Wintry Doctrines

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Wintry Doctrines

• www.kevinhinckley.com

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Finally, after 150 years
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Edward Hunter Home site

• Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have
  received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy
  from heaven and a voice of truth out of the
  earth glad tidings for the dead a voice of
  gladness for the living and the dead
• Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause?
  Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren
  and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts
  rejoice, and be exceedingly glad
• Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye
  valleys cry aloud and all ye seas and dry lands
  tell the wonders of your Eternal King!
  Section 128

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Question

• In the midst of tribulation, what have you found
  makes the difference between trust and despair?

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Anne Morrow Lindbergh

• I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If
  suffering alone taught, all the world would be
  wise, since everyone suffers.
• To suffering must be added mourning,
  understanding, patience, love, openness, and the
  willingness to remain vulnerable."
• (Quoted in A Disciples Life, Chapter 2, Bruce
  Hafen)

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Apostle Paul

• "Of the Jews five times received I forty
  stripes save one.
• Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I
  stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night
  and a day I have been in the deep in
  journeyings often,
• in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in
  perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the
  heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the
  wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among
  false brethren
• in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often,
  in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold
  and nakedness" (2 Cor. 1124-27).

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Elder Neal Maxwell
He has already suffered for our sins and pain

• When we take Jesus' yoke upon us, this admits
  us eventually to what Paul called the
  'fellowship of Christ's sufferings'
  (Philippians 310). Whether illness or
  aloneness, injustice or rejection...our
  comparatively small-scale sufferings, if we
  are meek, will sink into the very marrow of
  the soul. We then better appreciate not only
  Jesus' sufferings for us, but also His matchless
  character, moving us to greater adoration and
  even emulation.
• "Alma revealed that Jesus knows how to succor us
  in the midst of our griefs and sicknesses
  precisely because Jesus has already borne our
  griefs and sicknesses (see Alma 711-12). 
• He knows them firsthand thus His empathy is
  earned. Of course, we do not comprehend it fully
  any more than we understand how He bore all
  mortal sins but His Atonement remains the
  rescuing and reassuring reality." (Ensign, May
  1997, p12)

Therefore, He knows What we will suffer
Therefore, He knows How to prepare us
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Elder Neal Maxwell

• There are in the gospel warm and cuddly
  doctrines, and there are some that are just
  outright wintry doctrines. These doctrines
  are true, but we avert our gaze from them,
  because we dont wish to contemplate
  them
• Sometimes the Lord hastens His work in our
  spiritual development by a compression of
  experiencesSometimes the best peoplehave the
  worst experiencesbecause they are most ready to
  learn.
• A Disciples Life, Chapter 2

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Tribulation

• False Assumptions-
• 1- We Can avoid tribulation if we are
  good enough

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Sister Fronk

• If we hold the belief that God will
  shield us from tribulation because of
  our obedience and then adversity strikes,
  we may be tempted to accuse God of not
  hearing our prayers or, worse, that He
  doesnt honor His promises. Obedience to God
  is not insurance against pain and sadness.
• Some unpleasant things just come with this
  telestial turf. Challenges have always been
  included in Gods great plan to test our faith,
  to stimulate in us growth, humility, and
  compassion. Heartache and struggle were divinely
  designed to stretch us to where we have nowhere
  else to turn but to God.
• (In the world ye shall have tribulation, BYU
  Devotional, April, 2004)

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Tribulation

• False Assumptions-
• 2- We cant avoid tribulation because
  we are too bad.
• Doh! moments

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Tribulation

• False Assumptions-
• 3- We can heal all our tribulations
  with our own efforts.

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Elder Neal Maxwell

• Speaking to the Apostles in His final moments
  before Gethsemane, Jesus said, In the world
  ye shall have tribulation, but be of good
  cheer I have overcome the world (John
  1633).
• How was it possible for the Twelve to be of
  good cheer?
• The unimaginable agony of Gethsemane was about to
  descend upon Jesus Judas betrayal was imminent.
  Then would come Jesus arrest and arraignment
  the scattering of the Twelve like sheep the
  awful scourging of the Savior the unjust trial
  the mobs shrill cry for Barabbas instead of
  Jesus and then the awful crucifixion on Calvary.
  
• What was there to be cheerful about? Just what
  Jesus said He had overcome the world! The
  atonement was about to be a reality. The
  resurrection of all mankind was assured. Death
  was to be done away withSatan had failed to stop
  the atonement.
• But a Few Days (Salt Lake City The Church of
  Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1983), 4

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Neal Maxwells phone message to Truman and Ann
Madsen

• Truman and Ann, this is Neal. You've been so kind
  to inquire and to write. I feel deprived of a
  chance to talk with you personally but wanted to
  tell you how much I love you.
• We're in this interesting valley, and hoping we
  can get extracted, with the key things that my
  body needs to produce, which can't come from the
  outside. . . . We're not releasing the hospital
  number, but I may try again to get to you. This
  is Wednesday afternoon about 325. I love you
  both so much.
• It's the kind of experience pause in which I
  need some tutoring and yet, at the same time, a
  tired chuckle, I won't mind when the course is
  over. We love you.