PROVO — The best way to learn the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to test it.
That was the admonition from President Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to some 20,000 church members from Spanish Fork and Salem who filled Brigham Young University's Marriott Center on Sunday.
President Hinckley also reminded those attending that times are perilous, both politically and economically.
"The forces of evil wash across us like a flood," he said. More challenges are ahead. They can't be foretold, but God will protect those who are true and faithful, he said.
"We may suffer a curtailment of our liberties," the church leader said. "But peace will sustain us if we are true and faithful."
Quoting Brigham Young, the pioneer LDS leader who led the settlement of Utah and other Western states, President Hinckley said that every principle that God reveals comes with its own conviction of truth. To gain that conviction, one need only test the principle, President Hinckley said.
President Hinckley cited many LDS beliefs that can be tested through prayer and by living the concept, including:
The LDS concept of the Godhead that says God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate but eternal beings. He noted that the LDS concept of the Godhead makes other religions regard the faith as "outside the fold" of Christendom. He said unlike other religions, the LDS concept doesn't come from councils or discussions but from the appearance of Jesus Christ and God the Father to the boy prophet Joseph Smith, the only time on record that that has ever happened.
The validity of the Book of Mormon, one of the official scriptures of the church.
The validity of the church's priesthood. Members can test it by living the standards of the order. It was the power by which the world was created, President Hinckley said, and the power to officiate and act in the name of God. He said living priesthood standards makes men better husbands and better and kinder fathers.
The law of tithing. "Live the principle. Pay the tithing," he urged while telling how every couple in a BYU married ward paid a full tithing because they "needed the blessings."
Doubts about the Word of Wisdom, the church health principle, can be similarly resolved, President Hinckley said. "I'm getting to be an old man. If I had smoked I'd have died 15 or 20 years ago. I'm going to keep going as long as I can," said the 92-year-old leader.
President Hinckley also discussed the church's family home evening concept, a church principle since 1915. "We're losing it somewhat," President Hinckley said. Church members who doubt it, should do it, he said.
He also counseled the audience to attend the temple, the most sacred of LDS buildings, and if any have become unworthy to attend it, to "straighten up your lives and become worthy."
Finally he counseled members that those who doubt the efficacy of prayer should get on their knees and pray. President Hinckley said he is convinced prayer ended the drought in Chile in 1969 and could end the drought here.
"Plead with the Lord," he said, "and fast and pray."
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