followHIM - Genesis 3-4; Moses 4-5 Part 1 • Dr. John Hilton III • Jan. 19-25 • Come, Follow Me

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

What do fig leaves, sarcasm, and hiding from God reveal about how we handle our own mistakes? John Hilton III explores the Fall, Satan’s subtle tactics, God’s loving preparation and pursuit, and new guidance on using different Bible translations.YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/QDi-ZcJ7DHYALL EPISODES/SHOW NOTESfollowHIM website: https://www.followHIM.coFREE PDF DOWNLOADS OF followHIM QUOTE BOOKSNew Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastNTBookOld Testament: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastOTBookBook of Mormon: https://tinyurl.com/PodcastBMBook  WEEKLY NEWSLETTER https://tinyurl.com/followHIMnewsletter  SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/followHIMpodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastTIMECODE00:00 Part 1 - Dr. John Hilton III1:27 Episode teaser5:12 Bio06:24 Finding Christ in the Old Testament07:58 Using different Bible translations11:38 Bible translations: an example14:08 Misconceptions about translators’ motives20:43 Come, Follow Me Manual23:00 Apocryphal Warren Buffett story27:01 “Good, Better, Best” by President Oaks29:03 Creation in daily life32:26 A blueprint for life35:15 Divine discontent38:48 Applying Elder Bednar’s “Pray Always”44:12 Bless, protect, and elevate47:43 Sarcasm and a warning from President Nelson50:40 Fig leaves53:45 Hiding from the Lord58:11 Skins are superior to leaves1:03:18  End of Part 1 - Dr. John Hilton IIIThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsAmelia Kabwika: Portuguese TranscriptsHeather Barlow: Communications DirectorSydney Smith: Social Media, Graphic Design "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Coming up in this episode on Follow Him. If my hopes and dreams are bound up in success or looks or health, eventually I'm going to be disappointed. But if I'm secure in a covering from God, that is a peace that will never leave. To me, the core principle here is you do not need fig leaves when you have a coat of skins. God has given us that through Jesus Christ. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. St. Smith, I'm your host. I'm here with my fortunate co-host, John, by the way. John, I call you fortunate because you keep the commandments and you get to be on the follow him podcast. I know you

like the phrase, the fortunate fall. That's what we're going to be talking about today. It's something everybody ought to know about, and I'm glad we're going to talk about it today. Yeah. John, we are honored, blessed, excited, all of the above to have returning to the show, John Hilton the third. I like to say he's so great they made three of him. John, welcome back to follow him. We've missed you. Thank you.

I'm so happy to be here. Yeah. We say we've missed you, but I get to see you frequently because we share a hallway at BYU. But I'm sure our listeners have missed you greatly. It's fun to be back. I'm really happy to be here.

Yeah, we're excited to have you. John, by the way, let's talk the fall. What are you hoping everybody comes away with today? Thanks for asking. I think you already said it. This was a fortunate thing. Was it a fall? Yes.

Did it move us downward? Yes, but it also moved us forward. I hope everybody understands when this is over. Oh, okay, this was part of the plan from the beginning. It was necessary. It's a blessing, actually. and especially look differently at Adam and Eve and get them out from under the bus

where many have thrown them to use the metaphor. Adam Neve were pre-buses, but you know what I mean. Get them out from under the caravan. I love it. John, you and I have been talking about this for a long time. Tell me what you're excited about today. I'm just so excited because as we dive in to this early part of the Old Testament, we realize just how important the Old Testament is.

Whether you're thinking from the atonement to Zion or today, the fall or prophets, it just reminds us that the Old Testament is the parent scripture. It's what is the foundation of everything. And really creation and fall, that is the foundation. So I'm just really excited to dive into this topic. And what I hope we'll see is that in some ways it will seek kind of like a game of hide-and-seek. Adam and Eve are hiding from God. Later, Cain will hide from God. But in both these stories and in others we'll discuss today, we're going to see that you are never too lost to be found. To me, that's one of the ultimate messages from these chapters. You and your loved ones are not too lost to be found. This is an important topic for me because I found that when people understand the fall, they become

more grateful for the Savior in his atonement. President Benson, I quote this frequently when talking about the fall. Just as a man, or we could say a woman, does not really desire food until they are hungry. They do not desire the salvation of Christ until they know why they need Christ, and no one adequately and properly knows why they need Christ, until he or she understands and accepts the doctrine of the fall and its effect upon all mankind. frequently when we think, oh, why is this person really not becoming converted to Jesus? It might not be that they don't understand Jesus and his love. They might not understand the fall.

No one knows why he needs Christ. I heard that on my mission and maybe many of our listeners heard, oh, thanks, I don't need that. And I love President Benson's explanation. Robert Millett has talked about that if we only think of Jesus as our best friend in heaven, and oh, he's the Redeemer. He is the Savior. He's going to reverse and beyond the effects of the fall. He's the Lord God omnipotent. I mean, he's not just our celestial cheerleader, I think, is the word. When you understand the fall, then you think we need this Redeemer. And yeah, so I'm so glad you said that and excited to talk about it today. There's a passage in Isaiah that says something to the effect of God holds the universe within the span. of his hand. So a span is, you know, the distance from your thumb to your pinky. And when you think about how immense the universe is and God holds all of that in the palm of his hands, that's not the kind of

person that you invite into your life to be your helper. Right. And so we have to recognize this is God. Right. He is a totally different realm. I love what you're saying there, John. Yeah. Now, before we go any further, John, there may be a couple of listeners who don't know our friend John Hilton the third. They might say, I know John Hilton the first, I know John Hilton the second. I didn't know they made a third. Tell us about the trip here, the triple. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I had several John Hilton, the third books on my shelf. I grabbed my voices of the Book of Mormon one so that I could find the bio in the back. Then I'm going to ask John to add to it anything that we don't know, that has been happened since. John Hilton III, a professor of religious education at

