(Talk Given 16th July 2023 - South Shields)

Dennis Praeger Once Said, (Quote), "The Number Of People Who Believe In God, And
Yet, At The Same Time Think He Is Meaningless, Is Enormous. (End Quote)

So Many People Claim To Believe In God, But When You Ask Them Who He Is They Have No Idea.
Equally Surprising Is, If You Attempt To Investigate With Them Who God Actually Is - They RUN!

They Don't Just Refuse To Take A Little Time To Consider Who God Is - They Bolt For The Door.

Mention Jesus Christ To Most People Outside Of Christianity And Watch Their Reaction - They Are Clearly Uncomfortable.

With This In Mind, I Would Like Us To Consider Today, About How And Why We Think The Way We Do About The Gospel - This Is Known As Epistemology (Or The Study Of Thought)

First Of All...
Deep Thinking Takes Effort!

And When It Comes To Searching For Spiritual Knowledge, Mankind Can Be, "LAZY
LEARNERS."

This Means We Accept What We Are Told Without Taking The Time To Find Out If Something Is True Or Not.

This Can Apply To Even The Most Important Questions Of Life - Such As, "Why Are We Here On Earth?"

Deep Learning Can Come, Even From The Simplest Things -

We Have All Looked Up At The Clouds...Different Formations.

Consider These Lines From A "Peanuts" Comic Strip.

Charlie Brown, Lucy, And Linus Are Lying On A Hillside Looking Up At The Clouds. Lucy Asks, “What Do You Think You See, Linus?”
Linus Says, “Well, Those Clouds Up There Look To Me Like The Map Of British Honduras On The Caribbean.
That Cloud Up There Looks A Little Like The Profile Of Thomas Eakins, The Famous Painter And Sculptor.
And That Group Of Clouds Over There Gives Me The Impression Of The Stoning Of Stephen. I Can See The Apostle Paul Standing There To One Side.”

Lucy Says, “That’s Very Good, Linus” And Then Asks Charlie Brown, “What Do You See, Charlie?”

And Charlie Answers, “Well, I Was Going To Say I Saw A Ducky And A Horsie, But I Changed My Mind!”

You Just Have To Love Charlie Brown.

Brothers And Sisters, AS WE GO THROUGH LIFE, Are We Seeing "Duckies And Horsies," Or Are We Trying, Like Linus, To Delve More Deeply, To Expand Our Minds Through Prayer And Scripture Study?

God Only Wants Us To Try Our Best, With The Abilities We Have - Not To Compare Ourselves With Others.

The Lord Does Not Expect One Talent People To Be Five Talent People.
He Asks Only That We Try To Develop The Talent We Are Given.

We Are Not In Competition With Others, Only With Ourselves.
We Have To Try To Be Our Best Selves.

When Joseph Smith Was A Prisoner In Liberty Jail, He Wrote A Letter To The Saints, Which Included The Statement, "Thy Mind O Man, Must Stretch."

So, With That Thought In Mind, I'd Like To Try Some Mind Stretching Today -
Don't Be Surprised If It Feels A Little Uncomfortable, As We Do The Stretching.
Our Minds Are Like Our Bodies - They Grow Stronger With Exercise.

So Here We Go...

It Seems To Me That There Are Two Main Realms Of Knowledge.
1: Intellectual Realm
2: Spiritual Realm

Intellectual Knowledge Is Often Based On Logic.

This Kind Of Knowledge, Does Not Necessarily Change Anyone, (Though It Can).

Spiritual Knowledge On The Other Hand Confirms Truth And Leads To Conversion, (Provided Of Course, The Path We Are On Is The Correct One, And Based Upon True Principles).

It Is Imperative That We Are On The Right Path!

One Example Of "Intellectual Knowledge" With Regard To The Truthfulness Of The Church, Can Be Found In An Event In The Life Of Martin Harris.

The Event In Question Is Martin's Visit To Charles Anthon In New York.

In Order To Better Understand What Took Place Back In The Winter Of 1828, We Must First Take Into Account The Following 3 Points, When Considering Martin's Story Of His Visit To Charles Anthon...

Charles Anthon First Acknowledged, And Then Rejected The Authenticity Of The Egyptian Characters.

Martin's Response, Following His Visit, Was To Mortgage His Farm, Indicating Strongly, That Anthon Did Actually Confirm That The Characters On The Manuscript Were Of Egyptian Origin, Else Why Would The Previously Doubting Martin Return Home And Make Such A Huge Financial Commitment?

