LatterDayLogic.com

• What you do with what you know matters more than what you know.
• What Christ might tell a newfound post-mortal Saint about the history of the gospel on the earth the Saint just left.
• The possibility of billions of Saints helps me have productive relationships with “potential Saints”.

 

How many Saints are there?

In reference to Latter-Day Saints, the answer for newspapers in 2006 is 13-million – a nearly insignificant number when placed against nearly 7-billion. Probing more deeply, we must answer what it means to be a Saint.

 

What is a Saint?
Definitions of “saint” from dictionary.com include: “a person who has died and gone to heaven, an extremely virtuous person, a model of excellence or perfection of a kind”. By my favorite was “a member of any of various religious groups, especially a Latter-Day Saint”. I like how James 1:22 says it: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” To me, both parts are important. You cannot “do” the word until you know what it is; and you do not fully know what it is until after your “knee has bowed and tongue confessed” to Jesus and the correct interpretation of His gospel (or the gospel not as any particular church or preacher interprets it, but as it actually is – as He Himself taught it and would teach it). A Saint is someone who correctly identifies the will of God concerning them, strives to enact it, and can humbly repent of any shortcomings in both their diligence to determine the will of God and their willingness to comply with His will once identified.

 

Paul was a Saint, but was Saul?
Was Paul, while still Saul, a Saint? I think “yes and no”. He participated in the persecution of Christians, but did so believing that this was God’s true will for his life. In spirit, this meets the definition of James. He thought he knew God’s will (defend and protect the faith of the Jews and the Law of Moses), and was diligent in this. However, as he came to find out, he had not correctly identified God’s will nor the true Savior. Once it was made plain to him, he was still essentially the same energetic soul, but was now truly working for God instead of mistakenly working against God even with the best of intent. Thus I would say that while he was yet Saul, “No” he was not a Saint. He was in every way a Saint, except that he lacked critical information and conversion necessary to be pursuing a course fully endorsed by the Lord. But was he destined to be a Saint? “Yes”, even if he hadn’t been shown the light in this life, because he was proving to God all the time that he wanted to pursue His will, if only he could correctly identify it!

 

First step to be eligible as a Saint: “knee shall bow, and tongue confess Jesus!”
Many scriptures note that “every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus is the Christ”. This is a statement confirming that all who have ever lived will someday be required to sit in class until they “get it” – or rather, until they comprehend the truth of Jesus Christ’s mission and everything related to that mission (the gospel as He preached it and intended it to be preached, or “His true gospel”, which not every denomination by definition can do correctly since doctrines conflict and either one way is right, or all are wrong together, but two opposing positions cannot both be right).

 

Many while yet in the second estate will comprehend the mission of Christ and value Him, but will nonetheless remain blind to or confused by other critical truths about Him and His gospel. Even if they’ve had countless exposures to LDS settings, their hearts may have never “heard” the message well enough to be considered as “having had their chance”. They will not be fully eligible to be considered as a Saint until they know the most critical truths – and all mankind will know these eventually. Thus a guarantee that all people will eventually fulfill the first requirement of becoming a Saint – namely they will correctly understand Christ’s role, His gospel, and His subsequent will for their lives.
 

What must you do after you know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Most will not know the whole truth until after they die, so can they repent at that point? Yes. It is not clear to me what the nature of our choices will be like in the Spirit World, but it is clear that someone can come to recognize that they either never knew much of the truth and were completely on the wrong track, or had mistakenly bought into something they thought was true, and in many regards was, but turns out they were misinterpreting some things, were deceived by others, or were otherwise lacking something. (Certainly this applies even to Latter-Day Saints, because while I accept that the official word of ancient and modern prophets is not flawed, as individuals we have not heard or read everything they’ve said – and what things we have heard, we may not comprehend, appreciate, or correctly interpret). Hence even committed LDS members will find in the next life that we also will have a thing or two to learn and then commit to.
 

Either way, when they come to this knowledge, their choice is then to accept what they learn to the point that it becomes clear to God and all of heaven that they have had a “change of heart” so much so that He is convinced that had their minds been opened to these truths while on earth, they would have had sufficient humility to accept it and begin to live the second half of the definition of a saint (which is to strive to live in accordance to what was learned, and humbly repent as we become aware of the shortcomings in our strivings).
 

Who are the candidates for repenting once their blindness is removed and the truth is known?
Recall that two-thirds of the Hosts of Heaven ultimately chose the plan of freedom over the plan of compulsion. Of potentially 70 billion in the human family, certainly there are billions who lived according to what good principles and truths they could correctly identify without the aid of Christ’s true gospel or even without the aid of Christianity (e.g. those obvious to anyone who is not mentally ill: don’t kill, be faithful to your wife, love and provide for your family, respect other’s property, etc.).
 

