Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast - Articles of Faith : Brother Ahmad S. Corbitt

Episode Date: December 4, 2021

Could you list some fundamental truths of what you believe in 13 short statements? Join Brother Ahmad Corbitt as he discusses the Articles of Faith, their clarifying statements of what Latter-day Saints believe, and their relevance to us today.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/episodesFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive ProducersDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: MarketingLisa Spice: Client Relations, Show Notes/TranscriptsJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Rough Video EditorAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsKrystal Roberts: French TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-pianoPlease rate and review the podcast.

Hello everyone, this is Hank Smith, co-host with John by the way of the Follow Him podcast. We have loved learning the history and content of the doctrine covenants with you this year, and we are excited to announce that we will be back next year for the Old Testament. We want to build faith in the Lord and the words of His prophets and as many people as possible. Bring on Come Follow Me 2022. Welcome to Follow Him, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping individuals and families with their Come Follow Me study.

I'm Hank Smith, and I'm John by the way. We love to learn, we love to laugh. We want to learn and laugh with you. As together, we follow Him. Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name is Hank Smith. I'm your host. I am here with my honest, true, chased, benevolent and virtuous co-host, John, by the way. I've been excited for that one for a couple of weeks. Wow. Just just pronouncing benevolent as an effort. Thank you. couple of weeks. Wow. Just just pronouncing benevolent as an effort. Thank you. Right. I think it was you a long time ago who's who taught me that that sounded a little bit like

chased by an elephant. And I always I've always wanted to thank you for that. What my dad used to say. Honest true and chased by an elephant. Yeah. All right. John, what a week. What a week we have. Tell us who's joining us. Yeah. We're very honored today to have a face that's familiar to you if you watch general conference. So this is brother, Hawkman Corbett of the first counselor in the Youngman's General Presidency. And we're so happy to have him here today. I have a little bio.

He was born in Philadelphia. And he and his wife, Jane, have six children. He has an undergraduate degree in sociology from Richard Stockton College in New Jersey and a law degree from Rutgers University School of Law. He served as a full-time missionary in Puerto Rico and was a state president and mission president in the Dominican Republic. He served as a trial lawyer, executive director of corporate communications. He's got a long list of professional accomplishments. Was the director of the Church's New York Public Affairs Office on time and is currently works for the Church's missionary department. And also, like I said, serves as first counselor in the Young Men's General Presidency. So we're really thrilled to have you here today with us, brother Corbett. Thank you. Thank you. It's great

to be here with you both. I'm so honored to be here and and thrilled and privileged to be able to speak to your audience. I thought Hank was going to say that John that you had endured all things as well. He didn't say you were lovely, but I was waiting for him to say you endured all things. Yeah, when you look at me, you think that dude's been through a lot. That's what people do. That is a lot of mileage. That is funny. With me as his co-host. He has endured a lot.

That is true. I should have mentioned that. Well, welcome, brother Corbett. I think everybody is so excited to hear from you. The lesson this week from the Come Follow Me is the articles of faith and official declarations one and two. So it's really kind of a fun, interesting stuff we have to talk about today. And I think some very faith building thinks as well. So.

Right. And I think Brother Corva, or John and I just kind of want to listen and learn. John mentioned my background in public affairs and public relations. You know, the Wentworth letter, as I see it, from that standpoint, was kind of a public relations attempt to help people outside of the church mainly understand that some of the falsehoods and things that were being said by the church, and that was important to do. The church, by the way, had just established the millennial star, just a short time before.

In the history of the church, I love this article that's from the millennial star. It's February 1st of 1842. It's a little long, but I'll try to read it fast. It says, in the midst of general distress, which prevails in this country on account of what of the want of employment, the high price of provisions, the oppression, pre-scrapped, and iniquity of the land, it is pleasing to the household of faith to contemplate a country reserved by the Almighty as a sure asylum for the poor and oppressed. A country every way adapted to their once in conditions and still more pleasing to think that thousands

of saints have already made their escape from this country and all its abuses and distress and that they have found a home where by preserving industry they may all enjoy the blessings of liberty, peace, and plenty. So it goes on, and this is talking about saints who have come from England as well. It is not yet two years since the saints in England, in obedience to the command of their Heavenly Father, commenced a general plan of immigration to the land of Zion. They were few in number generally poor and had every opposition to encounter, both from one of means and from the enemies of the truth. And here's the point, who circulated every falsehood, calculated to hinder or discourage

them. Newspapers and tracks were put in circulation, sermons and public speeches were delivered in abundance to warn the people that Navu was a barren waste on the seashore, that it was a wild and uninhabited swamp, that it was full of savages, wild beasts, serpents, that all the English Saints who should go there would be immediately sold for slaves by the leaders of the church and that there was nothing to eat, no water, and no way possible to obtain a living. And it goes on and on. When in fact, much of the opposite of that was true. They had a great economy and all kinds of good things were happening in Naboo. The church leaders were wise enough at that time and they still are to publish the truth

and help people to see what the kingdom of God is. That sounded like our day. Listen, who circulated every falsehood and calculated, every falsehood calculated to hinder or discourage. That is, that happens to the church. That's our day. Yeah, absolutely. Every falsehood. You know, when my students sometimes hear things about the church, I'm sometimes amazed that of the things that some people come up with to hinder or discourage people from the church. The Wentworth letter is, let's set the record straight.

Let's set the record straight. Yes. PR has a bad, can have a bad name. And of course, if it's manipulative, if it's false, if it's spinning things, then it ought to have a bad name. But it was clear to leaders of the church, and it's clear to leaders of the church today. The church has a church communications department and great leaders who who lead that.

And they're not outspinning things or manipulating. They are setting the record straight, just like Joseph Smith did with the Wentworth letter, when asked by the Chicago Democrat, name of the newspaper at that time in Illinois, what his church believed in and what they were all about you can read an entire The entire copy of the Wentworth letter if you want if you have the your gospel library app and you go to the And you go to the this week's lesson if you scroll down just a little bit. There's a paragraph Where it says see also guide to the scriptures, the articles of faith, and Al-Tamperi message, you can just tap on chapter 38, the Wentworth Letter and teachings of the Presidents of the Church shows a Smith, and you can read the entire letter right there.

