0:00:00 - 0:00:21 All right. So it's been an interesting morning. I've been awake for five hours and, uh, uh, I've just been trying to get all the thoughts out before I actually get started with what, um, what I'm doing here, but I want to share an important thought here. Um It's, it's been nice to, I, I swear I've made 0:00:21 - 0:00:39 a video about this but I can't find it. I looked and that was nice because I actually found at least two videos that I haven't posted. One of them was made like, uh seven months ago or something. So that's nice. Um And, and those, I reviewed those things, there's some really important things in them 0:00:39 - 0:01:10 anyway. Um, so I want to talk about, uh, a theme, uh, related to counterfeits and what raises this is, it's not infrequent that I will hear people talking about certain aspects in the gospel and treating them. I should say certain, certain ideas related to the gospel and treating them as red flags that 0:01:09 - 0:01:38 , um, inescapably indicate that something is bad. So, um, all of these that I'm thinking of, uh, are connected to people and things people say or things people do or things people claim have happened to them. Um So here's a thought and I, I do have things written. So if I'm looking at it, if it looks 0:01:38 - 0:02:00 like I'm looking at a screen, I am, but I thought it would be better to speak these things and just type them up. So, counterfeits never appear in ways totally unrelated to the real thing. When you think of a counterfeit like a, a counterfeit gold coin, there's a such thing as a real gold coin. If there 0:02:00 - 0:02:20 weren't real gold coins, then no one would get anything out of counterfeiting them. Would they, it wouldn't be called a counterfeit, it'd be called something else. So all counterfeits are mimicking something real. And you know, if I'm about to lose your attention, you're only gonna watch this for a few 0:02:20 - 0:02:40 minutes. The takeaway that I'm going to try to get to, I'll just put my cards on the table from the start is that the existence of counterfeits does not indicate that there is no real thing. It's actually quite the opposite. If counterfeits exist, it's evidence that there is a real thing that's like 0:02:40 - 0:03:01 that, that is valuable because no one would fall for a counterfeit if there were no value in the real thing. And so we shouldn't dismiss things because there are counterfeits. We should actually double down on the things where we find counterfeits, not on the counterfeits, but in our desire and efforts 0:03:00 - 0:03:25 to find the real thing. So that's the point I'm going to get to and now if you're offended by that, you can go away and be offended. So here's some longer form thoughts on it. Um, let's talk about this idea that Jesus warned of false Christs. There'd be no danger in false Christs if there were no true 0:03:25 - 0:03:48 Christ would there because he could just say, yeah, anyone claiming to be Christ is an idiot. move on, right? But of course, he couldn't say that because he was the real Christ. So instead he said, beware of false Christs. What if you dismissed out of hand every notion that was connected in any way to 0:03:48 - 0:04:12 the idea of a messiah? So you know, if you're watching this, you probably already believe in Jesus or at least you think you do. So um you could say, well that I know, but that's not a problem for me. OK? Bear with me just pretend for a minute that you dismissed out of hand. Anything connected to the 0:04:12 - 0:04:30 idea of there being a messiah because someone said beware, false Christs. And and this is an example of the principle, right? We're gonna start here because it's so foreign to you, but that is safe because it won't hit your sacred cows again. I'm putting the cards on the table, we're gonna go right to 0:04:30 - 0:04:48 your sacred cows and punch them right in the side. So it kick him hard. But let's start with something that's not gonna immediately trigger your lower brain and prevent you from using your higher brain. So what would happen if you believe that you should dismiss out of hand anything having to do with 0:04:48 - 0:05:14 the Messiah? Well, um you, you wouldn't consider any of the evidence that exists that he already came, would you? So, uh for example, you, you wouldn't read any of the scriptures that talk about him because you dismiss those too. You'd either just not read them at all or you'd assume that what everyone 0:05:13 - 0:00:00 said about them was false, that there must be some mysterious meaning here that you can't really explain. But it can't possibly mean what people says, say it means because then it would mean that Jesus already came and in your mind, that would be a