansen was featured in episode 2. This is the full interview. Check out Allen’s other work: https://independent.academia.edu/HansenAllen   Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator of the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience. The post Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 7 – Seer Stones w/ Allen Hansen (Full Interview) appeared first on FAIR.

Conversion of Alma & the sons of Mosiah; commencement of the reign of the judges; Nehor & the Amlicites (Mosiah 26–Alma 4) 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. This post will cover the weeks of May 27–June 2 and June 3–9.) Class Notes Additional Reading Elder John K. Carmack, “When Our Children Go Astray,” Ensign, February 1997, pp. 7–13. “How Were Judges Elected in the Book of Mormon? (KnoWhy #107),” Book of Mormon Central, 25 May 2016. Matthew Roper, “For What Crime Was Nehor Executed?,” Ether’s Cave (blog), 29 January 2016. J. Christopher Conkling, “Alma’s Enemies: The Case of the Lamanites, Amlicites, and Mysterious Amalekites,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 1 (2005): 108–17. Conkling argues that the Amlicites of Alma 2–3 were the same group as the Amalekites who appeared suddenly, without explanation, in Alma 21, and that Oliver Cowdery simply used a different spelling of the same word dictated by Joseph Smith. Benjamin McMurtry, “The Amlicites and Amalekites: Are They the Same People?,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 25 (2017): 269–81. McMurtry disagrees with Conkling and argues that that the Amlicites and Amalekites were, indeed, two separate groups.   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 – Mosiah 25–28; Mosiah 29–Alma 4 – Mike Parker appeared first on FAIR.

Belief Comes First by Autumn Dickson In the chapters this week in Mosiah, we learn about the rising generation who did not believe in the word of God. They had not been around in the time of King Benjamin, and so they didn’t have the same experiences as their parents. There is one verse in there that really has me pondering some of the ways I have framed the gospel in my mind. Mosiah 26:3 And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened. They couldn’t understand the word of God because they didn’t believe, not the other way around. As I’ve tried to engage with some of my loved ones and strangers over the church, I have held onto the belief that if I could simply help them understand, they would believe. Apparently this is a fallacy. If you want to understand God and His plan and His choices amongst the children of men, belief actually comes first. As I look back on my own life, I realize that this is exactly how things work. When I have reached any new understanding of gospel doctrine, belief preceded it. Being aware of the fact that belief precedes understanding can help us know how to approach the gospel personally and with others. Reasoning has a place We live in a world of sophistry, both in temporal and spiritual matters. In temporal matters, it can make sense to engage. I actually read an entire book once about the fact that America was built on argumentation and that effective argumentation can actually bring us closer to our goals. If we can avoid turning those who disagree with us into enemies, disagreement is beautiful because it gives us opportunities to engage, listen, and evolve. When it comes to spiritual matters, reasoning, disagreements, and discussion absolutely have their place. I work with FAIR, and a huge basis for their work is apologetics. For a long time, their entire purpose was to respectfully argue against critics and help people see a wider perspective. They’ve helped so many people better understand issues and history. We absolutely should discuss, explore, and question. The more I engage with doctrine, the more it has made sense to me and strengthened my testimony. But in the end, belief has to come first. Understanding will come. But belief is a precursor to that understanding. Belief first I know that the idea of “believing first” is ridiculous to some, but let’s talk about what I actually mean when I say that belief needs to come first. I don’t mean, “Ignore the things you don’t understand and may even feel harmful. Just believe because I’m telling you that it’s good for you.” This is not what I mean by belief. In order to understand what I mean when I say “belief first,” you have to understand the transition I went through in my own faith. When I have run into things that don’t make sense or when I run into things in the church that even seem hurtful, I have approached those uncomfortable feelings in a myriad of ways. If I’m being totally honest, when I was growing up, I simply didn’t approach them at all. I just pushed them to the back of my mind and forced myself to “have faith.” In case you were wondering, this wasn’t exactly effective. Sure, I held on for a while, but looking back, I can see that this approach couldn’t have lasted. After my period of ignoring things I didn’t understand, I tried to hold onto testimony moments. This meant that I held onto moments where I had felt something beyond myself. These were good stepping stones that pushed me in the right direction, but they were ultimately insufficient in the long term. There were too many questions about whether I was feeling good old-fashioned nostalgia or truly feeling something that was given to me by my Heavenly Father. And though holding onto testimony moments would have been ultimately insufficient