I AM A CHILD OF GOD

I thought I would devote a post to addressing something that a month ago I would not have thought would need to be addressed among a group of Latter-Day Saints. That topic is the belief that we a literally the spirit children of God. Apparently there are some who use a few phrases from Joseph Smith and their own ideas about the nature of God to claim that the Father child relationship between God the Father and man is not a literal spirit relationship. I personally feel that this relationship is a literal one and that it is the doctrine of the church that this relationship is literal.

Since statements from Joseph Smith seem to carry the most weight with many who appear to hold a non-literal relationship view I will start my case with him. In Teachings (p. 48) we find this:

Who but those who have duly considered the condescension of the Father of our spirits, in providing a sacrifice for his creatures, a plan of redemption, a power of atonement, a scheme of salvation...

Brigham Young appears to be even more direct on the subject. From Journal of Discourses we have:

Our Father in Heaven begat all the spirits that ever were, or ever will be, upon this earth; and they were born spirits in the eternal world. Then the Lord by his power and his wisdom organized the mortal tabernacle of man. We were made first spiritual, and afterwards temporal. 1:50

He is our Father; he is our God, the Father of our spirits; he is the framer of our bodies, and set the machine is successful operation to bring forth these tabernacles that I now look upon in this building, and all that ever did or ever will live on the face of the earth. 13:250

From Joseph F. Smith, 'The Origin of Man', (Improvement Era, Nov. 1909 p. 78) we get:

All men and women are ... literally the sons and daughters of Deity ... Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal body.

From our current prophet we have the familiar The Family: A Proclamation to the World which states:

All human beings - male and female - are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.

Now from the scriptures I quote Acts 17:29

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.

And for me the clincher, Romans 8:16-17

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ...

For me this is where it all comes together. After all the statements from prophets and references in scripture, what does the spirit say. To me the message from the spirit is clear and unmistakable. I AM A CHILD OF GOD!

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Boy Scouts VS Duty to God

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has used the Boy Scout program as its young mens program and activity source for a very long time. I remember President Benson calling it an inspired and inspiring program. Other prophets and church leaders have given tremendous support for the Boy Scouting program. But as the church grows to be more international is it getting to be time for the church to move away from Boy Scouts of America and develop its own program for young men? Is the current Duty to God program phase one in just such a change?

I grew up in the church and participated it the cub scout and boy scout programs of my ward. I was never really a gung-ho scouter, but I had a reasonably good attitude most of the time and was will to participate at least passively in these programs. By doing this I got to the point were I was 16 and only lacked my Safety merit badge and an eagle project to complete the all important eagle scout award. About this time I started having other interests and really did have the feeling that boy scouts only met the purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood and the gospel of Jesus Christ in at best a very indirect way. I also observed many of my piers who did earn their eagle scout award and were thought of as outstanding young men. But as a pier I knew things that perhaps even parents did not. Some of these young men had all kinds of problems in their lives in terms of Word of Wisdom, chastity, and other issues. So because of these things I basically quit on the scouting program.

Now I have four boys of my own, and my oldest is 12. I have a couple of decades of the parental side of scouting staring me right in the face. There will be a lot of time and effort in my family to help our sons be successful in this program. I am very concerned that much of this effort will be inefficient because it will only meet gospel and Priesthood goals very indirectly. I would love to see the church more fully develop the Duty to God program as its primary program for young men and move away from boy scouts. Is there any chance of this?

I would like to review the stated purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood and see how the Boy Scout program meets these purposes. The purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood are:

Become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and live its teachings.
Give meaningful service.
Prepare to live worthily to receive the Melchizadek Priesthood and temple ordinances.
Prepare to serve an honorable full-time mission.
Obtain as much education as possible.
Prepare to become a worthy husband and father.
Give proper respect to women, girls, and children.

For the purposes of having a shorter post, I will say in general that the Boy Scout program only meets many of these purposes in a very indirect way, with little or no doctrinal foundation. The Duty to God program, while perhaps not yet fully developed, already does a better job of meeting these purposes in a direct and meaningful way. I hope for a time in the near future when the church will move away from the Boy Scout program and fully develop and implement the Duty to God program in its place. In a way I wonder if this is already happening. Do you feel like this might happen? Is this already going on in other parts of the world outside the United States?

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Trials of Single Adults

Once upon a time I was able to catch a brief glimpse as to what life may be like for a Single Adult in the church.

Where I live the Stake Center is about a 1 hour drive away. During Stake Conference it is common to have a Priesthood Leadership meeting at 4 pm, have a break until 7 pm, and then have the adult session of conference until 9 pm. Often in our ward a group of men that are going to attend the first meeting will drive up together. And our wives will come up and meet us at the Stake Center at 6. Then husbands and wives will go out to dinner somewhere and be back at the Stake Center at 7.

