0:00:00 - 0:00:25 And it suggests the need to talk about this topic, which is that very, very, very, very, very, very few L DS people are actually going to repent. There's a misconception that the primary or even secondary or even tertiary pool of people that are going to repent and eventually build Zion are currently 0:00:25 - 0:00:49 L Ds. That's absolutely false. That's absolutely false. So I'm going to give you an argument as to why that is today. And I'm also going to give you a very brief piece of guidance as to how to find how to better find people who will to start this. I, I want to take an analogy that will hopefully be less 0:00:49 - 0:01:14 of a sacred cow in this group. OK. So constitution divine principles, right? What happens over time? Well, look around you. OK. So just because the Constitution was inspired by God doesn't mean that the government today is and you can map the deviation from the source over time. My question for you is 0:01:14 - 0:01:32 what would the founding fathers think of the USA today? I mean, we could argue about it, but probably something like this would be happening if you could make a Bill and Ted Time Machine. Go back in time, get the founding fathers and bring them here. They'd probably beeline for the nearest sporting goods 0:01:32 - 0:02:02 store and you could predict what would happen next. They fought the revolution over far few fewer injustices than we face today. Now, this should be abundantly obvious to anyone that knows the least bit about us history. So here's a question. What would an L DS person from the past think of the L DS 0:02:01 - 0:02:30 church today? You forgot the book of Mormon, which is chock full of divine principles. What happens over time now, just like the constitution, the document has not changed, but those who claim to base their systems on it have deviated very far from it. So in this case, we don't actually have to speculate 0:02:29 - 0:02:49 as much. It turns out that Joseph Smith had a dream, crediting the site I took this from, I did an image search to see if anyone had depicted this. And sure enough, and this article actually looks pretty good. I recommend you go read it. I'm not endorsing anything else on that site but that, that article 0:02:48 - 0:03:13 looked pretty good. Anyway, if you're not familiar with it, you should go read it. Joseph Smith had a dream. It's the last one we know of that was published and it doesn't depict good things about the L DS church, which is one of many that came out of what he did. Now, I don't wanna get into it. But 0:03:13 - 0:03:39 I, I've had my own experience that was kind of similar to this in some ways, but whatever, I don't expect anyone to care about that. The point is that if you have any idea whatsoever about church history, you're going to see example, after example, after example of changes that have occurred that people 0:03:38 - 0:00:00 from the past faithful L DS, people from the past, they would have seen them as red lines. What do I mean by red line? Going back to us history, the Boston Tea Party. That was a red line when that guy got shot at Lexington and Concord, that was a red line. So red lines are things that people say no, 0:00:00 - 0:04:21 I'm sorry. This definitively changes what we're talking about and it it's not the same anymore. It's different. Now, if you're not familiar with church history, you can check out this book, teaching for Doctrines and Commandments of Men. I wrote it, you can get it for free online, you can also buy it 0:04:21 - 0:04:49 for print costs on Amazon that just talks about a few of these. There are a lot of them and they keep happening. So this is a simplified depiction of time since the restoration. And what you see is red line after red line, after red line and this arc depicts loss of light, the light goes out, more darkness 0:04:49 - 0:05:11 comes in. This is not a new thing. Time after time. What happens is the contemporary group of L DS people, they look around and say, hey, I don't know about this most recent change. This rattles my cage a little bit. I don't know about a guy who claims to be a prophet telling us to get an experimental 0:05:09 - 0:05:30 medical treatment and that it's safe and effective and, and pushing everybody to get that and then all these terrible side effects come out and by the way, he was also a medical doctor. So on two counts, he really should have known. If anybody should have known, he should have known. And some people 0:05:29 - 0:05:49 say, well, you know, that's a problem but they treat it as if it's something new because their lens on history is limited to their lives, in fact, their adult lives. So as a baseline, they're using whenever they came of age instead of thinking about how their grandparents would see this or their great 0:05:49 - 0:06:11 grandparents or their great, great grandparents and so forth. The real question is, how would Joseph Smith see this? If he is the root of what the L DS church claims as their