for my personal testimony, this process allowed me to build the foundation for what has really helped me develop a resilience against Satan fighting me with things that I don’t understand or don’t have answers to. Just over four years ago, I started the blog, and that’s when things really changed. I consistently speak with my Heavenly Father, and He responds. Now when I run into things I don’t understand, they can still bother me. However, I simultaneously can’t deny what’s right in front of me. I speak with God, and He answers back. That is as real to me as the things I don’t understand. Why place the reality of my concerns over the reality of my relationship with God? He has helped me find peace, helped me to understand, and proved His trustworthiness to me a million times over. I trust Him. I believe Him. Utilizing testimony moments to help build the foundation for this relationship was a big step, but I ultimately had to bring my relationship into the present. I had to talk to Him consistently in order to achieve this feeling of belief. A concrete example I have been married for seven years. Though this isn’t really that long, it has been long enough to solidify my trust in my husband. My relationship with Conner has consisted of moment after moment after moment after moment of evidence of Conner’s trustworthiness. A few years ago, Conner had some major decisions to make in regards to our family. I didn’t understand the choices he was making when the information I had was pointing us in a different direction. I kept bringing this up to him until one day he confided in me that I didn’t have all the information. There were things going on that were beyond our family that he couldn’t share with me, even though they affected my life as well as that of my family. It didn’t even phase me. I told Conner I trusted him, and I did. He had consistently proved to me that our family was his first priority. He had proven to me that he could make wise decisions and that he would make decisions based on our happiness. I had no qualms letting him utilize the information he had to guide our path. I didn’t understand, but I believed in Conner because of the evidence I had observed consistently in our relationship. This is what I mean in terms of belief. When I talk about belief coming first, I mean cultivating a relationship with God. Don’t take my word for it. Get to know Him, cast off imperfect qualities that you’ve given Him in your mind, and you’ll find that He consistently shows up in powerful ways. You’ll find that belief in Him is easy because of who He is. When I talk about belief coming first, I’m talking about real trust based on a real relationship of invested time. I’m not talking about ignoring discomfort or having a death grip on “faith” because you’re supposed to. That’s not what belief is supposed to feel like. It’s not what it has to feel like. Get to know Him. You will believe in Him, and eventually the truth comes. When I hit snags  Developing this relationship has changed how I process things when I hit snags. When something comes along that I don’t understand, when I run into information on the news or social media that I can’t disprove, when I hear accounts of history that may or may not have validity, I believe in the very real relationship I’ve developed. Believing in that relationship looks like a lot of things. Sometimes it means that I push the snag away without a second thought because I’m having a really good day, and I’m feeling really close to Him. Other times, it means that I take that snag to the Lord and talk to Him about it. I know He won’t be angry with me for asking because I know how He responds in the relationship I have with Him. I tell Him exactly why it bothers me, why it logically doesn’t make sense to me, or why I feel hurt. Then I usually take some concentrated, conscious time for belief. I reaffirm what I know about Him, His power, His belief in me, His love for me, and my indispensability to His happiness. I think about how wise He has proven Himself in the past. Oftentimes, I find the answer or peace I’m looking for as I reflect on my relationship with Him and as I reflect on who He is and has proven Himself to be. Other times, I find that it softens my heart to the extent that He whispers more words of wisdom or comfort. Either way, I usually find what I’m looking for when I believe in Him first. The understanding comes because I believe in Him. When I read this verse about the rising generation not understanding because they didn’t believe, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first. But as I took the time to reflect on my own life, I’ve realized that is exactly true. When we believe in our Father in Heaven and develop a relationship of trust with Him, understanding will follow.   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. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 25–28 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

Ammon’s expedition; Limhi & Alma’s escape to Zarahemla (Mosiah 7–8, 18–25) 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 BYU professor Daniel C. Peterson examines the baptism of Alma₁ in these two articles: “Priesthood in Mosiah,” in The Book of Mormon: Mosiah, Salvation Only Through Christ, eds. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 1991), 187–210. “Authority in the Book of Mosiah,” FARMS Review 18, no. 1 (2006): 149–85.   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 – Mosiah 18–24 – Mike Parker appeared first on FAIR.

