It is an honor to stand before you at this podium today! For the past seven years, I have worked behind the scenes with a team of dedicated BYU-Idaho employees and students who make this weekly devotional possible for us to be edified with one another. I pray the Spirit will help you learn what you need today that you might draw closer to our Savior.
In Joseph Smith—History, we read about the prophet Joseph’s search for truth in his youth. He said:
There was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. . . . Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, “Lo, here!” and others, “Lo, there!” Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist. (Joseph Smith—History 1:5)
Two hundred years later, our world may not sound so different. There may not be tents with preachers all over Rexburg or your hometown, using flattering language to lure us in to become parishioners of a particular sect, but many proclaim to have the truth. If we turn to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, podcasts, and the like, we will find many individuals who claim to have it all figured out.
Just as young Joseph wasn’t sure which church contained all the truth, many people today are looking for someone they can trust to tell them the truth. Some sources will have convincing arguments to win over minds with the philosophies of men that can be quite persuasive.
But how can we know who holds the truth? How do we decipher what is actually true versus what we want to be true?
As Elder Kyle McKay asked us in his devotional last week, “Is your knowledge and testimony of truth strong enough that you can stare down compelling reasons to doubt and choose to believe?” 1
Today I would like to share three ways in which each of us, like a good news reporter, can and should seek the truth—the truth to our purpose of life on this earth.
First, be watchful and heed warnings.
Second, rely on trustworthy sources.
Third, seek the spiritual gift of discernment.
Be Watchful and Heed Warnings
A good reporter is observant of what is going on around them. We must always be on our A game, my friends. We need to watch what is going on around us—in our homes, our workplaces, and our communities.
When I worked as a reporter for a local news station in south Texas, my news director assigned me to cover a high-profile case in federal court. The sheriff was facing some serious charges on money laundering and drug smuggling. But covering the courtroom case provided a challenge. Phones were not permitted in the federal courtroom. However, I received permission from the judge to take a laptop and tweet out anything I saw or heard in the courtroom. I was the eyes and ears of the community in that room. I was the one entrusted to communicate what was going on. But it wasn’t just what was said into the microphone that I could share. I was also able to observe the behaviors and demeanors of those on trial to tell the whole story. How did the defendant respond to witnesses? What did the judge say? Did the jurors physically show how they felt about the testimonies? I had to focus intently on observing everything that was said or shown in the room so that I could convey to the public what was happening.
Likewise, we must be observant so we can discern between truth and error. In one of his October 2022 conference addresses, President Russell M. Nelson shared the following warning:
The adversary has . . . disturbing tactics. Among them are his efforts to blur the line between what is true and what is not true. The flood of information available at our fingertips, ironically, makes it increasingly difficult to determine what is true. . . .
Many on earth today “are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12). Some would have us believe that truth is relative—that each person should determine for himself or herself what is true. Such a belief is but wishful thinking for those who mistakenly think they will not also be accountable to God.
Dear brothers and sisters, God is the source of all truth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces all truth that God conveys to His children, whether learned in a scientific laboratory or received by direct revelation from Him. 2
The Savior himself foretold the days prior to his second coming, the latter days in which we are living, that “false Christs, and false prophets” would show “great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they [would] deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). The Lord did not say it would be easy to tell the difference. He said the elect would be deceived.
In addition, the prophet has warned us, and his warning has been repeated numerous times both in general conference and at this pulpit: “It will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.” 3
Brothers and sisters, we have been warned. Are we heeding the prophet’s counsel?
In his Fall 2019 BYU Devotional that was broadcast live in this auditorium, President Nelson taught the students:
Some things are simply true. The arbiter of truth is God—not your favorite social media news feed, not Google, and certainly not those who are disaffected from the Church. . . .
Many now claim that truth is relative and that there is no such thing as divine law or a divine plan. Such a claim is simply not true. There is a difference between right and wrong. Truth is based upon the laws God has established for the dependability, protection, and nurturing of His children. Eternal laws operate in and affect each of our lives, whether we believe them or not. 4
Believe me, as someone who has had to closely watch the public conversations on social media for my employment, you most definitely cannot believe everything you read on Twitter or everything you watch or learn on YouTube or TikTok.