basis of authority? And he is, then people should probably care what he would think about these things. Of course, what you'll 0:06:11 - 0:00:00 learn if you read that book, that a reference is that modern church leaders claim their authority from Joseph Smith, but they don't feel like they have to root their decisions in what he would have thought about it. They believe that it's been an incremental process and it sure has been incremental, 0:00:00 - 0:06:52 but it has not been improvement. And you can see this very clearly from history. We, we aren't the, the L DS church. I don't need to say we, the L DS church is not moving closer to greater light and truth. They're losing fruits of the spirit. And how do you evidence this? Well, if you live in Utah, it's 0:06:52 - 0:07:14 probably kind of hard to see if you don't and you go back there from time to time. It's very easy to see. Even in the lifetime of one person recently, I had the unfortunate um, situation where I did have to go back and I couldn't believe how many drug addicts were wandering the streets and all these 0:07:13 - 0:07:36 other things that I saw, I, I couldn't believe the decay and just the, the, the piling on top of, of piling of houses everywhere, everywhere you look. Right. And uh there's a, there's a saturated feeling there, there's a very, very bad feeling there that if you're, if, if you have discernment, you can 0:07:36 - 0:07:54 , you can feel it. Now, if you live there, it's gonna be harder to notice these things, right? Just like if you don't read the Federalist papers, you probably think that I'm crazy to suggest that George Washington would, would uh fight once again if he were alive today. But it's very obvious when you 0:07:54 - 0:08:17 go back and read those documents and just like the Supreme Court shifted its mission from asking how the founders, what, imagining what they meant and that's how they interpret the constitution. They've gone to just doing whatever the heck they think is. Right. Well, jeez, that sounds familiar. So what 0:08:16 - 0:08:38 happens every time one of these red lines is crossed? What happens is the main body splits into three. It happens every single time. Even if you don't notice it, It's happening all the time. So what happens is some portion of that main body keeps going and they, they continue the downward trajectory 0:08:38 - 0:09:04 . They lose a bit of, of light because they're going with a change that takes it away. And then there's another part of this split that goes down here and these are the apostates. These are people who turn away because they feel like this red line wasn't enough or they feel like the red line wasn't the 0:09:04 - 0:09:20 right thing to do. But I'll speak about more about that in a second because this group is a composite of two groups. You see this group as two groups, but it's actually the same group. And I wanna make that point because it's important and it's gonna offend a lot of people. Now, let's talk about this 0:09:20 - 0:09:36 group. This group is different from the other two. This is the group that thinks they're staying the same, but actually, they're becoming darker. This is the group who thinks they're getting better. But actually they're getting worse. This is the group that's actually getting better and there's a break 0:09:36 - 0:10:03 in the arrow. Why? This group is not going back to the previous segment. They, it's not the case that they're the ones who are actually doing what these people think they're doing. These people are fundamentally changing. Why? Because they are grasping hold to the, the rod of iron. In many cases for 0:10:03 - 0:10:23 the first time in their lives, there are people who are going with the flow, but they don't know any better. And this red line shakes them enough that they wake up and they say, hey, wait a second. I thought, I thought I was following God, but clearly, I'm just following an organization and the change 0:10:23 - 0:10:47 the organization has made, makes that clear to me. And so what happens is they pick up in the account of the vision of the tree of life, they're coming out of the world and entering onto that path. So we read in first Nephi 824 it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward and they came forth 0:10:47 - 0:11:07 and caught hold of the end of the Rod of Iron. And they did press forward through the mist of darkness clinging to the Rod of iron. Even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree. They're not just going to a step before they're going to a totally different path. What is the Rod of 0:11:07 - 0:11:36 Iron? It means to actually live the commandments. So many L DS people, they think that this path and the rod, it's the same thing as trying to repent. Oh, I'm trying to repent and I'll try a little harder tomorrow and I'll be a little closer to repentance. The tree of life is not repentance. Repentance 0:11:36 - 0:12:03 is when you get on the path and you, you grab the iron