They Were Just Dancing by Autumn Dickson This post will probably not be a popular one, at least in terms of the world, but it’s definitely an important one. One of the stories we read about this week is painful and tragic. Mosiah 20:1 Now there was a place in Shemlon where the daughters of the Lamanites did gather themselves together to sing, and to dance, and to make themselves merry. While these daughters were dancing and enjoying themselves, the wicked priests of King Noah abducted 24 of them and married them. This actually snowballs into a battle where a lot of people die because the Lamanites blame Limhi’s people for taking their daughters. Now, we have no idea what the scriptures mean by singing, dancing, and making merry. I had dance parties with my girlfriends all the time when I was young. We know that when Laman and Lemuel were making merry, they were sinning, but we don’t know if that’s actually what they were trying to imply right here. I’m not going to assume that these girls were doing anything wrong, but I’m still going to use the story to teach a principle. Perhaps some would argue with me that everything worked out because the daughters end up defending their abductor-husbands later on, but I just don’t buy it. I’ve seen my fair share of abused women defend their abuser. These priests couldn’t go back to their wives so they kidnap women and marry them instead. These priests had spent their time with other women while they were previously married, and they had also abandoned those poor wives! Something tells me they didn’t change just because they got married again. We also know they haven’t changed because when they’re given a bit of power, they use it to abuse other innocent people as well (cough cough Alma). I don’t think these girls were okay. Which leads me to what I want to teach today. The Lord gave us standards to protect us, not to blame victims, but to protect us. Read it again. I want to teach both of those principles today. Not to blame victims I feel like I should start with the “blame victims” portion of the principle so we can appreciate the second portion of the principle as well. The standards weren’t given to punish the victims. The girls were out dancing and making merry, but even if the scriptures were purposefully implying that these girls were sinning, could we accurately blame them for what happened to them afterwards? No. Even if their actions enabled wicked men to take advantage of them, the blame lies with the wicked men. I remember a time when I was growing up and getting ready for a youth conference dance. I was getting ready at my friend’s house, and we went all out for fun. Dance party, face masks, snacks, everything. Getting ready for the youth conference dance was going to be just as fun as the actual dance. But we were also taking pictures. Even though we weren’t quite ready yet (i.e. not modest). There was nothing crazy, but they weren’t great either. They weren’t meant to be anything. If you’re judging us by intent, the pictures were 100% innocent. We were playing and getting ready and taking pictures. There was nothing else there. My mom found the pictures and was understandably upset. She was worried that one of my friends wouldn’t think about it and post some of them online. I learned an intense lesson that day about protecting myself. Here was the reality of the situation: We didn’t sin. I mean, taking the pictures was probably a mistake but we weren’t actively rebelling or sinning. We were young girls getting ready to go to a dance. Heavenly Father was proud of us for going to youth conference and loving it. Here’s the other half of the reality. I could have had a friend post some of those pictures online without thinking about it. And those pictures could have been downloaded by someone gross. And as innocent as we were, it could have hurt us. As innocent as we were, it could have hurt us. I was not a bad person. I was a good, innocent person who loved playing and dancing with her friends and going to youth conference. But the rest of the world is not so innocent or good. Heavenly Father is more aware of this than anyone, and that’s why He gave us standards. I didn’t need to be blamed if those pictures had been used against me. And yet, despite the fact that I am not responsible for the wicked actions of another person, I am overwhelmingly grateful that my mother taught me a hard lesson about protecting myself that day. Things as they are I’m going to use a more extreme example, but I’m actually not going to apologize for it as I often do. The world can hem and haw and complain, but the reality is this: I had too many friends from high school for which this was a reality. I have too many friends who didn’t know what happened to them the night before. I have too many friends who wish they could take back actions or words that occurred because their inhibitions were dulled by alcohol. The world can attack us for using “fear” tactics to try and force our kids to do what’s right, but I call it a reality check. I’m teaching them the truth. As my kids grow older, I will try my best to simultaneously teach them to trust themselves and their instincts, but I’m not going to refrain from teaching them about the very real danger that shouldn’t (but