By MATTHEW PARRY
President James E. Faust, second counselor in the first presidency, instructed members during the Saturday morning session of general conference to have a shield of faith to withstand Satan in a world of growing technology.
“As we move into a new era, we have only one safe course — to press forward in faith,” he said. “Faith will be our strong shield to protect us from the fiery arrows of Satan.”
President Faust said darkness prevails over the earth now as it did in the days of Christ’s crucifixion, despite the conclusion of the greatest technological century ever.
“Never before in the history of the world has the need for faith in God been greater,” he said. “Although science and technology open up boundless opportunities, they also present great perils because Satan employs these marvelous discoveries to his great advantage.”
With the increase in technology, truth has been altered, killing is more efficient and crime is more sophisticated, he said.
President Faust also said many feel science guides people to truth and God should be avoided.
“I would despair if I thought our eternal salvation depended on scientific, technical or secular knowledge separate from righteousness and the word of God,” he said.
President Faust emphasized that the outpouring of knowledge during the last century did not come by chance. Inspired individuals developed inventions that aid in the expansion of the church, he said.
He said the church will continue to expand and nothing will stop it from growing.
“No unhallowed hand can stay the growth of the church nor prevent fulfillment of its mission,” he said. “Any of us can be left behind, drawn away by the seductive voices of secularism and materialism.”
President Faust taught faith is the greatest underdeveloped resource in the nation and prayer the greatest unused power.
Faith requires humility, prayer, honesty, integrity and morality and allows people to understand the teachings of God, he said.
President Faust relayed a story of the faith of Amanda Smith, who asked God for help to heal the shattered hip of her son, Alma, after he was shot during the Haun’s Mill massacre. After creating a poultice from fire and applying it to his hip, it miraculously grew back after five weeks.
“The treatment was unusual for that day and time, and unheard of now, but when we reach an extremity, like Sister Smith, we have to exercise our simple faith and listen to the Spirit as she did,” President Faust said. “Exercising our faith will make it stronger.”
President Faust said members should always have faith in four things, including faith that Christ is the Savior, Joseph Smith was an instrument in restoring the church, the Book of Mormon is the word of God and Gordon B. Hinckley is the living prophet on Earth today.
