Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Australia and New Zealand recently had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Keith Erekson and Dr. Melanie Riwai-Couch, both from the Church History Department, to better understand Church history and how to answer gospel questions.
Keith-Erekson-Australia-Visit
Keith Erekson speaks to group about Church History.© 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Speaking to groups of youth, young adults, and parents, Melanie Riwai-Couch said, “For many people, having a question about a gospel topic means that you lack faith or have a weak testimony. Actually, it means that you are curious and want to strengthen your faith and testimony. We want to overcome the stigma that asking questions is a bad thing.”
Keith Erekson taught, “We all have questions. It is normal. When we want to answer a question, we need to seek for as much information as possible, to gain understanding.”
He shared how the Gospel Library app is an excellent tool to find information for over 280 gospel and Church history topics. Under the Church History portion of the app, there are sections for Church History Topics and Gospel Topics Essays.
Keith-Erekson-Australia-Visit
Keith Erekson answers questions from the audience about gospel topics.© 2024 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.Dr. Erekson went on to say, “However, there will be times when you cannot find all the information. It is okay to say this is what we know, what we have records of, and acknowledge that we don’t have records for some things. We need to be careful to not fill in the information gaps with our own thinking or beliefs. People have a tendency to fill in the gaps by using the phrase, ‘The reason this happened in history . . . it must have been because . . .’ We do not need to make up answers. It is fine to say, ‘We don’t know.’”
Erekson said that the people from history are not around to explain things. History does not change, but access to information does. Access to new information, i.e. personal journals, meeting minutes, private collections, etc., help us to gain a greater understanding of history.
He said that the main character in Church history is Jesus Christ. Discipleship involves thinking, study, prayer and service. Jesus can offer peace without clarity. Jesus Christ helps us make peace with the past and helps us build our faith for the future.
