“Show Me a Sign”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

Jesus taught that “an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” (Matthew 12:39), to which Joseph Smith added that this principle “is eternal, undeviating, and firm as the pillars of heaven: for whenever you see a man seeking after a sign, you may set it down that he is an adulterous man.” (Teachings, p. 157; cf. p. 278.) Why is this so? How does a disposition to seek after signs relate to seeking after carnal pleasures? Men and women who have given themselves up to their lusts, who desire that which will satiate the flesh, who have exhausted their passions in their search for the sensual-these seek for spiritual sensations; these demand proof! Unable to recognize and acknowledge eternal certainties, they turn to that realm they have come to understand-the fanciful and the physical. Those who worship at the altar of appetite, whose thresholds for gratification are ever rising, thus demand something extraordinary to establish the truthfulness of a claim, a claim, ironically, that is verified by the quiet and unobtrusive whisperings of the Spirit. Spiritual blindness (as evidenced by Sherem) and the spirit of adultery are common companions.

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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