To a society that has become accustomed to receiving answers to questions with the click of a mouse, having to wait for answers to gospel-related questions can be difficult, according to Mark E. Beecher, assistant area director of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Beecher addressed the importance of “Guarding your faith against doubt” during a BYU Campus Education Week session on Wednesday. "God is not Google," he said.

“As wonderful as it is to have instant information, it may not be truth and we may have to pay a price for it," Beecher said.

Beecher shared several principles to help with combating doubt and seeking truth, emphasizing that doubt is different than asking questions.

“We are warned by the Lord that gaining knowledge can lead us to become prideful,” Beecher said in reference to 2 Nephi 9:28-29.

Despite our efforts to gain knowledge and find answers to our questions, we may not receive the immediate answers we are seeking. Beecher quoted Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who called this “the church history version of ‘opposition in all things.’”

“The Church is making great efforts to be transparent with the records we have, but after all we can publish, our members are sometimes left with basic questions that cannot be resolved by study,” Elder Oaks said in his April 2016 general conference address. “That is the church history version of ‘opposition in all things.’ Some things can be learned only by faith. Our ultimate reliance must be on faith in the witness we have received from the Holy Ghost.”

Beecher discussed the importance of not letting doubt stand in the way of the faith you already have, quoting Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who said, “In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited.”

Sharing 1 Nephi 11:34-35, Beecher warned of a time when “the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the Twelve apostles of the Lamb,” and bore testimony of the importance of following church leaders.

Gaining answers to our questions requires effort and obedience, Beecher taught.

“The knowledge which we seek, the answers for which we yearn, and the strength which we desire today to meet the challenges of a complex and changing world can be ours when we willingly obey the Lord’s commandments,” President Thomas S. Monson was quoted as having said.

Still, Beecher said some questions will remain unanswered in this life. As President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said in his October 2013 general conference talk: “Some struggle with unanswered questions about things that have been done or said in the past. We openly acknowledge that in nearly 200 years of church history — along with an uninterrupted line of inspired, honorable and divine events — there have been some things said and done that could cause people to question. Sometimes questions arise because we simply don’t have all the information and we just need a bit more patience. When the entire truth is eventually known, things that didn’t make sense to us before will be resolved to our satisfaction.”

Having lost his own mother at a young age, Beecher said he looks forward to the day when he will ask Heavenly Father why his mother had to pass away and bore testimony that his question will be answered to his satisfaction. In the meantime, he quoted Camilla Kimball and said that even the wife of a prophet had unanswered questions in regard to the church.

“I’ve always had an inquiring mind. I’m not satisfied just to accept things,” Sister Kimball said in an Ensign interview in 1975. “I like to follow through and study things out. I learned early to put aside those gospel questions that I couldn’t answer. I had a shelf of things I didn’t understand, but as I’ve grown older and studied and prayed and thought about each problem, one by one I’ve been able to better understand them.

“I still have some questions on that shelf, but I’ve come to understand so many other things in my life that I’m willing to bide my time for the rest of the answers.”

Email: mjones@deseretdigital.com