How did the Savior treat people who were doubting? Part 1 of 3

The Savior Showed Compassion

I love to read the stories of Peter in the New Testament. He showed enduring commitment striding with imprudent impetuosity. His faithfulness kept pace with his overzealousness. As the events of his life unfold in the scriptures, I see a person yearning to follow the Savior and willing to accept the refinement offered by Him. One particular episode exhibits Peter’s exuberance and demonstrates Christ’s compassion.

Jesus was preaching in Nazareth, His hometown. The people were “astonished” at His “wisdom” and “mighty works” because they saw Him as nothing more than another child in the neighborhood. Rather than being impressed by the growth, maturity, and spirituality of “the carpenter’s son,” they were “offended” by Him. Consequently, the Savior “did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”[1]

While being misjudged by the hometown crowd, Jesus received devastating news that broke his heart. John the Baptist had been beheaded by the order of Herod. Jesus sought solitude and “departed thence by a ship into a desert place apart.” When people learned of His whereabouts they “followed him on foot out of the cities.”[2] Although this was a time of grief for the Savior, when He saw the multitude He “was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick” and miraculously provided food for the crowd of more than 5000 (Matthew 14:14). At this point in the story, Jesus sent the twelve apostles ahead in a ship while He dismissed the multitude. Afterward, the Savior again sought a moment of private prayer in a mountain. By the “fourth watch of the night” (sometime between 4:00 and 6:00 am) the Savior came walking on the water to the ship, which was “tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.”[3] Here is the part of the story where a grief-stricken Christ showed compassion in Peter’s moment of doubt:

And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?[4]

I suppose the Savior could have left the sinking Peter to struggle in order to teach him a lesson. But He didn’t. He immediately and compassionately “stretched forth His hand, and caught him.” Elder Neal A. Maxwell eloquently described what ought to be our compassionate response to others in distress, “When, for the moment, we ourselves are not being stretched on a particular cross, we ought to be at the foot of someone else’s—full of empathy and proffering spiritual refreshment.”[5] This is how the Savior responded. He showed compassion, not just during times of convenience, but while He was grief-stricken and dejected, and even more touching toward the end of his life, while He Himself was being stretched on a cross.[6]

When we see a loved one struggling with doubt, we should respond with compassion, just as the Savior did when Peter doubted. Elder Richard G. Scott reminded us of the power of showing compassion and love to others when we want to help them:

We must be sure to sincerely love those we want to help in righteousness so they can begin to develop confidence in God’s love.

…Remember, loving them is the powerful foundation for influencing those you want to help.

As a companion to that love, trust them. In some cases it may seem difficult to trust, but find some way to trust them…Every child of God in mortality chose the Savior’s plan. Trust that given the opportunity, they will do so again.[7]

Compassion, love, and trust are key qualities of a Christ-like character. A compassionate, loving, and trusting response to those who are doubting can go a long way in helping them work through their doubts. People experiencing doubts often feel unworthy or sinful. Showing compassion, rather than being judgmental, can give them confidence that they are ok, that they have someone who understands and who will patiently walk beside them as they work through their troubling doubts. Jesus compassionately treated those who were experiencing doubts. We should follow His example.

Our compassion toward those who are doubting can be brought to the forefront of our behavior by remembering two things. First, doubts are evidence of belief. A person must believe in something in order to have a doubt about it. Second, as Elder Scott counsels, the person with doubts once chose to follow God’s plan. Therefore, we can trust that our loved ones who are doubting still possess a spark of belief and, consequently, may still be inclined to once again choose God’s plan just as they did in premortality.

Compassion stems from understanding. The more we know about the person and understand their circumstances, the more compassion we’ll have for their struggle with doubt. People don’t just wake up one morning and decide to leave the Church. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught “Some of our dear members struggle for years with the question whether they should separate themselves from the Church.”[8] Those years can be agonizing and our compassion can help ease their agony.

In the summer of 2013, just after I gave a presentation at BYU Education week on dealing with doubts, I received a phone call from a man who had left the Church. He had seen a news article about my presentation and wanted to share his experiences with me. He told me that it took him years to decide to leave the Church. He remained active in attending church but was inactive in his beliefs about the truthfulness of the Church. He described to me how he agonized for years over whether or not he should leave the Church. The Church was not only his religion, but it was his culture, his history, his personality, and indeed a part of who he was. Can you imagine the anguish and distress this type of decision caused him?

