Conference Report, April 1844, p. 302; “A certain good sister came to my house and she was troubled because she heard so many big things. She
thought it weakened her faith. I told her she had too much faith. She believed too much. I will tell you how you may know whether the thing is true or not. When any one comes to you with a lie, you feel troubled. God will trouble you, and will not approbate you in such belief. You had better get some antidote to get rid of it. Humble yourself before God, and ask Him for His Spirit and pray to Him to judge it for you. It is better not to have so much faith, than to have so much as to believe all the lies.”
1 Timothy 4:1-2, 7; “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 7 But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.”
If ever there was a perfect biblical passage describing Hyrum’s predicament of following his family’s fantastic tales, this would be it!
This family was trouble from the get-go, and had picked up a really bad habit. Their version of God’s righteous mandates to man was a tragic interpolation of the Bible with their magical whoredoms of witchcraft.
Telling this woman too much faith could invite the mistake of believing everything that comes along is nothing but a farce. His warning to not believe lends itself to Joe Smith’s teachings of doubting God, which in turn causes man to follow, well, man. Thus, we have Mormonism.
We don’t judge whether something is true or not by how we feel. The Bible tells us feelings aren’t to be trusted. God specifically teaches us to measure truth with His word – Acts 17:11 is one good example.
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