Brigham Young University. He has a master's degree from Harvard, a PhD from Brigham Young University, both in education. He's published several books, including Considering the Cross, How Calvary Connects Us with Christ. I have that one too. He's also the author of the video course and podcast Seeking Jesus. John and his wife Lonnie have six children. John loves teaching, reading, spending time with his family, doing humanitarian work, snowboarding, and practicing magic tricks. I also know he has a master's class in the book of Mormon online. He has one called Finding Christ in the Old Testament. That's a new course, right? John, is that just YouTube? How do you get to that? Yeah, if I find out on YouTube or on podcasts, just search Finding Christ in the Old Testament,

or you could just Google John Hilton Finding Christ. It's coming out this year each week with Come Follow Me. it's just an opportunity to dig deep because sometimes there's a lot in the Old Testament. The part that at least for me, that really shines is how Jesus Christ is really on every page. And if you think about it, this is the scripture that Jesus himself read

when he was growing up. It's kind of ironic because sometimes we say, I've read all the scriptures except the Old Testament. Well, that was the scripture that Jesus read. And in fact, if you think about it, there are more pages in the Old Testament than all of the other standard works combined. So if we did come follow me by page count, we'd spend two years in the Old Testament

and then two years with everything else. I'm just really excited to be studying the Old Testament this year. I went to John Hilton IIII.com and there it is right at the top. I can click on Finding Christ. It brings up Finding Christ in the Old Testament. It lists all the classes that will be available. I'm excited to spend some time there. Wow. That's great. And if I don't like something, I'll just come knock on his office door and be like, hey, not very many people get that opportunity, right? Now, before we jump into the Come Follow Me Manual, John, you and I have been talking for a little while about a significant change in church policy. Yeah, just recently the church handbook was adjusted around Bibles. I'm going to read the new language. Before I do, let me just maybe help paint a picture. Imagine there's a 14-year-old young woman. She's struggling.

in her life, her parents are getting divorced, she feels like everything's falling apart. She goes to her seminary teacher and says, what do I do? And her seminary teacher says, you should read the scriptures. The scriptures have the answers you need. That is great advice. This 14-year-old goes home, and she opens up her Bible. Now, as you know, the King James version of the Bible is written at a 12th grade reading level. In the United States, 51% of American adults, not kids, adults, struggle to read text at a seventh grade level. So there's a gap between what the King James requires and what the average adult can read,

let alone the average 14-year-old. She opens up the Bible, reads a few verses, doesn't really understand what she's reading. She closes the Bible and says, well, I guess the scriptures don't work for me. Maybe I'll see what's on TikTok. Somewhere in the world, this last week, something like that happened.

And that's why I think this announcement is so significant. As we talk about it, Just remember that maybe you yourself, you might be like, well, I read at a 20th grade level. Like, that's awesome. You might not need this announcement or handbook change, but somebody else that you know, maybe a child, a grandchild, someone that you teach, they might need it. The church handbook was recently changed to say, generally, members use a church preferred or church published edition of the Bible in church classes and meetings.

So in English, that would be the King James. Now, it used to say, when possible, you should do this. And let's face it, it's always possible to read from the King James. So going from when possible to generally, that's a softening. This is a new sentence in the handbook. It also goes on to say, other Bible translations may also be used, meaning you're allowed to use other Bible translations in church meetings. So if you're teaching primary or seminary or in a release society class or sacrament meeting even. Generally, we use the King James, but other translations may also be used. Another sentence that's new, the handbook says, some individuals may benefit from translations

that are both doctrinally clear and also easier to understand. Then the church has a Holy Bible page, which you can find online. They also add two more sentences. It says, the Bible can be difficult to understand. It would be appropriate to use a simpler Bible translation for youth and children or any who would benefit. This is a big deal. I mean, to be honest, I cannot think of something that a person could do in their Old Testament study that would improve their experience more than reading a translation that they can understand. In my mind, I picture maybe a mom, a dad, and they've got five kids ranging from, I don't know, four to 14. You can kind of see people's eyes glazing over during scripture study. You can pick a

different version that's written at a third grade level or a seventh grade level, and it can totally change a family study. I don't want to dwell too much on this, but I think it's fun to put Hank Smith on the spot. Hank, do you have access to the book of Colossians? Could you, by chance, turn to Colossians chapter three for us? and the King James. We're going to go to Book of Colossians chapter 3, verse 5. Hank, I'm just wondering if you could read that one for us. Colossians 3-5, KJV. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.

Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil cons, you did this on purpose, concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. This is admittedly a hard verse. We might read this and be like, I don't even know what this is talking about. I don't think anyone knows what evil concupiscence is, so don't worry about that. But recently I was talking with a group of teenagers

and I asked them, what does the word fornication mean? And none of them knew what it meant, which maybe in some ways you're like, well, that's kind of a good thing. Yeah. But think about that 14-year-old young woman. Now she's 15 years old.

Her parents are divorced. She feels this empty hole in her heart. And this boy is starting to pay attention to her. And he's asking her to do things that she kind of knows aren't right, but she's not sure. I don't know if this verse is going to help her. But, Hank, since you've got your magical website that allows you to see different Bible translations, try the NIV, the new international version. Same verse, Colossians 3-5, but let's hear it in the NIV. Okay, here it is.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. So which of these verses are going to help that 15-year-old make the right choice? We are really teaching a rising generation that spends less time reading, that spends less time delving into thick texts. So again, the King James Version might be great for you. There are probably some people who did what the handbook says. Some individuals may benefit from translations that are easier to understand. Hank, what's this website? What do you use?

I use Biblehub.com. There's plenty of others. I generally use Bible Hub. When the church announced this in the church news article, they quote Relief Society General President Camille and Johnson saying, if we want individuals to develop a habit of reading the scriptures, if we want mothers and fathers to read the scriptures with their children, it is helpful for them to have the option of using a Bible translation that teaches doctrine in a way they can understand.

I want to spend time with this because at least for me, when I was growing up, I had a very suspicious vibe about other Bible translations. It's kind of like, oh, probably like they've taken out the plain and precious truths in this modern Bible.