violation of this idea that beware of false Christ, 0:00:00 - 0:05:58 right? You follow me here. So um there are people who are like this, right? And they're not probably you if you're watching this channel, but maybe, and um they don't, they say that they believe the religion of the Old Testament, but they will not read the scriptures that predict the coming of Christ 0:05:57 - 0:06:17 . And if they do read them, they convolute them into these crazy interpretations to explain them away because it can't possibly mean what it literally says, right? Because that would imply that that Jesus was the Messiah. So if you go on youtube and if you've never done this I highly encourage you to 0:06:17 - 0:06:42 do it type in the forbidden chapter and you should get results that have people with microphones in Israel interviewing people about Isaiah 53. And if you don't know what Isaiah 53 says off of the reference, go read it, watch what these people say and do when someone reads to them what that says because 0:06:42 - 0:07:04 they have not read it in spite of a lifetime of saying they believe in the religion of the Old Testament. They've never read Isaiah 53. And when it's read to them, look at their faces, it's amazing. And then when they're asked, what do you think that means? Listen to what they say. So this hopefully 0:07:03 - 0:07:27 is a comfortable example. That's nice and distant from you. So you'll feel free to criticize these people without causing any um scrutiny on yourself. But let's keep pushing and I'll see you that I'll, I'll show you that you're doing these exact same things. Ok. So Jesus warned of wolves in sheep's clothing 0:07:26 - 0:07:56 . Remember that one? There would be no danger if uh a fake sheep, if there were no value in real sheep, right? Because otherwise Jesus would just say, look if you see a sheep run cause she, they've got nothing good to offer. Instead, he said, beware the wolves and sheep's clothing. No, almost all Christians 0:07:55 - 0:08:24 believe that because wolves exist and that often they dress like sheep, that real shepherds cannot exist. So how do you see this belief manifested in these militant people? And almost all Christians are in this bucket who rally around the idea of, oh, I don't, I don't listen to what men have to say about 0:08:23 - 0:08:45 God. I go directly to God. Hm. Hey, fella. How do you have any idea who God is in the first place? Because I'm pretty sure you didn't grow up on a desert island. I'm pretty sure you say you believe in that book. You've got that was written by many people, people, the finger of God did not write the scriptures 0:08:44 - 0:09:10 in some mountain somewhere. And then it fell into a printing press and spit out the Bible or whatever other scriptures you accept. So that's an issue and it shows the problem shows, right? I want to introduce an idea called back testing. It's not my idea. It's something these uh whiz bang Gurus use on 0:09:10 - 0:09:29 Wall Street to build models to predict how they think the stock market is gonna go. And I'm not sure it's such a great thing in, in that example. But the idea of B testing is simple if you come up with an idea that you think is a principle and should apply to the future, what you can do because you don't 0:09:29 - 0:09:51 know what's gonna happen in the future perfectly. You can look at the past and apply it to things that already happened as if they haven't already happened and see how well it does. Ok. So this is used in machine learning. It's a, it's a very, uh, well, uh, is a very common thing to do. And yet for some 0:09:51 - 0:10:11 reason, religious people don't do this and if they did, there wouldn't be any hypocrites. And instead almost every religious person is a hypocrite and it's always been that way. So, um, this is unfortunate, we don't use our brains when it comes to religious things. We come up with all these weird other 0:10:10 - 0:10:33 systems. But God said everything that comes from Him is spiritual. In other words, what we consider to be temporal, it's not different, it's a subset of the greater thing. And so we ought to mix together how we approach the search for truth shouldn't be a different thing on Sundays than it is on Tuesdays 0:10:32 - 0:10:54 , right? It's all the same where we're looking might differ because sometimes you gotta, you gotta look straight ahead of you instead of just looking up all the time or else your trip. But your approach, your process should always be the same because it all comes from God. So back testing your beliefs 0:10:53 - 0:11:13 is super important. What happens if you backtest this belief, this false belief that because there are wolves and sheeps clothing, there cannot be true shepherds that