On this occasion my wife was not going to come up, and so I was going to be on my own all night, but I still was part of the carpool going up. Ironically the Leadership meeting was about meeting the needs of Single Adults in the Stake. A pretty good meeting as I recall. When the meeting was over, all the men from my ward went out of the chapel, met their wife, and went out quickly to eat, leaving me all alone without a ride at the Stake Center. Nobody even offered me a ride somewhere.

I was not angry at all. I may have done the same thing. I chuckled at the situation. Here I had just had instruction on meeting Single Adult needs, and then I was placed in what I would imagine to be a typical Single Adult situation. So a sat in the chapel, pondered the messages that had been given, read my scriptures for a while, and went hungry. Nobody even said a word to me. I caught a ride with one of the couples, deciding I might need to be more proactive if I wanted a ride home. Again not a word about dinner was said.

I hope that I can be more aware of the Single Adults around me in the church and be a little more open with my friendship and include them when I can.

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The Liahona: A Hymn I Wrote

That's right, I wrote a hymn about two years ago called The Liahona. Feel free to put it on your piano and play it if you like. I would be glad to get any feedback anyone has about it. You can hear the music here. I sent it in to the Ensign (how naive can I be?) and of course they don't have time or space for that sort of thing.

I wanted to write a hymn about the Liahona because as far as I know there wasn't one. We have a hymn called The Iron Rod, but no Liahona. Figures.

Writing this hymn was a good experience for me. I spent a couple of Sunday afternoons writing down every term, definition and phrase that I could find in the Book of Mormon regarding the Liahona. I then planned out the lyrics in what seemed like a logical sequence. I spent a few days picking out the music on our piano, writing down notes on paper. I then came across a shareware composing software and put it on the computer. After I was finished I submitted it to our bishop and requested doing the song as part of a sacrament meeting. On the weekend of my #2 son's baptism, when my parents came, a quartet performed the song in our sacrament meeting. It was a special moment for me.

Anyone else ever tried their hand at writing a hymn?

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What do People Want in a Church?

I was having a conversation with a couple of men from my work when they started talking about a new church that they had joined. Apparently they had both joined the same church (I am guessing some protestant variety) at about the same time very recently. I was very interested in what they had to say and was expecting to hear some kind of conversion story. The things that they mentioned that they liked about this church were quite interesting.

What appeared to be the most important thing to both of these men was that the church was very 'laid back'. They mentioned this several times. I eventually concluded that what they meant was that the church was very light on doctrine and even lighter on practice. I would guess that if this church had a motto it would be 'come as you are, leave as you are'.

Another aspect of this church that was talked about was that the church conducted a youth service at the same time as the main congregational service. This meant that there were no kids under 10 in the main service.

Another thing was the band. This church had a band. They thought it was funny that they had hymn books in the church yet never used them - the band took care of all the music.

The last topic I can remember is they liked that the entire time spent at church was about 45 minutes.

During all this description I kept my mouth shut and listened. I thought about telling them that my church was quite heavy on doctrine and even heavier on practice. I thought about telling them that mormons had lots of kids and that they are all in Sacrament Meeting screaming their lungs out. I thought about telling them that we have no band and did a lot of singing. I also thought about telling them that our church services take three hours and that is just the beginning of the demands on your time. I didn't say any of this. It was probably my finest missionary experience - keeping my mouth shut.

But how disappointed I was in their reasons for joining this church. Not a word about prayer, or truth, or spirit. Nothing at all like a testimony let alone conversion. I have to say that I am much more impressed with the conversion stories I generally hear in our church than what I heard out of these two men.

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My Testimony - Blog Style (I hope)

I am still feeling my way in this Bloggernacle thing. One thing that I have noticed is that there do not appear to be any testimonies posted. Why is that? Is it because they are such personal things that you don't want someone picking apart? Is it because bloggernacle is no place for a testimony to be? I am not sure. So at the risk of publishing something that might be in an inappropriate setting I will make what may be the last attempt I make at publishing a testimony. This will not be an emotional experience for me partly because I am an engineer and as everyone knows (except for most of the engineers I work with) engineers do not allow their emotions to control them.

My testimony has three anchors to it for now. One is a belief in the existence of God. One is a belief in Christ as a savior. And one is a belief in the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Is there a difference between a statement of beliefs and a testimony? I may be using some of the wrong words here, but of course that is not necessarily the point (perfect wording).

