In What Ways Will the Lord Try and Teach Us

Heavenly Father wants to give us every opportunity to do what is right.  Because of this, He will use different methods of teaching those who have varying levels of receptivity to Him.  The highest level is to be taught personally by God. The next highest is to be taught personally by Christ. The level just below that is to be taught by the Holy Ghost. Next are angels, holy men and scriptures, which are used to preach repentance and also to teach. If that does not work, the Lord sends natural disasters and calamities to help people repent. If that proves unsuccessful, they are delivered into the buffetings of Satan.  See the scripture references below for a more thorough study of this concept.

D&C 43:24-26 states:
24 O, ye nations of the earth, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!
25 How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not!
26 Behold, the day has come, when the cup of the wrath of mine indignation is full.

God

  • D&C 76:62
  • Joseph Smith History 1:17-19
  • Matthew 3:17
  • Matthew 17:5
  • Mark 1:11
  • 3 Nephi 11:7

Jesus

  • Ether 3:13,19-20
  • 1 Nephi 11:1
  • 3 Nephi 10:12
  • Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Three 1838-39, p.150
    Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions-Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn.
  • 3 Nephi 11-27

Holy Ghost

  • John 14:26
  • 2 Nephi 32:3-5

Just Men/Scriptures/Angels

  • Mosiah 23:14-19
  • 2 Peter 1:13
  • 2 Peter 3:1
  • Mosiah 18:18-19
  • Mosiah 3:13
  • Alma 4:19
  • Ether 7:23
  • 3 Nephi 6:20
  • Moses 5:58
  • Index, “Teacher”
  • 1 Nephi 3:29
  • Mosiah 27:11
  • Joshua 1:8
  • D&C 1:37-39
  • TG, “Scriptures, Study of”
  • Moroni 7:29-31,36

Natural Disasters/Calamities

“The Lord said they would not heed that warning voice no more than they had heeded the warning voice of his servants. But I want to call the attention of the Latter-day Saints, and indeed if I had the power, the attention of all the world to the fact that God is speaking through the elements. The earthquakes, the sea heaving itself beyond its bounds, bringing such dire destruction as we have seen arethe voice of God crying repentance to this generation, a generation that only in part has heeded the warning voice of the servants of the Lord.
Melvin J. Ballard, Conference Report, October, 1923, p. 31. (Italics added)

  • Ether 9:29-35
  • 1 Nephi 2:24
  • Mosiah 1:17
  • 2 Nephi 5:25
  • Helaman 11:3-8,15,34
  • Alma 10:19-27
  • Alma 25:6
  • Helaman 10:6
  • 2 Nephi 26:4-6
  • D&C 87:6
  • 3 Nephi 8-10
  • Enos 1:23

Satan

  • Moses 6:15
  • D&C 78:11-12
  • D&C 82:21
  • D&C 104:9-10
  • Mormon 5:18
  • 2 Nephi 28:21-23

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