Should we live our religion at periscope depth?
Perhaps the better question is “am I living my religion at periscope depth?”
A god who makes no demands is the functional equivalent of a god that does not exist.
Teaching the commandments of God clearly can sometimes be perceived as an act of intolerance.
Zion and Babylon are incompatible
As faithful disciples we need not apologize for our beliefs.
God won’t force us to do good, and the devil can’t force us to do evil. Though some may think that mortality is a contest between God and the adversary, a word from the Savior and Satan is silenced and banished. It is our strength that is being tested—not God’s.
It is important to understand who is being tested and whose power is operative. There is no question of God failing the test of mortality and we will not be judged based on how Satan uses his (distinctly limited) power. The question of mortality is what we will choose and how firmly we will hold to the choices that we make.
Confidently following the Savior is rewarding, but at times we may get caught in the crosshairs of those advocating an eat, drink, and be merry philosophy, where faith in Christ, obedience, and repentance are substituted by the illusion that God will justify a little sin because He loves us so much.
Should we be intimidated or afraid? Should we live our religion at periscope depth? Surely not! … Let us be confident, not apologetic, valiant, not timid, faithful, not fearful as we hold up the Lord’s light in these last days.
While some would prefer to be selective in the commandments they follow, let us joyfully accept the Savior’s invitation to “live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.”
While many believe the Lord and His Church should condone doing “whatsoever [our] heart desireth,” let us valiantly proclaim that it is wrong to “follow a multitude to do evil,” because “crowds cannot make right what God has declared to be wrong.”
This is our opportunity to cling to our choices rather than doing only what is easy.
We can accept and respect others without endorsing their beliefs or actions that do not align with the Lord’s will. There is no need to sacrifice truth on the altar of agreeableness and social desirability.
We get to demonstrate whether we know how to navigate narrow or challenging circumstances. We get to learn how to weigh the balance between being true to what we know and allowing others their agency. We also get to learn how to both love God and His commandments while still loving all of His children as He does. (Loving all the way He loves all, not being able in mortality to have love that is equal to His.)
Moral relativists advocate that truth is merely a social construct, that there are no moral absolutes. What they are really saying is that there is no sin, that “whatsoever a man [does is] no crime,” a philosophy for which the adversary is claiming proud authorship! Let us therefore beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are always recruiting.…”
If we really want to be valiant disciples of Christ, we will find a way. Otherwise, the adversary offers enticing alternatives. But as faithful disciples, “we need not apologize for our beliefs nor back down from that which we know to be true.”
How easily do we sometimes embrace an idea we know is wrong simply because a few words have been substituted with synonyms?
In conclusion, a word about the 15 servants of God seated behind me. While the worldly “say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not,” the faithful are “crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time.”
Not surprisingly, these men frequently become the lightning rods for those unhappy with the word of God as the prophets proclaim it. Those who reject the prophets don’t realize that “no prophecy of the scripture is [to be] of any private interpretation” or the result of the will of man “but [that] holy men of God [speak now] as they [are] moved by the Holy Ghost.”…Like Peter, they “cannot but speak the things which [they] have seen and heard.” I testify that the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve are good and honest men who love God and His children and who are loved by Him. Their words we should receive as if from the Lord’s own mouth “in all patience and faith. For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against [us]; … and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before [us].”
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