Jesus was the only one that we're ever going to get and that's all we need. Well, um if you back test that, you're gonna have to delete 0:11:13 - 0:00:00 a substantial portion of the scriptures, they can't possibly be true if that principle is true. Now, I don't have time to go through those uh because we pretty much have to go through the entirety of scripture. But it should be really obvious. If you pick any random servant of God in the scriptures, 0:00:00 - 0:11:54 it should be, you shouldn't have to work at this for too long to find one who's really important, who taught really important things that you rely on in your life and that changed the world that uh you would have thrown out if you lived that principle uh with respect to that person and what they did 0:11:54 - 0:12:14 and what they taught. Now, the chief at most example of this is Jesus himself. If you believe that real shepherds can't exist, you can't believe in Jesus. Now, I know what you're gonna say, but he was the good shepherd. I'm OK with that. I'm just not OK with all these other ones. Well, first off, Jesus 0:12:14 - 0:12:39 taught very plainly that how we react to the people he sends is a perfectly accurate predictor for how we would react to him, he himself, if he were to come or say those things or do those things. In fact, we would respond no better. In most cases, we would respond even worse because the greater the 0:12:39 - 0:13:02 light, the harder it is to receive. So that's the first thing. But um I guess we could talk about this a lot for a long time and II I wanna move on. Um, but the point is you would absolutely dismiss, dismiss out of hand almost everything that God has ever done on this planet and maybe everything, oh 0:13:02 - 0:13:20 , the other point I was gonna make about that is you might. Ok. So if you say well accept Jesus, he's the good shepherd. Yeah, but you wouldn't have known that. Don't you understand? As you read the gospel, you're reading it from the perspective of someone who already believes that Jesus is the Messiah 0:13:19 - 0:13:39 , that He is the Son of God. And you actually understand a little bit about what those things mean. The people at his time who were there when he was teaching these things, even his apostles did not have that. They did not have that they were operating under a very incorrect understanding of what it 0:13:39 - 0:13:57 meant to be the Messiah. They were operating under an incomplete understanding of who Jesus was and what he was going to do, that's why they all abandoned him in the garden when he got arrested. Um There's just piles of evidence that they were operating under a very different understanding at that time 0:13:56 - 0:14:18 . So the question is, if you were in their shoes at that time, would it have been enough to say when the messiah comes? I'll listen to him, but I'm not gonna listen to anyone else because I don't think God needs anyone else and he can just do anything he needs to do with me directly and that's it. Well 0:14:17 - 0:14:42 , you would have rejected Jesus. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. So, uh, it turns out that there are a lot of things in the gospel that people mistake for hallmarks of falsehood when they're actually counterfeits of truth. And hopefully, you understand a little bit about the difference now that we've 0:14:42 - 0:15:02 talked about these things and, and if you make that mistake, you're going to cut yourself off from the things that you were born in this time to receive. I, I cannot say it's stronger than that. And, and that's, that's not the same as just missing out on those things. When you turn away from greater 0:15:01 - 0:15:22 light, there's greater condemnation um that we shouldn't be motivated by fear of punishment. We ought to be motivated of uh uh by love of God and a very strong desire to obtain more of His goodness than what we have right now to know Him better than we do in the scriptures. There are accounts of many 0:15:22 - 0:15:44 people who were visited by angels, for example. So um they were told by God to do certain things, to say certain things. So what's your reaction to some Yahoo who says, oh God sent an angel to me and you probably, you shut off right then and you just slowly start to creep backwards, right? You might 0:15:44 - 0:16:11 like get your significant other on speed dial or 911 ready to go because this person is a psycho. Right? Ok. Well, that's a great example of this because the principle I'm getting to is something can be really terrible most of the time and be exactly right. Some of the time and not just like, acceptably 0:16:10 - 0:16:36 , ok, but necessarily exactly what it is and it leads to the best possible thing ever. Ok. And sitting