General Conference, April 2015, “Choose to Believe”; “The decision to believe is the most important choice we ever make. It shapes all of our other decisions. …Belief and testimony
and faith are not passive principles. They do not just happen to us. Belief is something we choose—we hope for it, we work for it, and we sacrifice for it. We will not accidentally come to believe in the Savior and His gospel any more than we will accidentally pray or pay tithing. We actively choose to believe, just like we choose to keep other commandments. …” – Elder L. Whitney Clayton, Presidency of the Seventy
2 Timothy 1:12; “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
If you’ve ever had kids in the AWANAS program, you’ll recognize the verse in 2nd Timothy because it serves as the motto for the organization.
When I discovered this verse it finally dawned on me that I was choosing to worship a different God than I had previously worshipped during my life. I know, I know, it sounds silly…but, little things begin to make sense as you escape the ugly clutches of Mormonism and this was one of the big things for me!
In my humble opinion, Mr. Clayton’s talk was one of the most significant talks I’ve seen or heard from any Mormon leader in a very long time. Don’t misunderstand, there’s no doubt Mormonism is wrong in every which way you can imagine.
However, this is the first time I can remember where a leader has told members that believing in the god they do is a choice. Mormons go along in life just doing what their parents have done, and/or whatever those around them are doing. There’s not a lot of cognitive choices going on upstairs because you’re typically way too busy trying to fulfill all the roles they plop down in their laps.
While I’ve only used a small portion of this speech, you can read the rest of what he had to say by clicking on the link above. He went into all the must dos and mustn’t dos to obtain salvation, which I believe, overshadowed the real topic. The purpose in only using this portion is to highlight what he said about that topic.
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