does!) exist in the world. They don’t have to be afraid of the world, but they do need to be able to make their decisions with accurate information. Let’s say my daughter grows up, goes to a party, drinks some of this alcohol, and gets attacked. What is the reality of this situation? What is she going to have to face? Is my daughter guilty because the attack happened because she chose to go to a party? No. we already discussed this. The guilt that should lay on her shoulders should be equivalent to her growing up, going to a party, drinking alcohol, and coming home safely. There was still disobedience and broken promises, but the resulting attack isn’t on her. Since we already talked about that a little more in depth, let’s move to the second part of the principle. I once had a young woman come to me and argue that she should be able to wear whatever she wants, go wherever she wants, and get blackout drunk if she wants, and expect safety. We should be teaching people to protect others, not teaching girls to keep themselves “safe.” I agreed with her. We should live in a world where people are safe even when they’re extremely vulnerable. I will teach my children to protect vulnerable people. I will not stand for behavior that exploits vulnerable people. But I am not the only person on the planet. And so despite the fact that we should be able to expect safety even when we’re vulnerable, that is not the reality around us. So I will teach my children to protect the vulnerable, and I will teach my children to follow the standards given to us by the Lord in order to more effectively protect themselves. I don’t believe the Lord curses those who made themselves vulnerable, but I do believe He is trying to teach us commandments and standards to protect us from pain. And you know what? Sometimes we do all the right things, and those bad things still happen to us. Sometimes we do what’s right, dress modestly, stand in holy places, avoid substances, and those bad things still happen. Sometimes you follow all the standards, and you still unknowingly marry one of those wicked people. That’s why I can accurately say that it’s not your fault if someone takes advantage of you. Because even when you’re doing everything right, it can still happen. We teach that. We make sure our children know that if someone hurts them, they are innocent of the crime that happened to them. But we also teach wisdom. Because even though you can do everything right and still find yourself in trouble, I can promise that the odds of protecting yourself are much higher when you follow the standards given by the Lord. I compare it to locking your door. If you lock your door, someone could absolutely still break the lock, come in, and hurt your family. Is that your fault? No, it lies with the person who chose to do the wrong thing. But it’s stupid to leave your door unlocked because someone could break in anyway. And unfortunately there’s another harsh reality, and I ask you to please not misunderstand me. I will do my best to express my thoughts accurately. When you leave the door unlocked and someone comes in and harms the family, you will be asking yourself, “What if I had just locked the door? Could I have spared us all of this pain?” There is no reason to carry guilt around because someone else chose to do the wrong thing, but a lack of guilt does not equate to a lack of pain. It is difficult to experience those kinds of consequences regardless of whether you made yourself vulnerable. I would argue that it’s  especially painful when you wonder if those consequences actually had to happen. I reiterate. It’s not your fault. You do not need to take on the guilt of a person who chose to do something very wrong to you. But I also reiterate. It is painful to find yourself in those circumstances. And even though you can’t perfectly protect yourself, the Lord has given us commandments and standards that do provide a good measure of protection from that kind of pain. I testify of a Savior who gave us commandments and standards because of how much He loves us and because of His overwhelming awareness of the realities of this fallen world. I testify of a Savior who has the ability to heal us, regardless of how difficult circumstances came about because I can testify of a Savior who has saved and healed me when I’ve been imperfect or unwise. I testify of a day when the Savior will judge perfectly and heal those who desire to be healed.   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. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 18–24 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

In this episode, Jennifer, Zach, and Sarah discuss why seer stones are no longer used today. Throughout this 6 part series, Me, My Shelf, & I will tackle and refute claims about the seer stones head-on using facts from the historical narrative. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (1:35) Background (13:39) Peace Child (21:11) Conclusion   Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience. Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities. 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 Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 6 – Seer Stones: Why Aren’t They Used Today? appeared first on FAIR.