rod. Jesus talked about it as the gate reconciling to how you think God is today. That's the very first step on the path. If you haven't done that, you are not on the path, your way out somewhere else walking, the path is not the process of getting 0:12:03 - 0:12:29 around to finally keeping the commandments for real walking. The path is a process of learning line upon line more about what Jesus is like. So that as you continue to live, fully aligned, fully reconciled with your sincere belief of how God is. You learn more about Him and you actually become more like 0:12:29 - 0:12:51 Him because what you think about Him right now, that's just the first step. It's just the beginning. It's incomplete and in many ways incorrect, but you can't learn more about Him without the power of the Holy Ghost. And that won't attend you until you're faithful to what you understand so far. If you're 0:12:51 - 0:13:15 L DS and you've been through the endowment, this should not be some crazy foreign idea. It's exactly what you're shown. You have to be true and faithful and then you'll be taught more, you don't get taught more as you're trying to maybe one day become true and faithful a little more than you are. So 0:13:15 - 0:13:35 , what's the difference between these two groups? It's not that these people are politically progressive and these people are politically conservative. It's not that these people are overtly criticizing the L DS church and these people are making some sort of fundamentalist claim. It's not that these 0:13:35 - 0:14:01 people want to change things and these people want things to stay the same. It's repentance and that's the divider. So in this group, I told you, it's a, you'll see it as two groups, but it's actually one, you've got the people who want to start ordaining women to the priesthood. And you've got the people 0:14:00 - 0:14:30 who claim that they really believe in the book of Mormon, but they won't believe anyone that God sends to teach it to them. You've got people who say that what thereafter is uh an authoritative baptism, quote unquote, but they completely ignore what baptism means as laid out in the book of Mormon. You've 0:14:29 - 0:14:56 got people who want to worship heavenly mother and won't stop talking about that. You got people who are crusading against polygamy. They're down here. Why? Here's the Hallmark. Here's the only thing that matters folks. Is there a message we have to repent and starting with me. Are they beating their 0:14:56 - 0:15:20 chests and saying God forgive me. I am a sinner or are they saying I'm so proud because I figured it out and you didn't, I'm better than you because the rest, the L DS church doesn't know what's up. But I figured it out and in reality what, what they have is exactly the same. It's no different. It's 0:15:20 - 0:15:52 just the L DS church minus the one or two things they had a problem with. There's no change in personal repentance. Are they actually coming closer to Christ in their individual lives or have they just traded their chains for some other pair of chains, DNC 5024 that which is of God is light and he that 0:15:51 - 0:16:14 receives light and continue in God receives more light and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. These people are receiving further light in truth. These people think they already have it all figured out and it doesn't matter if they're going around saying, you know, it's ok 0:16:13 - 0:16:38 to be gay or they're going around saying I know the gospel from front to back and anything that doesn't match what I already believe is obviously false. That's this part. These people say we are fools before God. We know nothing, we are nothing. We're going to lay aside all of our sins and receive what 0:16:38 - 0:17:06 God gives us. That's the difference and they are few. Their numbers are very few. Almost everyone that separates off from the L DS church goes this way. These are people who say I've repented of all my sins and I only ever do what I sincerely believe Jesus would do in my place. That's the key. So if 0:17:06 - 0:17:40 you're not here and you can't say that you are here. Now, let me ask you, let's talk about this group. Is this group more or less likely to receive truth than compared to the predecessors. Of course, they're less likely you can't turn away from light without becoming darkened. You lose at least some 0:17:39 - 0:17:58 of what you have. And we could make a longer case for this. But I'm trying to keep this short. So we'll just read Alma 12 verses 10 and 11. And therefore he, that will harden his heart. The same receives the lesser portion of the word and he, that will not harden his heart to him is given the greater 0:17:58 - 0:18:16 portion of the word until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until He know them in full. And they, that will harden their hearts to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries. And then they are taken captive by the devil and led by