Brad Wilcox - Why do we believe in Christ?

I'm grateful to be able to be here with you we were in the airport coming over and we ran into this couple the Thakur's and they said we're going to Rome and I said I'm going to Rome and we were on the same plane coming over but I'm only here for two days and they're here for two years and so they're going to be able to spend a lot more time with you and they're going to be able to serve you and truly make a difference here I won't have that privilege of staying for two years but I do want to be able to make a difference by sharing my testimony with you my my daughter married a boy who is from Rome he served his mission in Japan but he's from Rome his mother is Italian and she she wanted she joined the church here in Rome because she wanted her little boys to grow up and be like the missionaries she loved the missionaries and she felt like those were the kind of people that she wanted her sons to become and she had two sons at the time and both of them grew up and served missions and they're both still strong and active in the church she is also very strong and active in the church with her husband who was an American who served his mission in Italy and so my my son-in-law is Italian and they named their son Roman so my grandson is named Roman and all day long I've been seeing shirts that say Roman I love Roman I want to buy all the shirts and take them home to my grandson so I just want you to know that this is very special for me to be able to come and be in Rome and be able to be with you tonight now many people come to Rome to see the sights and it's wonderful to see all the history it's wonderful to see the beautiful artwork and the beautiful fountains but I don't come to Rome to see the beautiful fountains or artwork only I come to be able to be with you because for me Rome is not paintings on a ceiling for me Rome is you and for me Rome is not the Colosseum or the ancient Roman things for me Rome is you and when I leave I won't just have memories of the history that is here or the artwork that is here for me when I leave I will have memories of this night with you and that will be something that I will always treasure I love Rome because this is a place where early Christians gathered in small groups just like we're gathering tonight not in big huge congregations but in small groups and early Christians worshipped Jesus and that's what we come together to do to worship Jesus but I have a question for you tonight and that is why why do we believe in Christ why do we believe in Jesus I asked that question of a young man that I was home teaching and he said everybody does and I said everybody in your world does but not everybody in the world there are many people who don't believe in Jesus so why do you believe do you believe just because other people believe he says no I said then why do you believe in Christ he said it's in the Bible and I said it's true it is in the Bible but is that the only reason you believe what if somebody showed tomorrow that the Bible wasn't true then would you lose your belief in Christ and he said no I said then why do you believe in Christ and this teenager said its history ad BC the whole calendar revolves around him and I said that's true but is that the only reason you believe because we have Christian ancestors and this boy who was a Mormon boy could not give me any more reasons that's interesting because those are the same reasons that everyone gives for believing in Christ we were at Saint Peter's Square today and there were lots of people there because the Pope came to say hello to me and we were at Saint Peter's Square and there are lots of people there who believe in Christ but why why because it's in the Bible because it's history because lots of other people believe maybe mom believed and dad believed in grandpa believed in grandma believed but there has to be more to it than that we have to have more testimony than that and I'll tell you why I was in Toronto Canada where this young lady served her mission and I was speaking to a big youth group there and I was being driven around by the mission president so he stopped at the mission home to change his clothes before we went to an evening meeting and he turned on the TV to listen to the news while he was changing clothes well I got interested in the program because they were interviewing the director of a movie now some of you are way too young to remember this movie but the movie was very controversial it was called The Last Temptation of Christ and some of you may not remember that but some of you may everyone was upset because the movie showed Jesus to be very human and it showed Jesus to be very sexual and so everyone was very upset about the movie and Christians all over the world were picketing the movie theaters and they were signing they were signing papers to ask that the movie be taken away and they were on the TV shows and in the newspapers and they were very upset about this film well there in Canada the movie had just come out and the director of the movie was on the TV show so I was interested in what he had to say and the commentator said to the man I think the reason that people are upset about your movie is because it doesn't go along with the Bible's interpretation of Christ's life and he said so the Bible he says that thing has been through so many translations and every time it was translated it was translated with political money for political purposes he said if there's anything true in the Bible it wasn't even written by Christ it doesn't say the Bible by Jesus Christ says this was written by Peter James and John this was written by Matthew Mark Luke this was not written by Jesus he says those men interpreted Christ life so who's to say that I don't have the same right to interpret Christ's life as they do and who's to say that my interpretation is not just as valid as their interpretations who's to say I'll never forget the mission president coming up behind me tying his tie and saying in my ear Brad we are to say because as latter-day saints we are the only Christians in the world whose testimonies of Christ don't just rest on the Bible our testimonies don't rest on history alone our testimonies don't rest on Christian ancestry alone why do we believe in Christ because Joseph Smith saw him face to face why do we believe in Jesus Christ because we have the Book of Mormon that stands with the Bible to verify and clarify the truths of the Bible why do we believe in Jesus Christ because we have living prophets and apostles and we have the spirit that touches our spirits and lets us know that we are not wrong why do we believe in Christ because Joseph Smith saw him my son my youngest son served his mission in Japan and he's now teaching in the MTC in Bravo teaching Japanese and he said it was very interesting to go to a country where no one knew about Jesus that's not Italy in Italy everybody knows about Jesus but in Japan nobody knew about Christmas nobody knows about Easter nobody knows about the Bible they don't know about these things and he said it was really interesting to watch people come into the church not because of the Bible but because of the Book of Mormon they gain testimonies that Joseph Smith was a prophet and so they believed in the God who came to Joseph Smith now we know that that God was Jesus Christ but they