He is Justice by Autumn Dickson This week, we find Abinadi standing before King Noah and his wicked priests. They love to lounge around, preaching at people, and spending their strength in highly questionable ways. Abinadi teaches them a plethora of doctrine, the ten commandments, the Law of Moses and its true purpose in the plan, and the coming of Jesus Christ since the House of Israel seems to forget about the Messiah and hyperfocus on a law that was always meant to point to a Messiah. Abinadi teaches them that those who listen to the prophets and hope for Christ will be taken care of. Then Abinadi warns them. Mosiah 15:26-27 26 But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since the world began, that have wilfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; these are they that have no part in the first resurrection. 27 Therefore ought ye not to tremble? For salvation cometh to none such; for the Lord hath redeemed none such; yea, neither can the Lord redeem such; for he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny justice when it has its claim. Abinadi is warning these men that they’re going to miss out if they don’t repent. If you’re spending the time reading and listening to Come Follow Me posts, videos, and podcasts, I’m going to take a wild guess that you’re not out doing the things that these priests are doing, not the least of which is murder. I doubt Abinadi would be calling you to repentance in the same manner that he’s calling these priests to repentance. But there are still principles here for us to learn. There is one phrase in particular that can help us better understand the perfect judgment of the Lord. “…for he cannot deny himself…” One of my favorite topics is the perfection judgment of the Lord because I spent so long calling His judgment perfect and attributing less than perfect judging skills to Him. Let’s talk about what I mean. We’re going to cycle around a bit, but we’re going to come back around to this specific phrase. The definitions of perfection One of the ways that we can understand Judgment Day and the atonement of Jesus Christ is to look at it through the lens of two different definitions of perfection. I say, “one of the ways,” because these concepts are complex ideas, and I have not yet found a way to completely encompass all of the perfect principles that make up these ideas. I have talked about many of them, but here is yet another way to understand them. When we’re talking about perfection in reference to Judgment Day and the atonement of Jesus Christ, you could almost say that there are two different definitions of perfection, and they come into play at different points. The first definition of perfection is the more traditional way we frame perfection. It is to be without sin or flaw. Without the atonement of Jesus Christ, we could not make it back to heaven. We all sin and come short of the glory of God. We messed up, and we don’t deserve it. We have corrupted ourselves, and no corruptible thing can coexist with God or it burns up in His glory. This is our first idea of perfection. Interestingly enough, is this actually fair? Is this truly perfect judgment? Think of all of the remarkable people who overcame great odds and trials and became compassionate, selfless human beings. Do they truly deserve to find unhappiness for an eternity? Is that really perfect judgment? In my unqualified opinion, I think not. We weren’t capable of being perfect. We needed the opposition to grow into perfection so why punish us for something we were incapable of? And yet, this is what had to be. Corruption simply cannot exist in the presence of God. It’s obliterated. We needed to come to earth to grow into perfection and happiness; this absolutely, unequivocally meant that we would corrupt ourselves to a degree. These were the very real facts of our circumstances. A catch-22. Stay in the presence of God and experience damnation in the sense that we were stopped from progressing for forever or leave God’s presence, grow, but be tainted and away from His loving presence forever. But here is where our second definition of perfection comes in. Christ was perfect in the sense of our first definition. He was without sin. We don’t understand how, but He paid for those sins. And because He paid for them, we can be cleansed. Voila. Catch-22 solved. We can go to earth, become corrupted to a degree (because it was inevitable), but we can also gain the experience we need to move past our damnation, our stop in our progression. That corruption gets cleansed, and we can coexist with Heavenly Father without getting burned up in the all-consuming fire that is the glory of His presence. The second definition of perfection includes aspects of justice and mercy. People who are really