How disappointing would it be after years of faithful service to find out that the Church wasn’t true after all, that it was all a masterful hoax and a waste of time? We rarely consider such questions because the Spirit immediately demonstrates their ludicrousness. Yet, the faithless Nephites are just waiting for the opportunity to say, “I told you so! You’ve been wasting your time all along! Your efforts have been in vain!” It seems that their jeering was beginning to have some effect for some began to be very sorrowful, lest by any means those things which had been spoken might not come to pass. But the saints of God need not fear. There is no reason to lack faith. The Lord has promised not to let one jot or tittle go unfulfilled (Matt 5:18). In the end, it will be the unbelievers, not the believers who will be disappointed.
George F. Richards
“There is always a satisfaction, my brethren and sisters, in having been right on any question that has engaged our attention, especially if the wisdom and judgment of others have been brought to bear upon that question and we have not all agreed. You know how prone we are to say, ’I told you so.’ The more important the question that is involved in a consideration of this kind, the greater satisfaction there will be in the end when we find that we have been right; but if on the other hand it is found that we have been wrong there will be correspondingly great disappointment…The greatest question that man has ever considered, according to my judgment, is that of religion, or salvation, of what it consists and how it may be attained. There is no other question I suppose that has engaged the attention of so many people or upon which there has been such diversity of opinion…Those of us who know the truth of the Gospel as it has been revealed in these last days through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith, know that there are millions of people who, in the end, [when] it shall be universally known of what salvation consists [and] how it may attained, will be tremendously disappointed.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1932, p. 39)