would believe in whatever God came to Joseph Smith because they knew Joseph Smith was a prophet one girl at BYU came to me and she said I know Jesus is real but I don't know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and I thought if we were in Japan she would say I know Joseph Smith was a prophet but I don't know about this Jesus Christ do you see the difference and how important that difference is for us some people say yeah but Joseph Smith was just lying he just made it all up he was trying to fool people he was a con man well if Joseph Smith lied he wasn't very good at it because when we lie we try to lie so that people will believe us if if a child goes to school and doesn't have his homework done and the teacher says why isn't your homework finished the kid is not going to say aliens beamed down and took my homework into outer space no because the teachers not going to believe that instead the kids going to say my dog ate it or my mom washed it in the wash or I forgot that it was due today see he's going to say something that he hopes the teacher will believe he's doesn't lie so that people will know he's lying if Joseph Smith were lying then he would have said God came to me and God and Jesus are the same person and God and Jesus are spirit that's what Joseph would have said because then people would have believed him they would have believed what he said because that's what they believed but Joseph didn't say that Joseph said God and Jesus are separate beings and they have physical tangible bodies wow that was so far out of the realm of believability that Joseph Smith proves himself a terrible liar and a speaker of truth well I have a friend who says I don't think he lied but I think it was all in his head I think he just had a psychological experience and he didn't really see God but he thinks he saw God it wasn't real but it was real to him maybe you've heard people say that to kind of like Dumbledore when he's talking to Harry Potter after Harry Potter dies and then he says is this real he says is this in my head and he says yes it is is it real it's real to you and see people say well maybe that's what happened with Joseph Smith but they don't understand that if it was something that Joseph Smith was making up then his brain would not have been able to make up something that was not already there there's a big College word called schema it means background knowledge Joseph's mind was bound by what was already in his mind so if he had come and said I just had a psychological experience I just had a dream even though my eyes were awake it was all in my head then he would have said God and Jesus are a spirit and God and Jesus are one being because that's all he knew when Joseph Smith read the passage in the Bible that said if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God the God he was thinking about was Jesus because that's the only God he knew that's the only God he didn't know Heavenly Father and Jesus were separate he had always just learned that God and Jesus were one being and so if he had come out of the Grove and he had only had a psychological experience in his mind then that's what he would have claimed but he didn't he claimed that God in Jesus were separate beings and he claimed that they had physical tangible bodies why do we believe in Jesus because Joseph Smith saw him and because Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon now I live in Utah where kids grow up and they hear words like seer stone and Urim and Thummim and those are words that they know from their childhood in fact sometimes parents decide if they have twins they're going to name them Urim and Thummim they they are used to these words but sometimes when we live away from where the church is strong then we don't hear of these words I was in Chile and I served as a mission president in South America and the young single adults came to me and they said president we were looking on the internet and he said that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with the Urim and Thummim what's that and I said well I'm not an expert but from what I understand it was like a pair of glasses and Joseph could look through the glasses and then he could see words in English and he could read the English words to his scribe so the young single adults looked at me like this we're supposed to tell our friends that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with magical glasses how are they supposed to believe that I said well how many of you have seen a movie called national treasure it was a movie that was popular at the time and a lot of the young single adults had seen the movie well the movie said there was a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence of the United States but the only way you could see the map was by looking through magic glasses that were invented by Benjamin Franklin well I said to the young people if we would suspend our skepticism and our doubt for the same amount of time that we watched that movie and believed then we would find out that the truth about how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon is actually more fascinating fact is more fascinating than fiction well then some of the young people said yeah but in the internet it said that he didn't even use the Urim and Thummim that he translated the Book of Mormon with a seer stone what is that I said well I'm not an expert but from what I understand it's about a rock about the size of an egg it's dark in color and on one side it's very smooth and then words would appear on it and they looked at me like this we're supposed to tell our friends that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with a rock I said well how many of you have cell phones and some of them raise their hand and I said oh it's about the size of an egg it's hard it has a smooth surface and words appear how am I supposed to believe that sometimes we hear things about church history and we think it sounds weird but a cell phone is weird we don't understand why it works but we know it works we use it but we can't even explain why this works why can you call me clear across the world and we can talk how does that happen but it happens the young single adult said but president Wilcox is said that he would put the stone in a hat that he would put it in a hat and then he would read it inside of the Hat why did he do that and I said we'll just go outside on a bright day and watch people with their cell phones today I was trying to take pictures at st. Peter's Basilica and I was going like this I wish I had a hat so that I could see it better brothers and sisters sometimes when people try to cause doubts in our mind about Joseph Smith we need to remember that if it were not for Joseph Smith we would not have a clear understanding of Jesus Christ we would be as confused as all the other Christians in the world because we would not have a clear understanding of our Savior without the Prophet Joseph Smith why do we believe in Christ because Joseph Smith saw him and he translated the Book of Mormon and the Book of Mormon stands as another witness of Jesus Christ my parents served their mission in Macon Georgia in the United States and my mom taught little children for her whole life so she always talked to everybody like they were little children she would see grown-ups grown-up adults and she would say