Review ⁠— Seekers Wanted

A fun anecdote I started telling people this past year is that if I could give you any two pieces of advice, they would be:

• Don't have back pain. Seriously, it sucks.
• But even more importantly, do whatever it takes to gain or strengthen your testimony in the Restored Gospel. Whatever. It. Takes.

This week, then, I wanted to post some thoughts about this amazing book, Seekers Wanted by Anthony Sweat. I am doing this primarily because of the world we live in -- Satan is trying to use anything he can to slander the Church, and there is a need for Saints to be "Seekers" as Brother Sweat puts it, or to be the kind of Saint who actively seeks to understand that which they do not and to strengthen their faith through the study that they do. We need to be the Saints who are not afraid to do whatever it takes to strengthen (or in some cases even gain or remember) our testimonies.

I am also doing this because of a lot of what I want to post down the line. I will mention only one, and the reason it is one of the worries I have for some Saints -- I am planning on posting a review of the book Joseph Smith's Seer Stones sometime down the line.

I am worried about what some people may think about it, because there are some Saints -- who I believe are faithful Latter-day Saints who have simply missed the mark -- who believe there is a conspiracy within the Church Historical Department (and possibly even higher up) to mislead us into believing that Joseph Smith used a seer stone, as if it were to detract in any way from the divinity of the Book of Mormon. Instead of using the new research that these faithful scholars are publishing and the increased number of historical materials that we now have in our possession as a jumping off point, these people do not want to try to understand, and so they do not ask, so they cannot receive (see 2 Nephi 32:4 for one such promise in the scriptures). That is why before I move on with my blog, I want to make others aware of this book, so you can learn about all of the resources you have available to you and how to sift through the countless resources available to use and find out the information that you need for yourself.

(For those who may be wondering if I am exaggerating about the "Church History conspiracy," I am sad to say I am not. There are a considerable number of people who do believe the Church is leading us astray with that and other extremely trivial matters. It worries me that these Saints are believing that of our dear Prophet and others the Lord has called. And so, to any who may read these words, I want you to know that I know that we are not being led astray by the Brethren. It will only take a brief look at the wonders that has happened under their direction in the past few months to know that.)

Brother Sweat tackles a few issues in this book to help his readers make study more valuable. As this book is yo help cultivate "The skills you need for the faith you want," he walks the reader through using many sources like the Church History Library's website and allows the reader to use that as a springboard. Some of the materials he included (and others that I would include for anyone interested):

• Book of Mormon Central
• Gospel Topics Essays
• Church Histroy Library 
• Joseph Smith Papers
• BYU Religious Studies
• LDS Scripture Citation Index
• Webster's 1828 English Dictionary
• Other translations of the Bible (it's okay, don't worry)
• FairMormon
• The Interpreter Foundation
• 1830 Book of Mormon (you can read it online at the Joseph Smith Papers website, or on the ScripturePlus app released by Book of Mormon Central. Replicas are also available to purchase, which make an amazing addition to any bookshelf.)

I won't go into too many details about this book. One part provides us with ample examples of resources we can use to study and how to determine what sources are most accurate, which is the part of the book that at the time most stood out to me. Brother Anthony Sweat goes into great details throughout this small book to help people understand that questions are okay! That is what makes this gospel so great. We thrive off of questions in the Gospel when we treat them the right way. But if we allow those to fester into doubts and bitterness because we do not want to seek an answer from the Lord, we only are setting ourselves up for failure.

The Lord has provided us with so many opportunities in this day and age to learn His Gospel. We truly are blessed to have all of these wonderful resources, and so we are able to draw closer to Him.


As a final note, not necessarily about this book, moving on in this blog, I want to focus more on the Prophet Joseph Smith, especially focusing on his theophany in a grove of trees near his home. I will of course talk about things beyond that, with special topics such as the Book of Mormon and its miraculous translation. This year as a whole, however, I will try to focus my posts around those two topics.

For now, may God bless you, and have a wonderful day!