Whose Fault Is It Anyway?

In my last post, I talked about feelings, and how understanding them and being honest with ourselves are the best ways to understand truth. However, recognizing truth is only part of the battle. Knowing what to do with it is often more challenging.

Since every truth is different, they may require different actions. There is no formula on how to appropriately act on truth once we understand it. However, there is one thing that I feel always should accompany any action we make, and that is a willingness to accept personal responsibility.

Now, I might not be the best person to be preaching this sermon on responsibility. Having been married for nearly two years, I have found that one of the greatest perks to marriage is being able to use your spouse as an excuse to get out of something you don’t want to do. My wife and I have both given one another the green light to “pull the spouse card” when we don’t have another legitimate excuse available.

I know this may not be 100% honest. I sleep at night telling myself that this can only be used for small things (don’t want to come over to the neighbor’s house for dinner but don’t want to hurt their feelings, etc.). Pulling the spouse card is one thing, but when making decisions based on truth which is religious or spiritually based, we need to be strong enough to take ownership of our actions and decisions. In other words, we shouldn’t pass off the responsibility to God. Doing this is one example of what the Ten Commandments calls “taking the name of the Lord in vain” (or, as I like to call it, pulling the God card).

Preparing for this post reminded me of an old Saturday Night Live skit called “Pious Housewife.” Sally Field plays a super-religious homemaker who prays to God about everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. Prays for the cast of her favorite day-time TV program, prays that the rice won’t get sticky, etc. Finally, Jesus (Phil Hartman) appears to her. At first she is overjoyed, but she soon learns that he isn’t there to compliment her ability to pray obsessively. He politely explains that although it is good to pray, he would appreciate if she would “tone it down a bit.” It is a good, humorous example of showing how some people don’t use principle of moderation even in religious worship, and how they use God to justify everything in their lives (For the full transcript of the skit, click here).

Pulling the God card and taking the name of the Lord in vain has often led to very tragic consequences. People throughout the centuries have used God as an excuse to kill others, to commit adultery, to abandon their children, or even to start wars.

Other times, people take the name of the Lord in vain because they want something and they don’t think their own efforts will be legitimate enough to gain it. My wife, a proud BYU graduate, has told me college dating stories, where young men would tell her: “I prayed about it, and feel that God wants us to get married/date/whatever.” Seeing as how more than one person used this one on her, it would seem that a lot of independent decision making concerning her life was going on without her even being part of the discussion.

In other circumstances, people use God as an excuse because they are just plain chicken. Using the same example of the Mormon dating scene, how many break-ups have been formalized by pulling the God card. “The Spirit is telling me that we shouldn’t see each other any more.” (Translation: “I don’t really like you but am too big of a wuss to tell you how I really feel.”)

Now, I am not saying that God doesn’t communicate important, life-changing information to us time to time. I have had experiences where I feel very personal and important counsel has been given to me. However, we are ultimately responsible for how we act in response. God gave us agency to choose so that we would develop our own personal sense of responsibility. While we can learn truth from God, we should never use Him as an excuse.

More than a Feeling

In a continual effort to explain why I believe in the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I would like to discuss how I feel that I have come to recognize truth concerning spiritual matters.

But first, allow me to provide a little context. Mormons teach that we are able to know the truth of all things through “the power of the Holy Ghost.” According to Mormon doctrine, the Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead, and is a distinct and separate individual from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He is a person of spirit; whereas the other two members of the Godhead have perfected and resurrected bodies.

The role of the Holy Ghost in Mormon theology is a very important one. He is responsible to reveal truth unto those who seek it. A commonly-shared scriptural passage which emphasizes this point is found in the Book of Moroni, in the very last chapter of the Book of Mormon.

“…[W]hen you shall receive these things,…ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if you ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:4-5, emphasis added).

When I have shared this scripture with others, a common question is “how does this work?” In other words, how do we know truth?

It is my opinion that most human beings are aware of truth at all times. If we dig down to the source of what we know, we will find that it is rooted in something we all are constantly experiencing: our feelings.

Think about it in this way. Have you ever felt in a certain way, yet when you tried to explain it to somebody else, you couldn’t find the right words? My guess is anybody who has been involved in a romantic relationship has certainly experienced this all-to-common phenomenon.

Everything we say or do must first be premeditated in some way. Sometimes this premeditation takes place in the split second before the action occurs (hence I end up with my foot in my mouth from time to time). However, before we can say or do anything, we must allow it to in some way emerge in our consciousness through thought.

Likewise, before we can have a thought, no matter how complete it is, we must first have a certain feeling that leads to this type of thought. What we feel is one of the greatest indicators of who we are. It is more real to us than anything else. We may not be able to express our feelings clearly, even through thought. However, if we are completely honest with ourselves, we can recognize how we truly feel in any given situation.