The Fulfillment Of Prophecy: Isaiah 29:11 And The Vision Of All Is Become Unto You As The Words Of A Book That Is Sealed, Which Men Deliver To One That Is Learned, Saying, Read This, I Pray Thee: And He Saith, I Cannot; For It Is Sealed:

This Event Shows, If Given Some Careful Thought, That Anthon Must Have Authenticated The Characters To Be Egyptian, Even Though He Later Denied That He Had Done So, And Tore Up The Certificate Of Confirmation He Had Written.

To Mortgage His Farm So That The BOM Could Be Printed Must Have Been An Enormous Sacrifice For The Wary And Initially Doubting Harris

Yet He Did It!

And That Action (Mortgaging His Farm) Is So Significant!

The Cynic's Response To This Would Surely Be...
"Oh That Is Very Convenient, That Anthon Tore Up His Signed Letter Of Confirmation, Leaving No Evidence."

However, Of Far Greater Evidence Is The Unspoken Outcome Of The Anthon Visit, Namely That Harris Mortgaged His Farm.

Therein Lies The Real Evidence!

This Logical/Intellectual Knowledge About Martin And The Anthon Visit, However, Will Not Necessarily Produce Conversion, Only An "Intellectual Conviction@ That The BOM Is True.

Spiritual Knowledge Is A Different Realm Of Experience Altogether, Compared To The Intellectual.

Conviction Is Not Necessarily Conversion.

We Can Be Convinced Of Something Without Being Converted To It.

There Are Many Who Know About The Church (Are Convicted) But Will Not Allow Themselves To Be Converted, Because They Are Not Prepared To Make The Changes And Meet The Demands A Full Conversion Requires I.E. Tithing, Word Of Wisdom, Church Attendance, Church Service Etc.

True Conversion Requires A Full Commitment!

A Dramatic Lifestyle Change.

The Things Of This Present World Take Precedence Over The Eternal Blessings That Lie Ahead.

There Is A Subtle Difference Between Conviction And Conversion.

Many People Know ABOUT The Saviour, But That Doesn't Mean They KNOW Him!
Many People Know ABOUT The Church, But It Doesn't Mean They Comprehend Its Mission, Or The Eternal Effects Of The Revealed Covenants And Their Sacred Origin.

Sister Atkinson Touched On This Matter Of "Knowing About", Verses "Knowing" The Church, In Her Email Last Week.

She Wrote The Following:

General William Booth Who Founded The Salvation Army Was A Righteous And Honourable Man.
He Has Descendants Who Have Completed Temple Work For Himself, His Wife, And His Thirteen Children.

Val Then Shared Her Own Comments, Stating...

And What Has The Church "Added" To General William Booth's Vast Knowledge Of
Scripture?

1: We Have Added Temple Ordinances For Him And His Family!
2: We Have Done For The Booth Family What No Other Church Could Do.

(And I Pause Here To Emphasize That This Is The Difference Between "Knowing About", Verses Really "Knowing The Church").

The Church's Mission Has Eternal Implications.

The Difference Between Knowing ABOUT And KNOWING, Is Subtle Yet Dramatic, Because Of The "Eternal Effects" That KNOWING Has On A Person's Life.

Spiritual Knowledge, Because It Belongs In This Other Realm, Can't Be Given By One Person To Another.

That Kind Of Knowledge Has To Be Personally Experienced.

The Saviour's Parable Of The Ten Virgins And Their Oil Illustrates This Fact So Perfectly.

They Couldn’t Share Their Oil With Others (NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE BEING SELFISH) But Because That Oil Has To Be Obtained, Drop By Drop, Through Personal Faith, Obedience And Service.

Individual Dedication Is Non-Transferable.

And So It Is With Testimony.

A Person Can Share Their Testimony With Another, But The Hearer Must Actually Receive It, Inwardly, And Personally.

And This Receiving Requires Great Humility!

It Is Then (In The Receiving) That The Conversion Process Begins For That Individual.

Returning Again, To That Other Realm, That Of The Logical, Further "Intellectual Knowledge" Can Be Obtained By Studying The Life Of The Other Two Witnesses To The BOM, Oliver Cowdery And David Whitmer.

And Yet More Intellectual Conviction Can Be Found In The Life Of Joseph Smith.

A Study Of The Coming Forth Of The BOM Demands An Answer As To How A Young, Uneducated Man Could Have Produced Such A Book.

But Most Will Look No Further And Give This Remarkable Phenomenon No More Than A Cursory Glance, Before Moving On With Their Lives.