his 0:18:16 - 0:18:39 will down to destruction. Now, this is what is meant by the chains of hell. These people are less likely to recognize greater light and truth. They're less likely to receive it. They're less capable of reason that all comes from the Holy Ghost, which they are now less they have less access to because 0:18:39 - 0:19:16 they're less worthy of it. They lose light. So what is it that has the power to still help shake these people? Well, as they proceed down this path, let's go back to this one. It becomes less about reasoning and examples and more about sad experience, pain and suffering. Those are the tools that become 0:19:16 - 0:19:48 prominent in what is left. Are there still arguments that could bring them to the truth maybe. But as they go farther and farther down this path, that's less and less likely to work. Someone who has greater light who denies an invitation to improve. That same person is less likely to receive an invitation 0:19:48 - 0:20:09 to improve later. There's only so much you can do to reduce how big that invitation is and eventually you run out of things to chop down and that's what it means when people become reprobate or they become ripe in iniquity. Any of these script scriptural phrases we wanna use. What it means is God has 0:20:09 - 0:20:31 run out of tools to help them learn without just exposing them to the consequences of their choices. That's all that's left kicking against the pricks. And so you get these people suffering terrible things in their lives that if the L DS church were true, it would certainly have the tools to help them 0:20:30 - 0:20:56 with those things like, you know, plagues or a plague of addiction or a plague of suicide or a plague of gender dysphoria or a plague? And we could just keep going. So, let me ask you, have those things been better in Utah than other places in the country? Have they been the same or have they been worse 0:20:55 - 0:21:15 ? What's the poor news in Utah compared to the rest of the country? It's worse? What's the opioid addiction in Utah versus the rest of the country? It's worse. What's the suicide rate in Utah compared to the rest of the country? It's worse. Jesus said that his disciples are meant to be the salt of the 0:21:15 - 0:21:40 earth. And what happens when the salt loses its savor? Is it just treated like the rest? No, it's thrown into the street and trampled upon, you know, the street where the animal's waste goes and the human waste goes because there's no plumbing at that time. So if they're not willing to hear reason and 0:21:40 - 0:22:17 they won't even respond to pain, what tools does God have left? The only answer is destruction and that's what's coming. So if you're focusing your ministry efforts on L DS people, you're absolutely wasting your breath. Who should you be looking for instead? Well, I really like this verse in D and C 0:22:17 - 0:22:41 3512 and we'll read it as it is. And then I'm gonna invite you to think about it with some of the order swapped and there are none that doeth good except those who are ready to receive the fullness of my gospel, which I have sent forth unto this generation. No. Now as it stands, what it says is that 0:22:40 - 0:23:08 well, you could read it as I should say, you could read it as saying that the only people who are doing good are those who are ready to receive the fullness of the gospel. As in the people who are ready to receive the fullness of the gospel. That's the definition of good. But whether it was intended 0:23:08 - 0:23:33 this way or not, we could sidestep that argument. What would be different about this? If that order, if the meaning were the order were swapped in the actual meaning, what am, what am I trying to say in a very bad way? I'm trying to say this. I do a terrible job. What if those who are doing good are 0:23:32 - 0:23:55 the ones who are ready to receive the fullness of the gospel. Now, we could appeal to the scriptures to add credence to this take on that verse. I think most L Ds people would, would say that being ready to receive the fullness of the gospel is what it means to be good. I'd say read all the scriptures 0:23:55 - 0:24:17 you can on what it means to be good. Find those people, those are the ones who are ready to receive the gospel. Are you going to find these people? Well, before I get to that point, let's just read two verses. The one I already read. It's from DNC 5024 that which is of God is light and he that receives 0:24:16 - 0:24:41 light and continue in God receives more light and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. Does that mean religion and church and explicit belief in God? It includes that, but it can also be apparent without that light is light, good is good and God is so good that AAA huge chunk 0:24:40 - 0:25:03 of His goodness, he freely gives to people who don't believe in Him at all. That's how good He is. The question isn't, what's the absolute quantity of light that someone has? The question