Apostle Oaks’ Stunning Admission: No Conversion Experience

05 June

 Today we’re looking at an LDS Fireside Meeting from 2016 when Mormon apostle Dallin Oaks participated in a Q&A type forum with young adults here in the Puget Sound area. The meeting was recorded and uploaded on both YouTube, and SoundCloud. We retrieved our info from Stuff You Missed in Sunday School.

What he said was disturbing because it shows a lack of knowing the Lord which is sad in itself. Furthermore, his position of authority and the credence followers give to him, make it even worse.

Flagrant Disregard

One important subject matter came up in the fireside overshadowing everything else. It was LDS apostle Oaks’ admission that neither he, nor any other General Authority, ever had an experience when they encountered a ‘come to Jesus moment’ in life. In other words, they never had a time when they truly accepted Jesus as their Savior and God.

Oaks described his testimony coming about as a slow process that continued to build up over time. He equated it to when someone realizes there’s an accumulation of dust on a window sill. See excerpt at end of this article.

True Conversion

I can only speak for myself, but it’s hard to imagine that anyone who truly knows Jesus would equate their day of salvation the way Mr. Oaks has done. While the day of my salvation wasn’t as dramatic as Paul’s, there was a definitive moment in time when my life changed, and markedly so. I became a new creature in Christ — 2 Corinthians 5:17. My Damascus Road experience took place 26 years ago on March 27, 1993 — Palm Sunday.

Mormons owe it to themselves to question this self appointed apostle. Mr. Oaks’ testimony, and those of his counterparts, is left wanting. It serves as a sign there’s something very, very wrong with this scenario, and we’re praying diligently that what he said gives them pause.

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

Question (Female youth: 30:17): “My question is what should we pray for to receive this same testimony, if not, conversion that Alma the Younger experienced, for our friends who aren’t of this [church]?”

Answer (Dallin H. Oaks): “[We] missed the words Alma the Younger, without which I couldn’t understand that very fine question. What should you pray for to have the kind of experience that Alma the younger had? I don’t think you’re likely to have that kind of experience that Alma the younger had. Remember he had a miraculous experience of an angel, [and] really got hit over the head spiritually. Most of us don’t have that kind of experience. But I interpret your question Heather as being how can we get the kind of testimony he received. I don’t think we’ll get it like Paul did on the road to, where an angel appeared to him, where Alma the Younger had a startling experience.

The Lord used a few of those kinds of experiences, and they’re recorded in the scriptures to catch our attention and teach us the answer. But I’ve never had an experience like that and I don’t know anyone among the 1st Presidency or Quorum of the 12 who’ve had that kind of experience.

Yet everyone of us knows of a certainty the things that Alma knew. But it’s just that unless the Lord chooses to do it another way, as he sometimes does; for millions and millions of His children the testimony settles upon us gradually.

Like so much dust on the windowsill or so much dew on the grass. One day you didn’t have it and another day you did and you don’t know which day it happened. That’s the way I got my testimony. And then I knew it was true when it continued to grow.”

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