We don’t want anyone to leave the Church, especially at those critical moments of doubt when there is so much in the Church that could help. But, it may come to the unfortunate point when, as we’ve been reminded by President Uchtdorf, we must respect the agency of those who doubt. “It may break our hearts,” he said, “when their journey takes them away from the Church we love and the truth we have found, but we honor their right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience, just as we claim that privilege for ourselves.”[9] Let’s do all we can to help those experiencing doubts before they get to that point.

The story of the man on the phone is an unfortunate one. I pray that it is an anomaly to our general behavior as Saints. He related to me some of the things that happened once he decided to leave the Church. He knew he was not being faithful to the covenants he made in the temple and so he worried that wearing the temple garment was hypocritical. When he decided to stop wearing the garment, he was criticized by at least one member for being hypocritical. This was surely a difficult “no-win” situation for him.

He recounted how, once he stopped attending church, the behavior of his family and neighbors who were members of the Church changed. His children were not invited to family activities, he was no longer invited to neighborhood golf outings, and anonymous persons left Church magazines, with specific articles marked for him to read, on his doorstep in the night. He described one Christmas season when an empty plate wrapped in plastic with a card was left on his doorstep. The note on the card read something like, “Just as this plate is empty of sweet-tasting treats, so you’re eternity will be empty of sweet things if you remain inactive.” None of these behaviors helped. All of them made it easier for my phone-calling friend to stay away from those he once thought were his friends and the Church he once embraced.

Hopefully, this kind of episode in the history of our collective behavior as members of the Lord’s Church is rare. The Savior withheld judgment and criticism and showed compassion to those who were doubting, and we should too.

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[1] Matthew 13:54–55, 58.

[2] Matthew 14:13.

[3] Matthew 14:24–25.

[4] Matthew 14:26–31.

[5] Neal A. Maxwell, “Endure It Well,” Ensign, May 1990, p. 33.

[6] John 19:25–27.

[7] Richard G. Scott, “I Have Given You an Example,” Ensign, May 2014, pp. 33–34.

[8] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Come, Join with Us,” Ensign, November 2013, p. 22.

[9] Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Come, Join with Us,” Ensign, November 2013, 22.

Dealing with Doubt

The Need

My first opportunity to help people who were experiencing doubts about the Church was a failure. I hadn’t prepared myself to be of comfort to them or to resolve the issues that caused their doubts. It was my first year teaching seminary at Granite High School. One student after another came to class one day holding a piece of paper with quotes by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other early Church leaders. “Did the Prophet really say this Brother Marsh?” they asked with doubt manifest in their voice, their face, and their countenance. They received the papers from a man who stood across the street. He knew exactly where to stand and what time the students would be coming to seminary. He was preying on young minds with budding testimonies. His devious intent was to dowse their faith by igniting doubt. I later learned that he was notoriously known by my more veteran colleagues to travel from seminary to seminary in the western United States.

Nevertheless, I was of no help to my students. I could only tell them not to worry about such matters. To be honest, the quotes troubled me a little too, but I took my own counsel. As the day wore on, however, I became more concerned, angered, and troubled—concerned for the tender testimonies of my students, angered at a man who made it his life’s career to travel the country to destroy the faith of young people, and troubled that I could do nothing to dispel the nascent doubts emerging in my students’ hearts.

My inability to help my students at that time was actually the result of a deliberate decision I made years earlier. I had promised myself never to read anti-Mormon literature. I felt it was a waste of time and that it would detract from my sole purpose and chosen career—to help people learn doctrine and strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ.

As I discussed my experience and feelings with my wife, she, with her ever-present Eve-like intuition, suggested we do some research to find the truth behind the quotes. What we discovered in the process strengthened our conviction of the gospel and the Church. It provided insight into the tactics of those who attempt to weaken the conviction of Church members and impede the conversion of investigators.

The Multitude

The lone man across the street, distributing one paper at a time in the early 1980s, has become a multitude of people in the 21^st century, armed with the capacity to circulate sophistry throughout the world. Their myopic musings inundate the Internet and are easily discovered by a generation of tech-savvy youth who surf the electronic waves for knowledge. When young and eager minds encounter this distorted information, small pebbles of doubt begin to form. Without the wisdom and experience of knowing how to decipher truth from falsehood, those pebble-sized doubts rapidly develop into huge stumbling blocks which destroy faith and lead to mistrust in the Lord and the leaders of His Church.