I can't trust it. But in the newsroom release about this handbook change, Elder Klebingat of the 70 is quoted as saying, there's a misconception that modern translations of the Bible

are less than faithful to the ancient source. that in modernizing the language, translators have compromised or dumbed down the doctrine. In many cases, that simply isn't true. Modern translators often have access to manuscripts that were not available to early translators, and most modern translations were produced by faithful scholars and linguists who are utterly convinced that the Bible is the Word of God. The simplified language they use supports rather than compromises,

understanding of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. I think I can anticipate what a lot of people are thinking, and that's, John, tell us which ones. Tell us, you've already mentioned the NIV. What else can you give us that's helpful? Because even the NIV is probably more than seventh grade, or is it higher than seventh grade? You know, it's really interesting, along with this announcement of the church's Bible page, they actually list in different languages, alternate translations. There's a church preferred edition, in this case in English, it's the King James, but then they do list

several others that they vetted to say these are also doctrinally clear translation. So these are from the church's Bible page. One is the new revised standard version. I think that's a popular one among academics. It's ecumenical, so people from lots of different faith traditions worked on it. Emily Bell Freeman, I've heard her say that the English standard version is her favorite. It retains a lot of the majesty of the King James language, but also has simpler text. We've talked about the NIV.

The NIV, it's actually for 40 years has been the best-selling Bible translation in America. That kind of surprised me because growing up in the church, I just assumed everyone read the King James. But that has not been true for decades. Maybe if you live in an area where there's lots of. of Baptists, for example. Reading the NIV might be fun because then you have a Bible in common with your neighbors. I also really want to highlight the new international readers version, the NIRV. This one's written at a third grade level. It's also included on the church's Bible page. If I was doing family scripture study with kids under 10, I would definitely consider

using the new international readers version. All of these, you can either buy on Amazon or at Hobby Lobby or wherever you get Bibles. You can also, like Bible Hub, like what Hank said, there's the Bible app, which has been downloaded more than a billion times. All of these and many other versions are available there for free. It actually is kind of fun. Like, in my family, we bought copies off Amazon

and just enjoy reading a Bible translation that's appropriate for the reading levels of our family. I know that in saying this, there's probably some listeners out there that are like, oh, I think this is going off the rails. Like this sounds a total, like, you know, utter apostasy. But, I mean, all I've been doing is just reading from

the handbook and the church newsroom and the church articles. One more quote from Sister Tamara Rooney, first counselor and the young woman general presidency. Again, this is right from the church newsroom page. She said, we can all benefit from translations made by our Christian brothers and sisters to enhance our study

and faith as disciples of Christ. our hope is that everyone will feel welcome and respected no matter the translation they connect with and choose to use what matters most is how the scriptures speak to our spirits and draw us closer to god as we read every day and i just love that idea probably some people have unfortunately felt like a second-class citizen maybe they read in rithy society or elders corps a different bible translation and someone took them aside afterwards and said, hey, you shouldn't do that. And Sister Rina was saying, no, everyone should feel respected and valued whatever translation is helping them connect with God. One other quick thought on this. If we went back to several hundred years ago, most people were

not reading the scriptures anyway. They were listening to the scriptures. So don't be afraid of listening to some of these simpler Bible translations. Recently, I listened to a book. It's called the NIV Listeners Audio Bible. It's NIE. It's narrow. by a professional voice actor's name's Max McLean. It's so good. Listening at 1.4 speed, you can listen to the whole Old Testament in about 40 hours. Okay, I did do Leviticus at three times speed. But I am not making this up.

I was driving to Salt Lake, listening to Second Samuel in the NIV. It is a fascinating story. I was so into the story. I missed the exit to the airport. Sometimes it's not that the Old Testament is hard. it's that reading a thousand-page book at a 12th grade level is hard. There's an opportunity here to take advantage of these simpler translations because the bottom line is the more clearly we understand the scriptures,

the more clearly we see Jesus Christ. And that's what it's all about. Right. And I think, too, the Old Testament is already so long ago and such a different culture. But Hank, what's so? One of our favorite statements, the past is like a foreign country.

things differently there. It's already a foreign country. At least to be able to read it, a little more understandable. It gets us partway there, right? Yeah. Amen. I like that. I have a living Bible on my shelf that says children's Bible on it. In the past, I've gone there, read it, the Old Testament in there, and then read the same passage in King's James. But thank you for talking about this in such depth. I really do think if there's one thing you could do to improve your Old Testament study this year, it would be to read a simpler Bible translation. Yeah. Especially with your children.

Yeah. How many times have each of us heard from someone saying, I just don't understand the scriptures? This might be the chance for the way, wait, I actually do understand this. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Especially Isaiah. Ooh.

Yeah. I hope that you don't mind, but as we jump in now to these chapters in Genesis, I'll be using the new international version today. Okay. And if I don't even understand that, I can come over to the new international readers version for ages 8 and above on the church's page here. I'm excited. Let me read from the Come Follow Me Manual and we'll jump in. The lesson this week is entitled The Fall of Adam and Eve. The manual starts this way. At first, the story of Adam and Eve might seem like a tragedy. Adam and Eve were cast out of the beautiful Garden of Eden. They were sent into a world of pain, sorrow, and death. And they were separate. from their Heavenly Father. The truths restored through the prophet Joseph Smith in the book of Moses give us a unique perspective on the fall. Yes, the Garden of Eden was beautiful. Adam and Eve needed more than beautiful surroundings. They needed, and we all need, an opportunity to grow. Leaving the

