Addressing Comments; "Proving" Something

My last video stirred up some comments in support and opposition to my claims. It was an off-the-cuff video in which I shared one evidence that helps solidify my beliefs about Joseph Smith. Feel free to check that video out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJVssq7Vn-0

In this video, I will address some of the comments left on the last video and offer some more perspective on where I am coming from. Thank you to all who watched the previous video and commented. My hope is that we can continue to have dialogue about what we believe and be friendly in our exchange of ideas.

One hot topic of the comments was my use of the word "proof." I will address that in this video. How is the word "prove" used in scripture? I invite you to look into that.

For those of you who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I would love to hear your perspective on conversing with people of other faiths.

Many thanks for listening.

Transcript

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This is the Be or Become Podcast, a podcast about being or becoming active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My name is Darren Bastion, and I'm glad you're here. Today I want to address some of the comments that I received from my last video, and I think to be honest, most of the comments that were negative had to do with just flat out my thumbnail and what I wrote in the thumbnail, and maybe less than what's actually in the content of the video. Still, I've asked for comments on several videos, and for the first time I've got a substantial number of comments. So I do want to address these just so you know, this podcast is about being or becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love being a member. I believe in the church. I follow the prophet. I believe in the Book of Mormon. I believe Joseph Smith is a prophet. I believe that Jesus Christ is a savior. Now, I'm going to address some of these claims here. Some people have said your Jesus is different, etc. etc. You know, honestly, these are these are kind of typical rebuttals to my faith, and it's nothing new. Nothing that anyone has said is is new or groundbreaking, but I do want to address them. And first off, I want to thank all the people that that just said um good job or I'm happy to hear this, or I felt the spirit. Thank you so much. That means a lot to me that you would that you would share these encouraging words. Yeah, it and I'm my hope is that a spirit can come. Somebody said, Thank you for sharing this. My son and I listened in the car and invited and invited the spirit. Thanks. Appreciate that. I'm glad that that was your experience. I'm trying to share my sincere love for Jesus Christ and his gospel, and I love hearing that it makes a difference in a positive way. Again, these podcasts, these videos, they're pretty short. So uh to get across all of my experience and all of my feelings, I'll never be able to do that in just like a five-minute or even a 10-minute podcast. So, you know, if you if you want to know more about the things I believe or feel, feel free to check out the other videos. And most of the videos are just a kind of a spiritual nugget from my scripture study that day, and I want to share it. So that's what that's what the basis of these videos are. Okay, so solid point. Someone said, fantastic. I'm just reading through here, and then I had a really thoughtful, long response. This is by J.S. McDuff. J.S., thank you for um commenting. I appreciate it. He says, I appreciate Darren, I appreciate the sincerity of this episode, especially the way you spoke about guilt, repentance, and your desire to draw near to Jesus Christ. I would offer one respectful pushback from his a historic Christian perspective. I don't think a text bringing someone strong religious comfort is enough by itself to prove that the text is scripture or that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Fair enough. Um, a religious feeling might not be enough for that. And I'm gonna talk about the word proof in the scriptures. The word prove or proof or to prove is to test. And you know, I'll never be able to prove Joseph Smith is a prophet in a court of law, it's just not gonna happen. There's not the evidence or that kind of understanding of proof, but I'll also never really be able to prove that my mom loved me. You know, there's a lot of evidence, but and for me, I have proof that my mom loved me. And I have proof enough that the Book of Mormon is true, and the Book of Mormon it has given me much more than just a strong religious feeling. It's like I said in my last video, it it's changed my life, it's an anchor. It is the rock, it is it's it leads me to Jesus Christ, who is the rock, and my testimony is founded on Jesus Christ, and I read the Bible. There was another comment that says, I challenge you to read the Bible every day. Like, okay, you know what? That's a great challenge, but is there an assumption that I don't read the Bible? If you've watched some of my videos beforehand, you know that I read the Bible. I've done videos on Joseph of Egypt or Moses, Abraham. Uh, I that so sorry, I have to laugh because the this the the comment that says, you know, challenge you to read the Bible. Read the Bible, not the Book of Mormon. Forget the Book of Mormon, you know. Sorry, it seems like the spirit of that comment is is like you've got it all wrong. You you're you're not using the true source, which is the Bible. When I read that, I happened to be coming home from a a three-hour bike ride. I had the old testament playing in my ears for the entire three hours of that bike ride. I was listening to the old testament about David and and and the many stories about King David, and it was I just had to laugh because, like, okay, yeah, you're making an assumption that I don't read the Bible. I do read the Bible, and