It has become abundantly clear that the tsunami of misinformation saturating the Internet has created an era in Church history when most, if not all members of the Church are experiencing doubts and questions about the Church on one issue or another. President Thomas S. Monson verified this in 2011, stating, “As we go about living from day to day, it is almost inevitable that our faith will be challenged…Increasingly, some celebrities and others who…are in the public eye have a tendency to ridicule religion in general and, at times, the Church in particular. If our testimonies are not firmly enough rooted, such criticisms can cause us to doubt our own beliefs or to waver in our resolves.”[1] The Church is responding by providing transparent information about some of the troubling issues. But perhaps just as important, if not more so, is helping people become self-reliant in seeking truth. Those who are confident and independent in their ability to discover truth and detect deception can survive the onslaught of sophistry. The Lord promised us “whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived.”[2]

The Help

Not long ago my wife and I were talking with a couple, some dear friends, whose faith was challenged and who eventually left the Church because of doubts about its truthfulness. They explained that each time they encountered troubling information they put it on a mental shelf. “Over time,” they said, “the shelf became overloaded and broke.” My wife asked our friends what issues troubled them. They listed some that were common to many who are dealing with doubts today – Race and the Priesthood, Joseph Smith and polygamy, issues surrounding the Book of Mormon, and the Church’s position on same-sex marriage. What was interesting to my wife and I was that we too had encountered the same information and yet we were able to resolve our concerns and continue active in the Church. The way we went about resolving the issues strengthened our testimony of Jesus Christ, His Church, and His leaders, and filled us with confidence that we could work through any doubt or question.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, “All the easy things that the Church has had to do have been done. From now on, it’s high adventure, and followership is going to be tested in some interesting ways.”[3] We seem to be in an era of Church history when doubt is a prevalent test of followership. People all around us are experiencing doubts. It might be a spouse, a child, a dear friend, or even a leader in the Church. For some, it is a momentary uneasiness and they move on. For others, it is an agonizing experience that separates them from the Church.

Future posts will include ideas for you to help others you love who are dealing with doubts and questions about the Church. My wife and I taught these ideas to our own children who grew up as part of that tech-savvy generation who know how to find anything about everything on the Internet. I hope they will help you too.

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[1] President Thomas S. Monson, “Dare to Stand Alone,” Ensign, November 2011, p. 60.

[2] Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:37.

[3] “The Old Testament: Relevancy within Antiquity,” in A Symposium on the Old Testament [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979], p. 12).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke to the Church Educational System personnel last Friday. I wanted to share a few excerpts from his talk that I thought were meaningful and very applicable in our day.

“Be not afraid, only believe” (Mark 5:36).

…“The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most certain, the most secure, the most reliable, the most rewarding truth on earth and in heaven, in time and in eternity. I ask you to teach that nothing, not anything, not anyone, not any influence will keep this Church from fulfilling its mission and realizing its destiny set from before the foundation of the world. Ours is that failsafe, inexorable, indestructible dispensation of the fullness of the gospel.

“…The momentum that began in upstate New York two centuries ago, will continue to roll forth, unabated and undeniable –Daniel’s stone cut out of a mountain without hands. That scriptural kingdom will be triumphant and it will prevail. Unlike every other era before us, this dispensation will not experience an institutional apostasy, it will not see a loss of priesthood keys, it will suffer a cessation of revelation from the voice of Almighty God.

“Individuals will apostatize. They may turn a deaf ear to heaven. But never again will this dispensation collectively do so. What a secure thought that is. What a day in which to live. What a way to cut through fear or faint-heartedness.”

(Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Address to Religious Educators, Friday, February 6, 2015. I transcribed this quote from the video. The text is not yet available. I hope I got it right. The punctuation may be different, but the words, I think, are pretty accurate. When the printed talk is available you can check the accuracy.)

Excommunication

Excommunication is a true principle included in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Although it may not seem immediately intuitive to say this, excommunication is not a bad thing, at least not when we understand it as more than simply an unfeeling effort to deprive someone of his or her membership. The Lord Himself teaches it and abides by it. He also revealed it to His prophets in every dispensation and expected them to abide by it. There are sound reasons for and specific blessings that stem from excommunication.

