LDS Freedom Forum

eddie wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 10:28 am "Your Testimony is your most valuable possession, and someone is trying to steal it from you. Can you imagine what your testimony would be like if you fought for it with the same tenacity with which you fight for other things in life?

Brothers and sisters, there are many sources of falsehood in the world. Please don’t put your fingers in those TRAPS Don’t turn to them in your quest for a testimony. There have been, and always will be, intelligent and articulate people in the world who will try to convince you that the Church is not true, that God does not exist, and that anyone who believes that there is a God is foolish and naïve. Don’t go to those sources. Don’t turn to People on the internet who are seeking to destroy your testimony.

Some may think that if the Church is true then their testimony should be able to stand up to anything that people can write about the Church on the Internet. Others might claim that we are told not to read such things because the Church has something to hide. These claims just aren’t true. It has never been a question of whether the Church is true or has something to hide; it is about the cleverness and subtlety of the adversary and his ability to deceive and confuse. He teams up with clever people who are very convincing. Together they always find exactly the right wedge to drive into the cracks in your faith. Please don’t put your fingers in those traps.

When it comes to experimenting upon the word to gain a testimony, you need to conduct the experiments in the Lord’s way. You need to complete all the required steps and make all the necessary connections to be successful. These steps include study, faith, prayer, and fasting. There is no other way to gain a testimony. If you leave one of the steps out, you can’t reasonably expect to gain the testimony that you want. It just doesn’t work that way. If the results do not come right away, reexamine whether you are doing all the things that you need to do. Be patient. The Lord’s experimental method works. He wants to give you an answer if you continue to fight your way through the experiment. Once again, don’t give up."

Mark B. Colton was an associate professor in the BYU Department of Mechanical Engineering when he gave this address on 30 June 2015.

5tev3 wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 11:14 am

eddie wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 10:28 am "Your Testimony is your most valuable possession, and someone is trying to steal it from you. Can you imagine what your testimony would be like if you fought for it with the same tenacity with which you fight for other things in life?

Brothers and sisters, there are many sources of falsehood in the world. Please don’t put your fingers in those TRAPS Don’t turn to them in your quest for a testimony. There have been, and always will be, intelligent and articulate people in the world who will try to convince you that the Church is not true, that God does not exist, and that anyone who believes that there is a God is foolish and naïve. Don’t go to those sources. Don’t turn to People on the internet who are seeking to destroy your testimony.

Some may think that if the Church is true then their testimony should be able to stand up to anything that people can write about the Church on the Internet. Others might claim that we are told not to read such things because the Church has something to hide. These claims just aren’t true. It has never been a question of whether the Church is true or has something to hide; it is about the cleverness and subtlety of the adversary and his ability to deceive and confuse. He teams up with clever people who are very convincing. Together they always find exactly the right wedge to drive into the cracks in your faith. Please don’t put your fingers in those traps.

When it comes to experimenting upon the word to gain a testimony, you need to conduct the experiments in the Lord’s way. You need to complete all the required steps and make all the necessary connections to be successful. These steps include study, faith, prayer, and fasting. There is no other way to gain a testimony. If you leave one of the steps out, you can’t reasonably expect to gain the testimony that you want. It just doesn’t work that way. If the results do not come right away, reexamine whether you are doing all the things that you need to do. Be patient. The Lord’s experimental method works. He wants to give you an answer if you continue to fight your way through the experiment. Once again, don’t give up."

Mark B. Colton was an associate professor in the BYU Department of Mechanical Engineering when he gave this address on 30 June 2015.

Like Lehi said, "heed them not" there is no reason to listen to the opinions of mockers or even genuine critics. Unfortunately, I didn't take that advice myself for many years and while I learned of the existence of God early on in life I spent a lot of time examining the points of the critics. While nothing I encountered shook my faith (because I had already started over from scratch as a teenager and had a solid foundation) I realized that at almost every point, you come to this area where the evidence runs out on both sides and you have to make that same choice. Accept a theoretical conclusion of a critic or seek out wisdom from God; I've always trusted the later far more.

Eventually, I got tired of reading the same old arguments. I turned to pursue the principles of the Gospel in their purity and found treasures of light and truth; living water if you will. The path laid out in scripture is true and there is far more to gain there than in any other pursuit.

To add to your point about fighting for your testimony, I think you may like some information about the word "keep" as used in the phrase "keep my commandments."

