Eli H. Trejo
Religion 431
1:00 pm class


Comprehensive Summary:
    The Savior has always been the protector of those who would accept His protection.  There seems to be no end to the Savior’s desire to lead us to safety.  And there is constancy in the way He shows us the path.  He calls by more than one means that it will reach those willing to accept it.  And those means always include sending the message by the mouths of His prophets whenever people have qualified to have the prophets of God among them.  Those authorized servants are always charged with warning the people, telling them the way to safety.
    In our own time, we have been warned with counsel of where to find safety from sin and from sorrow.  One of the keys to recognizing those warnings is that they are repeated.  One of the ways we may know that the warning is from the Lord is that the law of witnesses, authorized witnesses, has been invoked.  When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention and fill our hearts with gratitude to live in such a blessed time.  Looking for the path to safety in the counsel of prophets makes sense to those with strong faith.
    When we reject the counsel which comes from God, we do not choose to be independent of outside influence.  We choose another influence.  We reject the protection of a perfectly loving, all-powerful, all-knowing Father in Heaven, whose whole purpose, as that of His Beloved Son, is to give us eternal life, to us all that He has, and to bring us home again in families to the arms of His love.
    The choice not to take prophetic counsel changes the very ground upon which we stand.  It becomes more dangerous.  The failure to take prophetic counsel lessens our power to take inspired counsel in the future.  God offers us counsel not just for our own safety, but for the safety of His other children, whom we should love.  There are a few comforts so sweet as to know that we have been an instrument in the hands of God in leading someone else to safety.  That blessing generally requires the faith to follow counsel when it is hard to do.
    Sometimes we will receive counsel that we cannot understand or that seems not to apply to us, even after careful prayer and thought.  Don’t discard the counsel, but hold it close.

Personal Insights:
    The Lord loves us so much that he reveals his will unto us through his servants.  He really wants us to be happy and to return unto his presence.  The only way to be happy is following the Lord’s council.  However, it requires a lot of faith in our part to obey what the Lord wants us to do.
    We need to learn to put away the Natural man and trust in the Lord with all our hearts, might, and mind.  Trusting in the Lord is not only the fact of accepting that he is right.  There is only one way for us to demonstrate that we accept the Lord’s will.  When we start to act upon the knowledge that we have received from the Lord, is when we start showing unto our Eternal Father that we are accepting his will.  Most importantly, through our obedience we demonstrate that we are grateful for the guidance that we are receiving.
    A lot of times we have no problems doing the Lord’s will.  I believe that most human beings would make changes that the Lord would ask them to do through a divine manifestation like and personal visit.  However, we need to remember that when the Lord speaks through his servants is as if he was speaking to us in person.
    Following the Lord’s servants requires faith, but we need to remember that they speak the words that the Lord wants us to know.  As the Savior said in the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants “whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same.”  We have imperfect leaders but they carry a perfect message.  The Lord doesn’t want us to be only believers of his word, but He wants us to be dooers of the word.  By doing what the Lord expects of us we show unto him our love.
    We also need to remember that when we reject the Lord’s servants we are not rejecting a human being.  In fat, we are rejecting the Lord of Lord and King of Kings and for that we will be judged. We need to be humble to take the council from those that have been call to represent the Lord.
    Even though we might not understand why God give us certain commandment we need to remind ourselves that his understanding is a lot better than ours.  Hi knows the end from the beginning and everything that he does has the purpose of bringing the immortality and eternal life of his children.

Questions/Items to Discuss:

• I would like to discuss the Hans Mill massacre example used by Elder Eyring.
• I would like to discuss the concept of "second witness" in General Conference talks.