So the articles of faith were really just a part of this. The articles of faith were part of the Wentworth Letter. Yep, they sure were. And I think it's called the Wentworth letter. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think it's called the wentworth letter because it was written to a man with the last name of Wentworth. Yes. It was a newspaper editor and was writing a history, I think. Yeah, it's John Wentworth job that Chicago Democrat. And it was like, it kind of surprised me. They were writing the history of New Hampshire or something, New

Hampshire. And I thought, now, what does New Hampshire? I know that Joseph Smith was born in Sharon Vermont, but those states, kind of small, maybe that there was some interaction. I don't know why New Hampshire exactly, but of course Joseph Smith was born in Vermont You're thinking his parents were from New Hampshire Lucy Mac was born in Gilson, New Hampshire Joseph Smith goes on to say as Mr. Basto and this is the man who's writing the New Hampshire History as Mr. Basto has taken the proper steps to obtain correct information.

All that I shall ask at his hands is that he published the account entire, unguarnished and without misrepresentation. Can we send this? Let's say this to some of the church's critics today. Just we ask that you try to not do anything with this, but just just tell the truth. How about that? Yeah. Correct information. That's all we're after. Just give correct information. You know, and we hear about that, Hank, somebody, like somebody on the news, they interview for two hours and then show, you know, 30 seconds of clips. They find something they can use.

And so I can see why Joseph Smith would say, we published the whole thing. I totally, totally understand that. Yeah. And in fact, as BYU employees, we are not supposed to give interviews, because for that very reason that something can be twisted and taken and Manipulated and that was happening to Joseph Smith. I think all the time is this I Faultshood causing so many problems And and how do you fix that right how do you fix a loud voice that is lying about you? That's got to be So frustrating no social media you can't have your own Twitter account. So you were lying on a fix of a loud voice that is lying about you. That's got to be so frustrating. No social media, you can't have your own Twitter account, so you're relying on publishers to put out

correct information. And when they don't, it's got to be, I can't imagine the frustration. It turned out that this request, I mean, blesses the entire world. Had John Wentworth or Mr. Besto not made this request, we may not have this rich set of articles of faith and the standard of truth as well. Yeah, that's part of the last part that's so compelling and motivating that in fact I believe it's just before the statements of belief of the articles of faith is that the standard of truth has been erected. Why don't we read that John? Do you have that in front of you? I do actually. We can all recite it from memory. No, we can. Do you want, do you have it brother Corbett? Would you like to read it? I don't have it, but how about if if I recite it and you guys check me Okay, because you you memorized it. I think so

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 column knee may defame armies may assemble, column ne'e made to fame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent. Till has penetrated every continent, visited every climb, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done. That's a statement makes you want to stand up and cheer. It's prophetic. I mean, I was, I think I shared on another one

the Cincinnati Gazette in an article about July 3rd, I think of 1844, reporting the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and the last three words of the excerpt where thus ends Mormonism. They thought, that's over, but they're not very good at prophesying the Cincinnati Gazette, because 11 years later there was no Cincinnati Gazette. But this idea that nothing can stop this in this part of

the Wentworth letters, very compelling. In many missions, missionaries are baptizing more converts during the pandemic than they did previous to the pandemic. The Lord has made means and provided means that a lot of it is through technology. A lot of it is people feeling isolated and humbled and needing the Lord. And some missions are truly baptizing

more during a pandemic, which is amazing. It's astonishing to think that. The nothing can stop the work from progressing. Is the prophecy. Not the standard of truth has been erected. Nothing can stop this work. I love it. And then he moves, yeah, he does.

He moves right into the articles of faith. You wanna know what we believe? It always is funny to me when critics of the church will try to tell us what we believe. I'm like, wait, I'm pretty sure I get to state what I believe, right? I heard Stephen Robinson once, you know, the author of believing Christ

and he talked to me, somebody was telling me, you guys believe this for that, and he said, you know what, I am the world's expert on what I believe. And we can all say that. I know what I believe. I'm the world's foremost expert on what I personally believe. Yeah, so here comes Joseph Smith saying,

you want to know, here's what we believe. Here's our basis. They're so powerful, and many primary children have them memorized. Once Elder Perry was in his 90s, and he said, he still had the articles of faith memorized and he would advocate and teach that children still continue to memorize them and learn them and he could recite them from when he was a child.

You know, decades, many decades earlier. Some of those songs stay, you can still sing them from my primary. From primary. I won't make you suffer through it. That would be enduring all things, but I can still, yeah. That wouldn't be lovely. And a good report. He's lovely.

I mean, he starts out, and this is the bedrock of who we are. We believe in God, the eternal Father, in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. When I talk to a student or a friend who's going through what they call faith crisis, I usually come back to here. Let's do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? And do you believe in the Holy Ghost? Let's have us. This is the foundation. Let's see how deep you are, this fissure in your faith, how deep it goes. Does it go this deep?

Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the Holy Ghost? If we can start from there, it feels like we can build something strong. Great way to start. And funny, you talk about faith crisis because Joseph Smith said in the lectures on faith that knowing that there is a God and his character are two of the three main things that you need to know in order to even have faith in God. Right? How can we can't worship a being we don't know? And I think about the first

vision he called me by name and said pointing to the other. I mean, what did he learn in that instant? He looked like me. He had hands. He had a voice. He called me by my name. Amazing what he learned in that instant. And what was that thing that the Prophet Joseph Smith said once, learned in that instant. And what was that thing that the prophet Joseph Smith said once, should you gaze into heaven for five minutes, you would know more than by reading everything that was ever written on the subject? And that's exactly what he got to do. As a father, he rescued him from that thick darkness when he was just about ready to surrender, to despair and destruction as he thought and sensed in his own mind, Joseph, his father rescued him and chased darkness away from him. What a fatherly thing to do.