Excommunication Taught in Every Dispensation

The principle of excommunication has been taught in every dispensation throughout scriptural history. Jehovah told Moses, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book” (Exodus 32:33). During His mortal ministry, the Savior taught that those who “become a transgressor…shall be cut off” (JST Mark 9:42). The apostle Paul explained that the Corinthian Saints were to “put away from among [themselves] that wicked person” (1 Corinthians 5:13).

When Alma first encountered sin and rebellion in the Church, the Lord told him, “whosoever will not repent of his sins the same shall not be numbered among my people,” then added, “and this shall be observed from this time forward” (Mosiah 26:32). Two to three decades later, Alma’s son found that within the Church “the hearts of many were hardened, and their names were blotted out” while at the same time “many withdrew themselves from among” the Church (Alma 1:24).

When the Savior ministered among the people of the American continent, he spoke of those who would not repent. He counseled them to “not cast him out from among you, but ye shall minister unto him and shall pray for him unto the Father” nevertheless “if he repent not he shall not be number among my people, that he may not destroy my people” (3 Nephi 18:30-31). Moroni recorded that the members in his day “were strict to observe that there should be no iniquity among them; and whoso was found to commit iniquity, and three witnesses of the church did condemn them before the elders, and if they repented not, and confessed not, their names were blotted out, and they were not numbered among the people of Christ” (Moroni 6:7).

In our dispensation, at least four times in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord teaches the principle of excommunication. A declaration of our beliefs, canonized by a unanimous vote on August 17, 1835 states, “We believe that all religious societies have a right to deal with their members for disorderly conduct” and can “excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from them their fellowship” (Doctrine and Covenants 134:10). While we must acknowledge that excommunication is an unpleasant and unhappy occasion, it is nonetheless a necessary principle of the gospel.

It is abundantly clear that those circumstances that brought about a need for excommunication in dispensations past are prevalent in the Church today.

Something that is not often acknowledged by people who are excommunicated, or by those who support them, is the persecution they inflict on the faithful members of the Church. In Alma’s day, it “was a great trial to those that did stand fast in the faith” and they, unfortunately, had to bear “with patience the persecution which [was] heaped upon” the faithful (Alma 1:25). Joseph Smith explained, “Renegade ‘Mormon’ dissenters are running through the world and spreading various foul and libelous reports against us, thinking thereby to gain the friendship of the world” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, “Beware the Bitter Fruits of Apostasy,” p. 322). Members today will experience the same circumstances and have the same need to bear with patience the persecution.

Sound Reasons for Excommunication

At first glance, it may seem contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ to excommunicate a member. It may even appear as an unloving practice. After all, we are encouraged to invite everyone to come unto Christ, become His disciple, and join His Church. After doing that, why would we want to take away a person’s membership? In reality, excommunication is a principle of the gospel that shows God’s love for all of His children. It is an indication to the one excommunicated that his or her behavior has gone beyond the bounds of what is appropriate for those who want to be disciples of Jesus Christ and faithful members of His Church. It is a way to admonish us according to our sins when we are unwilling to repent (see Mosiah 26:39). It is, or should be, an alarming wake-up call to the person, and to those who sympathize with the person, that his or her behavior as a member is seriously out of order. Excommunication can be seen as a last resort to save us from the ingeniously deceptive grasps of the adversary and the eternal consequences of a rebellious disposition.

The Lord has a standard He wants His disciples to live up to. He calls them laws or commandments. In modern revelation he defines commandments as directions, saying, “I give unto you a new commandment, that you may understand my will concerning you; Or, in other words, I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation” (Doctrine and Covenants 82:8–9). While He allows for weaknesses and mistakes as we learn to follow His directions, He has limits to the things we can do. Brigham Young said it best when he taught, “It is given to us, as agents, to choose or refuse…but we are agents within limits; if it were not so there would be no law” (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 224). Excommunication does not usually happen unless a person has been warned of their behavior and taught what is expected.

In the Old Testament, Jehovah said he would “blot out” the names of those who sinned against Him. The phrase “blot out” comes from the Hebrew word “machah” which carries the connotation of separating someone who has develope a “warlike” spirit (see Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, “machah,” H4229). This is usually the case with those who apostatize. They tend toward a “warlike” attitude both before and after they have been excommunicated. The Prophet Joseph Smith put it this way, “Those who have associated with us and made the greatest professions of friendship, have frequently been our greatest enemies and our most determined foes; if they became unpopular, if their interest or dignity was touched, or if they were detected in their iniquity” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, “Beware the Bitter Fruits of Apostasy,” p. 322).

