The Intrepid's Guide to Discovering Truth

As missionaries, we receive a lot of questions about Christianity and especially about our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ( Mormon.org ) as we have been out and about in our missionary service, we got a text from a good friend who wanted our opinion. He asked us what our thought were about the following: "Jesus taught, 'Love God with all your heart, might, mind, and strength; And love your neighbor as yourself." (Mathew 22:37-39) Why is it that Christians are so unwilling to abide by these simple principles? They delight in violence, they hate their neighbor in throwing out the immigrant, and grind the face of the poor. What's worse is that they hold to these things as theological principles! The whole religion is riddled with hypocrisy! For believers in a religion that is supposed to teach compassion, it's application is completely barbaric!  So I have three thoughts on this subject: that most people are only Christian in name, that Chri...

How many times have you heard "believe, because I told you so?" Or how many times have you heard "stop questioning and just have faith?" Such authoritarian commands paint religion into a corner of ignorant obedience without question. But we actually want to know God! We want to actually feel His love. So, how do we actually build a personal relationship with God? Is it possible? Yes! And here is how to do it. There is an element of religion called revelation. This revelation can come down the ranks of ecclesiastical authority, but more impactive to us is that God can speak to us directly. Have you ever felt that God was speaking to you? We call this personal revelation. It can be obtained through doing some simple, yet important things: 1. Start by being humble enough to pray and open up to God 2. Study as much as you can about God. Read out of the scriptures, but also read other books about God. Gather as much information as you can. Many peop...

Hi Brother,  Thanks for having us over for dinner yesterday. The food was great. I think it is awesome that you are speaking about preaching the gospel by living it. That is one of the most important principles of member missionary work there is. There are a few suggestions that I have in regards to this subject. I apologize for the length of them, but this has been something I have been thinking about a lot recently. Preach the gospel by being yourself Every member referral I have received on mission has come from members who are wiling to be themselves around people. They are not reserved or aloof, but are willing to bond with others. A great deal of self confidence is detected in a person who is willing to talk candidly about their passions or interests as well as their religious sentiments. In fact for a really deep relationship to occur, religion and beliefs are an essential element to the recipe because those kind of topics are really only reserved for peop...

Let's take a moment and consider the origin of what is called religion. Despite humanity's differences we all found our origins in the same place, in some cave or tent 10,000 years ago. We were just one family then. Our grandfather was the patriarch of the tribe. Our father was the heroic leader: first in hunting, first in war. We had cousins and relatives not a few. At night we would tell stories. Usually the glorified histories of our ancestors. "Consider," grandfather would say, "the story of the tribe." We would all listen intently for what we knew would come next.  Grandfather would lay open the genealogy of our parents. The battle of the gods. how the earth came to be. Adam, first of all men and Eve his wife. Noah and the flood. The formation of the tribe and the genealogy of the fathers. They would make us memorize on our fingers the names of our progenitors: God, Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah,...