Yeah, that's beautiful. I've always told my students that when you believe in Jesus Christ, when you believe in the resurrected Jesus Christ, every other miracle becomes very plausible. If you believe in a resurrected Jesus Christ who still lives today, every other miracle becomes really kind of small potatoes. It opens up to a world of possibilities, right, the resurrection of Jesus. Oh, this is good. People will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression. Isn't that so liberating? Unless you do something wrong. I mean, there've been times in my life where I thought, oh no, I'm going to be punished for my own sins. I would rather be punished for

John sins, because there are many.. So that's what I was thinking. I catalog mine in a journal, but let me get volume four out for you. No, I think the idea of agency is affirmed there. I think a lot of the articles of faith who are responding to probably questions they got at the time and maybe even to say where we're distinct. So the idea of original sin is kind of refuted there in that article of faith. The depravity of man, kind of one of the tenets of Protestantism, is that we'll be punished for our own sins, not for Adams transgress. That's a nice thing to know. I remember Robert Millett

saying to our class, one, raise your hand if you're responsible for Adams transgression. And nobody raised their hand. And he said, raise your hand if you've been affected by it. We all raised our hand, but that's very important distinction. And of course, that leads us to the Savior's Atonement. That through it, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. And I, President Nelson has taught us all the whole church to refer to the Atonement as the Savior's Atonement or the Atonement of Jesus Christ as opposed to just the Atonement,

as you know, like this sort of amorphous act or event that saves us rather than Christ saving us through that act. You cannot separate the atonement of Jesus Christ from the character of Jesus Christ, who he is. The only reason we have an atonement of Jesus Christ is because of his choices, his character. Interesting, John and brother Corbett here that we've got creation, fall, atonement. If you believe in God, you've got a creator. You have the fall in verse two and the atonement.

The three pillars really of the plan of salvation are articles of faith one, two, and three. Mm-hmm. Wow. Well said, great observation. That's great. I like that. I mean, something that we need to state that may have feel like a contrast by obedience to laws and ordinances. And as the debate that goes on, or we say by our faith, or we say by the grace of Christ alone, or we save by our our faith are we saved by the grace of Christ alone Are we saved by our works and there's this balance that comes into here with this Biobedians to laws and ordinances of the gospel were saved by the Savior I mean we're saved by the Savior. We can't earn our salvation. We know that but the Savior asked us to do certain things

and so that's kind of there and I love what can't earn our salvation, we know that, but the Savior asked us to do certain things. And so that's kind of there. And I love what CS Lewis said that he had been asked about whether we're saved by, I think he used faith or good works. And he said, I really have, this CS Lewis, I really have no right to speak on such an important topic, but it does seem a little like asking which blade and a pair of scissors is most necessary. Which is what a brilliant way to put it, you know, there's, we're trying to become like the Savior, but our striving to become isn't what saves us, but he asked us to become like him. So we, I mean, there's been a lot of talk about that. I just think that it's interesting that Article of Faye three

has that idea, all mankind may be saved by obedience to laws and ordinances of the gospel. And then Ford kind of tells us what they are. That's exactly right, John. I love it. We believe that through the Atomah of Christ, all mankind may be saved. You could put a period right there. We do believe that through the Atomah of Christ, all mankind may be saved. You could put a period right there.

We do believe that through the Atomah of Christ, all mankind may be saved. And what has he asked us to do? To be obedient to the laws and the order of the gospel, which are, right? And then we... And it comes into it. Yeah. A man must be born of water and of the Spirit. So yeah.

But you're right. That we don't, obedience doesn't save us. It is through the, all mankind may be saved through the atonement of Christ, period. We don't believe our works save us, but our works do take us closer to him. Do you remember Brad's analogy, our friend Brad Wilcox said,

the Savior has paid the entire price for your piano lessons. He doesn't want to be paid back. He wants you to practice. Yeah. Oh, that's great. Yeah, it's just like any church is going to practice. It's a great analogy to practice.

And that's what obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel are. Us saying, yes, thank you for paying this price. I will practice. Young King Benjamin says, you know, he wants us to be steadfast, always abounding in good works. Why? That Christ, the Lord omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven through the wisdom and power and justice and mercy of him who created all things. So it's he who will do the saving and the bringing to heaven. we are role in responsibility and duty and opportunity and privilege are to embrace him. He lifts us, but we have to embrace him and we embrace him by

the laws and biobedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. That's beautiful. The Savior brings me to heaven. Faith, repentance, my baptismal covenants, my baptism, and the Holy Ghost make it so I want to be there. Right? They can make me the person that I need to be in order to want to be in heaven. Does that make sense? John, the idea of, it's open to me because of the atonement, but do I want it? Well, that's where these come in. They'll change what

I want. President Dallin H. Oaks, I just love that. Yeah, I think it was October of 2000, the talk he gave called the challenge to become. I'll try to paraphrase. It's not just what we know, and it's not even what we do. But when we know what to do, we do what we know, we begin to become something different. And when the Savior works in our lives, we become different. And like you said, Hank, we begin to lose desire to sin. And so clean hands pure heart. We can be cleansed from our sins, but pure heart.

We were trying to lose our desire to sin. Like King Benjamin's people did. And I've always wondered, is that permanent? I mean, is there an order form in the book of Mormon I can pull out and sign up for that where I get that permanently? But then King Benjamin says, I'm going to give you a name and I don't think it was permanent. I think all of us have felt that. We've listened to an inspiring talk or something. It just been so fired up. Then we got to go back to work, back to school, back to the world. We need to keep coming back where the spirit is to get that same feeling again, to lose

our desire to sin. These people made a covenant. As John said, he gave them a name and said that the covenant you've made is a righteous covenant. But obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel and of course ordinances accompany covenants and covenants accompany ordinances. Just as Beth is how old in 18 I mean he is laying out the gospel in such a simple way. Yeah, he's 30 six.

I don't know if I could have done this. Yeah, at 36 I don't know if I could have done this. Yeah, at 36, I don't know if I could have said, what do you believe? Well, let me start at the beginning. Let me lay the foundation and make it simple and beautiful and powerful. All at the same time. Why don't I just go ahead and write this up for you?

These four principles and ordinances, faith repentance, baptism and the Holy Ghost. How many times in the Book of Mormon do we come back to these four principles and ordinances? I mean, you've got Second Nephi 31, Savior does it in Second, in Third Nephi 11, He does it again in Third Nephi 27, right? Come back to these over and over. This is the basis of everything we do. I had a friend that in my ward that stopped me once, oh wait, you've been, you've taught Book Mormon and yeah, I haven't.

He said, well, what's the one thing you've learned over all these years? And thought about it. And I said, you know, the prevalence of first principles in the Book Mormon, faith in Christ and repentance over and over again. And sometimes the ordinances too, but faith repent, faith repent. And I want to emphasize it's faith could be just what we want to happen, but it's not faith in what we want. It's not just hope. The Son will come out tomorrow. It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in what He wants.