Some information, no matter how convincing or appealing, is simply not true. So, what sources do we turn to that we can rely on to discover the truth?
This leads me to my second point.
Rely on Trustworthy Sources
On this week’s devotional discussion board, I asked, “Who or what are sources you can trust and why?” I also walked around the Crossroads and asked the same question to students here on campus. Here is what they shared with me:
Brett: Who or what is a source you trust and why?
Student: I think the first person that came to my mind is my dad. Just because he’s always been there for me, and he’s always a person I can talk to.
Student: I really trust my mother. That’s the source that I trust. Whatever she says, I truly believe it. And I’ve followed a few things that she’s said, and it’s never been wrong.
Student: I really trust the scriptures. It’s the things that … has told to us. So for me it’s a nice source to keep my everyday spiritual life.
Student: I’d say my new student mentors from the summer semester when I first started out. They always were there to help me out; they always had really good advice for just about anything that I wanted to do.
Student: Obviously my Heavenly Father because I feel like having a relationship with Him is so important, and if anything is good it comes from Him.
Student: It’s God. I’ve been through a point in my life where, you know, I was away from God and the gospel and stuff, and things did not go very well. So just really going back into reading the Bible and really trying to go wherever He takes me. He’s the number one for me right now.
Student: I trust the prophet. I’ve gained a testimony that he is a prophet of God, and he receives revelation for the world and for me. So I trust him and what he says.
Student: I trust my dad. He has the answers to everything.
Student: For me, a source of trust is my parents for sure. But the Savior. Jesus Christ is the center of all in the gospel, so we can receive revelation, and we can know He’s been there for us; He knows how we feel and all the things that we do. So what better than Him that knows everything? And we can have Him as a guide to actually have success in life.
I appreciate all who participated. I love to hear that students are seeking knowledge and guidance from trusted sources.
Growing up, I loved to watch the news, both morning and night, on the family TV—because back in the olden days the internet wasn’t fast enough to play videos.
When I was 10 years old, I even mimicked a broadcast reporter by using my family’s camcorder for a fourth-grade history report.
I really developed a love for the news, and I trusted everything on my family’s favorite local news channel to be 100 percent correct. It was part of the news station’s brand identity.
Most local TV news stations have slogans that you may recognize—such as: “Where the News Comes First,” “Local People Local News,” “Action 4 News,” and my personal favorite, “News You Can Trust.”
Who wouldn’t want to learn from “news you can trust”?
I watched these TV news anchors and reporters nearly every day. I didn’t know them personally, but I trusted them to tell me the truth about what was taking place in my community and around the world.
But one cannot blindly put all their trust in their favorite sources of news and information. Like the prophets before him, Joseph Smith looked to God—not man—for direction in life.
Nephi said, “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm” (2 Nephi 4:34).
Nephi had to go through some tough times, dealing with some murmuring brothers along the way, but he put his trust in the Lord, and in the end he was blessed with what truly mattered.
So how do we trust the Lord to lead us to the truth with every question we ask?
Many times the “truths” we tell ourselves are only portions of the truth—perhaps we haven’t yet discovered the entirety of the truth—and sometimes it isn’t the truth at all.
It is important that we learn to distinguish what is a personal conviction and what is an absolute truth. Do we just believe something because it makes sense or is convenient for us? Or do we reject a truth because it would require us to change, reevaluate, or admit that we were wrong?
The thing about truth is that it is still true even if someone doesn’t believe it.
As President Nelson taught, the adversary would like us to think that truth is relative, that there is “your truth” and “my truth” living in equal harmony, to appeal to our sense of tolerance and fairness. But by allowing everything to be true, the adversary keeps the real truth—God’s truth—hidden.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared:
Latter-day Saints are not asked to blindly accept everything they hear. We are encouraged to think and discover truth for ourselves. We are expected to ponder, to search, to evaluate, and thereby to come to a personal knowledge of the truth. 5
While the fullness of the gospel is contained within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it does not mean we have already discovered all truth or have the answer to every question. In fact, one principle of the restored gospel is our belief that God “will yet reveal many great and important things” (Articles of Faith 1:9).