on one side or the other. So, in no way, am I saying anytime someone says that an angel has visited them a, they're telling the truth. B they're not crazy. C they're not going to use what might have 0:16:36 - 0:16:54 been a genuine thing to try to persuade you to do something crazy and bad. I'm not saying any of that. I'm just saying, if you really believe the gospel, you absolutely have to believe that God sends angels to people and not just incidentally that this is like the, these are the wheels upon which his 0:16:53 - 0:17:22 machine turns, right? And so if they're not coming, it's actually, it's actually so critical that God uses angels that if they're not coming, you can absolutely for sure. Um, conclude that we're in a time of faithless people because he always sends them. And that's, that's exactly what um Mormon says 0:17:22 - 0:17:46 in the, the book of Mormon. So, um, so there are all these accounts of people who are visited by God, uh sorry, I'm sorry, by angels and, and through that mechanism told that they received the commandment of God to do certain things to say certain things. Now are these minor things? No, like we're not 0:17:46 - 0:18:05 gonna go through the, we'd have to go through the whole scripture or the whole scripture. But uh what about Mary, the mother of Jesus? She was told about Jesus through the visit of an angel, Gabriel. What about Samson's parents? You know, think of all the things Samson did that all came. It started with 0:18:04 - 0:18:30 an angel, right? To his parents about Gideon, an angel came, the angel of the Lord came and charged him to, to conquer their enemies in the name of the Lord. Here's just some bumpkin sitting under a tree. Now, that's not true. Ok? But his preparation for that did not include a calling to leadership in 0:18:29 - 0:18:56 a church. None of those three people had anything to do with leadership in a church and there was an organization through those times. There were priests, ok? There were people who had that and God did not go to them. So uh for these things, he went to other people. So guess what would happen if you'd 0:18:56 - 0:19:18 say, uh look anybody claiming anything to do with angels? I'm done. They're obviously nuts. Run away as fast as you can. Well, guess what? You have to disregard a whole lot out of the scriptures, including Jesus. So that's, that's gonna come at a cost, isn't it? Now? You could say, well, well, that was 0:19:18 - 0:19:39 in the past. It doesn't need to happen today. Let's see. I'm not sure if this is still working. I was using his headphones. I hope my sound is still good on here. You could say it's funny if I was wearing those the whole time and they weren't even plugged in. Um, you could, you could say that. Um, now 0:19:38 - 0:20:01 I feel like a dog without a comfort sweater on. Um, sorry. Uh, what was I saying? You could say, well, God doesn't need to send angels anymore. Why did he have to send them in the first place then? Right? What, what changed that magically? They're not needed anymore? Well, everything we need is in the 0:20:00 - 0:20:26 scriptures. No. Uh that certainly doesn't say that anywhere does it. So for some reason, my head looks way bigger without those headphones on. Maybe that's just me. Um If you dismiss angels or anyone having to do with angels out of hand, you absolutely cut yourself off from anything God would do or say 0:20:26 - 0:20:55 through that means go back test that, look at the scriptures and look at all the important things that came in that way and you need to understand that. That's what you're cutting yourself off from. So here's another example. Um God himself has done those same things that angels have done. Um So he's 0:20:55 - 0:21:14 given people information beyond what was known by others. He's called them to do certain things that were really important. And sometimes these people were leaders in established churches, but frequently they weren't. And we could go through examples of that. But if you know the scriptures a bunch are 0:21:14 - 0:21:36 already in your mind and uh the, the same point applies. If you dismiss out of hand that those things can happen, you're cutting yourself off from anything God might communicate or accomplish that way. Yeah, I need to book it because I know I have a low battery here. Um So you should ask yourself whether 0:21:36 - 0:22:00 you have any gospel topics, experiences, whatever that you consider to be red flags that justify immediately dismissing everything else that uh a person who, who claims or mentions them says or does, that's the danger. That's the real red flag. Make a list of these things. Keep a list because you, you 0:22:00 - 0:22:19 won't be able to enumerate them all just sitting