Value of position, present direction, historic trend
So in a line up of a hundred randomly selected Children of God, how would you improve your odds of picking out those who are more or less likely to eventually be declared Saints and enter into the Kingdom of God? I would start out by assessing how much they know (because where much is given, much is required, and conversely where little is given, little is required). I would then judge what they are presently doing (are they striving to do better, or allowing themselves to do worse?). I would also look for patterns in their history (do they more often take two steps forward then one step back, or one step forward and two steps back?). Thus their current position on the line is less important than their present direction or the likelihood of a change in their course if not presently headed forward. In this model, I could see alcoholics in the ghettos standing a better chance of a favorable judgment than even active Latter-Day Saints. Though enslaved to a habit, the one avoids harder drugs, repents of his adolescent violence, and may achieve a measure of integrity; while the other may live by most of the church standards, but simply isn’t magnifying their calling or their life as the Lord expects (buried talents).
 

A Saint multiplies talents
Christ gave another definition of what it means to be a Saint in the parable of the talents. Here, the Master gave three servants each a different number of talents. This is an acknowledgement that we all come to earth with traits, conditions, and opportunities. Born rich or poor; physically attractive or not; knowledge of the gospel or not; famous family or not; many traditional talents or few; loving parents or not; good neighborhood or ghetto. He then goes on to explain that the Master’s expectation is that each of us improve upon what we were given. “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his own ability” (Matthew 25:12).
 

Talent Math: One who ends with 5 may be judged worse than one who ends with 2
The ones with 5 and 2 each went out and doubled their talents, were commended, and received identical rewards. The math of this is interesting. The one who ended up with 4 was at a lower finishing point in absolute terms than the one who started with 5, yet received the same ultimate reward. Suppose the one with 5 had buried his, and the one with 1 did not. The first ends well ahead of the man who now has two, but the first is considered “slothful and unproductive” while the second hears “well done thou good and faithful servant”. So if humanity were placed on a “talent line-up” with all things considered, we would see folks who started out on the low talent side (maybe having run with gangs, full of tattoos, and few flavors of wickedness they hadn’t tried) but “doubled” nonetheless in the end (they may never set foot in a church in this life, but maybe they fulfill a promise not to beat their wife the way their dad did, stick around for their kids the way their dad didn’t, and give honest work for honest pay).
 

While the rest of their lives may still be strewn with wickedness, garnering the harsh judgment of those supposedly more pious, they are viewed by the Master favorably because they managed to make a little lemonade with their life of lemons. On the opposite end, we may see many whose lives look to be something we would admire and should strive for, yet in the Master’s eyes and in their own eyes, they may not be doing so well because He and they both know things should be better than they are, considering the knowledge and opportunity they’ve had.
 

It’s like “Scum”
If you’re familiar with the card game “Scum” it works a lot like this. The “Scum-bag” or “janitor” starts with the worst cards, and in the first round the best he can hope for is to move up one or two spaces. The president starts with the best cards, and should easily be able to remain president or at least VP. Suppose then that the scum-bag moves up to vice-scum, and the president moves down to VP. The former president is still ahead of the former janitor technically, but we can all judge that what scum-bag did with what he had was more noteworthy.
 

In the Spirit World, some will value their new knowledge, others will not.
We know that all those who have not known the truth or who have known and rejected the truth of Christ and His gospel will go to Spirit Prison at death (while those who have accepted Christ and received critical ordinances are allowed into Spirit Paradise – both of which are temporary locations prior to the final judgment). The great majority in Spirit Prison will have never known of Christ’s true gospel while in the flesh. When they’ve sat in class long enough that their questions are answered and they “get it”, their knees will bow before the Lord and they will confess that Jesus is the Christ.
 

This may or may not result in an appreciation for what they’ve learned. Many may learn it, confess it, but not value it in the end and may simply not do what it takes to repent, change their hearts, or to accept ordinances performed for them. Others will be amazed at what they learn and will eat it right up. These are likely to be those who responded well in this life when they became aware of a better way to live than what they were living. I picture these people saying “Wow! I wish I’d known all of this while I was on earth. I could have done so much good, and I could have changed my ways.”
 

What Christ might tell those who accept the whole truth about the history of His gospel and periodic apostasies.
I then imagine Christ, in whom they now love and trust, whispering to some of them, “Oh, by the way, all of this knowledge was available during your time. Up here in Heaven we simply call this ‘the truth’, and those who accept the truth are part of my church and Kingdom; but down there during your time ‘the truth’ was delivered through vehicles which I created. In ancient times it was under the banner of ‘Israel’ until they became too apostate to house it any longer. That’s when I came in the flesh and set up a system of apostles and a chief apostle or prophet with whom I could communicate my will for them and my followers, which I did both before and after my resurrection.”
 