I love the Bible, and it it's it's the King James Version. If you're interested, that's the one I read. And anyway, I just had to laugh. So yes, okay, thanks for that challenge. Um, I will read the Bible. You got it. Um, okay, let me let me jump back to this other this this longer comment. I I think that a lot of these comments this well, some of these comments, it seems, have the intention of like, hey, Darren, you're a little misguided. I hope you can find the right the truth. And thank you for that. Thank you for being kind and sincere in your desires to help a person. I appreciate that. Um others are just like, you're an idiot. Like it, I can't believe someone like you could even believe such trash. You know, that's kind of the spirit behind what seems like some of these comments. People can say what they want. I put my stuff out there publicly. I guess anybody can give their public response. There was one comment that I did block, and I'll tell you why. Because the comment was nothing but a link to another video. I don't want people to be linking other videos in my stuff. If you want to just say something in a comment, then great. Um, or tell me anyway. I just I don't I'm not gonna just have a link to a video in my comment, so that's why it's blocked. Okay, um, I would still have to ask whether Joseph Smith's later teachings about God, priesthood, authority. Okay, hang on, I gotta back up. New testament seems to test a message by whether it agrees with the gospel already delivered through Christ and his apostles. Um, logically, that doesn't really make sense to me because the New Testament didn't exist at the time of Christ, it was compiled after the time of Christ. So, how could the New Testament test things against itself? Doesn't make sense. Sorry. Um, so I can understand why Alma 36 feels powerful to you. I would still have you have to ask whether Joseph Smith's later teachings about God, priesthood, authority, exaltation, and additional scripture agree with apostolic Christianity. Okay, I am not an apologist, I'm not a debater, but if you think I know there is a train of thought out in the world that like Joseph Smith used a lot of plagiarized Bible biblical type teachings in the Book of Mormon to establish credibility, and then later he went off the rails. And frankly, someone who claims that doesn't know anything about the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith's early life experience. Joseph Smith, from day one of being of having his first vision and starting to tell people about it, he received tremendous pushback and animosity from religious leaders of the day, from other people. He he he received he was a controversy, he was a controversial person right from the beginning, and people preached against him right from the beginning. So there's no like early period Joseph Smith was was okay because it was close to Bible, but then no, that is not true. That is not historically true. He was always controversial, people did not like his message right from the beginning. Then it then it of course it leads to this does it bring me to the same Christ taught by the gospel? Okay, this is this is the often repeated notion that uh members of my faith worship a different Jesus, which is also referred to in other comments a little bit more rudely. Um, are they different Jesus? We believe in the Jesus of the New Testament, we believe in the Jehovah of the Old Testament, we believe in the scriptures, and is our view different than your view? Is my view different than your view? Yes, it is, it totally is different. Uh, is it the wrong view, though? Is it the incorrect view? That is the question, isn't it? So, how do we figure that out? How do you prove that your view of Jesus Christ is the true view of Jesus Christ? And you can say because it's because of the Bible. Well, how many churches use the Bible? So many churches use the Bible, and yet there's differences in in opinions of how of what God is like. Anyway, I don't want to get into a nature of God debate. Okay, there are plenty of those out you can watch. There's there's prominent debaters of my faith that have done debates on the nature of God. I will I will just say going back to the word proof, how do I prove these things that I believe? How do you prove anything in a spiritual sense? You can't prove it with evidence. If I had the gold plates right here, it's say, hey, I finally have proof of Joseph Smith being a prophet. Here's the gold plates, and look, it's real. That's not gonna work. How do you prove a testimony? How do you prove a strong belief and connection with God? You can't prove it to somebody else. And you the the great news is you don't have to, and I don't have to prove that to anybody. I know what my testimony is, I know that when I have prayed to God to ask if this is true, I have received an answer, and I have the proof that I need because I've received that answer. I'm gonna share a scripture from Moroni. This is the Book of Mormon. So some people might turn off already at that. But maybe I should back up. Maybe I should say James 1 5, New Testament James, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Ask. Ask if it's true with a sincere heart. Moroni ten says, Behold, I would exhort you that when you shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that you should read them, that you should remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when you shall receive these things, I would exhort you that you would ask God the eternal Father in the name of Christ, if these things are not true, and if you shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost, and by the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things. My faith is grown like a seed grows into a tree. It takes time, it takes nurturing, it takes patience, it takes trial and error, repeated proving. When I claimed proof in my last video, it was just one