Garden of Eden was the necessary step toward returning to God and eventually becoming like him. That meant facing opposition, making choices, making mistakes, learning to repent and trusting the Savior, whose atonement makes possible progression and the joy of our redemption. When you read about the fall of Adam and Eve, focus not on the seeming tragedy, but on the possibilities. Not on the paradise Adam and Eve lost, but on the glory their choice allows us to receive. What a wonderful way to start. Okay, John, where do we want to go now? We're primarily today in Genesis 3 and 4 and Moses 4 and 5, but I thought maybe just to kind of ease us into the fall if we could just review a little bit of what we talked about last week with

the creation. I just think there's so many practical life lessons. Like in Genesis chapter one, verse four, we read God separated light from the darkness. So the first step of creation. And I think we've talked about this together before. I think you guys feel the same way is that you can look at the story of the creation in the Bible and think about how does this relate to my life and the things that I'm trying to create, maybe create a strong family, or maybe I'm trying to write a book or create something in my job. And the way that I apply this person in my life is just to think about how do I separate out the light from the darkness? What's light is essential and all the stuff that's not essential. There's a thousand distractions, and separating those out can be really

challenging. There's an apocryphal story. It's probably not true, but it's about Warren Buffett, who's talking to his pilot, Mike Flint. Warren Buffett told Mike Flint to make a list of his 25 most important goals and then to circle the top five. Now Flint had two lists, the top five and then the other 20. And he thought that Warren Buffett was going to tell him, okay, focus on the top five and then do the other 20 as your schedule permits. But Buffett said, no, no, no, those other 20, those are your avoid at all costs.

because if you think about it, what's going to most tempt you away from your top goals are other goals that you're interested in that are good, but they're just not at the top. The enemy of the best isn't the bad. It's pretty good, because we can get distracted there. And I know that some of us might think, man, I don't know, that sounds hard,

kind of organizing, trying to separate out the light from the darkness. But you remember in the account of creation in Abraham Chapter 4, just over and over again, you see that word, organize, organize, organize, organization is a godly activity. Here, we're in the month of January, thinking about how do I separate out in my life at the start of this new year, what really matters from what matters a little less. So there could be lots of good things in a person's life, but what are the most important? It reminds me of Luke chapter 10, it's a dinner party. Mary and Martha are having Jesus over for dinner. And Martha's worried about a hundred things. She's making sure all the toys are picked up and the toilet seats down

and all the food's ready. And then she looks over and she sees her sister Mary doing nothing. Mary is just sitting at the feet of Jesus. So Martha's kind of ticked, right? She says, Lord, don't you care? My sister, she's not even coming to help me. I could be wrong. but I think the fact that Martha said this to Jesus means that Martha thinks Jesus is going to take her side. She's thinking Jesus will say something like, Behold, if your sister asks you for an hour of work in the kitchen, go with her twain, or something like that.

That's what Martha thinks is going to happen. But instead, Jesus says, Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. I put my name in there. John, John, you are worried and distracted by many things. things and then he says one thing is needful. The one needful thing was what Mary was doing, sitting at the feet of Jesus. So in our lives, whatever we're creating, we've got to separate out the light from the darkness to make sure that we have time for what matters most,

especially that one needful thing. You guys have probably heard that analogy about get the big rocks in first. That reminds me of that type of a thing. What are the big rocks? that I got to do every day. And I'm so guilty of that. I'll fit in my scripture study after we get done with our Amazon Prime list or something like that. Instead of the other way around,

what are the big rocks I have to do every day? That's a great insight about. And what did you say? That pretty good is the enemy of the best. Right. One thing that's getting interesting about the big rocks analogies, we've probably seen it

where you've got the big rocks, little rocks and the dirt. And if you put them in the big rocks first, then it all fits. And that's an awesome object lesson, but there's also a shortcoming to it because you know that before that class started, some clever teacher measured out the exact amount of big rocks, little rocks, sand, and water that would fit in the jar. But in real life, no one's measuring that out. Like, I think that there's a lot of us, we have more big rocks than we can put in. Sometimes it's a matter of focusing on what is the rock, the one rock, Jesus Christ, the biggest rock, and how do I put him first?

and then what's the second, you know what I mean? Because there's some of us who are listening, and we're just too busy. We have too many big rocks. I think that's an important part of this separating out light from darkness. A very famous business book from 20 years ago is Good to Great. The famous quote from the book, there's many, Good is the enemy of great.

Most people will look back and realize they did not have a great life because it was just so easy to settle for a good life. I like what you're saying, John, is it's kind of a good, better best as well. Well, I've got a lot of goods in there, and I fit in a couple of betters, and I completely miss the best. The idea that there's not even enough time for all of the good. There's so much good, so many good books, for example. I don't have time. There's millions of books in the Library of Congress.

There's not time. I heard Elder Joe J. Christensen once talk about. I don't remember this was years ago. but 29 million volumes. He said, if you read a book a week for the rest of your life, you'd get a couple of thousand, there's not time for the good books. So coming up with what are the best books,

and that's a scriptural phrase at Section 88, what are the best books? That's a good exercise. And I think that that's part of the creation process, separating the light from the darkness, figuring out, okay, I have a limited time, where's God calling me to put my priorities? One of the places for all of us

that he's going to call us to put priorities is in creating something. As I read Genesis 1, I can almost feel God's joy in creation. From verse 21, God created every living thing. God saw it was good. God bless them. I can just picture God blessing all of the creations. Verse 31, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, Creating contributes to our Heavenly Father's perfect happiness. You don't know. need money, position, or influence in order to create something of beauty. Our birthright is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things.

I just love that. For me, I've been picked up the guitar as a recent hobby. I will never be a professional guitarist. I will almost certainly never put anything on Spotify. But I can have fun experiencing the joy of creation and playing a little song. I hope for all of us we can experience this. President Uctrour finishes the quote. He says,

what you create doesn't have to be perfect. Don't let the voice of critics paralyze you whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside. We can just experience joy in creation. Occasionally, John, when I read that God will judge all men according to their works, you could think of the word works there as like works of art. I will judge them based on their creativeness. Their gallery. Yeah, their gallery, their works.