“This ‘Church of Jesus Christ’ functioned until Satan conspired to murder my apostles and my followers were overpowered with false doctrine from self-serving individuals and well-meaning individuals alike. I was left with no worthy vessels through whom I could pursue my work or communicate my will, and a hostile environment to my followers. I had to wait for a time in which those hungry for the truth were not a few but were many, and the systems to protect freedom of thought and religion were better established to prevent the devil from raising a mighty army against them.”
 

What Christ might say about the rise of Christian churches during the Renaissance
“Some time after the murder of my apostles, it became obvious to those truly desirous to find me that much of the organization and doctrine I established in my time was not understood and no longer practiced in the traditional church. Martin Luther recognized this, and was moved by the Holy Spirit to point out errors he believed he had found. While he did get closer to the truth in many regards, he didn’t get it exactly right and even went further away in other regards. This is the trouble when the Arm of the Flesh attempts to act as interpreter of the Word of the Lord.”
 

“Nonetheless, what he created was the best thing going in his time, and the resonance among the pure in heart was so strong I could tell momentum was building to restore my church and doctrine anew. Yet for a time, people were content to study the Bible and establish their own churches attempting to correct for what they thought it was teaching, but for which no church was pursuing. Everyone seemed to be looking for the original path, but no one was quite able to find it. I was pleased with their efforts to find me, but without direct inspiration and communication it was impossible for any particular group to assemble enough of the ‘broken mirror’ to see clearly.”
 

Without apostles, interpretations can be 90% useful and correct, 10% derailing
“Such widespread splintering into Christian factions served Satan’s intent to obscure the truths so that if one signed on because of the truths one faction had assembled, he would never come to find the truths that a different faction had assembled. Further, Satan could clutter what was true about each faction with “almost truths” designed to divert their attention away from what was true and create friction between factions. With each faction having self-appointed interpreters, none of whom were humble enough to see that they could be partially wrong and others could be partially if not wholly right, there was no man on the earth who had come before me in faith and humility whom I could select as a worthy mouthpiece to communicate the full truth and correct error. While Satan was furious with the fervor with which the masses were searching for the truth, he laughed at how successfully he had divided and obscured the truth among so many choices.”
 

Perfect setting for restoration: Pure and curious boy, an anxious and hungry world.
“Unfortunately for Satan, the polarization of churches created a perfect setting in which one who entered the arena of Christianity with no predisposition for any particular sect may ask reasonable questions as to who held the truth, or at least the most truth. Joseph Smith was that person who sought me out directly with faith and a humble heart to know the truth. I found him to be a worthy vessel in whom I could trust, and I began communication anew with the world through him. Finally the world could accept fledgling Christian sects of all kinds, and so my restored gospel blended in with the others without being singled out for annihilation.”
 

So as in the time of Israel, “the truth” is now housed under the “Mormon” label
After relating the history of His gospel and the restoration, Christ informs His recent Spirit World convert of the commonly known label the truth resided under while he was yet alive: “So have you ever heard of ‘The Mormons’? That’s the vehicle through which my truths were taught in their most accurate form while you were alive, because I revealed my will for the Last Days personally through a new series of apostles and prophets”. Our convert responds, “The Mormons? You mean those guys with the bikes and name tags? They taught me several ‘discussions’ you know. They said if I didn’t get baptized before I died I couldn’t be saved in the Celestial Kingdom because they’d given me my chance? Why then did you give me another chance?”
 

Christ may respond, “The ‘chance’ they spoke of can only be lost after you see the truth. While they taught you at that time, Satan diverted your attention because you were missing ‘American Idol’, and you simply didn’t give much thought to what they were saying. You couldn’t see the forest for the trees. I was sad that you couldn’t see the truth well enough to let it bless your life. I never really reached you again until now, but I new your heart on earth and knew that you’d gladly accept me as your Savior when I finally got a chance to remove the scales from your eyes.”
 

Billions of truth seekers who end up focusing on incomplete or lesser truths, or through no fault of their own are deceived into thinking some things are true that in fact are not.
So for me, I believe that of the seventy billion people who ever lived, there could easily be several billion Mormons even if you don’t count children who died, if a Mormon or a Saint can be defined as someone who does what they must to bring their actions and hearts into conformity with the truth once they discover the truth. Untold people improve their lives every day based on accepting this or that good principle, and are hindered in more accelerated progress primarily because – with millions of things to know – they simply do not see the full picture or even enough of the picture to figure out that the Mormons have got something unique and valuable, or even that there may be something valuable in religion at all (many of the secularists who are essentially good people but are on a poorly lit and confusing path).
 

So they take several steps forward, a few steps backward, but a lot of steps sideways or on wrong or less productive paths. With the billions of thing to know, they simply can live their whole lives in the details without comprehending where Christ is or why that matters (“ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” – 2 Timothy 3:7).
 

