Hank Smith: 00:00 Hello everyone. My name is Hank Smith. I am the host of a podcast called followHIM. I’m here with my co-host, the incredible John Bytheway. John, welcome.

John Bytheway: 00:14 Hi, Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:14 We are doing a little clip called followHIM Favorite. So we don’t do the full podcast right now. We just do a little tiny clip called followHIM Favorites. The lesson this week is on sections what, 81, 82 and 83. So you get to choose your followHIM favorite. John, what is it gonna be?

John Bytheway: 00:34 Well, you know, Hank, I loved the eighties because I was actually alive in the eighties. I was in high school and they were awesome. But, you know, usually I’m trying to pick a really fun, motivating, you-can-do-it type thing. But I like verse five of section 82. Therefore, what I say unto one I say unto all–and then capital “W”-Watch. And I think watch, when you think about other scriptures, it’s the guard is a watch. I’ve got the first watch, the second watch, you’re on guard. Watch the adversary spread of his dominions and darkness reigneth. I love that little song, Follow the Prophet where they say, you know, everyone’s confused. If you don’t believe it, go and watch the news. And yeah, watch and, and I hope we are all on guard. And sometimes we have to listen to things people say and make sure- are they trying to help me or hurt me? Are they trying to build my faith or take it away? So, watch the adversary spread of his dominions and darkness reigneth. But we don’t have to be worried. We’ve got the gift of the Holy Ghost and we can discern truth from error, but the Lord’s telling us with a capital “W”, be on guard. Watch. I like that verse.

Hank Smith: 01:44 Yeah. I’ve always said to my classes back when I taught teenagers was, do not get your friends and your enemies mixed up. Right? That’s the one thing you don’t wanna do. So, who is actually for you, who actually loves you? Who actually wants the best for you? Make sure you treat them as friends. You know, sometimes we think our parents are the enemy, or the church is the enemy. They’re not They love you and want the best for you.

John Bytheway: 02:12 Yeah. One of our guests, S. Michael Wilcox that we had, he talks about the fact that the best friend that people could have had in the land of Nephi was Abinadi. And yet they defended King Noah and they killed Abinadi. They got their friends and their enemies totally mixed up. That’s a good way to put it.

Hank Smith: 02:32 Don’t do it. Don’t do it. My followHIM favorite isn’t really a favorite. So, this might–it’s what’s the opposite of a favorite? It’s a followHIM unfavorite. And the reason it’s an unfavorite for me is because I think we use this verse incredibly wrong in the church. It’s 82:7 where the Lord says, verily I say unto you, I the Lord will not lay any sin to your charge; go your ways and sin no more. And then this phrase, but unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord God. I don’t know about you, John, but I’ve been taught before that if you repent of a sin and then end up sinning again, it brings it all back. That it’s like you never repented before. I think that is a false doctrine that can be not just false, but discouraging in every way. That if we were gonna tell someone, Hey, you’ve repented make sure you never do it again, or else it’s like you never repented. All of that comes back. If you really want to discourage someone, teach them that false doctrine. Has this ever been taught to you?

John Bytheway: 03:42 You know, Hank I have a history with this verse because it frightened me a lot as a teenager. And I kind of thought after I repent, in fact, I even delayed repenting. ’cause I thought after that, I’ve gotta be perfect or it all comes back, you know? My young understanding. And I really think he’s saying the soul–unto the soul that sinneth, I think it’s a person who returns to a sinful life wholeheartedly. Okay, then maybe that’s true. But we are invited to repent. We’re invited to repent every week. We’re invited to return to the sacrament table every week. And that is a much more hopeful message that the Lord forgives and says, come back to the sacrament table. Let’s do this thing again. So, yeah, I’m glad we’re talking about that.

Hank Smith: 04:24 How many hundreds of verses do we have where the Lord says, when you repent, I will forgive? Every time. When you repent, I will forgive.

John Bytheway: 04:35 That’s what he does. I, the Lord forgive sin. Section 61 that we’ve covered, right? So thankfully he does so. So don’t take this one by itself and beat yourself up with it. Read all of the things about how forgiving the Lord’s nature is.

Hank Smith: 04:51 Yeah. One verse of scripture. Even if you think it means what it says it means, which I don’t. I think it means if you stop repenting your life can be full of your former sins and other sins. I think there’s a great parable in Matthew chapter 12 about this man who abandoned sin, but doesn’t fill his life with anything else, and a whole bunch of other sins come back with his former sins. I think the Lord is saying, Hey, when you get rid of some sins, fill it with, fill your life with really good things, or else they’re gonna come back, right? Those sins are gonna come back. That’s what I think this verse means. But even if you thought it meant that when you repent, all your sins return–one verse of scripture does not trump thousands of other verses of scripture where the Lord is talking about his love, his repentance, his mercy. He’s quick to forgive. He can make you perfect. So I hope that anybody listening today will make sure they never use this verse to beat themselves up or anyone else, especially a youth who is trying their best to overcome, you know, weaknesses and addictions and problems. So it’s kind of an unfavorite, but it’s an important one, right?

John Bytheway: 06:09 Absolutely. The Lord forgives and I’ll read all of those verses all day long and just keep trying ’cause we’ll all mess up. But we are gonna keep going ’cause the Lord has a forgiving, loving nature and all of the scriptures testify of that.

Hank Smith: 06:23 Well, we hope you’ll join us on the full podcast of followHIM. We talk about these verses and more with Dr. Matthew Godfrey, who is an incredible historian. So you can find us wherever your podcasts are located wherever you get your podcasts, I should say. Hopefully we’ll see you there soon.