are you happy she would talk to everyone like they were little kids well one of their jobs was to pass out copies of the Book of Mormon to people who had called and wanted a copy after a commercial on TV or something like that so they went to one man's house and my mom said he said what do you want and my mom said this is your copy of the Book of Mormon and he said what's that and my mom said this is another testament of Jesus Christ and the man said another Testament another Testament Christ has the Bible and that's Testament enough what makes you think Christ needs another Testament and then my dad spoke up my dad didn't usually say very much because my mom did all the talking but when my mom didn't know what to say then my dad would come to her rescue and he said how many different Christian churches are there the man said I don't know twenty thirty I don't know forty my dad said that National Geographic reports that depending on how you classify an independent Christian church there's anywhere from sixty to ninety thousand Wow ninety thousand different Christian churches all understanding the Bible in ninety thousand different ways one church saying baptism isn't essential the next church saying baptism is inside your heart the next church saying baptism is sprinkling the next church saying baptism is immersion the next church is saying well baptism is is a work and you don't need it because we're saved by grace so many different interpretations of the same Bible so my dad said with that kind of confusion in the world he said why do you think that Christ would need another Testament to go with the Bible to verify that the Bible is true and to clarify its teachings why do we believe in Christ because we have the Book of Mormon with the Bible and that gives us a firm foundation why do we believe in Christ because we have living apostles and living prophets who are on the earth today I went to the church today of Saint John the Baptist and it was a beautiful church and I love the beautiful statues of all of the apostles and it reminded me of a story that was told by president void Kay packer who recently passed away he was going with president Spencer W Kimball to a big conference in Europe and they were in Denmark and in Denmark they went to the Church of Our Lady where the Christus stands the statue of Christ with his arms extended and we have copies of that statue in many of the visitors centers across the world there will be one in the visitors center in Rome now what president Packer said he didn't remember is that the same artist sculpted all the original twelve apostles replacing Judas with Peter or with Paul and so he was looking at all these beautiful statues around the side of the church and he was a he's a fine artist and so he was admiring the artwork I understand that they are going to have copies of all of those statues in the visitor center here in Rome and you'll see those same statues that elder Packer was talking about well he says that president Kimball who was the Prophet at the time called the caretaker of the church who had led them in he called him over to the statue of Peter who was sculpted as he is in art with keys in his hands I saw him today in the in the church we went to and he had keys in his hands and president Kimball said to the caretaker do you see those keys and the caretaker said yes and he said I hold those keys he said this pointing to elder Packer this is a living apostle these he said pointing to the statues these are dead apostles but this is a living apostle we are so blessed to know that our testimonies of Jesus do not just rest on the testimonies of men who live 2,000 years ago our testimonies of Jesus rest on the shoulders and the testimonies of men who are alive today and who have the same apostolic calling the same Apostolic witness the same apostolic testimony why do I believe in Christ because those men know him because they are his servants and because I know that they are alive today and they bear a living testimony of Jesus finally why do we believe in Christ well because we have the spirit that touches our spirits and it lets us know that we're not wrong in believing in Jesus Christ we're not wrong wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a visit today from Moroni wouldn't it be great if all of a sudden we saw an angel you'd be so excited you'd be like whoa an angel I mean he pillar of light flowing robes trumpet we'd be so excited we'd be like sign your book sign your book we'd be so happy because we'd see an angel and that would be cool because then you could go home and all your friends who didn't come to the fireside you could say we saw an angel and they could say oh shoot I wanted to see an angel how come I didn't get to see an angel say you're just not as good as us wouldn't that be fun it would be great but if that experience were not accompanied with the spirit we would forget it no if I saw an angel how would I forget that well if you saw an angel and all it did was impress your eyes and your ears then you would forget it the same way you forget everything that goes in your eyes and your ears see you learned a lot of things in school that you can't remember now you used to learn all the math facts and now you have to have a calculator see we forget the things we learn with our physical senses but when the spirit goes through those physical senses and it talks to our spirit inside then we have an experience that we never forget because the spirit teaches our spirit and then we know in a very special way in a way that changes our lives forever I share one last story tonight and that's a story that was one I had the chance to go to a youth conference and it was in a place called Hawaii and it's where BYU has a university there and they had all of the youth come from all over and they were there in the University and we were there to speak to them one boy was there but he wasn't there to have a spiritual experience he was there to cause problems his name was Jack and they called him Jack the Ripper which is a very negative name because it's talking about a guy who used to murder people and they he was causing all kinds of problems and he was he was causing all kinds of trouble and I thought why did he even come to the youth conference because he's not there to be spiritual so why did he come one of the leaders said he drove his truck off of a mountain and it ruined the truck and his dad said that he would only help him pay for it if he went to the conference and so he went to the conference but he was not there for the same reason as some of the other teenagers well I kept looking at this kid and I kept thinking there's got to be a way to break through the wall that he had built around himself he was tough and he was mean and I kept thinking that's always a put-on it's always a show and that underneath that there had to be something else so I kept looking for the opportunity to be able to reach this young man to talk to him well finally we went to the cafeteria and I thought this is my opportunity because he got his food and he went over to a table and he sat all by himself and I thought this is my chance I can go and talk to Jack the Ripper and so I got my food I sat down right across from him and I started to try to have a conversation I said so Jack so what do you like in school he didn't say anything he just kept