I failed art in sixth grade. So what does that mean for me? Yeah. Well, I just like the idea that God, instead of, let's look at the right and wrongs of your life, let's look at everything you made. Let's look at all that you created. John, by the way, likes to say, everybody has a book in them. At least one book, John says. But there's so many other things you could create, whether it's art or music, or a beautiful family or a loving home. There are so many beautiful things that we can create, a meal. An article was it on the church news about President Iring and his watercolors. I remember that Elder Scott used to paint watercolors too

and loved the idea of light and shadow. And I thought how wonderful that they take time as busy as these brothers must be to take time to create and to paint something. And I think you're right, John, there's a joy that comes in that. I love the creation story. Like, this is good. It just the idea of creating something and going, oh, this is good.

This looks really good. And there's joy in it. There's joy in it. This is a question we didn't get to talk about last week, and I'd like to ask both of you about it. The Lord seems very interested in us hearing this creation story. It occurs twice in Genesis, once in chapter one and then start over again in chapter two.

Then we hear it in the book of, Moses, the book of Abraham, and in the presentation of the endowment. John Hilton, one of the reasons the Lord wants us to read this story and know this story is because he's telling us your creators. Create. Absolutely. I think there are so many lessons from the creation. It's one of those timeless stories where you can gain new truths from it at different times in your life. Maybe I can share just another one. You mentioned good to great. This is another book in that genre is seven habits of highly effective people. There, Stephen R. Covey talks about begin with the end in mind as the second habit.

If we look at Moses chapter 3, verse 5 and 7, we read, I the Lord God created all things of which I have spoken spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the earth. All things were before created, but spiritually were they created and made according to my word. That's another practical life lesson that we can learn from the creation. I think this is why we're hearing the creation so much is because in some ways, it's a common sense lesson. Before you can have a beautiful plate of cookies, there has to be a recipe, or before there's a house, there's a blueprint,

or before there's a dress, there's a sewing pattern. Everything is created twice, and we see that in the creation story. There's a spiritual creation and then a physical creation, and that gives us a template for our own lives. I don't know if this might be too personal, but just a little experience that I had. I'd been home from my mission for about four months. I met a beautiful girl, asked her on a date. She said no.

I waited a few days. Asked her out again. She said yes. Our date was magical. We both had Franklin Covey Planners. Hank, you might be too young for this. But I know John knows how cool the Franklin Covey Planner was. And, you know, I'm talking about all this stuff.

I dropped her off at the end of our date. I'm driving home listening to my mixtape. A U2 song comes on. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. And I was like, that song is, that song is false doctrine. I have totally found the person I'm looking for. I'm deeply in love. I go home that night.

As I'm praying, I'm not making this up. This is true. I kind of had this uneasy feeling inside that I was not good enough for this young lady. And as I continued to pray and read the scriptures, it was like a clear revelation for the Lord saying, yes, you are actually not good enough for her. She was doing all these great things in her life. I watched a lot of television, right? There's like this big gap between us.

To make a long story short, I decided to do what we've been talking about here in Moses, to spiritually create the kind of person that I wanted to become over the next four months. Grab my patriarchal blessing of the scriptures and spent time in the temple. And I really took to heart this idea from Elder Richard G. Scott. He said, you need a retreat of peace and quiet, where periodically you can ponder and let the Lord establish the direction of your life. So that's what I did. I took time over Christmas break, created all of these, I wouldn't call them goals.

It was more like I was trying to tap into the vision of what God knew I could become, spiritually create who I would be four months later. And over the next four months, I did many of those things. I still wasn't to her level, but I was a lot better. Again, just to make a long story short, I asked her out on our second date in April and a year later we got married. I am a true believer, thanks Lonnie. I am a true believer that God has a vision for us. It's not like there's only one path or one destiny that we can do. We obviously have our agency, but a lot of times God has revelation he wants to give us, including about the things

that we can create, even creating ourselves. And if we tap into that vision, that can really help us as we try to spiritually create the person that we're going to become. Thank you, John. I love the idea of divine discontent. I mean, imagine how different if the Lord just said, oh, you're great the way you are. But he let you know, actually, you could be better. What's that joke? Hank? My wife gave me a mug that said, get better soon. And I said, I'm not sick. And she said, I know, I just think you should be better. So it's interesting. It's interesting. to me that we might think love means just saying, oh, you're fine the way you are, but how wonderful to have somebody that looks at you and says, I can see more in you than you seeing yourself.

I've always wondered if Ameron, when he met Mormon, and said to him, I perceive that thou are to sober child and are quick to observe. If he was seeing things that Mormon didn't see in himself, and if he was going, really, it gave him something to aspire to. Yeah, John's, John's, I should. John squared. Yeah, John squared. I think one of the most empowering moments for any person is when they realize they can create the life that they want. It's like the brother of Jared where the Lord says, bring me an idea.

I can light it up. Bring me something. And the brother of Jared goes to work and creates and here's my idea. And the Lord makes it work. When I speak to youth groups, I'll say you are the children of creators. Now, create, go move. You want to be a doctor? Okay, go become a doctor.

You want to be the best mom there is? Okay, go become the best mom there is. You want to be a doctor and the best mom there is? Okay, go do that. Let's go. Let's move. Let's create. Let's not wait.

Let's not wait to be acted upon. Let's act. John, I really appreciate what you're talking about here. It helps me understand why the Lord wants me to read this story and see this story. So I'll be, yeah, you want you to see it over and over again. There's a verse in Jeremiah 29. It is so beautiful. I don't know why we don't read this more often.

Jeremiah 29-11 says, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. I love that we can become co-creators with God. He has a plan for us. and that plan is for hope. Everyone, we all have a future. And there's probably someone listening right now

that is feeling really down and discouraged and thinking, I don't know, maybe there's nothing for me. God has a plan for you. God has plans to give you hope in the future. I just testify that's true. Yeah. I'm sure both of you would agree with me.