more of many, many experiences I've had, just like proving that your mom loves you. Hopefully, your mom loves you. Um how do you prove that? It takes repeated, repeated experiences to prove that that she loves you, right? Or repeated experiences that God is answering, yes, this is true, this is good, this is this is my will. I believe I've received a testimony from the Holy Spirit uh that the book of Warmen is true, and that the Bible is true, and that Joseph Smith is a prophet, but most important of all, which was the whole point of my last video, that Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ who died on the cross, paid for my sins, who is the Son of God, and He is my Savior. I have a testimony of that because of my experience, not just one experience, my collap my total experience, my many experiences in my life. You don't have to believe that. And like I said, I'm grateful for the the the response, the feedback, the listening. I hope you all listened. Some one comment said, I didn't even listen to the whole thing because it was the premise was wrong. Okay, you don't have to listen to the whole thing, that's fine. But hey, thank you for listening to at least some. Any other comments that I can look at here? Oh, okay. I'm gonna address something here. This was one of the later comments. None of what you say is proof. The fastest growing religion in the world is not Mormonism, it's Islam. That's true. I misspoke. It's not the fastest growing religion, but there's no doubt that in the last 200 years, it's one of the fastest growing religions. We'll we'll we'll go with that. I hope that's okay. My bad, I misspoke. I was kind of speaking off the cuff. Yeah, it kind of sorry, it just it looks like it's it's kind of just recycled anti-Mormon stuff, which it's not I would ask that you would not just buy into all these anti-Mormon things. I would encourage anyone that has heard a lot of negative things about my church, our religion, to go meet some members of my church. Missionaries are fine, you know, talk to the missionaries, just be kind to them, listen to them. I have a daughter that's on a mission, and I have a son that's leaving on a mission in two weeks or two weeks. Yeah, just under two weeks. But they are not experts in the gospel, they're not expert scriptorians, they have simple testimonies, but they're powerful. The missionaries have a power given to them to be able to preach with power and authority. And that power and authority is real. And if you listen with an open heart, you will feel the spirit, you will feel the Holy Ghost. We have no hidden agendas to corrupt you, or I've I I've been in the church my whole life, and I I've never had to worry about church corrupting me or making me a terrible person or taking advantage of me. I feel very safe in the church. And that's not to say that terrible stuff hasn't happened, but it's it's by and large very rare. People in the church are generally sincere followers of Jesus Christ and with simple faith and testimony. They try their best to read the scriptures and they try Bible included, uh, and they try to follow Jesus Christ's teachings. If every six months there's a general conference, and you can listen to all how many hours, eight hours of general conference, and uh be uh just instructed to be more Christ-like. How is this a bad thing? How is this such a bad thing? It's sometimes so confusing to people of my faith to hear like your uh church is demonic, your your beliefs are evil, like it's so it's so uh confusing to us why somebody would think that. And so I I challenge anyone that thinks they know me through one simple video that what I need, I ask you to go talk to a member, find a member of the church, ask them sincerely what their life is like, what they feel about Jesus Christ. Don't try and correct them, just learn from them. What do they feel about Jesus Christ, and how does that impact their daily life? I that's my invitation to you. Go find someone, a friend, and you know what? I would love to be your friend. I would love to be your friend. You know, the the commenters that are that disagree with me but are respectful and kind, I would love to be your friend. I don't know if I'd love to be the friend that says that that is just like attacking me. But you know what? Maybe we could be friends. I have a suspicion that if you really got to know me, we could be civil acquaintances at worst, but we could be friends, and we can disagree on on whatever you know theological things there are to disagree on and still have a lot in common. Most importantly, loving Jesus Christ and trying to follow him. I don't hate you. I I just I want you to know that I don't I don't hate you because you might have a common. I'm not my son said dad, don't don't retaliate. I just laughed. You guys, you don't I'm not gonna retaliate. I'm not I don't feel that at all. Okay. Um I I actually like that people have strong convictions. I I wish there was more truth behind them and more more like hey, like let's talk instead of just kind of talking past each other. So thank you for watching the last episode. I hope this uh this has been it's already gotten long, so I hope it hasn't been a waste of your time. Again, I'm trying to be real, I'm trying to share who I am, I'm trying to share my testimony. I still believe Joseph Smith is a prophet. I know he's got a complex history that's challenging to understand, but the most important part I know, and that's he's a prophet because of my testimony, because of my asking God and his confirmation that it's true. So if that offends you, you're not the first to be offended, but I want to be your friend still, so leave more comments and be nice in the comments, you know, if you feel like you can stomach being nice about it, and let's keep talking. I appreciate you guys tuning in, and uh that'll do it for today. So thank you so much. We'll see you next time.