is their rate of change their delta. What are they doing with the resources they have? That's the question. That's 0:25:03 - 0:25:24 what will highlight these people to you. If someone has never been given a sufficient reason to believe in God, they aren't going to believe in God if they're good people because to do so would be a lie that probably twist your head into a knot. But think about it, think about it. If you're at church 0:25:24 - 0:25:46 and you don't actually believe anything is being said. Are you a good person? No, you're not. You're a liar. Liars aren't good people. You talk to an agnostic and you say, hey man, why don't you go to church? And he says, honestly, I've never heard a good reason to cool. He might be lying, but he also 0:25:45 - 0:26:06 might be telling the truth. So it's not about church. What are they doing to improve their lives? The voice of God is not the voice of church. It's the voice of improvement. Improvement applies to everything. Not just what you do on Sundays ether 412. Whatsoever thing persuade men to do good is of me 0:26:06 - 0:26:26 for good, cometh of none. Save it, be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to good to all good. He that will not believe my words will not believe me, that I am and he that will not believe me, will not believe the father who sent me for behold, I am the father. I am the light and the life and the truth 0:26:25 - 0:26:52 of the world. Jesus claims all truth for himself. If someone's following anything good in their lives, they are grow growing closer to God. And it doesn't matter how much someone says, Lord Lord Lord and claims to be religious or a believer. The question is, what do they do? Are they actually doing good 0:26:52 - 0:27:20 ? Are they actually growing? Are they actually getting better? Because if they're not, then they're not drawing nearer to God and they're not obeying him either because light will cleave to light the delta, the rate of change. That's what shows you who these people are. If you want to find people who 0:27:20 - 0:27:48 will benefit from the things that God has given you and taught you, find those who are already doing what they understand to be the best. No, while you're doing this by all means, continue to offer the minimal increment of truth, the minimal improvement to everyone, you know, no matter how religious 0:27:47 - 0:28:09 they might be, you never know, you might find a diamond in the rough and you might be just the right person to reach them. That's why the title of this presentation is a slight exaggeration. I'm not saying the number is zero. I'm just saying it's pretty damn close. It's so close that anyone you pick 0:28:09 - 0:28:35 up from the L DS church ought to just be a footnote to your main activities. Because if that's what you're focusing on, you're absolutely wasting your time. Find these people, those who are already doing what they understand to be the best and then show them something better than what they already have 0:28:35 - 0:28:55 what this means in practical terms. If you live in the Mormon Corridor, you're going to have to go online to find these people because they do not live around you. Geographically, they're not gonna be at your school, at your place of work. They're not because they're not gonna live there. They're not 0:28:55 - 0:29:16 going to live there. Now, there are exceptions to this, you know, I know that there's been a tech explosion in Lehigh. There are always people moving in. But if they've been L DS their whole lives or even if they're converts and they've been around for a while with every passing moment. It's less likely 0:29:16 - 0:29:37 that they're going to listen to any further light and truth because if they would have, they would have done it already because they've been inundated with red lines. And if they can't see that they're not your target market. So, online is a really big place. How do you filter down the kind of people 0:29:37 - 0:29:59 we're talking about? Well, they're actively, they're using the internet actively to find ways that they can be better. They're searching for certain phrases, they're reading certain books, they're going to certain websites and this is where your individuality can pay dividends. So people claim, oh, I 0:29:59 - 0:30:22 gotta stay in the LDL DS church to help people, man. Anybody who would have been helped is already gone and everything you're thinking about as help, it's actually just moving people here because they're not going to repent. Ok. Now, you still have to keep working and maybe you want to keep living in 0:30:22 - 0:30:42 Utah or wherever you are in the Mormon Corridor. Ok. Fine. Whatever, that's a separate issue, we could talk about that separately by all means, keep trying to help the people around you. And frankly, you don't have to make it this huge religious pill for them to swallow. Just talk about little things 0:30:41 - 0:30:59 . The smallest increment of improvement because what, what