17 There is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed; there is no work of darkness save it shall be made manifest in the light; and there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed.
18 Wherefore, all things which have been revealed unto the children of men shall at that day be revealed; and Satan shall have power over the hearts of the children of men no more, for a long time. And now, my beloved brethren, I make an end of my sayings.
(2 Nephi 30:17-18)
Knowledge is power. Why will Satan be bound during the Millennium? Because we will all have access to reliable information which will allow us to overcome his deceptions.
Part of the challenge of mortality is making decisions with imperfect information. We often have to deal with conflicting messages and decide which ones we trust and which we don’t. President Dallin H. Oaks recently provided some guidelines to use when evaluating the reliability of information:
- Don’t place too much emphasis on “secular prominence or authority.”
- Don’t assume that, because a person is expert in one field, they are expert in another.
- Consider the motivation of the person providing the information.
- Be careful with information from anonymous sources. (“Truth and the Plan,” General Conference, October 2018).
As Nephi promises in the passage above, eventually all truth will be revealed. Topics which are currently confusing to us will one day become crystal clear. Everything which is “secret” or “sealed” today will one day be revealed.
Today, I will also be careful as I navigate conflicting messages and make decisions with imperfect information. I will be grateful for the promise that, one day, all truth will be revealed and there will be no more confusion.