Satan will try to thwart the work of the Lord on all fronts. He will try anything in his power to dissuade people from accepting truth. We know the work of the Lord will move forward, like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands until it covers the whole earth. Unfortunately as we read from Lehi's dream previous, hear from other prophets, and see in our own lives, many will be deceived and fall away.
"Yes, within the Church today there are tares among the wheat and wolves within the flock. As President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., stated: “The ravening wolves are amongst us, from our own membership, and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood. We should be careful of them.” (CR April 1949, p. 163.) The wolves amongst our flock are more numerous and devious today than when President Clark made this statement."
"President McKay has said that 'the Church is little, if at all, injured by persecution and calumnies from ignorant, misinformed or malicious enemies. A greater hindrance to its progress comes from faultfinders, shirkers, commandment-breakers, and apostate cliques within its own ecclesiastical and quorum groups.' (Era, December 1967, p. 35. See also, Conference Report, October 1967, p. 9.)"
"Not only are there apostates within our midst, but there are also apostate doctrines that are sometimes taught in our classes and from our pulpits and that appear in our publications. And these apostate precepts of men cause our people to stumble."
"Christ taught that we should be in the world but not of it. Yet there are some in our midst who are not so much concerned about taking the gospel into the world as the are about bringing worldliness into the gospel. They want us to be in the world and of it. They want us to be popular with the worldly even though a prophet has said that this is impossible."
President Ezra Taft Benson. Conference Report April 1969
President Joseph F. Smith also stated many years previous:
“There are at least three dangers that threaten the Church within, and the authorities need to awaken to the fact that the people should be warned unceasingly against them. As I see these, they are flattery of prominent men in the world, false educational ideas, and sexual impurity.” ( Gospel Doctrine, pp. 312–13.)
Satan will try to thwart the work of the Lord on all fronts. He will try anything in his power to dissuade people from accepting truth. We know the work of the Lord will move forward, like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands until it covers the whole earth. Unfortunately as we read from Lehi's dream previous, hear from other prophets, and see in our own lives, many will be deceived and fall away.
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