For seven years, Keith Erekson directed the Church History Library, the official archive of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and home to more than 20 million records. He holds a doctorate in history, spent years as a tenured professor in Texas, and wrote the go-to book for members who want to engage their own history honestly. Once people learned what he did for a living, they kept asking him the same thing: did anything in those archives ever shake your faith? The question confused him at first. Nobody had asked it when he taught secular history. The answer he landed on surprised even him, and it had nothing to do with facts.

In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Keith to trace a testimony that grew long before he ever set foot in an archive. Keith shares the priesthood blessing that healed him as a sick boy in Baltimore, the witness that came at twelve when his family finished the Book of Mormon, and a woman in Brazil whose dream taught her the plan of salvation before the missionaries said a word. He explains why prophets point people to Christ and never to themselves, and he describes the morning a letter from Joseph Smith passed into his hands and filled an archive room with the Spirit. Church history, Keith says, did not give him his testimony, so he cannot see how it could ever take one away.

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Dr. Justin Top has spent his life chasing one question: how does the grace of God actually reach us? He has looked for the answer in places most people never see. He lived his junior year of high school in Jerusalem. He served a mission in South Korea. He taught seminary for seven years, then traded the classroom for a Navy uniform, deploying twice in the War on Terror and later building a spiritual fitness program for the Marine Corps at the Pentagon. He has sat with the dying as a hospice chaplain and with the hurting as a psychologist. Everywhere he has gone, he has watched grace show up in the dark.

In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Justin to trace where that grace has met him. Justin tells of an ICU patient who had not let herself be happy for twenty years, since the day her daughter was kidnapped, and a priesthood blessing where words he never planned came out of his mouth. He shares the mission companion he once begged God to fix, only to feel God turn the request back on him. He revisits the night he was ready to quit, when an Elder Holland message found him in the dark. Through all of it, Justin keeps arriving at the same witness: God's grace is with us even when we cannot feel it.

Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to be reminded that God's grace is with them even in the dark. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere!

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Brent L. Top spent 34 years teaching the gospel at Brigham Young University, where he rose to Dean of Religious Education and wrote more than 30 books. For years he had counseled students to cast their burdens on the Lord. Then the relentless weight of leading a mission brought him to a breaking point, and he had to find out if he truly believed what he had taught.

In this episode of Why We Believe, host Nathan Gwilliam sits down with Brent to trace a faith tested across a lifetime. Brent shares the witness that came to him at 18 in the Austrian Alps, the discouraging Denmark mission that quietly became his own great conversion, and the embrace from Elder Uchtdorf that finally taught him how to offload his burden onto the Savior.

Loved this episode?Hit Follow and share it with someone who needs to hear that the Savior's strength is made perfect in our weakness. Leave a review for Why We Believe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Your support helps us bring more inspiring conversations like this to listeners everywhere!

Visit WhyWeBelieve.com to download Your FREE guide on 13 Strategies to Increase Faith in Jesus Christ, to support you as you strengthen your own testimony of Jesus Christ.

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