And I remember you know my story Hank, I've donating a kidney to my brother and I thought we were so blessed. David was doing a project for the church and they needed this thing urgently. It was to help with the translation of General Conference and sending it out to the world. And he had invented this thing that separated volume levels It's a long story just thought it up and Elder Rex Pinnigar gave him a blessing and I thought he's gonna heal him You know and we all had faith right? He's gonna heal him and he didn't and What he said was your body will not reject the new element

And that new element was in me body will not reject the new element. That new element was in me. So I got to donate that kidney, but we learned such a wonderful lesson. Faith isn't faith in what you want. It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had a better plan. And sometimes that implies a real reliance on him. That he knows better than maybe faith in what we want to happen. No, it's the first principle is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's awesome, John. I think Elder Maxwell added, right? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ includes faith in the Lord's timing. In his timing. I think faith in the Lord Jesus Christ includes faith in the Savior's ability to use us as well. So there's some self-confidence in there as we walk with Him that we can do all things through

Christ which strengthen it thus, as Paul said. Well, that's a good way to think of it. I mean, you get a calling that you don't think you can do, but if you have faith in Christ, then you have faith that he called you. Wow, that's a good way to, I love that. preach my gospel says defines faith includes in faith in Christ, trusting Christ, and also trusting that he will keep his promises. And so part of the promise of being called and ordained and set apart or whatever happens with us in our calling is that the Lord by calling us, at first Nephi 3.7, he has essentially

declared that you can do this. And in fact, that goes right into number five. I don't mean to get ahead of us, but we believe that a man must be called of God by prophecy and by the laying on of hands of those who are in authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. What is called by prophecy mean? It suggests to me a foreknowledge of the person who's called that she or he can do this calling. Very similar to what Alma teaches in Alma 13 about the four knowledge of God. It's important because I think this article of faith may have been a response to the idea

of the priesthood of all believers, that if you believe and love the Bible, then you have priesthood. And I think we may be a little closer to our theology then to our Catholic friends who believe, no, there really is priesthood, there really is keys. And we believe a man must be called by prophecy, by those in authority. There's an idea of some that have authority and have keys to do that. I think it's kind of huge, really. Man, this idea that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

includes faith in what He sees in me. Right, that I believe in me because He does, and that's part of believing in Him. I've never thought of it that way, but I really like me because he does, and that's part of believing in him. I've never thought of it that way, but I really like that because we so often, you know, especially in the world today, our teenagers don't think they have any value, right? I'm a worthless person. I'm a waste of space. And faith in the Lord Jesus Christ includes now faith that you are important because he

has declared you to be. So if you really believe in him, you believe in you. I love the beginning of the new, Aaronic priesthood theme, relatively new, that I'm beloved son of God and he has a work for me to do and faith in that, right? And I'm brother Corbett. Yeah, I liked what you did with verse five that you said And brother Corbett, I liked what you did with verse five that you said, she or he. So when Jill Smith writes, we believe that a man must be called of God. We could easily just add right there, we believe that a man or woman, called of God, right?

That men and women are both used by the Lord in this work. Yes. And do you think of his think of sister missionaries? Think of a counselor in a Relief Society presidency or the primary president or whomever? They, the brethren are very clear that these sisters lead, teach, administer the gospel by the power of the priesthood. President Oaks gave that talk and said, when a woman is set apart to serve in her calling, she's serving with priesthood authority. And then he said, what other

authority could it be? We're doing the work of God on earth. What other authority would that be? Or what other power could that possibly be? When John and I train, John being a member of the Young Men General Presidency Council. When we train others on the Children of Youth program, we use a statement from President Nelson who implores the adult leaders to let the youth lead. He says priesthood authority will have been delegated them. That's the quote and I'm paraphrasing the rest, but to lead in their quorum and class presidencies. He definitely includes the young women in that and saying that priesthood authority will have been delegated to them. And so we need to let them lead and exercise that authority. That by prophecy takes me back to the 138th section,

Joseph Epipsmith says, I observed that they were and they will become apparent in a minute, that they were among the also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God. And he's talking about particular people. But then he goes on and says, even before they were born, they, with many others, and it's the with many others that are that describe our youth, our children, and many others of in the Church today, and not yet in the church. They, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.

And so, gosh, being called by prophecy, did the Lord foreknow that I received first lessons and that I was prepared? Of course he did. Yeah. It reminds me of Jacob 5, Lord of the vineyard seemingly doesn't know what to do, but they call the servants, right? This four ordained group come help us, and the vineyard is saved. I think this all ties together really well, but a young person who's being called to something or anyone who's being called to something Ask yourself am I being called by prophecy? It has the Lord for known and Joseph Smith taught that That the callings we receive in this life were for known to the Lord

It reminds me of Stephen Robinson's thesis in his book, Believe in Christ. And he chose the title, Believe in Christ, my understanding is, a lot of people believe in Christ, but they don't believe him. That's exactly right. It doesn't believe that it applies to me here, and I like that.

No, you can believe him. You can believe what he said about you, which some of us are like, oh, I know he was everybody else, but I don't know about me, you know. Right. But to having faith in Christ, yeah, that's a, that's a beautiful thought. He made the analogy of you don't, you don't believe in electricity unless you use it, right? You can believe in electricity and be like, wouldn't it be great if it all applied to me? But I'll just sit here dark in my house. He said, use it.

Use it if you believe in it, use it. And I think sometimes also in our trainings, Brother Corbett, we talk about the importance of setting these young people apart to serve in their class presidencies. Have them listen to what the Lord wants to say to them during that time. I'm interested in in Article of Faith 6 because both of you have had an increase.

I'm sure in the last few years an increased amount of interaction with apostles and prophets. So I'm interested in what you have to say about this verse that we believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church, apostles and prophets and pastors, which I would say is bishops, teachers, evangelists. Wouldn't we say that we're looking at patriarchs there as evangelists? Yeah, that's what Jews were smith-tut. I think our listening audience would love to hear from both of you about the primitive church and your experiences with the apostles and prophets.