It's crucial to understand that the principle the Lord gives over and over, small and simple things, bring about great things. You don't have to say, okay, I'm upending my entire, your life right now. I'm going to do everything different. Start with a small and simple thing that you can do every day and let that build. That's the Lord's way. Line upon line. Small and simple things,

a piece at a time. That's the pattern with creation too. One day at a time, one day at a time. Isn't there a famous Navy commander who wrote a book and his first chapter was make your bed? I love that. Start with just making your bed. Stephen Covey used to talk when somebody was in it, bad cycle or whatever, he said, make a commitment, keep it, make a commitment, keep it, make a commitment, keep it, even if it's only just one. And this sense of integrity in you starts to grow cool ideas. As we drilled into spiritual creation, I gave one application trying to create a spiritual vision of the kind of person you could become, but there's other ways we could apply this principle. Hank, you've mentioned to me just in private conversations about how Elder Bednar's application

that he brought up has really touched you. Do you want to say anything about that? It changed me because I was not a great morning prayer. I was very good evening prayers, very consistent with my evening prayers. When I got up in the morning, I didn't know what to say. Like, well, it's been a good night's rest. Not much has happened since we last talk. Then Elder Bednar gave this talk. I'm sorry, that's funny. Not much has really happened. There was a lot of inhaling and exhaling, That was about it. Yeah. They don't have lots of report.

Besides the night. Elder Bednar gave a talk called Pray Always in which he said the story of the creation can help us with our prayers that our morning prayer can be a spiritual creation to our day. We're looking ahead. This is what I'm hoping to do. This is what I'm hoping to create. And then our evening prayers can be a return and report. How did it go? The problem is usually when the Lord returns and reports, he didn't.

everything perfectly. I returned to report and say, I did nothing. I did nothing that we planned on doing. I got started. I got distracted and I did nothing. And the Lord says, it is not good. We have a chance to do it again tomorrow. And that, Elder Bednar said, is part of praying always. Spiritual creation, return and report. Spiritual creation, return and report. Beautiful. One last thing I want to share. And this connects back with what you were saying, Hank, about small and simple things and not getting overwhelmed. In her book, Grace to Become, Emily Bell Freeman wrote, Within the beautiful imagery of the creation, in the midst of every step, there's an oft-repeated phrase, God saw that it was good. She continues, it is my nature to wait until the project is

completed until the work is finished to evaluate whether or not, my work is good. Not God. He saw the goodness in every step of the progression. From the story of the creation, we learned that our father is just as interested in day-to-day progress as he is in the finished product. We sometimes forget this is true. Then Emily says, and I love this quote, we must remember that God never expected the results of day six on day two. On day two, he was thrilled with the results of day two. He declared it good. And I just think so often in our lives, we compare maybe our day two with someone else's day six. and we wind up feeling discouraged.

We don't have to do that. Here's the last thing President Freeman concludes with. She says, if God were to whisper down from heaven tonight as you drift off to sleep, do you know what I think he would tell you? You are already good. I just really believe that.

I think that's another beautiful lesson. Another reason why we need to hear the creation story over and over again. I think it's an old saying. God passed his creations in review and called them good, including you. I love that. It's nice.

We're not here to earn our value. We brought our value with us. John, what do you want to do next? Let's go with Adam and Eve to the garden. Everything's wonderful. You got fruit is growing spontaneously. You can have strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, coconut, whatever you want.

I mean, Eden is the original all-you-can-eat buffet. God told Adam, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden. but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat from it, you will certainly die. There are so many options you can eat from every tree, just not this one. Notice how Satan twists that when he comes to Eve. He says, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? That's actually not what God said.

He's twisting it. Satan is not interested in the truth. Can you hear this to the story? sarcasm. Did God really say this? God didn't say that, but Satan is focused on the mockery, the ridicule. That's a powerful lesson for us today. I'm scrolling through social media and there's a post, do you really believe in a book translated by magical rocks? Just ridicule. No mention of witnesses who gave their lives for the book, no mention of the spiritual power of the book of Mormon, no mention of the intellectual evidence as of the book of Mormon, dismissing all of that with

sarcasm, ridicule. That's the devil's trap from the very beginning. He's not interested in a meaningful conversation or a fair debate. He wants to plant doubt. Don't be surprised when you see that same strategy today. Satan's lies continue. So then Satan says, you will not certainly die if you eat the fruit or the tree of life. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. In a subtle way, what Satan is saying to Eve is something like, well, God's commandments really aren't going to benefit you. He knows that actually you'll get a better benefit if you eat from the tree, but God is trying to hold you back. And we can hear the same thing today, right? Like with the Word of Wisdom, oh, that's not going to really help you. That's going to hold

you back from what you can become. Oh, living God's law of chastity, that's not meant to bless, protect you and elevate you, that's meant to keep you from having fun. In each case, the message is the same. God's laws are holding us back. That's what Satan, that's his original lie to Eve in the garden. It reminds me of Pinocchio. The Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio, like, don't go to Treasure Island, but it just seems so fun. So he goes and finds out too late that actually there was a purpose behind the rule. I hear the adversary saying, you can't trust him. He said that he didn't mean that. And actually, he's not telling you the truth.

It's that planting those seeds of doubt. And how common is that today? Did that really happen? Did you really have that spiritual experience? I'm not sure you did. I'm not sure you actually felt what you think you felt. Yeah. Amen.

The mindset of God is trying to limit you or hold you back. I love Elder Kieran's recent. you know, talk that he's a relentless pursuit of you. He's trying to bring you home. His plan is not to keep you out. It's to bring you home. So that shift of mindset is opposite from what Satan is trying to convince. Yeah. John Hilton, I love what you just said that the sarcasm and the dismissal is so common today. One thing that is somewhat difficult to maybe get a young person to understand is that the truth is always more complicated and nuanced than a lie. So if someone can say something in 30 seconds and it's done, it's probably not the truth. This quick dismissal,

these TikTok videos, they're effective, but it is not the way to get to the truth. Yeah, it's kind of like our friend, Stephen Harper talks about, you've got to think slow, you've got to slow it down. A Christian pastor named Timothy Keller, he gave a sermon, and he's the one who highlighted this idea of the sarcasm and the dismissal that Satan's using that, that where I'm drawing that from. For me, it's easy to get sucked into that. You just hear a sound bite, you're like, wow, well, I guess I better throw all this stuff away.

