A viewer from YouTube wrote this comment:
"I started listening to Rob about a year ago and I love that regardless of the time period of the recording, his message is always the same: fully reconcile yourself to God and increase our trust in Him, so that we have the confidence that whatever happens afterwards will ultimately be for our good."
As I read this, I realized that with Halloween recently passing by, I missed an opportunity to dress up as the candle guy from Beauty and the Beast. Instead of "be our guest," I could have sung:
"Do your best,
Do your best,
Put repentance to the test!"
Maybe it's better that I didn't think of that in time...but it's still good advice.
"But what if what I consider my best is different than what you are teaching?" Then do your best. I will do my best to teach you what I think is best, and I hope you do the same for me, but at the end of the day, God will hold each of us accountable for our own understanding and opportunities, not those of another.
This approach unifies and splits differently than how most see things. I'm subject to constant persecution from people who don't like something I've said or how I've said it, because they view the split as those who agree with them in all things versus those who do not. They don't seem to realize that any unity they perceive with another person is actually just an illusion caused by the limits in how well they know them. Were they to know them better, they would find something significant to disagree with. Clearly, a better way is needed.
I see the split as God does: those who repent and submit to him and those who do not. I fully expect many people to disagree with at least something I have said, just as I can find something I disagree with in just about anyone else.
Some question why I speak on taboo topics and in ways that some find offensive. They say if I would just focus on the parts people want to hear, saying it how they want to hear it, I wouldn't push people away. My answer: I speak on taboo topics and in ways that some find offensive for the same reasons Jesus did. Have you not read the scriptures?
Read the New Testament, and notice how frequently Jesus shocked his audiences in the things he said and did. They thought he was surprisingly extreme about random things. Why didn't he just stick with what drew enormous crowds? Why say and do things that made them go away (see John 6:67)? Why call out the Pharisees? Why call Peter "Satan"? Why declare his similitude to the Father? Why tell people they needed to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life? Why prophesy that the temple would be torn down? Why call people names? Why challenge the traditions they held sacred? Because he saw what the people did more clearly than they did, and he knew the consequences of what they were doing would be much worse than they expected.
Consider what Jesus said and how he said it to a person who invited him over to dinner:
37 And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also?
41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.
42 But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
43 Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
44 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. (Luke 11)
Consider the next passage, when one of the lawyers foolishly asks Jesus to clarify that he didn't include the lawyers in his upbraiding:
45 Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also.
46 And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
48 Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres.
49 Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
50 That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
53 And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:
54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him. (Luke 11)
Do you think they ever invited him over to dinner again? Do you think he cared? Was Jesus operating based on maximizing the number of friends he made and kept, or did he understand that being faithful to the Father would require him to say and do things that others would find offensive? He realized that loving others by saying and doing what the Father would in his place required him to say and do what many would find offensive.
Jesus didn't act according to the public's view of things, but according to what his Father showed him:
19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. (John 5)
This is something every servant of Christ ought to be able to say: I can do nothing of myself, but what the Son shows me. And what he has taught me he would say and do in his place is what I say and do. And he has many greater works than those I have already done in store, that you may marvel at the glory of God that it demonstrates to you.
Read and understand:
Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? (Isaiah 42:19)
How is this servant blind? Only according to the sight of the world. He sees what God shows him, and God sees very differently than the world. How is this servant deaf? Only according to the hearing of the world. He hears what God says, and God speaks very different things than the world.
It's not God's servants who are blind and deaf, but those who do not serve God. The world's vision is blindness, and the world's hearing is deafness. But God is healing all those who come to him:
And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. (Isaiah 29:18)
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. (Isaiah 35:5)
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. (Isaiah 42:18)
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears. (Isaiah 43:8)
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matthew 11:5)
Some of the Lord's servants have been blessed to minister in successive layers: first, by publicly-shared wisdom. Second, by publicly-performed miracles. This was the pattern that Jesus followed, and thus it is in our time. And, in real time, it's happening all around you, whether you recognize and acknowledge it or not. The spiritually blind are receiving sight, the spiritually lame are walking, the spiritual lepers are cleansed, the spiritual deaf do hear, the spiritually dead are raised up, and the spiritually poor have the gospel preached to them. The physical form of all of these same events will happen at a future date, bearing witness to the much more important and much greater acts that have already been performed.
Returning to the comment at the beginning of this essay, some of you would read this and agree, and others would disagree so vehemently that you refuse to believe anyone exists who would actually say that. But this person is not alone.
What one perceives as stammering lips (Isaiah 28:11) is precious wisdom to another. What is hard to hear (1 Nephi 16:2) to one is openly welcomed by another. What is bitter to one is sweet to another (Isaiah 5:20). What is a taboo topic to one receives a "standing ovation" from another. What is a word salad to one is "blunt, clear and detailed" to another. What is endless droning to one is a "fountain of knowledge" to another. What is unnecessary to one is a "much needed" "important topic" to another. (The preceding quotes are from YouTube comments, and I could have pulled more, but you get the point).
The word of God is a two-edged sword that makes a distinction (Hebrews 4:12) between the sheep who hear and welcome it (John 10), and the wicked who ignore their willful sin and consider themselves righteous.
We can disagree at length on the tenets of the gospel and still be brothers and sisters and fellow children of God (Luke 9:49-50), but not the doctrine of Christ, which is that all of us must do what we sincerely believe he would in our place at all times until we die, or we remain damned.
And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that the Father commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me. (3 Nephi 11:32)
You can believe different things about Jesus than I do, and if we are both sincere and honest, following our conscience at all times and in all places, we are both living the doctrine of Christ.
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. (Matthew 12:50)
However, if you are not sincere nor honest, or not following your conscience at all times and in all things, you are living in blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and not living in the doctrine of Christ:
30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. (Matthew 12)
Make no mistake: those who teach that you do not have to stop sinning are the enemies of God. They are anti-Christ, no matter how Christian they claim to be. Because I am a servant of Jesus Christ, this makes them my enemies, too. The good news is that we disciples of Christ love our enemies. But we love them as our Master loves--by chastising them: By pointing out their hypocrisy, lies, and sin that they do not see or acknowledge and giving them sufficient reasons to repent. This is exactly what Jesus did, and what he would do if he were here now.