We must “continually seek truth from all good books and other wholesome sources.” 6
“If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things” (Articles of Faith 1:13).
I’d like you to consider, where do you seek after these things?
In 2018, when many of you were youth, President Nelson warned you:
If you are paying more attention to feeds from social media than you are to the whisperings of the Spirit, then you are putting yourself at spiritual risk, as well as the risk of experiencing intense loneliness and depression. 7
We will find good when we go about doing good! Not acting as merely a consumer, a “user,” or allowing ourselves to be acted upon.
We will need to make righteous judgments (Matthew 7:1, footnote a) that will not mislead us away from the truth.
In the Gospel Library under Gospel Topics, we learn about making righteous judgments. It states:
We will need to make judgments of ideas, situations, and people throughout our lives. The Lord has given many commandments that we cannot keep without making judgments. . . . We need to make judgments of people in many of our important decisions, such as choosing friends, voting for government leaders, and choosing a spouse. 8
We must judge the motivation of those from whom we seek answers. Are they motivated by money, fame, and power, or by charity, love, and salvation? As we look to the Savior, prophets, the scriptures, and righteous parents and loved ones, we can trust the motivation of their guidance.
We live in a day when those we sustain as prophets are not always well received. But President Nelson assured us whether it is accepted by the world or not, the prophets and apostles of the church will continue to teach the truth.
Sometimes we are accused of being uncaring as we teach the Father’s requirements for exaltation in the celestial kingdom. But wouldn’t it be far more uncaring for us not to tell the truth— not to teach what God has revealed?
It is precisely because we do care deeply about all of God’s children that we proclaim His truth. We may not always tell people what they want to hear. Prophets are rarely popular. But we will always teach the truth! 9
And now my last point.
Seek the Spiritual Gift of Discernment
With so much information available to us, it has never been more important to learn how to correctly discern between truth and error. And yet, throughout history many people have struggled to find truth based on the false narrative they have been taught by tradition, society, or culture.
For example, the Nephites and Lamanites had their own versions of the “truth” or their perceptions about each other. The Nephites’ “truth” about the Lamanites was that they “were a wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people” (Mosiah 10:12) who wouldn’t accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lamanites’ “truth” about the Nephites was that Nephi had stolen his brother Laman’s birthright. The Lamanites believed the Nephites continued to rob them of what was rightfully theirs—land and power (see Alma 20:13). These “truths” in their eyes fed their hatred for one another until it led to their mutual destruction. 10But was what they both believed to be true the reality?
Just like in our own lives and how we view other people, we can learn from the Book of Mormon that many preconceived notions may turn out to be false.
Four years ago, in his BYU-Idaho Devotional Address, Elder Jack Gerard warned us of how artificial intelligence could be used as a tool by the adversary to deceive:
Each of us must learn to live in this fast-changing world where technological advances challenge our fundamental ability to discern with our eyes or ears—our natural senses—what is real and what is not. We have arrived at the point where technology can easily create alternative false realities. . . . While technology advancements have been a great blessing to humankind, they can also be turned to uses that pose a serious challenge to our ability to assess truth from error, right from wrong.
We must use the spiritual gift of discernment to discover what is really true.
Many people who come to my office will see this photo hanging up on my wall and awe at how cool it is that I was on the cover of the New Era Church magazine. I will often let them keep talking about it for a moment before revealing that it’s a fake. At EFY, I took a picture in front of a large backdrop that looked like the front cover of the magazine. I then cropped and printed it in such a way that makes it look real.
This is a reminder that sometimes we can’t see the whole truth or have all the information needed to make a righteous judgment. While I’m not suggesting that we pray over every post we read online, we can have a constant prayer in our hearts, asking the Holy Ghost to speak to us and help us discern truth from error, good from bad.
As we heard read by Rachel Ostler at the start of the devotional, the prophet Jacob taught in the Book of Mormon that “the Spirit speaketh the truth and lieth not. Wherefore, it speaketh of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be” (Jacob 4:13).
I testify that God speaks to prophets today as well.