The word ‘keep’ is translated from the Hebrew word “shamar” which literally means: “to hedge about (as with thorns), i.e. guard; generally, to protect, attend to, etc.:–beward, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep(-er, self), mark, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch(-man).”

So when God says, "keep my commandments" he is asking us to "guard and protect" them, to take ownership of them, in a sense. I think the same is true for all things we receive from God, build a wall around them, cherish them, defend them at all costs.

eddie wrote: ↑May 6th, 2019, 10:28 am "Your Testimony is your most valuable possession, and someone is trying to steal it from you. Can you imagine what your testimony would be like if you fought for it with the same tenacity with which you fight for other things in life?

TRAPS or SNARES

First Strategy: "DISTRACTING US with Less Important Things
The first one is distracting us with less important things. The second is destroying our agency. And the third is stirring our hearts to anger. I’d like to address each one of those. "

Certainly Satan strives to distract us from what is most important in this life. If I can leverage some of the things that Nephi said, again. Seeing our day, he describes it as this: the adversary will “pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell” (2 Nephi 28:21).

DESTROY OUR AGENCY

"Now this is a tactic the Adversary uses, and there are many others that he uses. He is very subtle in the way that he approaches it. Let me ask some questions again.
· Do I have excessive debt? Do I have any consumer debt? Have I ever missed paying tithing because of a debt obligation?
· Do I participate in any form of betting, whether in person or online? Do I participate in recreational trips to Nevada? Do I wager on sporting events?
· Do I have addictive behaviors relating to any substance? Do I have addictions to substances not even mentioned in the Word of Wisdom?
· Do I watch too much television? Do I really need to watch that certain television series, say, Wednesday at 8:00 p.m., or whatever it is?
· Do I view pornography at all?
· Do I chat online with others in a way that is suggestive or inappropriate?"

STIRS OUR HEARTS TO ANGER

"The third technique Lucifer uses is to stir our hearts to anger. Nephi, seeing our day, describes this: “For the kingdom of the devil must shake, and they which belong to it must needs be stirred up unto repentance, or the devil will grasp them with his everlasting chains, and they be stirred up to anger, and perish; “For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good” (2 Nephi 28:19-20).

Now we know that the father of contention is the adversary, and we also know that the Lord frequently is called the Prince of Peace. Peace, tranquility, harmony, unity—that is of the Savior. Contention, negativity, criticism—all those things are of the adversary."

Here are some questions that we might ask ourselves:
· How do I react when someone says something offensive to me? Am I easily offended?
· Do I feel bad when someone else succeeds or achieves something great?
· Do I accept counsel easily from church leaders, even if it’s not delivered in an understanding way?
· Do I withhold a compliment intentionally from someone who deserves it?
· Do I ever feel an inward joy when another experiences disappointment or failure?
· How do I react if I’ve been unfairly judged?
· Do I criticize others quickly?
· Am I withholding forgiveness from someone so that I might have the upper edge in our relationship?
Devotional
Satan's Strategies to Ensnare You
15 Nov. 2006


Brothers and sisters, there are many sources of falsehood in the world. Please don’t put your fingers in those TRAPS Don’t turn to them in your quest for a testimony. There have been, and always will be, intelligent and articulate people in the world who will try to convince you that the Church is not true, that God does not exist, and that anyone who believes that there is a God is foolish and naïve. Don’t go to those sources. Don’t turn to People on the internet who are seeking to destroy your testimony.


Some may think that if the Church is true then their testimony should be able to stand up to anything that people can write about the Church on the Internet. Others might claim that we are told not to read such things because the Church has something to hide. These claims just aren’t true. It has never been a question of whether the Church is true or has something to hide; it is about the cleverness and subtlety of the adversary and his ability to deceive and confuse. He teams up with clever people who are very convincing. Together they always find exactly the right wedge to drive into the cracks in your faith. Please don’t put your fingers in those traps.




When it comes to experimenting upon the word to gain a testimony, you need to conduct the experiments in the Lord’s way. You need to complete all the required steps and make all the necessary connections to be successful. These steps include study, faith, prayer, and fasting. There is no other way to gain a testimony. If you leave one of the steps out, you can’t reasonably expect to gain the testimony that you want. It just doesn’t work that way. If the results do not come right away, reexamine whether you are doing all the things that you need to do. Be patient. The Lord’s experimental method works. He wants to give you an answer if you continue to fight your way through the experiment. Once again, don’t give up."




Mark B. Colton was an associate professor in the BYU Department of Mechanical Engineering when he gave this address on 30 June 2015.