Take it away brother Corvette, I don't have nearly as much as you do. It is a great privilege and a powerful experience. Can I start though as a 17 year old. There I was in just graduated high school in Philadelphia, as you know, and my family had moved over to southern New Jersey we lived in which kind of a suburb of Philadelphia across the Delaware River. Missionaries came, they're teaching our family, and I distinctly remember the lesson about apostles. They opened a flip chart and there was President Kimball, President Tanner and President Romney, and then 12 apostles. Under them, and they said that there were 12 apostles on the earth again, and I said, really, where are they? And they said, oh, they are in Utah at church headquarters. And I remember this is so weird to try to explain, but it was as if they answered a question that I didn't know I had. I thought, you know, this is a 17 year old kid who's thinking that that's an important point, that the restored church

has that office and those leaders again on the earth. And now, and so it's just such a privilege, John, and I have to be guided by them, to be led by them, to meet with them periodically and hear their direct counsel. They love the members of the church, the children, the youth. It's wonderful to feel that love. I've heard it said by a couple of people who said every interaction that I've had with these prophets and apostles today confirms that they are the people you hope they are. When you, when, you know, when they're not around, I remember a friend of mine told me

that he was once had to make a presentation for the first presidency and he was very nervous and they could tell he was nervous. He looked up and President Uggdorf gave him two thumbs up. You're doing great, right? And he said, it just confirmed to me that they are the people I hope they are. They really are, not that they're perfect, but that they do have the character we hope they have.

Apart from seeing them periodically and being in occasional meetings with them, I have a friend. He was living in Texas at the time and getting his MBA, I have a friend. He was living in Texas at the time and getting his MBA. And he and his family attended a multi-stake meeting where then Elder Oaks spoke, this is many years ago. And Elder Oaks told a story and my friend recognized that there was a piece of the story that wasn't there. So afterwards he went up to Elder Oaks and said, I noticed you left this part out of the story. And it was just the two of them.

And for context, this becomes important later. My friend is white. And so he asked Elder Oaks this, and it was just the two of them. And Elder Oaks said, I left that part of the story out because I consider it to be racist and I didn't want to repeat it. My friend tells me that later on. So there was no person present who, you know, there wasn't a minority present or someone

hearing, overhearing this, that's just who elder oaks is. That's just the man president Dalin H. Oaks. And I have so many stories and you, I'm sure you two have others where they are just shown to be who they present to be and whom the Lord calls. Absolutely. I know that probably wasn't the purpose of article of Faith 6, but I was excited to ask. I look at the order of the articles of faith, and remember, they're coming perhaps crafted like these are often asked questions, but let's put the most important things first.

So look what, like you said, Hank, creation, fall at home, then, who is God? And who am I? And who is the savior? And I just, I think it's significant that church doesn't come down until number six. It's not article faith number one, you have to be in our church.

There's nothing like that. There is God is real, and the savior is real. The Holy Ghost is real. And men will be punished for their own sins, not Adam's transgress. That's what's much my state. Through the Atomement of Christ, we can be saved. We do need those ordinances. Where do we go to get those? And it's all the way down to six, where we have the first mention of the church. And I wish that was an original thought with me, but Stephen Arcubby wrote this book called the Six Events of the Restoration. You know about the Seven Habits, well the Six Events of the Restoration, Brother Covey suggested the order of the events of the Restoration are kind of a formula for solving life's problems. They always start with who is God and who am I?

And then who is the Savior? What is the gospel? Where do I go to accept the Savior? And that they unfold that way. And I'd never thought of that before. I think I heard brother Covey once at an education week also kind of say, if you look at the order of the articles of faith, you kind of see the order in which things fell apart as the apostasy began that started with the nature of God.

And then with the original send the things like that, and I had never sought, seen it that way before, but I thought that was a fun thought to interject when you see the church is not showing up until number six. How insightful is that? Yeah. And as you said, with ordinances being mentioned in three, four, and five, and then the church showing up to administer those ordinances in six. During this pandemic, you know, why don't we just stay home for church?

Well, there's, we go because that's where there are ordinances like partaking of the sacrament. That's important. The Lord wants us there to renew covenants and partake of the sacrament. It's kind of another reason why the church, right? The elder Christopherson gave a talk in, I want to say, 2015 called why the church? It's fun to take that apart and you can just make bullet points of all of the reasons why we gather, we strengthen one another, we mourn with those at mourn, comfort those who stand in need of comfort. It's important, but I do think it's interesting that it's

these fundamental things are mentioned first before the organization of the church is mentioned in number six. And that's so great. And another couple why the church, President Oaks, just spoke on that. Just more recent conference. Uh huh. And and a couple of other points, he will one, of course, is the, uh, the sac course, is the sacrament to help us in the process of repentance and renewing our covenants. That being an ordinance, one of the main ones that we're talking about here in these

articles of faith. But another is, I love his phrase that we associate with people who test us and whom we test. And so it's, you know, and you do. You find yourself, a church brings people together who are disparate and different and diverse and invites us all to come unto Christ and walk the same wet path and we learn patience. And we teach others patience with ourselves. I need to tell the Mapleton Sixth Ward that I have I've helped them quite a bit. Testing them

my neighbors and my good. So many people that test us in whom we test. I may or may not be quoting him exactly but that was his concept and and I just love that Hank that you are the gift of God to the Mapleton which ward? The Six Ward. The Abelton Six Ward.

They have learned they are very patient people. And that's because I've been part of their ward for a lot of years. It's required a lot of faith, but they have endured all things. Yeah. And Elder Christofferson, he said, it gives us a place to experience the application of the wine doctrine. And he talks about idiosyncrasies. And then he said, or as President Packer, used to say, idiot syncretis, idiot syncrisies. So in my case, anyway, no, and what I am on my members, what was the, I think it was Eugene England who said the church is as true as the gospel because he meant this is a place for us to experience all of these things in faith and repentance and everything and

to test, be and to test others. Yeah, occasionally, BYU, I teach the New Testament. I get a student who says, wow, I like, I love Jesus. I'm not so sure about organized religion. And I'm like, listen, if you love Jesus, he loves organized religion. Jesus wants this.

This is something that's clear in the Bible, clear in the Book of Mormon, clear in the doctrine covenant. He wants us in an organized religion. I think this is why we're talking about. John, you wrote that book on Moroni. I mean, that full chapter is get together often. Gathering. Great. People say, yeah, I don't believe in organized religion. I say, go to the nursery. It's not that organized. But when you look at

And I just defended a bunch of nursery leaders When you look at Maroni, I thank you Hank for bringing that up So Maroni takes over for his father. What do I do? I have no or I have no plates I have no long I'm gonna live I know not and then he's like Mormon 9 listen believe in Christ, fundamental, right? And then, I mean, I'm going to give you an example of what happens to nations when they don't believe in Christ and gives us the book of ether.