trying and growing and believing and learning still get to come home even though they’re made mistakes. What is a more “perfect” definition of perfection? The first or second? Which is a more perfect judgment? The one that called for absolute discipline for the imperfect or the one that included the very real aspects of mercy? Once again in my extremely unqualified opinion, the second definition of “perfect” is nicer, but it’s also a more perfect definition of perfect. He became justice Let’s cycle back to the phrase from the beginning: “…he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny justice…” We have all heard the phrases, “Christ is justice,” and “Christ is mercy.” In some sense, those are literal and accurate statements. Because of what He did for us, that first scenario of perfection is not applicable. There is no more catch-22. There is no more third party justice that disallows us from going back into the presence of our Heavenly Father to be consumed by His glory. Christ’s atonement can cleanse us so we can go back. These are our new and true circumstances. Christ gets to decide whether we come home because He took the place of justice when He paid justice. He is our debtor. He is justice. Our original circumstances that existed with the first definition of perfection are no longer our circumstances, and yet, we keep acting like they are. We keep acting like justice overpowers mercy and not the other way around. In my home, I am justice. I am also mercy. These are temporary roles that were given to me by a Father in Heaven who needed me to teach His children because He couldn’t do it Himself. My husband, Conner, also holds these roles though he practices them less often because he’s gone working. Maybe it sounds silly to say I am justice and mercy, but in so many real aspects of the words, it’s true. The worlds of my children very much fall into what I create for them. I believe that one of the reasons the Lord set up these circumstances in this manner was because He wanted me to understand His atonement. I am wildly imperfect, but I do have some sense of what perfect judgment looks like. I may lose my cool with my kids, but I have my King-Solomon-wisdom moments too. When I take a step back from the overstimulation and chaos, I often know where my kids’ hearts are at. I know if they’ve been stressed with specific circumstances, different triggers for their big emotions, and whether they went to bed on time. I know if Warner was literally trying to play with his sister or whether he was trying to get his kicks torturing her. I know whether Evie meant to push her brother off the couch or whether she’s still learning to control her growing body. As of yet, none of my children have done anything worthy of getting kicked out. They have punched, bit, threw, pushed, and taunted. They have continuously provoked and purposefully broken things, but I’m not crazy enough to believe that merits getting kicked out of my home. I am not perfect, but I do have some immature understanding of perfect judgment. I have some inkling of what it means to wisely distribute mercy and justice according to the needs of my children so that they can grow into well-adjusted adults without banning them from the home. Heaven forbid the day ever came that I would need to kick a teenager out to protect my other children, but I hope I would be wise enough to do that too if the situation called for it. Now let’s take this little home scenario and zoom out to look at the world the Lord created for us. I am imperfect. I am also a good person. I want peace in our “home” here on earth even though I often make mistakes and hurt my siblings. I love my Father and Brother. And in my imperfect sense of perfection, I know that I have not merited getting kicked out yet. He will distribute mercy and justice according to what I need to learn in order to become a well-adjusted Being like Him, but He’s not kicking me out of the house. I made covenants that bind me to Christ and allow Him to cleanse me so that I can coexist with my Heavenly Parents, and I am someone who wants to follow Them. They can work with that. I am saved by the atonement of Jesus Christ. I experience salvation regularly in the forms of peace, hope, and joy in my home. It is a beautiful feeling, and it’s a feeling that my Savior wanted me to experience. He paid an excruciating price so that I could experience it and experience it now, not just in the next life. I am grateful to Him for bringing about the second definition of perfect, for banishing the catch-22, and enabling me to experience eternal happiness.   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. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 11–17 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.