Winston Churchill Hit The Nail Right On The Head When He Said,

"Some People Trip Over The Truth, Dust Themselves Down And Then Walk On As If Nothing Happened."

People Are Doing This Everyday As They Come Across The Church.

Maybe Deep Spiritual Knowledge For Them, Is Just Too Scary To Contemplate.

The World Has Been Puzzled, By Joseph Smith's Life Now, For Two Centuries.

The Answer To The Conundrum That Is Joseph Smith's Life Is Found In The Following Scripture...

1Cor 1:27 But God Hath Chosen The Foolish Things Of This World To Confound The Wise; And God Hath Chosen The Weak Things Of The World To Confound The Things Which Are Mighty;

So The Answer To This Seemingly Complicated Conundrum Is In fact, Very Simple.
And The Answer Is...
Joseph Was Telling The Truth.

In Jacob 4:14 We Read - But Behold, The Jews Were A Stiff-necked People; And They Despised The Words Of Plainness, And Killed The Prophets, And Sought For Things That They Could Not Understand. Wherefore, Because Of Their Blindness, Which Blindness Came By Looking Beyond The Mark, They Must Needs Fall; For God Hath Taken Away His Plainness From Them, And Delivered Unto Them Many Things Which They Cannot Understand, Because They Desired It.
William Of Occam Was A Franciscan Friar, Born In Surrey In The Year 1287.
William Gave Us A Solution To Problems, Now Known As "Occam’s Razor."

Occam’s Razor, Means That Usually The Simplest Answer, Or The First Answer Is Often The Correct One.

When We Go Searching For Difficult Answers That Don't Exist, Then We Are...
"Looking Beyond The Mark."

A Snapshot Of Joseph Smith's Life Reveals A Young, Innocent, Uneducated Farm Boy, Who Developed, In A Few Years, Under The Tutelage Of Angels, Into A Writer Of Scripture, A Builder Of Temples And Cities, And A Martyr For The Cause.

All This In Just 38 Short Years!

Just Prior To His Death, Joseph Gave The Astounding King Follet Sermon, Revealing Things About God And Man, Previously Unheralded, Teachings That Are Only Discovered Within The Depths Of The Scriptures.

And Mainstream Christianity Cries, Blasphemy!

I Repeat, Again The Scripture...

1 Cor 1:27 But God Hath Chosen The Foolish Things Of The World To Confound The Wise...

There Is A Term That Has Become Popular In Our Day. It Is Known As, "The Elephant In The Room."

Apparently, This Saying Was First Used As Late As 1985.

"The Elephant In The Room." Is Defined As, "A Major Problem Or Controversial Issue Which Is Obviously Present But Is Avoided As A Subject For Discussion."

Think Of Joseph Smith And The Bom

The Restoration Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ Is Peppered With Elephants In The Room, Of Subjects That Require Serious Consideration, But Are Conveniently Avoided By Both The World, And Conventional Christianity.

When A Critic Of The Church Is Challenged Directly With Any Of These "Elephants," Their Response Is Almost Always Woefully Inadequate, And The Point Raised Is Then Avoided As A Subject For Meaningful Discussion.

Some Claim That The BOM Has Been "Proven" To Be A Fraud, But If That Were The Case Then This Ongoing Battle To Renounce Its Authenticity Would Have Ended Long Ago.

The Fact Of The Matter Is That The BOM Is Itself Yet Another "Elephant In The Room" That Simply Won't Go Away - Though It Is Largely Ignored By The World.

And The Explanation For This Strange Neglect, Again, Is Simple.

It's Because It Is True!

And Therefore Requires A Deep Commitment, Which Few Are Prepared To Make.

So They Call The Restoration - Blasphemy!

Again, Another Quote From Winston Churchill...

Truth Is Irrevocable. Malice May Attack It, And Ignorance May Deride It, But In The End, There It Is!

Malice Attacks The Church Daily, And Ignorance Derides It -
Yet Here It Is!

Or, As Joseph Smith Put It...

The Standard Of Truth Has Been Erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, and calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth, boldly, nobly and independent, 'til it has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every country, and sounded in every ear. Til the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say, "the work is done."

William Of Occam Was Certainly Right When It Comes To The Restoration Of The Gospel - The Simplest Answer Is The Right One.

The Gospel Of Jesus Christ Is Available To All, But Discovered By Few.

And The Truth Of The Matter Is...It Is Simply True!