In his 2018 conference address entitled, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives” President Nelson said, “If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation.”
The prophet has asked us to strengthen our ability to hear the word of the Lord through His prophets and personal revelation. What are you doing that will help you know what voice to listen to? Are you asking God?
Moroni teaches us that after we receive knowledge and ask God through prayer, He will let us know “if these things are not true.” He promises us that if we ask “with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto [us], by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost [we] may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:4–5).
The Holy Ghost is our guide in mortality if we seek answers from God amid the confusion and contradictions of the world. The Spirit will bring impressions to your mind and feelings to your heart so that you might “feel that it is right” (D&C 9:8) and thus will also know what is not right. But we must also live the gospel to receive that spiritual confirmation. As we learn and receive information, whether of a spiritual or academic nature, we must work to learn of its truthfulness by asking the Spirit to confirm the truth of it to us.
“He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things” (D&C 93:28).
As we follow the Spirit, live the gospel, and experiment on the word, we will find the truth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
The apostle Paul warned the early saints from creating their own doctrine or “truths” if you will:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3–4)
Living the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ will not always be the easy way. It may not always fulfill our physical needs, take away our trials, or give us what the natural man may desire.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf shared, “This may not be the most convenient way; it will probably also be the road less traveled, and it will be the path with mountains to climb, swift rivers to cross, but it will be His way—the Savior’s redeeming way.” 11
He may not always answer our prayer when we want him to or take away the pain immediately. He has not come to lift the load from us, but to carry it with us side by side as we are yoked together through our covenants.
I’m sure Nephi would have rather been untied earlier when the storm was raging on the sea, 12 Joseph Smith would have rather not been imprisoned at Liberty Jail, 13 and Daniel would have probably rather never been thrown into the lion’s den. 14 But it was in those moments that they all learned to trust in the Lord as their source of truth and strength.
We come to BYU-Idaho to continue to develop as disciples of Jesus Christ. We must look to Christ to help us discern truth, overcome the fallen world we live in, and give us eternal life. As we do, we will become the leaders we need to be for the Lord to accomplish His work in our hearts, our homes, the Church, and the communities in which we live. He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
Many of us are still building our faith from its small “seed” form. 15 If it hasn’t yet been, your faith will be challenged. When faith needs strengthening, there is none other than the Savior Himself to turn to, for He is the truth. It is when we turn to Him that we learn what faith can truly bring us.
You are each here today because you are searching for the truth. I pray that you may always continue to do so throughout your life because as you do, our Savior, the truth, “[will] make you free” (John 8:32).
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen..
Notes
- Kyle S. McKay, “A Sure and Certain Foundation,” BYU-Idaho Devotionals, Apr. 25, 2023, https://www.byui.edu/devotionals/elder-kyle-s-mckay.
- Russell M. Nelson, “What Is True?,” Liahona, Nov. 2022, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2022/11/19nelson.
- Russell M. Nelson, “Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” Ensign, May 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2018/05/sunday-morning-session/revelation-for-the-church-revelation-for-our-lives.
- Russell M. Nelson, “The Love and Laws of God,” BYU Speeches, Sept. 17, 2019, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-m-nelson/love-laws-god/.
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “What Is Truth?,” BYU Speeches, Jan. 13, 2013, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/dieter-f-uchtdorf/what-is-truth/.
- Ibid.
- Russell M. Nelson, quoted in Marianne Holman Prescott, “President Nelson Tells Youth to Take a ‘Break from Fake’ and Help Gather Israel,” Church News, June 3, 2018, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/news/president-nelson-tells-youth-to-take-a-break-from-fake-and-help-gather-israel
- “Judging Others,” Gospel Topics, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/judging-others.
- Russell M. Nelson, “The Love and Laws of God,” BYU Speeches, Sept. 17, 2019, https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/russell-m-nelson/love-laws-god/.
- See Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “What Is Truth?”
- Ibid.
- See 1 Nephi 18:9–16.
- See Doctrine and Covenants 121; “Liberty Jail,” Church History Topics, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/liberty-jail.
- See Daniel 6.
- See Alma 32:28; Matthew 17:20.