I’ve been
giving some thought recently to why I believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In the end it comes down to
receiving personal revelation from the Holy Ghost, because when Jesus asked his
disciples “… But whom say ye that I am?”
When Simon Peter responded “…Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God” Jesus said “flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father
which is in heaven.” (Mathew 16:15-17).
Even the men who were with the Savior daily had to receive revelation to
know, of a certainty, who Jesus is.
To start
this, however, I want to review some of the rational or logical reasons for why
I believe.
First why I
believe in God- This one for me is a no-brainer. Everything around us testifies
of the existence of God from the Earth on which we live to our solar system,
galaxy and universe. To think that such
complexity and organization exists as some cosmic accident is, to me, nonsense.
The atheist must accept that life is completely meaningless; that we are here
as some accidental aberration; that anything we do for good or bad in this life
ultimately has no meaning or real importance to anyone. The strange thing about atheists is that the
leaps of faith that they have take to not believe in God are much larger than
having a belief in God. Peter Keeft,
professor of philosophy at Boston College points out “it takes faith believing
that everything came from nothing. It only takes reason to believe in God.”
Next comes:
Who is God? Other religions teach of a
God who is incomprehensible who is without body, parts, or passions; who is
large enough to fill the immensity of space and small enough to fit in our
hearts. They will still refer to Him
(I’m not sure that a gender definition makes sense with their teaching, but
I’ll use it for simplicity) as the Father in Heaven, but how is he our father
with this understanding of him? It
doesn’t make any sense.
They also
teach that The Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all the same being/entity, and
the explanation is that He manifests himself as one of the three depending on
the situation, which I’ve always had a problem with. The following example illustrates this. I was listening to the Christian station on
Sirius XM and the preacher was explaining the war in heaven referenced in the
Bible (Isaiah 14, Revelation 12).
This is how
it went- Lucifer, the son of the morning, rebelled against the Father and Michael
the Archangel who was Jehovah or Jesus and the angels fought (who or what are
the angels?) against Lucifer (so now God is the Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and
also Michael…?). As Michael won the war
God was going to destroy or kill Lucifer, but Jesus stood between Lucifer and
God and saved Lucifer’s life (Wait… Jesus is trying to save Lucifer by standing
between himself and himself when it was himself that was fighting against
Lucifer in the first place? This is
where it all breaks down for me… I know “one being, but multiple
manifestations,” but why? There is no logical reasoning behind it. What’s the point of all the subterfuge? Just
imagine it, “I’m Michael I’m going to fight you Lucifer because you are
rebelling against the Father which is really me. I win now, so now the Father, who is me is
going to destroy you! Oh no, the plan is foiled because Jesus who is also me is
going to stand between you and me, the Father me, and save you.”) Whew…
The
confusion continues as Jesus comes down to take the form of a man. At this point is no one at the helm in the
universe or did Jesus leave part of himself at his heavenly home? I realize the whole “so large to fill the
universe” thing might come into play here, but if He takes human form to be the
Son (why would the Son be in human form anyway?) then He is someplace and in a
specific form. I once years ago when the
internet was in its infancy asked online the questions- Why would Jesus pray if
he was just praying to himself? Why
would he ask the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane to “let this cup pass
before me” if he really is the Father too, and didn’t want to go through with
the suffering then why would he ask himself to let it pass? My questions were referred to an “ex-Mormon
bishop” to help me “deal with such questions.”
His answers were just more of the same about one entity but different
manifestations…
I’m
sorry. That just does not work for me
and it never could. If God is my Father
then I expect that it is a personal relationship. How can it be a personal relationship if the
Father is an incomprehensible being? In
what way am I created in the image of God if God does not have an image?
To me the
LDS understanding of the Plan of Salvation (including the pre-existence and the
war in heaven) and the Godhead are absolutely fundamental in really knowing my
relationship with my Father in heaven and understanding what life is all about.
This is
where the Holy Ghost comes in for me. I
have felt over and over throughout my life the spirit speak to my soul that
Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and that they were
individuals in the form of man. This
amazing event answered the question that people had been debating since the Roman
times--What is the nature of God?
Personally knowing that He is truly the Father of our spirits; that we
lived with him before we were born; that we participated with Michael in the
war in heaven; and that Jesus the first born of the Father in the spirit and
the only begotten of the Father in the Flesh sacrificed his life for us fills
my soul with joy. While there are many
things that I don’t know, I love the logic and simplicity of these basic
truths!
These are
the basic reasons why I believe. I don’t
begrudge anyone else for believing different than I do, because I believe that
God wants us all to be free to make our own choices about such things.