When they finally focus on the truths of the gospel in the next life, many will be receptive because they’ve always been receptive to any truths they had the good fortune of receiving by the Spirit. They just inadvertently spent their lives pursuing truths of lesser consequence. While the LDS doctrine is pure, the LDS people all buy into certain lines of thinking that we think are true and simply are not. I’m curious to discover when I get to the other side how many things I thought were true (man causing global warming as an example), that God will then break the news that they were not.
 

How this helps me with non-LDS acquaintances
This helps me relax around the 99.8% of the world that is not LDS, and converse with them as if they were LDS – acknowledging present differences in beliefs of course – but not shying away from conversations I would tend to have with any of my friends and brothers in the gospel, be it political, religious, the weather, or otherwise. It also helps me avoid getting tied up in knots worrying whether they’ll “accept the gospel” during our brief conversations (a worry that causes others enough embarrassment that they avoid contact with people if after a few cookie deliveries they deny an invitation to church).  
 

I try my best to be a good example and also to open my mouth when the Spirit provides opportunity, but I am ok with many years or even a lifetime lack of “seeing the dolphins” (below).  Why? Because the “every knee shall bow” statement gives me hope and confidence that people who strive to live good lives have a good chance of accepting Christ and all that that means, even if they had excellent exposure to many of the most important truths and still never quite could see them.
 

So they don’t accept your invitation to church? Big deal. Try again in a few years. Should you feel sad for them if after many years they die and never heard what you were saying? Yes, because of the lost blessings that could have been theirs in this life. But don’t despair that their souls are lost because odds are pretty good that they actually will be a brother or sister in the gospel – eventually – if they were fundamentally truth seekers and good people! I do what I can to help them see what I see while it can still do them some good in the second estate, but I don’t sweat it too much if there is no obvious progress, or if they want me to cool off on the “preaching” – plenty of time in the next life and we can still be friends in this life.
 

Dolphin analogy: A fascinating world of spiritual knowledge is available if only you “have eyes to see”
One more analogy and I’ll stop. You know those 3-D pictures made of randomly-sized circles all of varying shades of say green and blue? Someone may tell you there’s a dolphin in there, and you stare at it for hours and never see it. They seem trustworthy, but you ultimately don’t believe them or consider them well-meaning but senile.  But then someone comes along and you ask, “Can you see anything in there?”, and they respond, “oh yeah, it’s a dolphin”.
 

You find many people think they see a dolphin, but you never can and figure you never will. They tell you to look cross-eyed, peripherally, and anything they can think of until you finally have to move on with your day. Many give up there, but others will try again on a different day and finally begin to “see the dolphins” – an entire world that was right before your eyes, but to which you were previously blinded. That is the world that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has opened to my eyes. I don’t see that spiritual world all that clearly yet, but I have “seen some dolphins” and I can tell there is probably a lot more that I can yet see if I look long enough and correctly (prayer, faith, diligence, etc.). So I really enjoy talking to LDS and non-LDS alike who have not seen any dolphins, or at least haven’t seen the same ones I’ve seen.
 

It makes sense to treat all those who haven’t seen your dolphins yet just like you’d treat any brother or sister and look for chances to see if they’re interested in staring at your picture of dots for awhile. If not, don’t worry because God has said they will see the dolphins if only in the next life. If they do agree to stare a bit, but can’t see what you see and give up early, don’t feel bad because they haven’t missed their chance. It’s not easy to see the dolphins and they’ve just begun to practice. It will be all the easier the next time they take time to stare even if it’s in the next life.
 

“Seven times harder to repent in the next life”
All of this seems to contradict something we’ve all heard that Brigham Young said. I hear he said “it is seven times harder to repent in the Spirit World than it is here” (or something like that). Knowing something today and not repenting while you have a chance in this life is not the same as never really knowing something, or not knowing you have something to repent of. It could well be true to those of us who come to know something but don’t pursue what we know or repent of our known sins will find it really is harder in the next life to change that course. However, I think there are many things which we don’t know that once we find out, it will be relatively easy to change course. Hence it may be easy to conclude that many people can be converted to the truth and repent once they know they have something to repent of. It’s a habit they’ve formed all their lives.
 

Bottom line on “the Saints”
What is a Saint? – Someone who does not reject truth when the Spirit communicates it. Just the opposite – they begin working the truth into their lives.
Where is the truth? – Certainly truth is everywhere. Many scientists accept physical truths, but are blinded to the possibility of spiritual truths. Still, if they have developed a habit of accepting those truths, there is good potential they can yet accept other brands of truth when the scales are lifted from their eyes.
So how many Mormons are not Saints? – A lot!
So how many Mormons are Saints? – Also a lot, and hopefully more than are not!
So how many Saints will never be known as a Mormon in this life? – A lot!
Will they be known as “Mormons” after they become Saints? I don’t think so. I think in the next life we will all simply be found with Christ and accepting of all truths, or we won’t be.

 

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