But no, no, no. Steve Harper says, slow it down. Let's think carefully about it. And when you do, you can see through Satan's lies, but we do have to slow it down rather than just grab the soundbite and go. I feel like we have the entire story. It reminds me if Dr. McLean said to us once, his friend said, I read it all. Did you? You read it all? How long did that take you to read it all? We sometimes think, oh, I have all the information when a dismissal, a sarcastic dismissal is not all the information. Sometimes when we're reading words, we don't hear the tone of voice. I think one of the good things about emojis is they add a tone of voice. You can hear a coral. horror tone of voice in the way Satan talks. When you read Corahor, you can hear this snarky sarcasm.

You know, you're deranged, you're foolish, you're yoked. I am here to liberate you from all these commandments type of a thing. You can feel that tone of voice here. Definitely. Now, I want to switch for a moment to Moses chapter 4 verse 12. It adds in a little detail. And you can read this detail in different ways, but in the context that we've been talking about, the lie, the sarcasm, Think about what do I do when I'm scrolling through social media and I hear those lies and sarcasms. Do I read all the comments? Do I dig in more or do I just walk away? In verse Moses 412, it says, the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it became pleasant to the eyes.

Again, there's different ways that you could read this. But in the context that we're talking about, to me, the word became suggests that. over time, the fruit changed in appearance. What was forbidden started to look desirable. That is the same thing. If I'm listening to sarcastic attacks on, lies about Jesus Christ, over time, that's going to become more appealing. It's a warning, kind of like what President Nelson said, I'm paraphrasing, but he said,

something like, don't spend time with other doubters and then be surprised that your own faith is waning. You can't hang around the tree that you're not supposed to be partaking of. I really like that principle there, John. When Jesus told Peter, you're going to deny me three times. The worst possible place to go if he doesn't want to do that is where he goes. If you truly don't want to do that, stay away from the situation that's going to put you in a position where you could fall. This may be a stretch, but Marone, well, I'm not dead.

I make not myself known unto mine enemies. It's like, I don't go where my enemies are. Why would I do that? I don't go where they're trying to kill me. I don't go where it's dangerous to be. And maybe we make the same parallel. Amen. I love this discussion that we're having about Eve and these principles that you can get from her interaction with the adversary. John, by the way, I know that you are in touch with what recent prophets and apostles have said. about this interaction. I remember President Nelson giving a talk in October of 2017 called The Book of Mormon, What Would Your Life Be Like Without It? And at the very end, and it's not in the talk. You only see it if you go online. But he left this thing called President Nelson's Book of Mormon lists at the end. It's in the Leohanna magazine and also online. He listed all these things. And you both know that Second Nephi chapter two talks about the fall. and gives us a lot of interesting information.

But this is just one of the bullet points President Nelson had. Under the Book of Mormon affirms, one of them was the necessity of the fall of Adam and the wisdom of Eve that men might have joy. Just interesting note. Yeah. Oh, beautiful. This is President Oaks, then Elder Oaks, back in 1993. It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality.

Her act, whatever its nature, was formally a transgression, but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. Some Christians condemn Eve for her act, concluding that she and her daughters are somehow flawed by it, not the Latter-day Saints. Informed by Revelation, we celebrate Eve's act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called The Fall. Let's keep going. Adam and Eve partake of the fruit. They realize that they're naked. And then in Genesis 3-7, we read, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Now, I have never tried to make an outfit out of fig leaves, but I am guessing it is a pretty inadequate covering. The man and his wife, this is Genesis 3-8, heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord. Now, we've all been that hide-and-seek. It's a fun game. We've all seen like little kids. They're hiding like this. Everyone knows where they are. Of course, you can't hide from God. But I think it's interesting that that was their first instinct to hide.

And think about how we do that today. There's so many ways that we hide. We hide often behind excuses. Instead of owning up to my mistakes, I justify them. Maybe we see something like that here. God asked Adam, have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat of? Adam said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some of the fruit from the tree, and I ate it. I mean, in one sentence, Adam's blaming God and Eve. God turns to Eve says, well, what have you done? Eve said, the serpent deceived me, and I ate.

So Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. Poor Satan, he doesn't have anyone left to blame, right? And I acknowledge there's different ways that you could read this passage, but I think it's interesting that one of the first effects of the fall was a ten of the ten of the to justify our wrongdoing because of the actions of another person. And I think that is one of the main ways we hide today. We justify.

We rationalize. I remember as a young missionary, it's out knocking doors one day, and a four-year-old girl opens the door. And my companion, I said, hi, we're the missionaries. Is your mom or dad home? The little girl leaves and she comes back. She says, my mom told me to tell you that she's not home right now. And I was like, oh, okay, could you go ask your mom when she'll be home?

So the little girl turns around and yells upstairs, hey, mom, when will you be home? And I was like, all right, busted. This is great. I can't make fun of that girl or her mom because I do the same thing. There's so many excuses that we make. I can't be polite because someone made me mad or I don't have time. It's interesting, we didn't read this verse earlier, but Moses chapter 4, verse 3, which is part of our chapters for this week,

it takes us back to the beginning in the premortal life. And the Lord says, because Satan rebelled against me and sought to destroy the agency of man, I cause that he should be cast down. The war in heaven continues on earth today, and one of the ways that Satan is still trying

to destroy our agency is to tempt us into making excuses. Because if I really believe I can't, I have to, she made me, I don't have time. Then it's like, oh, I guess I'd don't have the power to choose. For me, this principle from the fall of hiding is so important. And it's not just excuses, right?