The Holy Ghost communicates truth to us through our feelings. Mormon doctrine teaches that in addition to our physical bodies, we also have spiritual bodies, like that of the Holy Ghost. Our spirit body is the source of our feelings, and therefore the source of our knowledge of truth. The Holy Ghost, being a Spirit Himself, is able to communicate with us directly through our spirit. Therefore, when we discover something pertaining to our eternal existence (in other words, a doctrine), we can ask to find out if it is true. The Holy Ghost is able to communicate the truth of these things directly to our spirit through our feelings.

I won’t try to explain this process too much now, mainly because I am not sure I am able to adequately express it through words (it’s based on feeling, remember?). However, I can say with a surety that when the Holy Ghost manifests a truth to our spirit through our feelings, it is more powerful than any other witness we could possibly receive.

So, how do you feel about this?

The Greatest Truth...

Friends have often expressed curiosity as to what brought me to believe in Mormonism in the first place. I thought it might be a good time to start addressing this question, though it will take more than just this one article to provide a complete answer.

However, if I had to sum it up in a single sentence it would be something like this: We are literally children of God, and as such, have the opportunity to become like Him. The title that Mormons often give to this concept is “eternal progression.”

I don’t know why, but a lot of people, both Mormons and non-Mormons, seem to gloss over the significance of this doctrine, or even ignore it completely. Mormon critics even attack this doctrine and try to say that it is blasphemous to even suggest that we are literally children of God, and have a divine potential to develop and become more like Him. This has always been strange to me, almost as if they are saying that our potential is limited and finite.

Before I developed faith in the other doctrines of Mormonism, I believed in the idea of eternal progression. I didn’t know what we were to develop into, but I believed that there was no limit as to what we could become. I believed that some clearly developed more rapidly than others, and at times, there were even some who seemed to “devolve” in their own spiritual progression.

As I begin to look into the beliefs of Mormonism, I realized what a unique claim their doctrine made. Rather than limiting our human definition, they openly proclaimed their belief in our limitless human potential. They taught of a God who is literally the Father of every human being. They taught that as a Heavenly Parent, He is intimately concerned with our development. While respecting the importance of free will, He has given us every piece of information necessary to become like Him. It is our decision to use this information or not, and thus our progression is determined by us.

I realized that although this doctrine seemed to be preached only by the Mormons, it is laced throughout ancient scripture and the Bible. Take these examples, which stress the literal nature of humans as sons and daughters of God:

The 82nd Psalm says: “…Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” In the New Testament, Jesus Christ made reference to this scripture when he said: “Is it not written in your law…Ye are gods? If he called them gods…the scripture cannot be broken.” (John 10:34-35).

It isn’t just religion that teaches this principle. We are echoing this truth in what we are teaching our children. Whenever you tell a child that they can become “anything they want to become,” or encouraging them to “reach for the stars,” we are making reference to this fundamental truth about our nature.

Focusing on the importance of this truth helps us to see the world in a completely different light. Instead of problems, we begin to recognize more opportunities. Instead of enemies, we recognize others as our literal brothers and sisters.

I know that we are not perfect, but we have the potential to become perfect. In fact, Jesus encouraged us to become perfect when He summed up His Sermon on the Mount with these words: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the doctrines of eternal progression and our true nature as divine children of God. For more scriptural references from the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants, click here.

A Little Less Lazy in 2009

Happy New Year!

I have indeed been quite lazy in terms of posting during the past month. Since the New Year is a time for new beginnings, I would like to share with you the theme of my New Year’s goals.

Diligence

Diligence is an attribute which all Mormons are encouraged to seek. It is true that hard work comes in handy for people of all belief systems, and Mormons are certainly not alone in their quest to become more diligent. I have always admired people who clearly have a strong work ethic. I have also never been one of these people.

So, 2009 is the year! The Nils you knew before will hopefully fade away, and a newer, diligenter Nils will hopefully emerge. As part of this quest to become more diligent, I will consider consistent weekly postings on my blog to be an essential goal.

In addition, I wish to focus the purpose of this blog. In essence, it is designed to be a place for discussion. All aspects of Mormonism have been touched in the past six months, including the doctrine, the culture, and the history of Mormonism. While they are all fascinating and inter-connected in many ways, I have always been more interested in what makes the Mormon belief system unique. Therefore, I would like to discuss the core doctrines of Mormon belief primarily during the next several posts.

In the meantime, I would be interested in hearing what doctrines are more interesting to you. I would also be curious to hear what character-related New Year’s resolutions you have, if any, and if they are not too private.