there. You'll have to be thinking about this and they'll come up, add to your list, go and study everything that the scriptures say about whatever that experience or topic or claim or whatever is, go read about it in the scriptures. Ask yourself what one 0:22:19 - 0:22:42 who refuses to accept that cuts themselves off from based on history because God doesn't change. It's the same patterns, right? And then ask yourself if righteous people from the past lived or believed or experienced these things. Um Ask if God has explicitly foretold that they'll happen again or that 0:22:41 - 0:23:05 these things will come back or that they're really important to what pertains to the future because in every case, you're gonna find those prophecies, you're gonna see descriptions of future events that include or require those things whatever happened before has to happen now too. Ok? Or, or soon. So 0:23:05 - 0:23:28 , um now we're gonna get in trouble because I'm going to name some of these things. I already named angels visiting people and commissioning them to do certain things for God or teaching them certain things that were not known about God. Uh I already mentioned God himself coming and doing that. Um So 0:23:28 - 0:23:50 we've got random people claiming experiences with God. So, but as we go through this list, as I gonna get in trouble here, um I have some caveats so please don't just stop what I say. Keep listening. I'm gonna say some things. But the point is, yeah, in most cases, people who claim these things are crazy 0:23:49 - 0:24:09 . I know that right. I've heard a ton of them myself. I've been burned by a lot of people who've claimed them. That's all been necessary for me to learn the things I need to, to learn uh and to grow in the ways I needed to grow. But the fact is that being open to that has made all the difference in my 0:24:09 - 0:24:32 life. It's made all the difference in the window. God has to, to not just make himself known to me and give me this relationship with Him that I value above all else. But um and then being able to help others move towards that themselves. If you need to build a house, there's a certain set of tools you 0:24:32 - 0:24:48 need. And if from the get go, you've thrown a bunch of those tools away, you're gonna have a really hard time. And so the point is not just to build a house for yourself, it's to be able to go help other people do the same and maybe they're not the kinds of, you know, consummate do it yourselfers who 0:24:48 - 0:25:08 can, who have the faith to just jump into something huge like that and keep going day by day through all the challenges and not having anybody to turn to, then you can be a person that helps bring that down to an easier level by saying I've done all this before and there's nothing more that I'd like 0:25:08 - 0:25:31 to do than to just give it to you so you can do it too with way less trouble anyway. I'm gonna name a few of these things. We're just gonna start the big one, a big one, end time servant. I've heard people just kind of laugh this away and all those crazy people who believe in an end time servant. Let 0:25:31 - 0:26:04 me tell you something more of scripture. This is used to describe this person and what they are going to do and why than any other person in the scriptures that includes the Lord Jesus Christ. No if I had time, I'd take you all the way through and show you all of it. I can't do that obviously. But suppose 0:26:03 - 0:26:29 that I'm at least a little right about that. Now, why on earth would God occupy so much of the scriptures on a person that doesn't even come around till the end. And therefore it doesn't even apply to most of the people that have ever lived because it's that important because it takes that much to figure 0:26:28 - 0:26:56 it all out. So God would not talk about this person endlessly, if this person is not a real person and doesn't have a role in the winding up of all things. A really important role now is the person's role anywhere near as important as Jesus is. No. Well, why is he written about so much more? Because 0:26:55 - 0:00:00 part of his mission is to make it possible for you to actually make use of what Jesus has already given. So that's kind of a big deal if you get that one wrong, right. Let's keep going. Gathering this one's, you know, I have actively told people about the end time servant and gathering. I have said, 0:00:00 - 0:27:42 look, and I will say it for all these things right now. Again and again, I'm saying these things, this is not something to play with. It's a really big deal. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, do not mess with this, right? So for the purposes of this video. I'm not encouraging anyone to walk 0:27:42 - 0:28:06 into any of these things. If anything, I'm doing the opposite. But I'm saying you're really jacked up. If you dismiss these things out of hand, you're going to miss the boat gathering many crazy people. Oh, and so end time serve. One might even strong. There's a Wikipedia page of all the people who have 0:28:06 - 0:28:30 claimed to be this dude and who are clearly not this dude, right? Counterfeits. That doesn't mean there's not a real dude or that he's less important than he would otherwise be. It's the opposite. Counterfeits only exist when there is a real version gathering same story. If someone said like, hey, um 0:28:30 - 0:28:51 let's put all of our money together and move to this spot and build a temple. Yeah, you should be like really cautious about that crazy, crazy, crazy levels of caution. However, should you laugh it off and say those idiots? No, that's the spirit that crucified Christ, ok? You know, if you've done due 0:28:50 - 0:29:06 diligence and I'm gonna give you a little example of that. It's a different story, but you don't laugh about it. You're like, here are the exact ways where they've got it wrong and, and here are the, here are the questions that are unanswered and here are the things that are promised that that path doesn't 0:29:05 - 0:29:34 lead to and that's what I'm waiting for. So you see the difference when the Lord comes to the mount of Olives the people there who have survived that long through the terrible things that they're going to have to endure. They are going to know Jesus, they're going to know Jesus through the photo negative 0:29:33 - 0:29:57 . They will have experienced so much negative that they will know exactly the problems that he solves and they will know exactly that he's capable of doing it that he's already done it. And he has to say I'm that guy, right? They say who are you? And he says who he is, but that's all it takes. They connect 0:29:57 - 0:30:22 up all of that desire and need right to him because they know what they're looking for. They've been looking for him, they've been holding out for him. They've remained faithful that God will save them and he's the savior and they'll know that, ok, there's more, there's priesthood, we could talk about 0:30:21 - 0:30:44 tithing and I really don't wanna mention it because people's minds fly to pieces. But we could talk about polygamy, all of these things. There, there are red flags for people. They run for the hills. Almost everything that has been said by people about each of these things is almost completely wrong 0:30:44 - 0:31:12 . So, and yet all of them, all of them and many more that we can't go through, all of them have absolutely critical pieces to them. Um, somewhere in the noise, there is a signal if it weren't. So they wouldn't be counterfeits somewhere in the sea of those counterfeits. There's a real thing and if you 0:31:12 - 0:31:36 dismiss that real thing out of hand, you're going to cut yourself off from the good things that God intends you to have in your life. I'm not saying God wants you to practice polygamy. I'm not saying that God wants you to uh even pay tithing the way you understand it or to gather the way you understand 0:31:35 - 0:31:56 it. I'm just saying that something about this has something to do with something that is right and valuable. And if you use it as a false red flag, you're going to cut yourself off from very important things. Now, everything on this list and, and the many other things besides that we're not mentioning 0:31:56 - 0:32:22 here, it, it'd be too long and it's, it's not the point. These are just examples, they're dangerous things that no one should mess around with. They require great care and wisdom and experience and I'll, I'll get to this in a minute. But um as with all blessings that God gives the danger does not outweigh 0:32:21 - 0:32:50 the opportunity and the two always grow together. That's why everything is line upon line. Because if he gave us all the best stuff right away, human nature would drive it right into the gutter and, and the world, that's how bad it is. So as examples of this in a temporal sense, we don't sh driving because 0:32:50 - 0:33:10 it can be dangerous. You could kill someone with a car. No one says Well, therefore I'm never gonna drive a car. Why not? Because the benefits outweigh the danger and there's ways to mitigate the danger. You can't take it away, but you can reduce it enough that it is worth it. We use gasoline, it's super 0:33:10 - 0:33:31 explosive. Ok. People die all the time from gasoline or they, they get burned so bad that they wish they were dead. But we use it anyway. Why? Because the, the energy it provides outweighs the risks and you can mitigate