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This implies that leaders actually know that Joseph Smith was a fraud and that the Book of Mormon is false, and that LDS leaders simply need to admit the deception and take the steps necessary to lead Mormons out of the Church and instead to Christ. Who granted the critics insight into the minds, beliefs, hearts, and souls of the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ?
Critics should recall the admonition of Jesus:
- Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.(Matthew 7꞉1-2)
The implication that LDS leaders actually know that the Mormonism is false has become fashionable in some anti-Mormon circles. This claim is designed to add credibility to the anti-Mormon accusation that the LDS Church is not only wrong, but deceptive. Most critics know that the greatest damage can be done to an LDS testimony if a member comes to believe that the Church (or LDS leaders) is deceitful or hiding something. Many people handle conflicting information without jeopardizing their testimonies, but most people can't handle the feeling of being lied to. Generally, once someone feels that the Church has deceived them, they are no longer willing to examine rebuttals to anti-Mormon accusations. Critics are keenly aware that in many (if not most) instances it is not the anti-LDS information itself that generally makes people leave, but it's the perception that the information was "hidden." It is the feelings of deception and betrayal that ultimately drive people out the Church.
The fact is, however, that LDS leaders give of their time (a tremendous amount of time) and talents, because they love Christ, they love God's children, and they believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. Many LDS leaders give up lucrative professions and sacrifice time they could be spending in retirement or with family, to dedicate themselves to the Restored Gospel. They really believe in the the teachings of the Church and they labor continuously leading people to Christ and the fulness of the Gospel as found the latter-day church that Christ restored.
Brigham Young, like many Church leaders, taught that no member should rely on their leader's convictions— each member must seek a spiritual witness:
- I will say a few words in regard to your belief in being led, guided, and directed by one man. Brother Jackman has said that our enemies hate the fact of our being led by one man. Thousands of times my soul has been lifted to God the Father, in the name of Jesus, to make that verily true in every sense of the word, that we may be led by the man Jesus Christ, through Joseph Smith the Prophet. You may inquire how we are to know that we are so led.
- I refer you to the exhortation you have heard so frequently from me. Do not be deceived, any of you; if you are deceived, it is because you deceive yourselves. You may know whether you are led right or wrong, as well as you know the way home; for every principle God has revealed carries its own convictions of its truth to the human mind, and there is no calling of God to man on earth but what brings with it the evidences of its authenticity...Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not. This has been my exhortation continually.
- —Brigham Young, "Eternal Punishment–'Mormonism,' Etc.," Journal of Discourses, reported by G.D. Watt and J.V. Long, (12 January 1862), Vol. 9 (London: Latter-day Saint's Book Depot, 1862), 150.off-site wiki
To read more:
- "The Living Christ: Testimony of the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" off-site
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