And then he comes back, I've got a few more things to say and it's not until Marona I6 that he starts mentioning the church. It's very similar. He talks about priesthood and ordinances and the prayers on the sacrament, how we gave the holy ghost, and then Moroni 6. Here's how we operated the church. Thanks for mentioning that because it's a similar order of events than the articles of

faith. I think it might be a good time, John. Just for us, we don't do this very often on follow him, but to just anyone listening, the invitation, please go to church. Please, please. I know some people just, oh, it's not for me. I like everything about the gospel, but I just, someone offended me. Whatever it is, please, please come join with us on Sunday. Come be tested and be. And test others. Come and be tested.

We need you there. We need you there. I think sometimes we emphasize you need the church, but I think sometimes we should emphasize. Church needs you. We need all of us. We need all of us to help each other and maybe even to test each other.

And Jesus, certainly in the New Testament organized religion. Yeah. He organized his church himself. It's very clear. It's very clear how the Savior feels about us being organized. It's a great theme to come together and worship the Lord. I love verse seven. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth. That's all right out of the New Testament.

It seems to flow very naturally from verse six. Verse six being offices, and then verse seven being operations of the Holy Ghost, gifts. I wonder if they got questions about that a lot because we read in the cultural kind of backdrop and Joseph Smith's day, there were the shaking quakers and there was even what was the section of the doctrine of covenant's Hank where the Lord warned people because there were there were two people falling down and jumping around the earth. Earlier sections. Yeah, and it was like, no, that's not, you're going too far, or that's not of God. And this is a statement of, we believe in the same things in the New Testament.

I love that they added interpretation of tongues. If somebody's just speaking in tongues and nobody's there to understand, that doesn't sound like a house of order. Somebody will be there to interpret it. And the prophet Joseph Smith encountered that at one point when he went to Ohio. And so in the sections 39, 40, 41, we're right around the time in church history where he was speaking to those issues. There's a book, a wonderful book that was recommended to me called Mormonism in transition. It's a, it's definitely scholarship. It's not an easy read. It took me a while to get through it.

But Thomas Alexander wrote the book and he talks about, you know, how do we go from the church of the of the 1870s, 1880s, kind of these polygamists out in Utah to the 1920s, 1930s, where we have Latter-day Saints throughout the country and they're serving in the Senate, and how do we, he says that 50 years right there, Mormonism in transition. And he talks about the gift of tongues becoming a fast and testimony meeting. He said, that was a transition where they stopped speaking in tongues and started this tradition of coming up to the pulpit and bearing your testimony. And so, yeah, it was just a fascinating thing that he talked about that they said, okay, we're kind of, and there was never an official like, we're not speaking in tongues anymore, it just kind of made this gradual transition

from come up and offer us your testimony versus this idea of speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. Because, you know, people might wonder, where did that go? What happened there? And that's, that, that, it was really a fascinating, a fascinating book.

If you both want to read it, it will, it will take you, it's a slog to get through. It really is. It is so well researched. He says, he basically takes those 50 years and he says, here's what's happened to young men. Here what happened to young women.

Here's what happened to primary. Here's what happened to Sunday school. Here's what happened to correlation. He just goes through the entire church over that 50 year period and how it transitioned from what it was to kind of what we have today. Anyway, fascinating read. It's called Mormonism in Transition.

In transition, the only reason I read it is because Alex Baw told me it was in his top five books he'd ever read on the history of the church. And so I said, well, I'll pick it up. And it is, I mean, it is definitely not, especially that, it was 100 pages on primary. I mean, it was, like, wow, you really did your research here. It's fascinating. And I do remember him saying, where did the gift of tongues go?

It really turned into fast and testimony meeting. Let's keep going, brother Corbett, you lead us out and let's take us through eight through the rest year. Eight says, we believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it's translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God. Love these two basic pillars of our of our canon, which of course the Lord and His wisdom added to. which of course the Lord in his wisdom added to. And I think that was important to take a stand on the Bible, that we love the Bible.

We want to make sure it's translated correctly, interpreted correctly, so forth. Two basic pillars of our canon. Yeah, don't you think so? Of course, he added to them, obviously, in his wisdom, and we are enriched for it. And he also guided Joseph Smith to conduct the Joseph Smith translation of the Bible. And I consider how much Scripture we have as a result of that exercise alone.

Think of section 76 as he's translating John 5 and other scripture. Yeah, that's interesting. So yeah, we've got the church now and we have the Bible. Joseph Smith makes it. It's almost as if, I don't know, John, what did you say? This is kind of how the gospel came about. We've got the mission that's Yeah, it's unfold. It's, yeah. And then we get to the Bible, oh, and the Joseph Smith translation. And the Book of Mormon, that was, as we've talked this year, those were his two big, what did you call it, John? You called it Gospel 101, translating the Book of Mormon. Right.

And the graduate school, that was Joseph Fielding Maconkey, was the JST, was, because the Book of Mormon, as we we said is a very much faith repentance about faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end and boy but then the JST, wow and and all the things that came from that and the doctrine of covenants and that leads us right into boy number nine doesn't it? It does. What do you say about that, brother? The canon is not closed. John, read nine for us. This is an important article faith that is yet to be fulfilled.

When people tell me, oh, what about this? What about this? What about this? I say, as far as I know, article faith of nine is still in effect. There's still many great and important things that are going to be revealed. We have a continuous restoration. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. So there's a past, present, future there. And I think that maybe in contrast to the idea of God has spoken, we have

his word. Now we just govern our life according to this. But it's a God who is continuing to speak. And I think I shared before that experience that our friend Dr. Robert Millett had as a biblical studies student at Florida State. If I told you that He said that He was the only member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the class and the professor knew it and he kept Saying the canon of scripture is closed to set fixed and established and he wrote that on the board And then he talked about it some more and walk around the room and come back the canon cannon is closed set, fixed, established, and walk around the room some more, getting more animated. The cannon is closed, set, fixed, and established. And finally, turn and said, Mr.

Millet, will you please tell us the latter day's eight view of the cannon? And he's totally on the spot. And he stood up and said, well, I guess we'd say the canon is open, flexible and expanding. Wow. He said it. Then we had a really interesting discussion, you know, and that's, that's number nine. Where does it say, Hank, that man could put forth his puny arm and stop the Missouri and its course then to stop the Lord from pouring out

fruits. 21, 21, yeah. And no, the cannons that they, we love what we have, but the Lord can keep talking as long as he wants to. And as I recall, as well, might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri River or to turn it up in its decreed course or to turn it up stream as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge out of heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints. Yeah, you nailed it. And that's like number nine. It's continuous. That's it.