you need to help them do is get more light into their lives. They're probably completely shut off on all religious topics. So don't worry about that. Worry about, you know, if their house is a mess, talk to them about the value of cleaning up 0:30:59 - 0:31:18 their house. If their kids are a disaster, talk to them about helping their kids be better people. And so you can gain, help them gain traction with greater light in the ways they're not closed off to, in the ways they feel the need because they don't think that the fact that their kids hooked on opioids 0:31:17 - 0:31:39 is a sign that the L DS church might not be what it says. So that means it's a safe space. Go help them have more light on that problem that they know is a problem and they're looking for an answer to and go from there even if you're using religious tools there. Does that make sense? So going on an all 0:31:39 - 0:32:01 out assault against the L DS church, you're not gonna get any traction. Ask me how I know. Just kidding. This book is not an assault on the L DS church. Uh It's not an anti Mormon book. It's very much a pro Mormon book. Of course, Mormon does not equal L DS, but that's I digress. All right. So how are 0:32:01 - 0:32:21 you gonna find these people online? I, I mentioned they're looking for ways to improve themselves and this is, this is, that's how it got off on that tangent. You say that your uniqueness will be the answer to why L DS people are gonna listen to you when they haven't listened to anything else, any of 0:32:21 - 0:32:38 the many, many, many, many, many, many, many signs that God has given them. Well, you're wrong because the reason they've shut all that down is because they don't have light. It's not because they needed, you know, some person who was from a certain walk of life and happened to have a certain set of 0:32:38 - 0:33:01 experience that they already trusted. That's not the reason. But these people, these people do need folks from all walks of life. They do need people who they've become friends with, who they trust and on and on and on. This is where your individuality is going to pay dividends because it's not gonna 0:33:01 - 0:33:23 be enough for some random person with very limited connections to give the message and then they receive it and they've got everything they need and then they go off on their merry way to their own path. You will have unique connections with people that no one else has access to. And those are the people 0:33:23 - 0:33:46 that you need to reach. So find the things that they're looking into. And then like I've said in other videos, make comments, make your own videos if that's what you feel would be the best thing to do. And it doesn't take a lot of time because one of the beauties of the online world is if you're going 0:33:46 - 0:34:04 and you're searching for a specific question that some people have, you can write up your answer and then you can keep posting that same answer and maybe you tweak it each time just a little. But the point is you could have a whole file of these things that you have questions and answers, for example 0:34:03 - 0:34:24 . And you just go out and post your answer every time you see the question or every time you see a certain comment, like, you know, why would, how could God exist if bad things happen to good people? You can have an answer to that and maybe it's just the thing to help people. And every time you provide 0:34:24 - 0:34:43 information, always remember the example of um I'm trying to remember now, I think it was Ammon but it was one of the sons of Mosiah when he's preaching and he's getting peppered with these questions. Do you believe in the great spirit? Do you this, do you that look at the answers he gives because he 0:34:43 - 0:35:03 gives them, he gives the guy some of the information he's looking for. But the whole time he has an agenda and it's, it's not a malicious agenda. He's trying to point him towards the things that he would be asking if he knew better. And so always point them up is my point. Always point them up. Always 0:35:03 - 0:35:30 give them something else. They can do some other place they can go to learn more. Don't just answer questions. Always use questions to point up and remember, you know, in the, in the, in the fullest sense of the word, what I'm trying to say with up is towards God and to God himself. But remember if these 0:35:29 - 0:35:50 people don't already have faith in God and your answer is, oh, you should just go to God and ask him, that's not gonna cut the mustard, that's not gonna help them very much because they don't believe enough for that yet. Incremental. Steps up. OK? So look for the questions they're asking. Look for the 0:35:50 - 0:36:08 places they go to look for the material that they're consuming and, and point up, I hope you find these things useful. This is a really big deal. I think so many people are spinning their tires in ways that, that they're never gonna get any traction.