Latter-day Saints’ Q&A Introduction

In this video, I introduce my video series, “Latter-Day Saints’ Q&A” where, as an independent voice, I will respond to criticisms of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with abbreviated, easily understood clarifications while also providing source and reference links for those desiring further study of the topics. In addition, I will also be posting “Evidence” videos of faith promoting information witnessing to the truthfulness of the Restoration.

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Latter-Day Saints’ Q&A is a video series not produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but by me, an ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an independent voice, with a passion for studying Church history and defending the faith. In this series, I address tough questions posed by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and offer faithful answers based on accurate research and historical references which will be posted at the end of each video.

Hello, this is my first YouTube video for the new YouTube series that I’m starting with this channel called Latter-Day Saints Q&A or Tough Questions Answered For Latter-Day Saints. I felt inspired to do this. I had been thinking about doing something on social media for the last year, answering different critical questions or giving thoughts about different critical questions about different topics dealing with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and at a recent conference, the FairMormon Conference held in August 2018, there was a visiting General Authority of the conference, Elder Pearson, that spoke to us. I’m going to share a quote from something he shared with us. He says, “It is essential that members create and promote online content that effectively communicates what the Church believes in clear and authentic, engaging ways, especially on some of the most prevalent search topics. Access to understandable answers to critical questions and concerns can help correct misunderstandings about the church and remove stumbling blocks to faith. It can also level the playing field for the sincere truth seeker to find and recognize truth in a world increasingly hostile to faith.”

And he did actually recommend YouTube as a great channel to produce material. It’s the number two search engine he mentioned for youth and young adults when they’re searching for different topics and as I was reviewing some of the topics I wanted to discuss, I did find that it was heavily skewed to the negative, probably a hundred a one, it felt like as I was looking through the different material out there at this point, so there is a great need to have more voices in this space. I do have a passion for this. It’s not like I’m a great scholar or something, but it has been a hobby for many decades since I went on a mission in the Bible Belt. I had to deal with many critics of the church back then and I’ve kept up the studies on many of these topics over the years and do love to address and talk about the different topics and share my views and opinions on them.

This isn’t anything that’s sponsored by the Church in any formal way, shape or form. These are my opinions, but I look forward to sharing them with you. It has been recommended that the videos be short. The optimal length for a YouTube video sounds like it’s in the four to eight minute range from what I’ve researched. So I’m going to try and keep these videos in that range. I also would like to share positive things as well. Instead of just defending the faith, I would like to share powerful evidences of the faith as well. So every time I address a question or do a video on something where I’m addressing a critic’s question, at the same time, I’m going to simultaneously release something positive, another video as well, on an evidence based for the restoration. So, and in that vein, I wanted to share a quote from Elder Holland at the BYU Chiasmus Conference in August of 2017.

He said, “My testimony to you tonight is that the gospel is infallibly true and that a variety of infallible proofs supporting that assertion will continue to come until Jesus descends as the ultimate infallible truth of all. Our testimonies aren’t dependent on evidence. We still need that spiritual confirmation in the heart, but not to seek for and not to acknowledge intellectual, documentable support for our belief when it is available is to needlessly limit an otherwise incomparably strong theological position. We ought to be more assertive than we sometimes are in defending our testimony of truth.” And he also shared a quote from the English cleric Austin Farrer who… I love this quote as he talked about C.S. Lewis and other defenders of the faith, the Christian faith. He said, “Though argument does not create conviction, lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.” And that’s one of the goals I have with these videos.

Again, I want to try and keep them short, in the four to eight minute range, and that will be the most challenging part of doing some of these videos. Some of these topics, I feel like I won’t be doing justice with that timeframe. So I’m going to do more of a cliff notes version and hope that that will provide enough resources for somebody that wants to get a quick synopsis of the topics and some of the questions and answers that are there. And in the description below, I will link different resources to go deeper on the topics, especially because of trying to keep the video so short. I want to provide some of my favorite resources for the various topics and I just encourage you to hit the subscribe button as we go forward with the video content in the future. Thanks.

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Latter-Day Saints’ Q&A is a video series not produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but by me, an ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an independent voice, with a passion for studying Church history and defending the faith. In this series, I provide evidences for the restoration, and address tough questions posed by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, offering faithful answers based on accurate research and historical references which will be posted at the end of each video.