That's it. And it's alive. That's my, to me, this harkens back to section one, the only true and living church upon the face of the earth. This thing's alive, it's moving, it's growing, it's adapting, it's evolving, it's going to continue to grow. Not that other churches aren't true, they teach the Bible, they teach Jesus. I mean, these are true principles. True and living church upon the face of the whole earth. This is alive, and it's growing, which is going to

lead later on to our discussion in the official declarations. I was just going to say official declarations one and two are two of the many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God that were revealed. Relates right to nine. Yeah, that is a really good tie-in there. Right to nine. And it also speaks to the importance of following the current prophets and apostles. Not that we, of course, we recite and research and follow and esteem and revere. Things said by all of the past prophets and apostles and other church leaders.

And yet the living prophet and apostles and other church leaders, and yet the living prophet and the living first presidency and quorum of the twelve are where we should focus our attention most as we navigate the issues of these latter days. And I've always told my students, if you could talk to any of these former profits, any of them in the past to have passed away, they would all tell you the same thing. Listen to the current profit. I don't care if it's Isaiah or Noah or President Kimball or Gordon Behingley, they'd say, that's your profit.

President Nelson is your profit. You listen to him. I, you, you can hear them all saying that same thing, right? They would, they would tell us, listen to him. You can hear them all saying that same thing, right? They would tell us, listen to President Nelson. So sometimes we say, oh, I really liked President Hinckley, or I really liked President McKay. My mom used to say, right? Even when she'd bear testimony, she'd say, I know President McKay is a true prophet, even though he was two or three presidents of the church ago. She'd still do President, okay. But I think president McKay would say, Cindy, listen to your current profit.

Hank, I just quickly remember president Benson saying that the living profit has TNT. Do you remember that? And TNT, right? BYU, right? Yeah. Today's news today. And that was that was the point. What does he saying today? Find the one who's speaking today. And, uh, to exactly right. And what a, what a blessing. I mean, I, I just yesterday I was teaching and we were looking at something President Hinckley had said. And I just thought, wow, I wonder, President Hinckley can see what's going on now with the pandemic. And when I got my mission called, this will date me. It was over the signature of President Spencer W. Kimball.

The church had about three million members. I mean, it's an entirely different church. You know, what are we, 16, 17 million? After John came back, there were six million. He was so successful. He single-handedly doubled the size of the church. No, things really picked up after I left it. Yeah, there's...

No, in the Philippines, there were four missions when I was there. Now, there's like 22. As soon as I left, things really got a lot better. So... Yeah. Oh, it's going to say, Joseph Smith taught, this is the basis

of the kingdom of heaven, revelation adapted to circumstance, right? Not revelation from the past, which is always beneficial to read and to study and to learn these doctrines that have been set. I mean, if they've already been set, we don't need to restate them. But revelation adapted to circumstance,

there is no, in my mind, there is no coincidence that a global pandemic hits. And the present of the church is a, is a doctor, right? To me, in my mind, you, it was a revelation adapted to circumstance. The Lord saw this coming long ago and lined those two up. How we are in very safe and capable hands. I think we might need to point out, well, I think that people of all faiths can be inspired. We are talking about a leader of the entire church having continuous revelation and being ordained, how would you say it? It's going back to number five. There's a person on earth called to be the president of the church. Yes.

Yeah, an oracle, a mouthpiece, a spokesperson. And it says, all that he does now reveal, we tend to think sort of institutionally through the prophets, but that of course includes what he reveals to all of us. President Nelson himself said, I'll be saying, coming days, you remember the coming days,

it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting and constant influence of the Holy Ghost and and pled for all of us to do whatever we can, do the work necessary to increase the revelation in our lives. So this I think that fits right into nine as well. Isn't that true? And I feel like he says it with such love in his eyes and in his

countenance, but some of the things he says are like, whoa, right, that down will not be possible to survive spiritually unless you've got the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I mean, those are, whoa, type state. John, I like what you said about others receiving revelation as well, that this isn't just about one person. This is a February 15th, 1978, first presidency statement. We don't have to read the entire thing, but this, it says, quote, the great religious leaders

of the world, such as Muhammad, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers, including Socrates and Plato's and others, received God's light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals. And listen to this, it reads almost like an article of faith. We believe that God has given and will give to all people sufficient knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation. All people. And then I wanted to read one more for you, and it comes from Hubey Brown, who is just an incredible mind in history, the church, he says, quote, Revelation may come in the laboratory out of the test tube, out of the thinking mind and the inquiring soul out of search and research

and prayer and inspiration. We must be unafraid to contend for what we are thinking and to combat error with truth in this divided and parable world. And we must do it with the unfaltering faith that God is still in his heaven, even though all is not well in the world. He calls it a don'tless pursuit of truth. I have to share our story with you guys. Oh, those are great quotes. And they set up this story really well. And we didn't even know that we were going to go down this road. So there I was about 10 or 11. Our family was practicing in the nation of Islam. We were living in North Philly in a deeply inner city community. My older

brother who was 17 or 18 at the time wanted to go to a house party down the street with his friend across the street named Eric. And Mom said, no, I have a bad feeling about it. Not members of the church. Mom said, I have a bad feeling about it. Mom, come on, it's just right down the street. You know, it's what can happen. It's just, and he really, really, you know,

he got upset, mom said, no, and she said, and I quote, the holy ghost told me you should not go to that meeting. You should not go to that party. And he was upset and just, you know, storming around and tantrums and so on, but she would not let him go and he knew well enough not to go. The next morning, we get the news that Eric had been shot and paralyzed. They would have gone together, they would have come back together, probably something would

have happened to Tony, my older brother. This was the same mom who seven, seven, six or seven years later would feel the rightness and goodness of the missionaries and what they were sharing with our family when we all moved to New Jersey. I have an absolute testimony that the Lord reveals light and truth and knowledge to all of his children everywhere to give them sufficient, as you just said, Hank, to give them sufficient knowledge to carry on. Yeah, so I like that because I think what we're seeing here, it we're talking about as you put it, Brother Corbett, there God has a prophet and an oracle, right?

