"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 neighbor; 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."
2 Nephi 28:8-9
This verse is a good reminder that God is the source of all truth, and that we can't always trust our own interpretations. I don't think that we usually do it on purpose, but we have a lot of ideas and creative interpretations about God's work, and we spread them around until people are taking rumor and guesswork as fact.
One way to avoid false, vain, or foolish doctrine is to make sure that we check what we believe with official sources for corroboration. God isn't going to contradict his own teachings, and so comparison can help. Studying it out in our own minds and finding corroboration in scripture or in a General Conference doesn't always mean something is true or false, but something from a trusted source helps us to weed things out, so we can at least be more confident that we aren't offending God. We can also compare what we believe with the test that is in these verses, and rule out any belief that God is okay with us committing sin, even temporarily.
Another way to avoid error is to go back to the source material, and to question our own beliefs, finding out where a quotation or a story came from originally. Often, when we do the research we find that the words we have been relying on aren't exactly what was in the original source.
Today, let's recheck ourselves, and make sure that we aren't talking ourselves into something that isn't of God. Let's be certain that what we embrace in the gospel and what we share with others really is in the gospel and that we aren't trusting in a quotation or story that no one actually said, but which is part of a cultural mythology that has built up from people sharing misremembered stories, scriptures, or events where the details get changed over time in the telling. Let's go to God with our questions, and when we teach, let's triple-check our details and make sure that we are grounded in the truth.
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."
2 Nephi 28:8-9
This verse is a good reminder that God is the source of all truth, and that we can't always trust our own interpretations. I don't think that we usually do it on purpose, but we have a lot of ideas and creative interpretations about God's work, and we spread them around until people are taking rumor and guesswork as fact.
One way to avoid false, vain, or foolish doctrine is to make sure that we check what we believe with official sources for corroboration. God isn't going to contradict his own teachings, and so comparison can help. Studying it out in our own minds and finding corroboration in scripture or in a General Conference doesn't always mean something is true or false, but something from a trusted source helps us to weed things out, so we can at least be more confident that we aren't offending God. We can also compare what we believe with the test that is in these verses, and rule out any belief that God is okay with us committing sin, even temporarily.
Another way to avoid error is to go back to the source material, and to question our own beliefs, finding out where a quotation or a story came from originally. Often, when we do the research we find that the words we have been relying on aren't exactly what was in the original source.
Today, let's recheck ourselves, and make sure that we aren't talking ourselves into something that isn't of God. Let's be certain that what we embrace in the gospel and what we share with others really is in the gospel and that we aren't trusting in a quotation or story that no one actually said, but which is part of a cultural mythology that has built up from people sharing misremembered stories, scriptures, or events where the details get changed over time in the telling. Let's go to God with our questions, and when we teach, let's triple-check our details and make sure that we are grounded in the truth.
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