Thomas S. Monson

For me, this is the essential message. This is what I have been trying to say. It’s what it is all about. There is hope, and there is help and comfort available. No matter what you are going through or have been through, God has not abandoned you.

Especially for those who turn away from God and from religion because of their hurts and having associated their pain with something that is meant to be healing, I wish that you could hear this message and know that God is love. Anything else does not come from this source. Some people make mistakes, and some use God’s name for their own purposes, and none of that is of God. God offers healing and relief, and love. You’re not alone.

You probably know the story.  The men who had gotten the decree were watching Daniel, and they took him before the king, who was not able to change a decree once signed, and had to put Daniel into the lions den.  But Darius knew how strong Daniel’s faith was, and Darius told Daniel that God would deliver him, and then Darius went home and fasted that night for Daniel’s benefit, and was glad in the morning to find Daniel unharmed.

My daughter asked, “Didn’t the king make a new decree that everyone would worship Daniel’s God?”  And I explained to her that such a decree would have been contrary to the gospel.  God does not force anyone to worship Him, but allows us all choice.  He gives signs, and He may punish those who knowingly fight against Him and lead others astray.  But He allows us all the freedom to choose.

Here is the new decree that King Darius made when Daniel was saved from the lions den:

I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.
He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

That sounds like a testimony to me. Also consider the similar story about Daniel’s friends, who were serving under Nebuchadnezzar. A decree had been made that all must worship a golden image created by Nebuchadnezzar, or be cast into the burning fiery furnace. Daniel’s friends refused to worship a false god, and were cast into the furnace, but they were protected by God and were not harmed.

Nebuchadnezzer also made a decree:

That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.

Okay, I will give you that the penalty was extreme, but my point is that the true God does not compel people to worship in one way or another, but allows choice. Men have set themselves up as authorities and tried to control how others practice religion, or have declared false teachings, and ultimately it doesn’t work out so well for those men.

Another observation that I would ask you to notice is that it is men who try to control and to use force and threats and violence to compel others to follow their way. That is not God’s way. The only times when God causes death or pain to come upon someone are when someone is actively going about harming others by deliberately leading them astray, and that person knows what they are doing and refuses after being warned to stop. Those who use threats and terror and force to control and compel others are not of God. God’s way is peace and love and healing.

  http://scriptures.lds.org/en/alma/30

What strikes me as relevant is how this passage reveals the lies that the adversary uses to disguise his message and make it look like it makes sense.  The story in this chapter is about an “antichrist” called Korihor, who goes about teaching that there is no God. 

 First, what is an “antichrist?”  My Bible Dictionary says that this is “a word used by John to describe one who would assume the guise of Christ, but in reality would be opposed to Christ.”  Also, “In a broader sense it is anyone or anything that counterfeits the true gospel or plan of salvation and that openly or secretly is set up in opposition to Christ. The true antichrist is Lucifer, but he has many assistants, both as spirit beings and as mortals.”

Korihor lived about 2000 years ago, shortly before Christ was born, in America.  During this particular time there were wars between the people who followed God, and those who didn’t.  The believers had been taught that Christ would be born, and were looking forward to that event.  Among the followers of God, “there was no law against a man’s belief; for it was strictly contrary to the commands of God that there should be a law which should bring men on to unequal grounds.”  Therefore, it was legal for Korihor to teach what he believed.  Korihor exercised his right to free speech by going about attacking others’ beliefs, telling them that they were “foolish” to believe, because

• no man can know of anything which is to come
• prophecies are “foolish traditions of your fathers”
• you can’t know things you don’t see
• looking forward to remission of sins is “the effect of a frenzied mind; and this derangement of your mind comes because of the traditions of your fathers”
• basically it’s every man for himself
• do anything you want to do because there is no crime or sin
• when you die, that’s all there is

Well, Korihor kept preaching and some people believed him, but some had a problem with these teachings and took Korihor to visit the authorities.  Since this preaching wasn’t illegal, all they did was talk with him, but Korihor couldn’t keep his lies straight.  I’ll let you read that discussion for yourselves - follow the link above.  It’s pretty good. 

In the end, Korihor kept making false accusations, and insisting that there was no God.  Alma was a prophet, and Alma discerned that Korihor really did know that there was a God, and was lying.  Korihor asked for proof, and a sign.  Alma told him that all things are a sign: “Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets?  The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote that there is a God; yea even the earth, and all things upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.”

Of course Korihor kept pushing for a sign.  Alma had tried his best, and now told Korihor, to paraphrase, here’s your sign - you will be struck dumb.  Korihor could speak no more, and wrote that he always knew there was a God and he had been preaching what the devil told him to say, because it was “pleasing unto the carnal mind.”

Unfortunately, the message that Korihor preached is still being preached today.  It isn’t my place to judge or to call anyone an “antichrist” because I don’t know whether anyone spreading false teachings really knows the truth or if they are victims of what they were taught.  But I can recognize the message and its ultimate source.

 I know that God is real, and He lives, and Christ was sent and did provide the way for us to return home.  What we say and what we do, or what we don’t say and don’t do, matters.  I know which side I am on.  Do you know which side you are fighting for?  Which message are you listening to?  It makes a difference.

Christians are not blameless.  Christians have also discriminated, and have also done terrible things.  To name any one group as an oppressor and blame them would be to discriminate, and that is not what I want to do.  Just like intergenerational cycles of abuse, the patterns repeat throughout history.  One group is persecuted, but survives and eventually comes into power.  They learn by the way that they were treated that the way to survive and not lose power and be the victim is to keep others out of power.  And so hate develops in some (really only a small portion of the members of a group).  And the cycle repeats.  It is very sad.  And that some people do terrible things usually indicates that the people doing terrible things are using the name of the group to increase their own power.  It should not negate all the good that the group or set of beliefs has to offer.

What I am saying is that all of us, whether Christian or something else, need to consider whether rules really are being applied evenly and fairly.  Often they are not.  And these days Christians are as likely to be victims as anyone else, but it seems that Christians are less likely to receive sympathy.  But is that a discriminatory statement right there? I don’t know.

I was just told about a TV show about how Christians are being silenced and discriminated against.  There are many examples such as a mom who was told that she could not read from the Bible to her son’s class, but they told her to read a book about witches instead; all the way up to church shootings.  If you are interested, there is a website where you can watch trailers, sign up for episodes of the show, and find out where to watch it. 

Speechless: Silencing the Christians

 Here’s that link:

http://septembermorn.psychcentral.net/fruit-of-the-spirit-bible-study/

^{Philipians 4:4-4:9}

 ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

    ⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

She drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took her in.
Edwin Markham

As someone who always felt left out, this poem always resonated with me.  I thought, how clever, to be left out and to draw a new circle of inclusion like that.  But I always felt powerless to draw the circles.  I was nothing but an outcast.  I guess that this has motivated me though, and influenced me quite a bit.  I keep trying to draw circles of inclusion.  The trick is to get those I include to accept that circle I drew.  They don’t always, and I suppose it isn’t up to me.  But my circle still includes them anyway.

THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE
CORINTHIANS
CHAPTER 13
Paul extols the high status of charity—Charity, a pure love, excels and exceeds almost all else.
  1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
  2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
  3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
  4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
  5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
  6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
  7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
  8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
  9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
  10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
  11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
  12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
  13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

 

http://scriptures.lds.org

Good advice for all.

Also compare: here

I just read a post on another blog, and I want to reach out to all who hurt and feel excluded, and say that I accept you as you are.  I hope that others will do the same.  Let’s not let differences come between us.