To those who choose to follow an institution merely on the basis of “testimony“: You’ve got to be smarter than that.

Don’t just hang your hat on a charismatic. 

Don’t be schmoozed by charismatic men and women within an organization and then think that all you’ve got to do is then follow that organization. 

Never just abdicate your responsibility for thinking, reasoning, and discerning to someone else. You will not be justified in this.

Our first responsibility and our prime directive is the assimilation of truth. We are to seek out and learn to discern God’s truth. We are to search into the light of truth, even in the midst of chaos and deepest darkness, according to the power of the Light of Christ within us, even the voice of God by the voice of conscience, which is given to everyone.

We are to seek. We are to reason. We are to discern. Line upon line. Precept upon precept. Here a little and there a little, until we have received of God’s fullness.

We should not just submit to an organization, being told what to think, being told what to say, and being told what to do in all things. We shouldn’t just submit to others to be programed and indoctrinated. That is not thinking. That is not discerning. That is not searching in the Light of Truth. That is merely being dictated to. We really, really, really need to be smarter than that. 

Mindless, witless, minions of institutions are not heirs of salvation. Salvation requires a far more rigorous and proactive mentality than that.

Heirs of salvation cannot be soft. They must be tough—really, really, really tough! They must be highly intellectual, critical, inquiring, wise, and discerning. And they must be highly sensitive to the Spirit of God. You will never develop these qualities by merely following an institution. I cannot think of a single biblical prophet of God who did. Rather, they were all sigma males who opposed and warned, in condemnation of the institutions of their days. Even Moses, again and again, judged and condemned the institution he led.

I would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!

And to all you LDS Mormons out there: Do not think for a second that the LDS church is “true” because the Book of Mormon is true or because Joseph Smith was a true prophet. The LDS church has very little in common with the Book of Mormon or the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon has nothing good to say about the latter day Gentile church or Christian church. See 2 Nephi 28 and Mormon 8. Read all the Isaiah chapters that you probably do not like. You do not like what condemns you and your false prophets.

You’ve got to be smarter than that.

10 But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord—having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them.
11 Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power, and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten.

(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 1:10 – 11)

21 And now that my soul might have joy in you, and that my heart might leave this world with gladness because of you, that I might not be brought down with grief and sorrow to the grave, arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity;

(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 1:21)