Send us Fan Mail

If baptism is essential for salvation, why have billions of God's children lived and died without ever having the opportunity?

What if that isn't a flaw in God's plan? What if we've misunderstood the timeline?

In this episode of Faithful Misfit, we explore a fascinating possibility: Maybe God's plan was never designed for everyone to enter His covenant during mortality. Maybe this life is about receiving bodies, exercising agency, and gaining experience, while God patiently establishes and gathers a covenant people to help bring His entire family home.

Using Jacob 5's allegory of the olive tree, the Abrahamic covenant, missionary work in the spirit world, temple ordinances, and the Millennium, we explore how these seemingly separate doctrines might fit into one extraordinary picture.

What if being God's chosen people isn't about being more special—but about being given a responsibility to bless everyone else?

And what if the greatest gathering of God's children is still ahead of us?

This isn't a declaration of doctrine. It's a faithful exploration of a possibility that might change the way we understand God's plan, the purpose of Israel, and the destiny of His children.

Because maybe God's plan isn't behind schedule. Maybe we're just earlier in the story than we think.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us Fan Mail

In 1911, a young man secretly entered the Salt Lake Temple and took dozens of unauthorized photographs of its interior. Those photographs eventually ended up in the hands of a businessman who thought he had something incredibly valuable—something the Church would pay to keep hidden.

President Joseph F. Smith had a different idea.

What followed is one of the strangest episodes in Latter-day Saint history: secret photographs, an attempted payoff, a New York theater presentation, James E. Talmage, and the Church ultimately publishing its own photographs of the temple for the world to see.

But this story raises a bigger question:

Why are we sometimes embarrassed by the unusual parts of our faith?

Seer stones. Angels. Temple clothing. Baptisms for the dead. Miracles. Revelation. Prophets. Sacred ordinances. Yeah—Latter-day Saints believe some unusual things.

Maybe our response shouldn't be to hide them, sanitize them, or nervously explain them away.

Maybe sometimes the best response is simply:

“Yep. We believe that. Want to know why?”

In this episode of Faithful Misfit, we explore the difference between sacred and secret, confidence and defensiveness, and faith and embarrassment—and why difficult questions about our religion don't have to frighten us.

Because you can't blackmail someone with something they're not ashamed of.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Send us Fan Mail

What can Pirates of the Caribbean teach us about discipleship?

Probably more than you’d think.

The first time you ride Pirates, everything grabs your attention—the skeletons, the cannon fire, the burning town, the pirates chasing villagers. But ride it enough times, and something strange happens: it all starts to feel normal.

And that raises a much bigger question:

What have we gotten so used to that we don’t even notice it anymore?

In this episode of The Faithful Misfit, we explore the power of normalization—how repeated exposure can make the remarkable feel ordinary, the dangerous feel harmless, and even the miraculous feel mundane.

That works in both directions.

What harmful things has our culture repeated until they barely register anymore? And as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, what incredible truths, blessings, ordinances, and experiences have we seen so often that we’ve forgotten how extraordinary they really are?

From Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean to scripture, modern discipleship, and everyday Latter-day Saint life, this episode is an invitation to look again at the things we’ve stopped seeing.

Because sometimes the problem isn’t that God has stopped doing remarkable things.

Sometimes we’ve just ridden the ride too many times.

"Upbeat Forever" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/