On Faith and the Risk of Being Wrong

In her Saturday Morning Session General Conference talk, Sister Joy D. Jones said something that got shared around on social media almost immediately: "Eternity is the wrong thing to be wrong about." Yet, this sort of attitude almost caused me to lose my faith.

Let's say that, by your circumstances, you were forced to gamble, but you could choose which bets you were willing to take.Betting a few pennies on a coin toss is no big deal, because the stakes are so low. It hardly matters that the odds of winning are low, because it hardly matters whether you win or lose. However, the higher the stakes go, the less likely you are to be willing to take that risk. You wouldn't risk your life savings on a coin toss. The higher the stakes, the better your odds have to be to be worth taking the risk.

Now, let's say that the stakes are basically infinite. Let's say that you had to bet your life, even your soul, on something. Wouldn't you want to be absolutely certain that your were going to win that bet?

Yet, with faith, we're not completely sure. Yes, we can act like we're sure. We can be confident. But we can't really know that our faith isn't misplaced. We have faith in God and Jesus Christ, and that faith can give us confidence, perhaps even enough confidence to stake our souls on the truthfulness of the church, but Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Christians of other faiths also do the same. Anyone with faith, in any religion, believes wholeheartedly that their path is the correct one, but only one of those groups is actually right, if any of them are. What makes us so sure that our faith isn't misleading us, especially when we have to acknowledge that theirs is?

I don't have a good solution to this problem. I don't know why I should follow the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints instead of, say, the Catholic church, or some Protestant church. I don't know why I should trust President Nelson more than I trust the Pope. Yet, this is the hand I've been dealt. Now I need to place my bets on whether I've been dealt a winning hand or whether I might be better off drawing different cards from the deck.

Thankfully, I've learned that my faith doesn't have to be in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or in any other church. I don't have to bet my soul on which people are inspired by God and which people are misled and/or misleading others. I don't have to put my faith in any person or organization on the face of the earth. My faith is in Jesus Christ.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, mostly because I was born into this church, but also because this church helps me learn about Jesus Christ. I don't know for certain that the church is true, but I have faith that, as long as I try to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, His Atonement can take care of the rest.

Eternity is the wrong thing to be wrong about, but as long as we're relying on faith rather than on certain knowledge, we have to accept the risk that we may be wrong. Thankfully, I feel certain that betting on Jesus Christ is a fairly safe bet.

I don't know for certain that the church is true. I don't know for certain that Jesus Christ is my Savior. But I believe that He is, and I have faith that, if I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, everything will work out alright, even if it turns out I was wrong about some things. I'm willing to bet my soul that I'm not wrong to put my faith in Jesus Christ.