10. Truth is stranger than fiction – and it is beautiful!

Stories familiar to me since childhood sound pretty strange to most people.  Does that make Mormonism a cult?  There are equally strange biblical, koranic, and other stories that others accept as factual, not strange, and certainly not a cult. What’s the difference? They are older, and have a 1000 year head-start on getting more people to believe and accept their weirdness.  Is a religion more true after billions believe it than it was when only a dozen believed? Jesus preached a new gospel, and many found his followers to be cult-like.   

When I realized how unusual our own history and doctrine is, I likewise wondered if I was brainwashed.  But through prayer, study, and living the teachings, my mind has raced and come alive with a fascinating world of Truth that is unbeknownst to most people.  Even if you have a hard time accepting the story of how our church came into existence, if you just read the Book of Mormon, study our practices, and discover how we utilize the Bible, you’ll be amazed at the truths and value you will find.  I heard a religious professor once said something like “I have no idea whether the things Joseph Smith claimed actually occurred, and I don’t care.  But if you look at the pure volume and value of enlightened thought he introduced, it is truly remarkable.”

9. Gospel is Restored, and Real Prophets Exist Again!

If God ever spoke to man through prophets, why would He cease?  In ancient Israel, he did cease during periods of wickedness and darkness, but he called prophets anew when people were hungry enough for them.   Is it reasonable that after the original apostles we would never again have prophets?  God allowed revelation to cease and Christ’s church structure to dissolve during the Dark Ages, in part because Satan simply had too great a hold upon the people of those times.  The righteous were crucified or fed to lions, and those who escaped were left without prophets and apostles, so they did the best they could, but over hundreds of years, corruption and error were obvious.

Luther recognized that the only Christian church was corrupted, and he protested and tried to correct it. But like Humpty Dumpty, no man can put all of the pieces back together again. New reformers discovered things that Luther had missed, and great argument ensued.  God was pleased with so many people finding elements of the original gospel, and those churches have blessed the lives of untold millions.  But the story of all protestant churches also misses something critical that might be shown in an analogy something like this…

Imagine being on a safari only to wake up and discover that your guides (the apostles) have been killed by savages.  Their maps, letters, and survival guides remain behind, but many are torn and pages are missing – but even if it were all there, nothing is quite as good as your living guide was.  You are smart, and learn what you can from what’s available, but there is no doubt this will be a Dark Age for your group.  There is no way to make up for the years of critical personal knowledge your guide had, and his ability to communicate with the outside world (God).  You all select a leader who seems to best understand both how to survive and how to get home.  Your guide moves you forward, but other smart people are reading the same documents, and heated debates ensue.  Smaller groups break off and try to find their way based on their interpretation of the material.  All groups seem to accept that they’ll never have such competent, experienced, prophetic guides like they had before.  They didn’t realize, or they didn’t trust, that if they “lacked wisdom they could ask of God” (James 1:5).  Or perhaps, many did not feel they lacked wisdom.  “I’m brilliant, and I don’t need a living guide – just this guidebook is fine.”

Paul was the “guide” for the early churches where he preached, and Christ was Paul’s living, resurrected guide.  Paul sent letters to correct their course, and would visit as often as he could.  But ultimately he and all other apostles were killed, and the prophetic link between Christ and the churches was severed.  They were left to do the best they could, but drifted off course just as they had when Paul sent correcting letters, but now no one was sending correction.  They set up “Catholicism” at the Council of Nicaea in about 300 AD.  Over the centuries Catholicism degenerated, as Luther and others provided compelling evidence.  The reformer’s paths were better, but they were fundamentally just plain old men trying to find God through university-like study – a fine thing to do, and those who follow them will do better than those who accept atheism or a non-Christian religion – but none of them were established by or are guided by God himself.

When Joseph Smith entered the scene at age 14, he was not old enough to debate interpretations as had so many others were.  Instead, knowing he lacked wisdom, he took up James’ challenge and prayed with real faith as only kids can.  I think God was pleased with both Joseph’s faith and sincerity, and also with the world’s hunger and progress toward finding the lost elements of the Gospel. So this particular prayer was a convenient opportunity for God and Christ to reveal themselves to Joseph, and begin his preparation to restore anew what others could not fully piece together without God’s direct intervention. 

