The way of truth shall be
evil spoken of.- 2 Peter 2:2
(A possible lesson for new members? – to prepare them for opposition)
The Adversary is very real and these are the most common tactics that he uses
Before people join the Church, Tactic 1 works pretty well, which goes as follows. “There is no God. There is no devil. It is OK to do a few wrong things - as long as you are a good person, then that is OK. The commandments of God are restrictive – you need to be free to be yourself.” If all of this sounds familiar to you it is because it has been fed to you as a constant diet for as long as you can remember.
But the scriptures teach us differently. “And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God -he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbour; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.. Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark”
The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. Christ works from the inside out. The world would take men out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of men, and they then take themselves out of the slums. The world would mould men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who change their environment. The world would shape human behaviour, but Christ can change human nature and the human heart.
As an example of this, everyone agrees that knife crime is terrible and there are all sorts of programs and initiatives. But until the hearts of children and parents are turned towards each other and towards that which is good then young people will continue to carry knives.
Joining the church makes the adversary quite upset with us. He is a bully and if Tactic 1 starts to fail then he usually tries Tactic 2, which is to intimidate us into turning away from the path that we have chosen
Sooner or later, perhaps sooner than you think, you will find that you and the church are being subjected to ridicule or false accusations based on misrepresentation or misunderstanding of church teachings. Sometimes the strongest opposition may come from those closest to us. It usually helps when those that we care about come to realize that our new faith only causes us to love and appreciate them more than we have ever done before.
The scriptures teach is that it is normal for there to be opposition in all things. We cant easily walk forwards on ice because we cant push backwards with our feet.
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”
When we are strong enough to cope with Tactic 2, the Adversary realizes he is in for the long haul – so he is forced to fall back onto Tactic 3, which is a war of attrition. Its OK for me to miss church just this one Sunday. I have a strong testimony. I do not really need to read my scriptures every single day. Its Ok for me to miss my prayers whenever I am running late or I am too tired.
The Adversary also spreads lies to discredit Joseph Smith and the restored church. There are a lot of commonly believed lies and misunderstandings about Joseph Smith and the church that can shake your faith.
From the beginning the Adversary spread vile lies about Jesus Christ “He portrayed Him as a wine-bibber, an associate of sinners and publicans, one who went about the country in the companionship of women of questionable character, an impostor who was so in league with Satan that he cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub, an agitator disturbing the peace, a leader of seditions, a perverter of laws and customs, and who at the last was fittingly crucified between two thieves after being condemned under due forms of law. His followers were regarded as a rabble from the despised province of Galilee, and who were so vile as to steal his dead body from the tomb by night, and then put in circulation the story that he had risen bodily from the dead!” (Quoted from B.H. Roberts)
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and he was an honest man. But there are some today who go to great lengths to try to prove that he was not. Although the life of Joseph Smith is unusually well documented, you cannot prove the genuineness of anything to someone who has already decided not to accept it. The scribes and Pharisees of old constantly asked Jesus for proof, and when it was set before them in overwhelming abundance they continued to disbelieve:
Joseph Smith’s persecutors hounded him constantly for twenty four years with character assignation, physical assaults, verbal abuse and law suits until (just like Paul) they eventually succeeded in bringing about his murder in cold blood. No wonder the Bible says that “the way of truth shall be evil spoken of (Peter 2:2).
The Adversary is a liar. He was a liar from the beginning and is known as the Father of Lies. He is consumed with hatred for us because he we helped to defeat him in the pre-existence. He remembers and has not forgiven us for that. He will do and say absolutely anything to deter us and turn us away from the path we have chosen.
By joining the Church you are putting your head above the parapet. At some point you will find that you are a target.
If you really want to keep that special feeling and experience of having the Spirit with you, then there are certain things that will need to become a regular part of your life.
The central issue in the war in Heaven was freedom of choice. In the atonement Jesus paid a terrible price to guarantee our freedom to choose. As a result of that we are free to choose what we believe and accept and what we do not believe and accept, what we will do and what we will not do.
But whatever we choose to believe and do, we will find that we are absolutely not free to choose the consequences. The Lord has promised to pour out very choice blessing on us as we choose to believe and do what is right – but he cannot if we do not “hold to the rod”.
In the end, there will be only two types of people. Those who say to God “Thy will be done and not mine” and those to whom God will say, with great sorrow, “Thy will be done and not mine”. Ultimately the only thing that will matter at all is where we personally stand in relation to Jesus Christ. This is why he said “And this is life eternal, to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. John 17:3
As someone once said “If you don’t stand up for something, you will fall for pretty well anything.” The choice is ours to make.