the, uh, the danger. Um In fact, that's a topic that deserves much more. But just 0:33:31 - 0:33:48 to keep it brief, I mean, our entire way of life is because of fossil fuels. If it weren't for the cheap energy that it provides, you'd be spending every waking moment of your life just surviving. You'd have no time to watch videos like this, to make videos like this, to read the scriptures. Like you 0:33:47 - 0:34:09 do, you'd have no time or opportunity and wouldn't even have books. Ok. At least you and I wouldn't have books. Some monk might have a book. All right. Say we could talk about dynamite, right? It, it blows up and you say like, what good is that? Well, when you put it in a mountain and you need to blow 0:34:09 - 0:34:30 a mountain up, it's exactly what you need and nothing else will do. You see. And so that's how it is with these things. They're, they're all very dangerous. But the benefits of using them wisely outweigh the cost of misusing them. So how do we mitigate that in life? In in temporal things? We learn how 0:34:30 - 0:34:50 to treat these things with the care they deserve. We learn rules to keep safe around them as we reduce the risk as much as we can. We keep them away from Children and idiots, right? And God has kept these things away from Children and idiots throughout time. Um However, in the end times, basically, he 0:34:50 - 0:35:09 opens up the liquor cabinet and you know, God never walks away. This is just a metaphor, but he opens up the liquor cabinet and walks away and we all know what the drunks are gonna do, right? It's no surprise. And when they do it, it shouldn't surprise us. However, and maybe this is a weak analogy because 0:35:09 - 0:35:38 of the whole alcohol thing, but those who turn up their noses at the wise use of dangerous things, um they will be cut off from the kingdom he brings because you need those dangerous things to build and enter into that kingdom. So when you hear about your red flag topics, I hope you make your list. You 0:35:38 - 0:36:05 need to approach them with the following three facts. Firmly in hand. One, it is likely that this is rubbish, not what I'm saying, but the the person or, or idea or whatever that's attached to a red flag. It's likely that it's rubbish. However, it's also possible that it is not. And it's very important 0:36:05 - 0:36:28 to figure it out. So I want to share one of my favorite stories from the life of Joseph Smith. I don't really care at this moment for this example, what you think about the guy. So, um the point though is that obviously he thought he was a prophet of God and he thought that he knew more about God than 0:36:28 - 0:36:51 anyone on the planet at the time and that it wasn't even close. Ok. Those are relevant. Notwithstanding that whenever a stranger came to him, he would hear them out and not just like you have seven secondss or you have 30 minutes. So here's an example. There was a time when, uh I just got my battery 0:36:50 - 0:00:00 warning. There's a time when he was in Navoo, he was the mayor of Navoo. He ran the show from front to back there. Um, a man came there claiming to be a prophet, right? So if, if you were in Joseph Smith's shoes, what would you do? Because most of you would say, hey, idiot, if you're a real prophet, 0:00:00 - 0:37:30 I'd already know about you. Get out of here, right? Or you might give them like three seconds and then tell them to get out of there. And instead, what Joseph did is he invited him into his house to stay there. He called meetings and gave the guy the pulpit. He said, please teach us what you've come 0:37:30 - 0:37:50 to share with us, right? And he listened to, if I remember correctly, it was like three days. Um, and then at the end of all of that, he said, I've heard you out and I don't believe that you're a prophet and you need to leave. So think about that. Now, the story is actually richer because if I remember 0:37:50 - 0:38:09 correctly, I believe that this guy was wanted for murder. And at some point during the three days that rumor carried into the the into navoo and he still heard him out because guess what people say rumors that aren't true, right? Just because someone claims that someone's this, that or the other thing 0:38:08 - 0:38:28 , it doesn't mean they are for good or bad. You gotta figure it out for yourself, right? All right. So we're tying up here just so you know, how can you filter out the noise from the signal? So that's what because that's what we need to do. We need to differentiate, we need to figure out what's real 0:38:27 - 0:38:51 true. What's not, I wish there were an easy answer. It's a simple answer, but it's not easy. It actually takes an eternal effort to develop the ability to do. This is one of