Blessings that Stem from Excommunication

There are at least four specific blessings that result from excommunication. First, it is a clear signal to people that they have a solemn need to repent. It provides an opportunity for sinners to transform their behavior to more fully resemble the directions, laws, and principles taught in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Second, excommunication protects the innocent and unwary. It provides a way for other members to escape deception. Those who may have sympathized with or who perhaps even began to follow the teachings and behaviors of the one excommunicated can now see clearly to avoid taking an erroneous path themselves.

Third, excommunication protects the integrity of the Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a good name and reputation. If it is to be attractive to those who do not belong to it, it must be kept clean and worthy of that name and reputation. On more than one occasion the Lord declared , “Behold, mine house is a house of order…and not a house of confusion” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:8; 88:119; 109:8). The Prophet Joseph Smith once said, "So long as unrighteous acts are suffered in the Church, it cannot be sanctified, neither can Zion be redeemed" (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, p. 187).

Fourth, when Church leaders fulfill their responsibility to keep the Church clean, peace and prosperity among Church membership are realized. Once Alma followed the directions given him by the Lord to excommunicate the unrepentant, he was able to “regulate all the affairs of the church; and they began again to have peace and to prosper exceedingly in the affairs of the church, walking circumspectly before God, receiving many, and baptizing many” (Mosiah 26:37).

We can experience the same blessings in our day as Church leaders fulfill the difficult, yet necessary, responsibility to regulate the affairs of the Church, which sometimes involves excommunication.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Perhaps the most important truth we can learn in this life is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Nothing else in life really, ultimately, matters if we don’t have a testimony of this one truth.

Since that is true, it would seem reasonable that one of the paramount things Jesus would do during His mortal ministry would be to testify and show, in every possible way, that He was the divine Son of God, the promised Messiah who would save the world from sin and spiritual captivity.

When I read the New Testament with this one idea in mind many, if not all, of the stories in the four gospels make more sense. This is a perspective, or a skill if you will, I have used as I study the stories recorded in the New Testament. I read the stories and ask myself: How do the events and words in this story testify to me of the divinity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of the world? What do I learn about Him and His divine nature?

New Testament Examples

In Matthew 1:1–16 a lineage is provided. Then in verse 17, Matthew talks about their being 14 generations from Abraham to David, from David until the carrying away into Babylon, and from Babylon to Christ. I think it is significant to note that there are only 13 generations listed from Babylon to Christ. So why did Matthew include the genealogy and then conclude it with a miscalculated summary?

Immediately following his declaration of three sets of 14 generations, Matthew told of the birth of Christ. It was as though he was trying to tell them something about this special baby. Indeed, he was trying to help the Jews connect their ritualistic sacrifices with the birth of the Son of God.

The number 14 had tremendous spiritual significance to the Jews. At a certain time of the year during their annual celebration, the children of Israel spent eight days making sacrifices (Numbers 29:12–34). On each day, the number of sacrifices would change, except the sacrifice of 14 lambs. And those lambs were to be the firstborn and without blemish, as deliberate foreshadowing of the promised Messiah, the Only Begotten Son of God in the flesh.

Matthew was, in essence, saying to the Jews of his day, “You sacrifice 14 lambs each day once a year at a holy meeting each year to remind you of the coming of Jesus Christ. This baby who is born of Mary is the fulfillment of those prefiguring sacrifices.”

Once I saw this insight, that seemingly out of place genealogy made more sense and became more than a list of generations from Abraham to the birth of Christ. It became a testimony of the divine Son of God condescending to take upon Himself flesh and blood.

As another example, in Mark 11:12–14 and 19–26, we read the story of Jesus cursing a fig tree. This seems so contrary to His divine nature. After all, this was one of His creations. It seems so wasteful, especially in light of the fact that it wasn’t even time for the fig tree to bear figs (Mark 11:13). So, why did the Lord do this?

The next morning, the disciples were captivated by the swiftly-withered tree. It was certainly a great way to get their attention. They were ready to listen to whatever the Lord had to say and he did teach them of doubt and belief and of prayer and forgiveness. But it seems less than satisfying that the Lord would go to such great lengths only to provide an enchanting object lesson.

In reality, this was one of many, many ways the Lord tried to teach about who He was. He was telling them, and showing them, that He was the Son of God, who had power over all things, including to save them.