Upward Thought

I recently published a video where I encouraged everyone to go preach the gospel online by searching for and engaging with people who have questions. Here is an example of this. It's not the best example of a sincere question, but it is as important to leave people without excuse as it is to bring people into the fold, and you can't always tell ahead of time which way it will go (see Alma 12-13, where a bitter opponent of God fully repents in response to intense arguments provided by believers). This was on the comments of a YouTube video someone I don't know made about how God increases the intensity of suffering when we need to learn something. Go find people who ask questions that you have the answer to. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1 Peter 3:15) And if you don't have the answer, seek God for it yourself. If any of you lack wis...

I couldn't agree more. The system originally set up in the United States and later innovated upon in the writings of Jefferson (one of its principle architects) was designed to mitigate the inability of the average person to know what is good or right through hierarchical selections of people. O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them! (Mosiah 8:20) The system Jefferson later proposed is closer to the system set up by king Mosiah in the Book of Mormon than it is the system initially adopted by the United States. Unfortunately, very few read the Book of Mormon, and very few who do understand what it says. One example of this ignorance is that no one I know of has actually described the judge system there, even though it is written in a way to make this a not-too-difficult ...

Someone wrote me with the following information, which I've stripped into bullets in order to protect anonymity while keeping them in first-person phrasing. - I have studied the gospel my whole life. - I have come to realize that I don't know nearly as much about God as I thought. - Who is God? Is he one, or two, or three beings? - I've watched and read some of your things. - I keep asking God about this, and I hate asking someone else, but I feel God has told me to ask you. This is a topic I've heard many questions about, typically including a lot more about the Holy Ghost specifically, and there are lessons for many in the response I wrote to her. I share it here for whoever it might benefit: It seems to make sense to me that if you wanted to know more about someone after getting to know everything you can from books about them, you would ask someone who knew them personally. Everything we know about God began through the eye witness of Adam and Eve, and at all times ...

On YouTube, I wrote "We all ought to live up to the full stature of Christ in the choices we make." This was in reference to: 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the f...

Someone emailed me this: "Thanks for continually doing videos along the way of writing your books. I'm always reluctant to email too much and take up your time but I know many of my questions may be of benefit to others hearing your responses to them." Here is my reply: Never hesitate to ask. Questions can be beneficial or not. Withholding questions when the answer would benefit impedes the good God would otherwise flow out to the world. The benefit of a question depends on the heed and diligence of the asker. When those with requisite heed and diligence ask a question, they pay the price so that others who do not have that faith can hear the answer. While most will not understand, those on the margin of faith will learn more than they otherwise would, and God is glorified more than he would otherwise be. You obviously take the time one should to consider the things you have access to, squeezing out and cherishing every drop of what you can get from God directly before as...

Thank you for those few who have taken the time to write up their thoughts on the books I've written using Amazon's review feature. There is a tendency of people to only write reviews when they really hate a book, and it can significantly skew the perspective of those who might otherwise read the book, especially when there are only a few reviews. One such score-skewer is the self-styled "Seeker of Truth" who has left another single star review for one of my books ("Repentance") on Amazon. Because his doctrinal viewpoint aligns very much with the common Christian status quo, it's perhaps worth taking a moment to address. The argument of the reviewer is essentially that God can magically change you against your will, while my claim is that God has given us the power of choice and provides us the information necessary to show us what we ought to choose, both at great price to himself and his servants, and that we need to make that choice in order to receiv...

At least several people I know are experiencing desires to establish places to which people can come. Their reasons for this are various, but in the cases I know of, seem to be sincere and good. I can't at this time share with you an adequate portion of what God has taught me on the subject. The only reason is that there is too much to convey briefly, it is too interdependent to share chunks of it, and there are many other things that are much more important right now to which I must dedicate my limited time. This is the best I can do for now. I want to clearly indicate to you the importance, opportunities, complexity, and dangers of gathering, but I can't call upon the details of what I know for the aforementioned reasons. So here is analogy: You are a caveman, and you've just found a giant barrel of gasoline and box of matches outside your cave. There are some scenarios where this could end in your benefit, and all of them would be massively better than anything you have ...