God does pick kids sometimes, as when he picked David as the future king of Israel.  We look for credentials and resume, but God looks only on the heart.

I know that God has restored his church again, as it was first established by Christ.  There are prophets again on the earth as in the days of ancient Israel where one prophet would succeed another, and same as with Christ where one apostle would succeed another.  Is it so hard to believe? 

To me it is almost easier to accept Atheism than to believe God once had prophets, but no longer uses them, because “we have the safari guidebook”.   Up to 10% of the entire human family since Adam is alive today and searching as never before for important truths that are hidden as never before, like a needle within a media haystack.  They search via science, reasoning, religion, etc., but are greatly split on where best to find it.  Given such a huge share of God’s “family” is here TODAY, God is surely seeking to communicate with you through your personal prayers and experiences, regardless of your religion; but he also seeks to communicate to you and the entire world through his special witnesses – modern apostles – just as in times of old.  Christ said “beware of false prophets!”  Ok. But doesn’t that inherently imply there are also be true prophets, and we need to beware and discern which is which?

8. Personal Responsibility, Preparedness, Practicality

God would have His people be of great service to their fellow man, and He counts any service we give to others as service given to Himself (Golden Rule).  So we must first carry our own weight, and then help carry others.  We cannot be “wards of the state” unless there is no other way. To be LDS is to strive for what the Boy Scouts strive for – to keep yourself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight, so that you will be prepared for whatever life can throw at you, and so you can better do your duty to God and your country.  If life deals you a good hand and you’re fortunate enough to avoid serious pain, then it is incumbent upon you act as a good steward and use these gifts and talents in support of those who do suffer – even if their suffering is brought about by their own actions (recall the Lord praises those who visit those in prison, etc.).  To be LDS is to take whatever talents the Lord has given, and to “double them” as commanded in the Lord’s parable of the talents.  I love LDS emphasis on education, emergency preparedness, food storage, and general well roundedness.  The Lord’s true gospel would help each person develop their inner genius across an array of disciplines – and this gospel does exactly that better than any. 

7. Saved by grace… after all that we can do

Like other Christians, Latter-day Saints recognize that even if we could create super-human mountains of good works, those works cannot save us.  We are completely dependent on the grace of Christ for salvation.  But we also believe that Christ sets his own rules for whom he will grant his grace, and he will decide not to save us by his grace unless we obey His commandments, repent regularly when we don’t obey, and do in fact produce good works and good fruits.  We all intuitively know works matter, and it can’t be right to assume that a simple prayer to “accept Christ” is your golden ticket to heaven.  Our physical resurrection is a gift of Grace that even the wicked will freely get.  It is a recognition that they chose to be part of the 2/3rds who supported Christ in the Pre-Existence.  But for our spiritual salvation, we must strive to be more like Him every day, and repent when we fall short.  If we will do that, then He will elect to “save us by His grace, after all that we can do” (2 Nephi, 25:23).  LDS theology brings a perfect resolution to the age old debate between the role of both works and grace in our salvation.

6. Focus on the Family

God has declared that his “work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).   Thus man is God’s mission, and our efforts to mold children into solid individuals who are good citizens and who know him are the fruits that are the most pleasing to God.  Citizenship and knowledge of God is learned in solid religious families.  I once met a man who was greatly concerned about over-population. 

When he learned I was LDS, he noted our typically larger families, but said, “you folks should keep having as many kids as you can because from my experience Mormons are among the world’s most solid citizens, and the benefits of great citizens exceed the costs of a little more competition for resources”.  I have 6 little kids, and what a burden!  It is hard, but they are also such a joy.  Family home evenings, eternal marriage, the list of LDS programs, doctrines, and concepts that support strong families goes on and on.  “No success in life can compensate for failure in the home”, said one of our prophets in the 1970’s.   

