LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
“There is no limit to your potential. If you will take control of your lives, the future is filled with opportunity and gladness. You cannot afford to waste your talents or your time. Great opportunities lie ahead of you.
Now I offer you a very simple recipe which, if observed, will assure your happiness. It is a simple four-point program. It is as follows: (1) pray, (2) study, (3) pay your tithing, and (4) attend your meetings.
The statement above represents a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian soteriology and sanctification. While superficially encouraging, it subtly replaces the gospel of grace with a prosperity-tinged works righteousness that Scripture consistently rejects.
“There is no limit to your potential” is only true in Scripture when “potential” is defined in Christ, not in human willpower or religious performance. The New Testament grounds all hope, joy, and fruitfulness in God’s sovereign grace, not in a four-step formula managed by a human being.
The Problem of Unlimited Potential
The assertion that “there is no limit to your potential” contradicts biblical anthropology. Jeremiah declares, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (17:9). Paul affirms our complete inability apart from grace: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18). Jesus himself states, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Scripture presents humanity as fundamentally limited, broken, and dependent—not possessing unlimited potential through self-mastery.
The call to “take control of your lives” echoes the self-help gospel foreign to apostolic teaching. Proverbs wisely warns, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Paul declares that God “works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Christian life is not autonomous self-control but Spirit-empowered surrender.
Human limits and divine sovereignty
Scripture insists that human beings are radically limited and dependent.
- Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” John15:5, locating fruitfulness in union with Christ, not in self‑mastery.
- Paul confesses, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves… but our sufficiency is from God” 2 Corinthians3:52, explicitly denying unlimited human potential.
Any promise that implies self‑directed control of life as the engine of a bright future reverses this order. The biblical pattern is not “take control of your life and therefore God will bless,” but “deny yourself… and follow Me” Mark 8:34.
The nature of Christian happiness
The statement guarantees “happiness… tremendous and satisfying in every respect” upon observing certain practices. In contrast, the New Testament prepares believers for suffering and calls them “blessed” precisely when they are reviled and persecuted for Christ’s sake, Matthew 5:10-12.
Paul describes Christian existence as “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” 2 Corinthians 6:10, showing that joy is compatible with deep affliction, not equivalent to circumstantial success or emotional gladness.
Thus, any formula that promises guaranteed happiness in this life “in every respect” misrepresents the cross‑shaped pattern of discipleship.
Means of grace vs. mechanical formula
Prayer, study of Scripture, and gathering with the church are genuine means of grace commanded in the New Testament Acts 2:42; 1 Thessalonians5:17; Hebrews 10:25. Yet Scripture never treats them as a mechanical “recipe” that assures a particular emotional and circumstantial outcome.
- Jesus explicitly warns against imagining that religious practices, in themselves, secure favor: “They think they will be heard for their many words” Matthew 6:7.
- The Pharisee who boasts in his religious disciplines (including tithing) is condemned, while the humble tax collector is justified by mercy alone, Luke 18:9–14.
The New Testament pattern is grace first, then obedience as a grateful response—not obedience as a technique to secure guaranteed happiness.
Tithing and gospel motivation
The cited statement centers “pay your tithing” as a key step in the recipe that will “assure your happiness.” While giving is indeed commanded for Christians, it is described as free, cheerful, and grace‑motivated, 2 Corinthians 9:7-8. Linking financial contributions to a sweeping promise of personal fulfillment in “every respect” shifts emphasis from Christ’s sufficiency to institutional loyalty and turns giving into a transactional lever rather than an act of worship.
True Christian assurance
The New Testament offers a different kind of assurance:
- Not “There is no limit to your potential,” but “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion,” Philippians 1:6—God’s faithfulness, not human potential, is ultimate.
- Not “If you will do these four things, I promise you…,” but “All the promises of God find their Yes in Him” 2 Corinthians 1:20.
Biblical hope is not grounded in a human leader’s program or promises, but in the finished work of Christ and the ongoing work of the Spirit. Any teaching that functionally relocates assurance and happiness into human performance—however religious—must be weighed and rejected in the light of the gospel.
The True Recipe
Scripture offers no formula guaranteeing happiness through performance. Instead, it presents Christ as sufficient: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
True Christian assurance rests not on our faithfulness but Christ’s: “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). Our practices—prayer, study, generosity, fellowship—flow from grace received, not formulas for blessing earned.
The gospel declares what God has done in Christ, not what we must do to unlock our potential. Any system promising “tremendous accomplishments” through religious observance subtly preaches another gospel—which is no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-9). Our hope rests entirely on Christ’s perfect work, not our imperfect performances.
A Call to the Bereans: An Admonition to Our LDS Friends
LDS leaders, including Gordon B. Hinckley, lack formal theological training or immersion in biblical scholarship. Emerging from secular professions like business and law, they perpetuate Joseph Smith’s foundational doctrines without rigorous scriptural exegesis or engagement with the historic Christian faith preserved by the church fathers. This institutional structure—however sincere its practitioners—inevitably produces teachings that prioritize organizational loyalty over New Testament grace.
We offer this observation not in triumphalism, but with genuine pastoral concern. The Bereans were commended as “more noble” precisely because “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Their nobility lay not in accepting teaching uncritically, but in testing everything—even apostolic proclamation—against written revelation.
We earnestly encourage our Latter-day Saint friends: search the Scriptures with renewed inquiry. Not to find proof-texts for predetermined conclusions, but to allow God’s Word to examine you. Read the New Testament as if for the first time. Ask fresh questions: What does Paul actually teach about grace, works, and righteousness? How does Jesus describe his relationship with the Father? What do the apostles say about continuing revelation and sufficient Scripture?
The same Spirit who inspired Scripture can open understanding, if you are a true believer (Luke 24:45). Compare what you discover directly in biblical texts with what you’ve been taught. If discrepancies emerge, dare to follow Scripture’s testimony, wherever it leads.
This isn’t apostasy—it’s the Berean spirit. It demonstrates that Scripture, not tradition or institution, holds ultimate authority. As Paul warned the Galatians: “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). Truth fears no investigation; only error requires insulation from Scripture’s scrutiny.