California, Gospel Conversation and a Simple Perspective

My son invited me to take a trip with him and some of his friends and associates to ride bikes and motorhome down the coast of California from Monterey to San Diego. We rode about 200 miles on our bikes at various stages, doing one hundred miles on Friday and enjoyed scenic areas with a few arduous climbs for the 3 days.  

Paul's invitation was happy Father's Day, come and do this. It was quality time away from the pressing concerns of our busy lives.  I ended my adventure in Redondo Beach with Chip picking me up to spend the afternoon with him and Stephanie and the grandkids.  Boyd also stopped by.

We decided to go to dinner on our way to drop me off at the airport as Chip and Steph had already planned their date.  Before leaving Chip and I went to get a pizza for the kids.

I launched into the somewhat extended version of the dialogue that goes on in my head regarding my observations about the criticism of the church and the belief systems available to us. I told him that my understanding the gospel was simple and and filtering out the nonsense and criticisms of the church was easy.

At the end of my monologue Chip simply said that believing In the church and gospel as established by the prophet Joseph Smith was even easier to understand.  "Living the teachings of the church makes me happy and his family life good.  Happiness is the result of keeping the covenants that are administered by the church."  They are after all the teachings and pure gospel of Jesus Christ.

My dialogue was as follows.

First I have received a personal witness by direct revelation. The Holy Ghost has born an undeniable witness to me that God called a prophet, Joseph Smith. Millions of others attest to this process of a personal witness as well. The clarity of this path of truth continues to became ever more apparent to me as I live it and my son agrees as do my other seven children. 

By virtue of the message of the Book of Mormon I see the unique relationship of a prophetic ministry demonstrated by the prophet's life. I also find it as reassuring as anything I know that family relationships are eternal and marriage is not until death do you part.

The book and this teaching is a distinguishable witness and doctrine among all other witnesses and testaments in the earth. The confusion and division that exists in sectarian bible scholarship and the orthodox mainstream religions is easily observed.  The the one factor they hold in common, the idea of a triune incorporeal god, a trinity of beings in single deity does not unite their theologies or activities.

The churches and religions from Catholic to Protestants,(who in a sense are just Anti-Catholics) and Evangelicals Anti-Protestant and Anti-Catholic) all believe in the same basic definition of God. How is it that many of them also criticize each other for the way they preach their respective gospels? 

I have found that religious individuals, many of our friends simply adapt whatever they have been taught into their own religious philosophy and attend church for fellowship and ignore any doctrinal confusion. 

None of the teachers or administrators of these organized doctrines are or claim to be prophets.  They claim to be scholars, philosophers and clergy by education and ministers by a personal feeling that they should do it.  While worthwhile and noble it is not an authoritative calling from God.

The only concept that even begins to make sense is a restoration of authority and truth as the prophet claimed happened.  Did he make it up?  Based on what I have observed, not a chance.  It is divine and from God.

The prophet Joseph Smith claimed none of their credentials, only to be a prophet called by God to restore a fullness of truth and a church that would precede and prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ. The fruits of his calling are evident.  

Christ invites those that desire to minister and all people to come into his church, to join his priesthood authority and the covenants administered by it.  There is a steady and growing result of goodness in the lives of people that incorporate the doctrines of the restored gospel he taught into their lives.

It is easy for me to see that the religious philosophies of organized sectarians and non-Christian sects are driven by the temporary purposes of men and not by the eternal purposes of God. Some ministers do a very good and noble work of ministering to those in need and others taking advantage of the gullible nature of humans.   

I said it was easy to see that Joseph has acquainted us with our Eternal Father and the eternal family. Can God be a single parent?  Would not motherhood be eternal as well and ordained in the heavens? Because of it fatherhood exists.  They are inseparable.  The image of God is male and female not a single genderless being. We understand clearly the relationships of intimacy, love and creation of family units based on an eternal pattern.

The philosophies of men called the precept of eternal marriage and heavenly parents that are corporeal in nature as blasphemous and they do this because their philosophies cannot stand in the light of truth.  

The critics of the Church of Jesus Christ as well are philosophers, islands of self appointment, judging the church from misguided perspectives, standing on a foundation of sand, waiting to be swept away with the tides of time.  They have their arguments based on their faulty perceptions and biases.  They lead to nowhere. They have no plan of salvation to offer.  They offer a dark mind and an empty life.

Is God's gift an eternal realm, a never ending kingdom of celestial glory,  the exaltation of husband and wife and the continuation of the family?  Or is the promise of life eternal an abandonment of family bonds, defaulting to an unnamed status of genderless existence to sit in a state of eternal complacency as told by the doctrines of men and their religious dogmas? 

The Search for Truth and Religious Understanding

My parents were Christians and good people in every way that I can remember.  They valued the important things in life.  My great-grandfather on Dad's side and one of his sons were Assembly of God preachers. My mother's family were Methodists and church going people. While we attended church my brothers and I weren't raised with a focused education regarding a Christian belief system.  

