Jesus told His disciples that in the latter days, many of even the very elect could be deceived (Matthew 24:24). That means that wherever you and I think we are in terms of being elect, we’re at risk of deception. Stop and think about that. Think about how important that is to you. Is it important to you that you avoid deception – I mean really important? What would you give up in order to ensure you had the truth?
Would it be nice to you to avoid deception or is it essential? Is your job more important than avoiding deception? Are family relationships more important than avoiding deception? Is staying comfortable in your traditions more important than avoiding deception? Is there anything you wouldn’t give away to God to avoid being deceived in these last days?
One thing I’ve learned, especially over the last year or so, is that we must be willing to give up everything if we want to come to know Him – to really know Him. We must be willing to put everything on the altar for Him to teach us the truth, so that we’re not deceived. And it isn’t a one-time event. We must continually be willing to sacrifice everything we have and think we ‘know’.
I love this quote from Elder Uchtdorf:
‘Remember, it was the questions young Joseph asked that opened the door for the restoration of all things. We can block the growth and knowledge our Heavenly Father intends for us. How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?’1
Those ‘iron gates’ that prevent the Holy Spirit from teaching us will also allow us to fall into deception. This is one of the key teachings from the Book of Mormon.
At the time of Lehi, at the very beginning of the Book of Mormon, the Jews didn’t believe in direct revelation to individuals. They didn’t believe in visions and angels. So, when Laman and Lemuel later tell Nephi that they ‘know’ the Jews were righteous because they kept all of the laws and statutes of the Law of Moses, they weren’t kidding; they weren’t insincere. It’s what they really believed – just like the Jews themselves. Like others later on in the Book of Mormon and like the Jews in the time of Christ, the Jews believed salvation came by the Law of Moses. This was their ‘massive iron gate’. Consequently, they genuinely believed they were righteous. It resulted in them being deceived, and consequently destroyed. Their leaders could say, “Keep on doing the things we tell you and you’ll be fine”, and they believed them, and were destroyed.
What are our iron gates?
For me, my testimony is based on Jesus Christ as taught in the Book of Mormon. I believe, as much as I believe anything in my life, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that abiding by its precepts will get us nearer to God than any other book. I believe with all my heart in the Christ that it teaches. While I can’t fathom this as being remotely possible, I will admit that if the Book of Mormon were not true, this belief I have would be an ‘iron gate’ to me. Now, I truly believe that I’ve had multiple, incontrovertible witnesses from God that the Book of Mormon comes from Him. But if somehow I got that all wrong, it would be a real problem for me. It would be blocking me from certain truths, no matter how sincere I am in my belief.
I came across the comment the other day that someone had asked a fellow member of the church they belonged to whether they would want to know evidence that proved beyond all doubt that their church was false. The other person replied that no, they would prefer not to know. That was one of their iron gates, I suppose. Would it be one of yours?
Would you want to know if you’d been lied to your whole life about how to get to heaven? That many of the things you ‘have a testimony’ of are, in fact, lies? Would you be able to accept that?
The reason many of us are unable to accept such things is because of cognitive dissonance. We ‘know’ something, only for that so-called knowledge to be challenged by something apparently true, but directly opposed to what we ‘know’. Our natural reaction is to reject the new truth in favour of what we ‘know’, regardless of the evidence. Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable, so we usually reject anything that causes it pretty quickly.
The challenge we have is that we must discard the untruths in our lives if we are to come to Christ. And we all have untruths in our lives. For all of us, some of the things we hold most dear and maybe are even fundamental to our understanding of ourselves and of God are incorrect. If we try and build upon those incorrect ideas and beliefs, we’re building on sand, not rock.
So, the cognitive dissonance is, in reality, essential. We have to challenge apparently opposite truths. We have to wrestle with God to find Him. By that, I don’t mean we challenge God to some kind of duel; rather, I mean we have to wrestle with things we believe vs things that are true – but with God at our side. Because He will be at our side all the way. He wants you to find the truth, because He wants you to find Him. He’s reaching for you. The problem is, we are usually reaching in the wrong direction, because of these iron gates we hold so dear.
If you’ve spent years, maybe even your whole life, reaching for Him but are exhausted from the effort, inwardly crying to Him, ‘Why won’t you come to me?’, there’s a good chance you’re reaching in the wrong direction. Because I promise you, He wants to be with you, and for you to feel Him.
Yes, we are supposed to feel pain and sorrow at times in our lives – even to the degree that it might feel unbearable. But I don’t believe the Lord wants that to be a permanent state in this mortality. He also wants us to feel of His love, peace, and joy.
Too often, ‘living the gospel’ is short for working far harder than is healthy, feeling far more guilty than we should (for what we’re still not doing or not doing well enough), and believing that enduring to the end means clinging to that iron rod and ‘white-knuckling’ the ride of life.
I’ve learned that living the gospel is none of those things. If you find that this is your experience of living the gospel, then I would suggest that you hold false beliefs that are preventing you from the love, peace and joy God has for you. There are iron gates you need to remove.
The scriptures sometimes refer to these iron gates as ‘unbelief’ or false ‘traditions of your fathers’. When I prayed for the Lord to help me identify and remove the unbelief and false traditions from my life, I found He was responsive to my pleas. It sure gave me cognitive dissonance – some of which continues with me. But that was the catalyst for the joy and peace I feel in my life now.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have stresses, and trials, and pains and more. I still have my depression. In some senses it’s even caused me to grieve for the beliefs I’ve had to give up – for the things I thought I ‘knew’ but which turned out to be false. But I can now also connect every day to my Heavenly Father and feel of His love and feel rejuvenated by it.
Do you need that in your life?
If so, I encourage you to take to the Lord an earnest and sincere request for Him to help you discover those iron gates in your life. I truly believe that if you ask with real intent, He will manifest the truth to you through the power of the Holy Spirit. It will not be easy, but it will make life lighter for you in important ways.
The truth really does make you free (see John 8:32) and can make living the gospel the joy it is supposed to be.
© Copyright 2025, Jeffrey Collyer
All Things Witness 