5. I am a Child of God (Children’s Song)

There is a strong, healthy emphasis in this church to have every individual on the earth gain a personal relationship with God so they can come to know that He recognizes their personal, infinite worth, in spite of the fact that billions of others also have personal infinite worth to Him.   To be a Latter-Day Saint is to see God very much as a loving parent in whom you can count on, confide in, converse with, and get responses from.   He is the All-Powerful Governor of the Universe, but in spite of our billions of siblings, He is also intimate and personally concerned for your wellbeing, as any great father would be.

4. Kool-Aid beats Booze!

Part of what makes being LDS so valuable to me is that it’s just plain fun.  There is a powerful culture of activities, service, and brotherhood that together just make for a fun life.  Primary songs, goofy neighbors are also your Sunday school teachers, cub scouts, boy scouts, youth dances & activities, seminary, service projects, church history tours, 2-year missions, “vacation-log” testimonies, little kid testimonies, creative and usually harmless unintoxicated teenage mischief, family reunions, green Jell-O at ward parties, funeral potatoes, wedding receptions in the cultural hall, last day of the month home teaching (every other month if you’re about average) – it all adds up to a way of life that is engaging and truly fun.  It is often called a “Kool-Aid lifestyle” as opposed to a sex, drugs, and rock and role lifestyle that qualifies as “fun” for many… until it ruins their lives.

3. He who has eyes to see, let him see.

  There is something almost magical about the Gospel of Jesus Christ as practiced in this church.  Prayer, study, pondering, and time have helped me comprehend so many powerful truths – mysteries of God if you will – that are lost to the view of the rest of humanity and even largely lost to general Christianity.  I’ve only scratched the surface of what I could know through mechanisms revealed by Christ’s restored gospel.  It is as though mankind – Christendom largely included – stumbles along in relative blindness compared to this. 

 The “enlightened” elites are focused on the spiritually inconsequential base sciences and scoff at the thought of anything to do with God.  True, the truths they discover give us cell phones!  Wonderful, but what does that have to do with the meaning and purpose of life? General Christianity does a good job of answering that for billions of people, but they are missing “the rest of the story” that could help them do even better.   There are whole new dimensions of truth to be seen through these lenses.   It’s like being in the shoes of Einstein in some ways, where he could see things no one else could see.  Atheists and intellectuals think they see 20/20 when they worship their own gods, but they are so blind to the most important truths – the Spiritual Sciences.  

  Spiritual blindness vs. spiritual sight is like looking at a 3-D picture.  A few strange “fanatics” claim they see a hidden image that is important and beautiful, but you have to look at it long enough and cross your eyes just right.  The blind either won’t look, or they give up too easily – seeing only a mess of colors and strange shapes, and scoffing at those few who swear there is a beautiful 3-D image if you look just right.

2. Makes bad men good, good men better

Gordon B. Hinckley was a prophet who recently passed away, and this was one of his favorite ways to describe the Gospel.  Certainly all legitimate churches subscribe to the goal of improving the individual, regardless of where the individual finds himself on the path toward perfection.  One beautiful concept emphasized by LDS, but not unique to LDS, is that God is far more interested in the direction you’re headed than where you’re actually at, since all men fall short of the glory of God, and require His Grace for salvation.  I see ample evidence that this Church has a high batting average in helping make bad men good, and good men better.

1. It is where God has Revealed His Plan for Salvation and Happiness

This church provides a satisfying and complete vision that the “I think, therefore, I am” inside each of us existed before this earth, and will exist forever.  God established the earth as a place for our souls to be tested, gain experience, and ultimately gain critical and Godly knowledge that could only be gained as we wrestle here with all of life’s joys and pains.  The vision of who we are, why we’re here, and where we’re going based on how we live, is breathtakingly beautiful and definitely inspires both long-time members and those just beginning to “see the 3-D picture” – to repent and align their lives with Christ so as to be found in a more rewarding afterlife.   This church provides satisfying answers to the most perplexing debates that have raged among the branches of Christianity.

To Be a Latter-Day Saint is to Be Happy  in Your Pursuit of Happiness!

If you have gained any value from this, please feel free to email it or send a link to www.latterdaylogic.com for those you believe may be receptive to this essay.