The Truth Makes You Feel Good, Right?

Several years ago, my husband was reading some books by Denver Snuffer and shared some of the things he'd read about the Second Comforter with me, which made a lot of sense and really helped me understand the scriptures better. But he also shared some of Denver's criticisms about the church and how the church was essentially off course. I argued with my husband that if Denver had truly been given a message from God it would be positive, uplifting and full of love and charity. My husband considered everything I said and then calmly opened the scriptures. I don't recall exactly which passage he shared, but I remember it was Alma speaking. It might have been this passage:

"O ye workers of iniquity; ye that are puffed up in the vain things of the world, ye that have professed to have known the ways of righteousness nevertheless have gone astray, as sheep having no shepherd, notwithstanding a shepherd hath called after you and is still calling after you, but ye will not hearken unto his voice! ... And now if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye? Behold, I say unto you, that the devil is your shepherd, and ye are of his fold; and now, who can deny this? Behold, I say unto you, whosoever denieth this is a liar and a child of the devil." (Alma 5:37-39)

He asked me if Alma was delivering a positive, uplifting message? If he was demonstrating love and charity?

In my last post I mentioned Samuel the Lamanite. Would I have happily embraced his message:

"But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure."

These are harsh messages, right? If you are the recipient of a message like this, I don't think you feel good after hearing it. I don't think you feel peace or joy or spiritually nourished and uplifted. You might feel angry or upset or defensive or humbled to the dust. Almost anyone would reply, like Laman and Lemuel, "Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear." But Nephi reminds us, "the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center."