Another is busyness. We're so busy in our lives that maybe we hide from God, or we might hide from God by trying to just look good on the outside, even though we know things aren't right on the inside. I want to keep going here, but first, any thoughts that you have on hiding from God? The whole idea of hiding in one of the versions of the creation we've been talking about, it's Satan that says go and hide. Just the whole idea that you could hide from God is kind of funny.

How do you hide from God? Yet that's the temptation. Reminds me of Section 121. We can have the priesthood conferred upon us when we undertake to cover our sins. Like hide them. Yeah, we're just like, oh, that's really not happening. Have you ever done that in prayer where you've knelt down to say your prayers? And the spirit has said, let's talk about this specific issue.

And you think, well, let's bless President Oaks. And let's talk about blessing the missionaries. How about this specific issue? I don't think I want to talk about that one right now. More important would be world peace. Let's talk about world peace. Where we maybe not hide from God, but we avoid God. We avoid the spirit.

We avoid spiritual things because of perhaps. how we feel. I love that. Earlier, John, you brought up Elder Curen's talk. God is in relentless pursuit of you. And I love that we see that here. Even though Adam and Eve are hiding, God doesn't wait for them to come out. He goes looking for them. Genesis 3-8, this is the first question in the Bible. Where are you? Think about that. The very first question God asked in the entire Bible is, where are you? He is looking for us. Sometimes we're hiding. from God. And God's first question after the fall, where are you? He's giving us a chance to come back. I'm going to throw this one to you, John, by the way. There's probably someone listening right now,

and they're hiding from God. John, what do you think is God's message to them? Because he knows where you are. He knows. He knows what you're up to. But he's interested in where you are. He wants to help you. He's your father. He's not. He's not. He knows what you are. He's not. He knows what you're up to. He's what Satan said in verse 5, he's trying to hold you back. He's trying to help you get closer to him. Yeah, I would add to that, John, verse 11, who told you to hide? Yeah, who was that? It wasn't me. Where did that message come from? So far, when have we ever said, oh, by the way, if you do something wrong, I'm going to be really mad. So you better run and hide. I want to come back to these fig leaves that Adam and Eve have covered themselves with. You think about there's a lot of problems with covering yourself with fig leaves.

Recently, I actually learned that fig leaves secrete a little poison, actually. So you're going to have a rash. That's a problem. Second of all, it's not a great covering. Third of all, like all, like all, they're going to disintegrate and crumble. That's very uncomfortable. And every, like, three days, you're going to have to make yourself a new outfit. But I want to dig in for a moment on this idea of, do we in our lives cover ourselves,

metaphorically speaking, with fig leaves? I feel insecure about my looks, my finances, my status, my car, my kitchens, whatever it is that we feel insecure about, so we're constantly trying to just cover up. I remember as a 15-year-old, kind of in that angsty stage, feeling really insecure about myself walking down the hallway at school, my biggest fear is that I would acknowledge somebody and they would not acknowledge me back. I would just walk, I would keep my face up, I would not make eye contact, and just in my mind, I was like, just keep walking, just keep walking, just keep smiling, look tough.

Like, it was a terrible thing. I didn't fool anybody. I didn't fool myself. But I think so often we have these kinds of ways we try to cover ourselves up with. And the tragedy is we don't need to cover ourselves with fig leaves because God has already offered the coat of skins. So in verse chapter 3, verse 21, we read the Lord God. made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, his wife, and clothed them. There's a lot to unpack from that verse.

You know, first is the basic idea, God covers us so much better than we could cover ourselves. I can do a hundred things to try to be more healthy, be more intelligent, or whatever it is that I want to do, be more successful. But if my hopes and dreams are bound up in success or looks or health, eventually I'm going to be disappointed. But if I'm secure in a covering from God,

that is a peace that will never leave. To me, the core principle here is you do not need fig leaves when you have a coat of skins. God has given us that through Jesus Christ. It's important to note that the coat of skins came with a cost. This is the first time that blood has been shed

since the creation. The sacrifice, of course, points to Jesus Christ who would shed his blood for us. And as Latter-day Saints, I think we see a particular significance in this coat of skins pointing to the temple garment. I love this article. It is in the Leahona. It says, Adam and Eve entered into covenants with God and were given coats of skins made

by God himself to remind them of those covenants. As we enter the temple, we are endowed with power and personally, enter into covenants with God. The garment is an emblem of the protection that Adam and Eve received and that we receive and is a reminder of those sacred covenants. I don't know what you guys think, but it seems to me like in recent years, I've heard more quotes, either in the Leahona or in general conference, speaking about the importance of the temple garment and its connection to Jesus Christ. Sister J. Annette Dennis, counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency said, quote, I am so grateful for the privilege of wearing the

garment of the Holy Priesthood to remind me that the Savior and the blessings of his infinite atonement constantly cover me throughout my mortal journey, end quote. At a mission present seminar, it wasn't posted publicly, but it's been quoted in different BYUu devotionals. President Russell and Nelson said, the garment of the Holy Priesthood reminds us of the veil in the temple. That veil is symbolic of Jesus Christ. When you put on your garment, you put on a sacred symbol of Jesus Christ. End of quote. When you understand what the garment represents, it totally changes how you feel about it. And we're seeing it right here in the creation story.

I have a wonderful student. Her name is Hannah Olson. She was my teaching. assistant last year. She loves fashion. She would tell me that she was studying fashion. She loves clothes. We started to talk about the tendency of some young people to not wear their garments or to adjust their garments. She said something so simple. She said, you know, I just decided that my faith was more important than my fashion. And I took on her mantra when I speak about that. It's faith or fashion, one's going to win. She had decided that her faith was more important. Both of you said, once you understand what it is and what it means, the significance of it can be ingrained on your heart, right? Can be etched on your heart. Yeah, that's beautiful. Coming up in part two,

it's clear, though, that God's rejection of Cain's offering is not a rejection of Cain. In verse 23, pleads with Kane to change. She says, if you do well, shall thou not be accepted? In other words, it's like, Kane, you can still make this right. Like, be on the right path. But instead of repenting, Kane gets angry.