his head down and he was eating I said so you don't like school well I mean what about sports what sports do you like nothing he just kept eating I said well if you don't play sports then what do you do in your spare time I mean do you rob banks I what do you do and he didn't even laugh he didn't look up he just kept eating and so I was kind of running out of things to say to this teenage boy and I didn't know what he what I should do because he was finishing his food and then he was going to leave and I hadn't had a chance to really talk to him so I was fishing around for something to say and finally I said so Jack why do you wear that earring in your ear and that got his attention and he looked up and he said to bug old people like you and usually I'm pretty patient and usually I can you know usually I can get along really well with teenagers but he just pushed my button and I said oh you want to bug me well you bug me and I'll tell you why you bug me because you're not just wearing an earring you're wearing a crucifix and you're not wearing that crucifix for any religious reason whatsoever you're wearing it to mock religion and that bugs me because that cross is like the cross they killed my Savior on and that may not mean anything to you but it means a lot to me and so that's why that bugs me well he was so mad I picked up his tray and he banged it down on the table and it made a lot of noise and everybody in the cafeteria looked up and they looked over and I got scared I thought he was going to hit me I braced myself because I thought he was going to hit me and then steady just threw his tray or out across the table and he stormed out of the room and then all the leaders were looking at me like it was good we kind of hoped that you would bring youth into the church instead of driving them out of the church but that's okay I felt so bad I felt horrible and I wanted to go find him and apologize but no one could find him they even called his parents to see if he went home and he hadn't gone home he was gone I felt horrible I thought they're going to put it in the newspaper Brad Wilcox causes teen suicide I was I mean I just felt terrible and so finally the conference ended and Sunday night came and they were going to have a fireside and it was just going to be for the Deacons and the beehives just for the 12 year olds because they said you they couldn't go to the youth conference and so we want to have a fireside just for them and none of the older teenagers can come just the little the little kids so all the leaders were at the doors and they were keeping the other teenagers out and they were only letting the little ones in and the whole chapel was full of little kids and we were doing the fireside I was with a big tall basketball player and I was with a lady who was speaking and then I was speaking and right in the middle of my talk Jack the Ripper came in and he sat on the back row and all the leaders were looking at each other like he's not supposed to be here he's too old and then the other one was looking like so you go tell him because I'm not going to go tell him that he can't be here and so they were kind of looking at each other around the chapel trying to decide what to do and I just changed my talk right in the middle of my talk I just said repentance is an important principle and I started giving my whole talk to this young man on the back row who wasn't even supposed to be there well at the end of the fireside the Deacons and beehives came up to give us flowers in Hawaii they have a tradition and they'll put a necklace of flowers they call it a lei and they'll put it around your shoulders so all the little boys and all the little girls had leis and they were going to come up and they were putting them around our necks and all of a sudden Jack the Ripper starts coming to the front of the chapel and he's not going to wait behind a bunch of little kids he starts moving all the way to the front of the chapel and I'm laughing about it tonight but I wasn't laughing then I was nervous I thought he was going to hurt me in front of everyone and so I calling the other basketball player I said Clark Clark come here and stand by me right here at cuz I thought maybe he was going to try to hurt me and he came up and he grabbed my shoulders and he shook me like this and he said it's about what you said and I said I take it back I take it all back and he's reached up into his ear and he pulled out a gold crucifix and he put it in my hand and he said now don't go wearing that and I said no worries he said because that's not just an earring he said that's a crucifix and that's like the cross they killed my Savior on and that would bug me and I just hugged him I hugged him over and over and over again I cracked his back why did he believe in Jesus because of history I don't think he knew much about history why did he believe in Jesus oh because his parents were Christian his grandparents were Christian now why did he believe in Jesus because of the Bible I don't think he ever even picked up the Bible was it because of Joseph Smith I don't think he knew much about Joseph Smith the Book of Mormon I probably never read that either living apostles and prophets now I can't imagine that young man listening to General Conference why did he believe it's because the spirit touched his spirit and when the spirit touches us we are changed forever and that's why we believe brothers and sisters thank you for letting me come tonight and share my testimony with you thank you for believing we are blessed because our foundation for our testimony is so much stronger than the foundation of so many people in this city so many people in this country and so many people in this world we have a foundation that is so strong we know the God we worship we have felt of His goodness we have felt of His grace and we have felt his spirit testify to our spirits that any sacrifice that is ever asked of us is worth it because we are in truth we are in truth many churches have part of the truth but we are custodians of the whole truth the complete truth and that sets us apart it makes us very unique even special if Jesus were to come to Rome tonight if Peter or Paul were to return to Rome tonight they wouldn't go to the beautiful st. Peter's Basilica they wouldn't go to the st. Paul's Church they would come here they would meet with us in the Church of Jesus Christ ancient Christians were persecuted in this city we are persecuted in our own way we are persecuted because people see us as different but Jesus is a member of this church he got baptized in his own church Peter and Paul were members of this church and they would be here with us tonight I bear testimony that we are in the right place and I feel as close to you tonight as I'm sure Peter and Paul felt with those early Christians when they met in this same City this will be a wonderful memory that I will always take with me and this will be a memory that I tell my grandson Roman when I tell him why he has the name he has god bless you feel my love and feel my friendship I am pulling with you we're together in this work we're together in this truth and we will be together forever in this cause we know why we believe in Jesus Christ we are not confused we are strong our testimonies are strong our faith is strong and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen

Channel: Istituto di Religione - Campus di Roma

Views: 95,999

Keywords: istituto di religione, campus di roma, Brad Wilcox, Mormons, mormoni, Gesù Cristo

Id: yLHOMQUqi00

Length: 49min 56sec (2996 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/Doccreator]

6:12 is me when my sweet wife tells me we need to go to church...

[u/AbstinentPhilosopher]

The church has offered a podium to the mediocre man to feel important. Make no mistake, there’s nothing wrong with mediocrity, I wallow in it. But the church offers a platform to these uninteresting, unintelligent men to fulfill their exacerbated ego. They pretend to teach when they have NOTHING to say. I know this is a mean rant but it comes after years of listening to boring, empty, meaningless and illogical church talks.

[u/[deleted]]

Now, children...I am going to tell you about Jeeeeesussss. Thisssss isss ve-ry spe-cial. What a douchenoodle.

[u/[deleted]]

God. He is awful. Why do Mormon authorities speak down to people? Like their audience is retarded or 7 years old.

[u/toonedup]

I remember being a kid and loving--loving--his talks. Along with Jon Bytheway and the others who rode the lds elevation emotion circuit of EFY.

​

Silly me.

[u/abinadomsbrother]

What a fucking windbag.

[u/itsnotme98765]

This is painful. Makes me grind my teeth just listening to it.

• because the lie was so audacious is must be true

• he couldn’t have made it up in his head because he didn’t have the cultural conditioning to make it up in his head