And this church wasn't just another take on the Bible, but it was restored by God. So we're talking about, in Article of faith, five, a man called by prophecy called of God, but this continuous revelation, there could be more revelation come that is canonized, am I saying this right? But individuals of all faiths, I think God loves His children and He helps them and blesses them. And your mom for your family isn Isn't that a beautiful story? Yeah.

Well, we're up to Article 10. One of my favorites, the gathering of Israel. Can we come back to this one? And just absolutely. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how aware or what they may.

For many years, I was part of a team that represented the church to the United Nations and the international community generally in New York. Just think of it as an international platform for organizations to become better known globally. So it was perfect for us to expose to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the restored church. And this was one of our key messages that that God wants all people to have the right of religious freedom essentially. So important. I think this is a unique article of faith in that it starts we claim instead of we believe.

I don't know if that's important, but I just think it's interesting that it was kind of maybe growing out of early persecutions. We're not trying to force our beliefs. We're not trying to take over the country. We claim the privilege of worshiping. We want all others to have the same privilege. Yeah, and it does insert a little bit of more of a force there, doesn't it, John? We believe, we believe, we believe. We claim this right because it's ours.

This is a constitutional right. Yeah, I can claim something because it's mine. And that goes to the next one too, because 12, we're subject to laws and to governments, we're not the Navu charters, not a threat to them. Yeah, we're not above the law, but the law says we can claim our right. And that was another key message to other nations and leaders of other nations that members of the church in your nation will be subject to their leaders. King's presidents, rulers, magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

That was so key to help these ambassadors from all over the world, heads of state and so on that we interacted with, understand that this is a not just a belief or a tenet that we have, but one of our articles of faith. Yes. 150 years earlier, you know, you can show this and say, oh no, this is, I had never thought of how important that statement could become when the church starts to go so international. Yeah. To tell leaders of other nations, members of our church, of the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints in your country, you can expect to be among your best citizens. This is part of what we teach them. I can see this in Joseph Smith's mind, all the lies that had been spread, that he's above the law. He wants to take over America. All these things that people are saying about him and he's clearing it up exactly in just one sentence.

We obey the law. We are subject to the law and we obey it. You know, and in section 58, the Lord said, let no man break the laws of the land. Do you remember that comment for he that keepeth the laws of God, hath no need to break the laws of the land, right? Wherefore be subject to the powers that be until he reigns whose right it is to reign. And just another statement embedded in Scripture directly from the Lord apart from this article faith, that supports the article faith.

They mutually support each other. That had some prophetic vision to it, didn't it? Both of those, yeah. And this also reminds me of President Oaks' talk on the Constitution, That sort of landmark talk where he calls on all of us to defend the Constitution. Of course, the Lord says that in section 98 that he justifies us in befriending the Constitution, that law, which is the constitutional law of the land here in the U.S. And so that's another highlight of this same principle that it's important

in his mind. I remember just the name of the talk was a talk. Defend our divinely inspired Constitution, right there, just the name of the talk is a message toend our divinely inspired constitution, right? Right there. Just the name of the talk is a message to defend our divinely inspired constitution. And there's another instance Hank where here's somebody who's in the highest councils of the church, who's background is in what? Right. A former Utah State Supreme Court judge. It's almost as if God saw this. Yeah. I mean, the talk he gave called judge not and judging. I referred it to my students just yesterday. The law and love he has given some wonderful insightful talks about things that he knows about. He's in there right man at the right time. And having clerked for the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court once upon a

time, you can just see and feel how the Lord's hand has been upon him preparing him for what he's now doing. Let's move to 13, John. Did you have a song you wanted to sing about this one? I Swear you had a song about 13 for a while, didn't you? In spite of popular demand. I'd like to sing this song. No, no I used to say in the Dominican Republic Brothers and sisters actually I'd say at Amano Cietamanas I

Would you know thank you for having us here in a state conference or whatever. And this is Euromana Corbett. She's my article of Faith 13 wife. She's lovely. She is. Yeah. Virtuous and lovely and of good report and praiseworthy, honest, chase benevolent, et cetera. I like that a lot. I've always thought section 13 could guide me in my media choices, right? If I'm picking up a show on Netflix, or if I'm picking a show on Amazon or something,

with me and the family, is it good, right? Is it virtuous, lovely, good report, praiseworthy? There's so much good media out there that fits this category that you don't really need to go into the other categories. You wouldn't have enough time. There's so much good media. So I just feel like that's, it's a good test of our media.

And long with section 50, that which does not edify is not of God and his darkness Whoa But what I love about 13 is it could have said We believe in honesty truth Chastity benevolence, but it says we believe in being honest truth It's a becoming thing to quote President Oaks again.

We're not just believing the idea. Well, of course, I believe in the idea, but do I have to do it? We believe in becoming that. And I love how the stripling warriors, it doesn't say they were men who knew the truth. It says they were men who were true. Our aspiration is to become what we believe. We believe in being honest, true, and chased, and benevolent, and virtuous. Not just in saying, yeah, that's a great principle. I kind of like it from a distance. It's something that other people should do. I really feel proud of that. Did y'all hear what I just said? Everybody do this. Yeah, but that idea of becoming is I think in there Not the not the Some total of our acts, but what we've become

That's I had had put those together John. Thank you And it really is the gospel be create something right all of this that we've talked about this far creates this kind of being in 13 creates this kind of being in 13. This is what we're after. And I think that if you started with 13, it just sounds like, you know, basic ethics. So you don't start with 13. You start with number one, with God the Father, with His Son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Ghost, and with number three, with the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved. And so what is a Christ-like life like?

Well, it's like 13. But we don't start with 13. We start with God, with the Savior, with the Atonement. What's that statement from President Packard, John? True doctrine, understood. Yeah, changes, attitudes and behavior, and a study of the doctrines of the gospel will change behavior quicker than a study of behavior

will improve behavior. Doesn't that kind of feel like the article's a faith there? Here's our doctrines which lead to this behavior. You've all heard the unofficial 14th article of faith, right? We believe in meetings, we hope for meetings, we have endured many meetings, we hope to be able to endure more meetings. There's any justification for holding a meeting

we seek after these things. You're probably good at that one. Yeah. We believe in having meetings about meetings. Yes. And if you're offended, we'll call a meeting. We'll talk about that. Yeah.

It's not original with me. It's somebody else that will probably want to call me and have a meeting. Please join us for part two of this podcast. you