Why I believe

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.