I was curious and desirous to know about eternal things and did believe, but I didn't know who or what God was. Our family attended Methodist and non-denominational churches on a sporadic basis when I was growing up. My mother died when I was eight. This caused me to wonder about God, family relationships and eventually about what the truth was.  

My earliest recollection of God was from the front page of the church program at the Methodist church in Caldwell, Idaho.  It showed a picture of a Christlike figure without a body but a trail of light and stardust.

I learned to prayer saying memorized prayers that many have heard.  "Now I lay me down to sleep" and another one for the food and the Lord's Prayer from the Bible. I didn't have a personal understanding as to how we might be connected to God. 

When I was 6 we moved to Grandview Idaho. One of our babysitters was a Latter-day Saint and talked a lot about her church. She told us how it was different from other churches, even that it was the true church. I remember asking my dad about it and he said that all churches were the really the same. 

Over the next 5 or so years I would meet other Latter-Day Saints in this small farming community in Southwest Idaho but I was young and not much interested. Just going to our church when we did was a chore. My brother attended their Primary class with some friends but I never did. Her words about a true church lingered with me though.

When we moved to Boise, I met more members of the church and became aware of some of their teachings. I went to church with some friends when I was about 16.  I learned about how they were not supposed to use tobacco or drink alcohol. I heard about their doctrines of living prophets like in the Bible and the principle of eternal marriage, families, and temples. 

I had never heard such teachings from orthodox Christian ministers about eternal marriage. I quickly realized that many things I had been told about the Latter-day Saints were not true and that those that had tried to dissuade me were seriously misinformed.  

The Christian churches that I attended taught that marriage was until death do you part as fundamental orthodox theology. Over the years I have asked many people what they thought about family relationships and most claim some hope that their family relationships continue after death. This is not however what orthodox Christianity teaches.  

I made a discovery in the process of learning these things. Every doctrinal teaching and practice in mainstream Christianity is based on opinions of Bible scholars, not revelation or affirmation from God. It is their conclusions as to what they think the Bible teaches.

Christian sectarianism is based on the philosophies and opinions of individuals that study the Bible. There are many divisions because some don't agree with other Bible-based teachers. The Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are founded in direct revelation from God to prophets, the same as the pattern found in the Bible.

Most Christians are not familiar with the basic tenets of their own fundamental mainstream Christian theology. The church doctrines give the strongest assurance that I know of that marriage and family relationships can indeed continue with the bonds of family love increasing in the eternities.  

As I learned basic beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, living prophets and the doctrine of eternal families, I found answers to questions that the sectarian ministers could not answer with any logical sensibility. Where did we come from, why are we here on earth and what happens after we die?  

Trinitarian ministers say life and God are a mystery and God left it to us to figure out. They say that the Bible is perfect but that no person, minister or scholar understands it perfectly. This is one reason there are so many churches.  My personal view was that if there was one God over us all, why would he have more than one church? 

When I was 17 years old I was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many of my questions were answered and God confirmed the truth of it to me through the power Holy Ghost. This is a pattern explained in the Bible.  It is part of the process of being born again spiritually. Before that time I had no idea as to how God would communicate truth to me. 

I have observed convincingly that he loves us and will reveal the truth to us. I have seen prayers answered in my life and in others in many ways hundreds of times. Truth, help, and guidance can be communicated to us that is consistent with truth already revealed and authority that exists to receive it.  Such is the Lord's church regarding theological teachings and authority to administer the Church. 

The churches of men have no such authority. Mainstream Christianity, Protestantism is essentially a rejection of the Catholic church and continuing disagreement among Bible Scholars as to how they should teach and preach.

Some tried to tell me I was not informed enough about religion, that Mormons were not Christians, but a cult and other misleading things as well to dissuade me.  Now after 45 years I have been well assured and know with absolute certainty their suppositions were not correct and they were misinformed.  

These long-standing myths about the church still persist in the modern era. Everything in the church, Sunday attendance and worship, the temple, tithing and any participation in any respect is voluntary. There is no paid clergy and there have been 16 prophet-leaders in the history of the church.  There is no personality other than Jesus Christ at the center of our beliefs.  

This video explains how the church began.  It is a principle we can all use to discover the truth.

I have watched how our membership in the church has blessed our lives with happiness through understanding our purpose. I served a two-year mission to Argentina when I was 19. I have married in the temple 39 years ago. My children have chosen to be married in the temple as well. Six have served missions, my five sons-in-law have served missions. 

I have also known hundreds of members and observed thousands of people in the church. Millions of others have had experiences similar to mine as we witness the effects of the gospel teachings and living them. 

I have served in many callings and currently from primary and Nursery teacher with my wife, serving a local service mission and a temple ordinance worker in the Mesa Arizona Temple. As I look back over my experience with the church, the temple and the doctrines of Christ and eternal families that are associated with it, I feel an extreme amount of gratitude.