Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 71, a section where Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon are called to meet with the enemies of the church that they may answer the accusations of their enemies and confound them.
I thought it was interesting that in this revelation the Lord tells them to meet with the enemies so that they can answer the charges labeled against them. I know that in the scriptures the Lord tells us that if someone has offended us to take them aside just you and them and work it out together, but that is always counsel to you and another friend. I am not sure of any other place in the scriptures where the Lord tells the brethren to meet with their enemies to talk with them and answer their accusations.
I remember as a missionary we were counseled not to argue with people, or what some people colloquially refer to as Bible Bashing. For those of you not familiar with the term or with the concept, what happens is a person who is not a member of the LDS church challenges the fundamental beliefs of the church by quoting scriptures in the Bible that challenge the LDS beliefs, or seem to rather. It is a really pointless practice because as Joseph Smith himself says in his history, all the various churches can read the same passage of scripture but interpret it so differently.
The reason missionaries and even members, are encouraged to avoid this practice is because it is pointless and nothing good can come of it. I have often wondered if there are sports in the next life. I mean, it is entirely possible to play a sport with a friend and not care about the outcome and just play for the sheer joy of the sport. But let's be realistic here, how many people actually play like that? Maybe 1%? Sports are inherently competitive and invite the spirit of competition and I cannot imagine the Savior playing a pick up game of basketball for some reason. The reason I even bring it up is because when people try and disprove or prove the church's truthfulness in such a fashion, they are missing the point. A testimony cannot be gained by competition, just as it cannot be gained by miracles.
The only way to convince someone of the truthfulness of the restored gospel is to help them feel the Spirit and the best way to help them feel the Spirit is by bearing pure testimony. Unfortunately those who may have otherwise been receptive to the Spirit testimony brings have generally been warned by helpful friends that Latter-day Saints always talk about their feelings, etc. I have often wondered at the sheer absurdity of such statements. Who in this life does not trust their feelings? Who, when they have a gut instinct about something, doesn't follow through with it? And yet for some reason when it comes to religion we are not to trust our feelings. I just cannot understand such thought processes.
But regardless of the many ways the devil tries to trump the Lord, we all know that eventually the devil will receive his dues and the Lord will win. I remember a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave once where he said that life is the only game, if you will, that he knows of that we already know the outcome of the event but we are still trying to decide which team we want to play on! How true he is and how absurd it all seems when put into such context. We have nothing to fear so long as we are faithful in this life. The powers of hell may rise up against us and they may take everything from us as they did from Job of old and may even take away our life, but as long as we are true and faithful it doesn't matter. This life is but a fleeting moment and our true reward does not come in this life, but rather in the life to come.
Trust in the Lord and do not try to convert by attempting to "prove" the truthfulness of the restored gospel. Rather, bear pure testimony and trust to the Lord that He will prepare those who are put into your way and work with the Lord to know just who is prepared for you to help. He will tell you who He wants you to help. It is extremely important to Him and He will not leave you hanging. Until tomorrow.
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