the reasons there's a hierarchy in heaven because certain people have developed this far further than others. It's tied to all 0:38:50 - 0:39:16 things that are hierarchical uh faith, virtue, knowledge, wisdom, judgment, mercy, love. We could go on and on. People aren't the same in these categories. But through God, we can grow in any of them, in all of them. So how do we do this in terms of filtering noise so that we can find the true signal 0:39:16 - 0:39:40 ? Well, the most important thing is to learn more about what Jesus is like and to live everything you learn all the time. Yeah, say more about that. You need to learn about value. You need to learn about cost and benefit. You need to learn to think critically. You need to act rationally and honestly 0:39:39 - 0:40:03 consistently, you need to learn to investigate and weigh evidence and you need to actually occupy yourself in doing these things. So all that is pretty much the opposite of dismissing things out of hand because they're on this list of no, no topics or no no experiences. Um There's more I can say about 0:40:03 - 0:40:31 that, but I'm not going to. So circling back to this idea of living up to everything uh you know already about Jesus, it's absurd and antithetical to so many uh so much of the scriptures to think that you have any capability whatsoever of discerning greater truth while you're still living in willful 0:40:30 - 0:40:52 sin. Jesus taught about this explicitly time and again, you know, the whole like take the little stick out of your eye before you criticize someone else for what you see as a beam, the small thing, it's small to you in your eye. Why is it in your eye? It's in your eye because you can't accurately perceive 0:40:51 - 0:41:13 the situation that you're criticizing other people. About. Same thing you said those who are without sin, let them be the first to cast the stone. He didn't say you are not without sin, therefore, don't cast stones. He established that he was the only person in that crowd who had any right to throw a 0:41:13 - 0:41:37 rock because all of them could not, none of them could say. I only do what I sincerely believe God would do in my place. And that's what it takes to accurately, perceive the value of something to accurately judge something. That's the first step. It's not a complete thing because knowledge is progressive 0:41:37 - 0:42:00 . It's just line upon line. There's an awful lot to know, but you're not in the club until you can say that. And so if you're not there so much more, the less you should, uh, have a list of red flags, right? You don't even know what the list is. Work on your own. Dang red flags before you try to call 0:42:00 - 0:42:24 someone else out for them. When you run out. Hey, have at it. Right. How about it anyway? So, those are some thoughts on this and I hope it helps. It's very important and it will be all the more important in the future. People who have these sorts of experiences or make these sorts of claims. Yeah, almost 0:42:24 - 0:42:52 all the time. They're nuts and even when they're not nuts. A lot of times they're misguided at, at least. And yet I'm telling you right now that the path to heaven is invariably paved with people who say these things and have these things happen to them and who are used by God in these ways. If you don't 0:42:51 - 0:43:15 have that, you don't have the gospel if you can't say, yeah, I know somebody who's seen angels. I know somebody who says God speaks to them. I know somebody who, and we could just go down the line if you can't say that. What do you have? You've got a book that you probably don't read and you certainly 0:43:15 - 0:43:37 don't live because it's just as useless to you in reproducing what it says as it is for everyone else and your life's really not any different from anyone who doesn't even have or believe the book. So that's really pathetic. And so maybe you should get off your high horse of thinking. You've got it all 0:43:36 - 0:43:58 figured out in spite of having none of the signs that God promised all believers and start looking for people who at least claim to have them who at least claim to experience what the scriptures promise. And if we lived in a world where there were no such people, you could be forgiven for your arrogance 0:43:58 - 0:44:25 and your stupidity. But we don't, those people exist and while most people who make those claims are crazy, some of us are not and you will be held accountable to God for how lightly you have taken. What we say, the whole reason we are here dealing with everything we have to, to be here is to help people 0:44:25 - 0:44:36 receive and value what you are freely tra trampling over and throwing aside and it's time to, to fix yourself.