Intellectually And Logically, The Restoration Of The Gospel Can Be Easily Proven By The Honest, Enquiring Mind.

However, Moving Into That "Other Realm" That Of The Spiritual, Requires Humility, Faith, And A Real Desire To Know The Truth Of God.

Matt 7:14 Because Strait Is The Gate, And Narrow Is The Way, Which Leadeth Unto Life, And Few There Be That Find It.

The Simple Can Have The Gospel Message Revealed To Them, While The Intellectual Mind, Though Lauded By The World, Usually Knows Nothing As To The Things Of God.

I Suppose There Is A Place For Duckies And Horsies - Where The Innocent Are Watched Over, And, If Required, Will Be Avenged Of Any Wrongs, In God's Own Time.

The simple have difficulty understanding complicated things, unlike the intellectual.

On the other hand, could it be that the intellectual has great difficulty understanding simple things?

It would seem so, unless the intellectuals will humble themselves - That is the great secret - Humility! That is the key to spiritual knowledge and understanding.

The Reality Is, We Live In A Dangerous World, And Satan Is Gathering His Troops.

The Apostle Peter Wrote, In 1Peter 5:8

Be Sober, Be Vigilant; Because Your Adversary The Devil, As A Roaring Lion, Walketh About, Seeking Whom He May Devour:

And Finally, In 2 Nephi 9:28 We Read - O That Cunning Plan Of The Evil One! O The Vainness, And The Frailties, And The Foolishness Of Men! When They Are Learned They Think They Are Wise, And They Hearken Not Unto The Counsel Of God, For They Set It Aside, Supposing They Know Of Themselves, Wherefore, Their Wisdom Is Foolishness And It Profiteth Them Not.

29 But To Be Learned Is Good If They Hearken Unto The Counsels Of God.

May We All Strive To Live In The Spiritual Realm As Much As Is Possible, In This Troubled World.

Elder Neal A Maxwell Called The BOM Prophet Jacob, The Poet Prophet.

I Close With His Final Words To His People.

Jacob 7:26 And It Came To Pass That I, Jacob, Began To Be Old; And The Record Of This People Being Kept On The Other Plates Of Nephi, Wherefore, I Conclude This Record, Declaring That I Have Written According To The Best Of My Knowledge, By Saying That The Time Passed Away With Us, And Also Our Lives Passed Away Like As It Were Unto Us A Dream, We Being A Lonesome And A Solemn People, Wanderers, Cast Out From Jerusalem, Born In Tribulation, In A Wilderness, And Hated Of Our Brethren, Which Caused Wars And Contentions; Wherefore, We Did Mourn Out Our Days.

27 And I, Jacob, Saw That I Must Soon Go Down To My Grave; Wherefore, I Said Unto My Son Enos: Take These Plates. And I Told Him The Things Which My Brother Nephi Had Commanded Me, And He Promised Obedience Unto The Commands. And I Make An End Of My Writing Upon These Plates, Which Writing Has Been Small; And To The Reader I Bid Farewell, Hoping That Many Of My Brethren May Read My Words.

Apparently, The Purpose Of Harris's Visit To Anthon Was To Settle His Doubts, Regarding The Authenticity Of The Manuscript Joseph Was Translating.

And Clearly, He Was Satisfied On That Score Because, Following His Visit To Anthon, The Outcome Was That He Mortgaged His Farm.

Harris's Scepticism Was Silenced By Anthon's Initial Conclusion, That The Characters Were Authentic.

(Some May Be Feeling A Little Uncomfortable At This Point, But Keep Stretching)

In The Summer Of 1828, A Few Months After The Anthon Visit, Harris Was Allowed To Take The First 116 Pages Joseph Translated, To His Family To Satisfy Their Doubts - And The Pages Were Lost.

Although Martin Left The Church, He Never Renounced His Testimony Of The BOM And Later Returned To The Church, And apparently, At His Death, Requested To Be Buried With A Copy Of The BOM In One Hand And The D&C In The Other.

If Martin Had Been Lying About His Experience As A Witness, Surely Then, On His Deathbed, Would Have Been The Time To Come Clean - But The Very Opposite Happened.

Martin Stated On His Return, That He Never Left The Church, The Church Left Him. (He Was Referring To When The Saints Left For The Rocky Mountains - He Didn't Go.)

But his testimony remained, as did Oliver Cowdery's and David Whitmer's.

They never denied their testimonies because they had no choice - other than to be under the condemnation of Almighty God.

I bare that same witness - I also know, by the power of the Holy Ghost that these things are all true! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.