My belief in God is something that for me is a somewhat self evident thing that I feel that I have always had. Perhaps it is a spiritual gift to me. I feel the same way Alma did in his conversation with Korihor. (Alma 30 I believe). He says that I have all things as evidence that there is a God, and you (Korihor) have no evidence that there is not a God. Things that are mentioned is the earth and its motion, the words of all the prophets, among other things. I have never had a shred of doubt about the existence of God. I see him in everything.

My belief in Christ as a savior is a bit different. This is based on some profound 'religious experiences' that I have had. Some of the most spiritual experiences that I have had have come during the repentance process. Because of these experiences I have had I feel that I can say that I know that Jesus is the Savior and has the power to forgive sins. This also strengthens my belief in the existence of God and the ability we have to communicate with Him. This aspect of my testimony has required effort, patience, humility, obedience and faith.

My belief in the Book of Mormon as the word of God is sort of a combination of the two other anchors in how it came. For me, even casually reading it gives me a sort of self evident truth acceptance. (is that a sentence?). I have had such good experience in reading it that it is impossible for me to understand how anyone could read it sincerely and not acknowledge that there is great value in the book. But to say that the book is good only would show a complete lack of understanding of what it is claiming to be. One way or another Joseph Smith produced that book and it is either a complete fraud from front to back or a translation of sacred writings. I must conclude that it is not a fraud and therefore points the way to the restoration of the gospel.

So there you have it. Now by saying this I do not say that everything in the Mormon church is perfect. I sometimes drive a wedge between the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed by Him, and the church as administered by small and simple people.

Why did I post this on my blog? I don't know for sure. I just felt like I should.

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Just What Was Satan's Plan Anyway?

During the council in Heaven Lucifer presented his own plan in opposition to our Heavenly Fathers plan. He claimed that not one soul would be lost and that all of the glory would be his. But as far as I know of there is really no mention of how he would accomplish this. Have I missed something? There have been many who have said that his plan involved forcing us to obey all the commandments and receive all the ordinances. I wonder if this is an assumption.

I saw a small book once at an LDS bookstore in Chicago that addressed this question. I just quickly read the back cover and flipped through the book quickly and decided not to buy it. This book (I can't remember the author, it was not a GA)made the claim that forced obedience was not Satan's intention at all. The assumption made in this book is that his intension was to remove the commandments and take away any accountability. At first glance this appears to me to be more his style. He has spread that notion to people for a long time.

I believe both 'methods' are speculative Since I have not found any direct scriptural explanation. In a way it may not matter at all since neither method would work, but it may give us more insight into how Satan prefers to operate. Does anyone know about the book I am talking about? Does a no accountability / no sin method make more sense than a forced obedience method for Satan to propose? It certainly makes sense to me.

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One of my Heros: Dale Murphy

I've always been a sports fan. I grew up in the early days of cable television, back when it meant you had 12 channels. One of those channels for us was WTBS, and I spent many summers watching Atlanta Braves baseball in the early 80's. During this time the Braves were often pretty bad, but there was one bright spot - Dale Murphy. His coming up to bat was often the most exciting thing about the Braves. My mom probably felt that there must be about 20 Dale Murphy's on the team because every time she asked me to do something I would say something like, "just a minute, Murphy is up next". He was easily my favorite person in the world at that point, and I had no idea he was LDS until an uncle of mine told me he was.
 

When I was waiting to receive my mission call, I was wondering about all the possibilities of where I might go. My father was a geography teacher who had served a mission to Australia, served in the peace corp in Tanzania Africa, had visited Brazil, Pakistan, and the Soviet Union on fellowship grants so I had some yearning to go somewhere special. When I took the language aptitude test the brother who administered it told me that it was one of the highest scores he had seen, and that I would probably go somewhere like Japan. When my call came I found out that I was being sent to Atlanta Georgia. I was disappointed at first but then thought that I might be able to meet Dale Murphy. Which I did on several occasions.

Brother Murphy is an impressive individual who is an outstanding member of the church. His wife is impressive as well. I understand that he has since served as a mission president in Boston. One of the highlights of my mission is having him shake my hand and say, "Hi Elder Nielson". It was not until later that I realized that I did not have my name tag on that day (forgetful me).

Now for the sports. Why is Dale Murphy not talked about more as a standout mormon athlete and as a potential Hall of Famer in baseball? I realize that his statistics are borderline for the Hall of fame in many areas, but he is often not even in the discussions for the Hall of Fame. Only he and Roger Maris have earned MVP honors twice and not been selected to the HofF. And Murphy was a better all around player. He also had 5 gold glove awards, and was a 7 time all star. He played during a time when 400 home runs was considered a lock for the HofF, and he hit 398. He was also a rare 30-30 man. All this makes him a borderline member I believe, and if character issues are important enough to keep Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame, shouldn't outstanding character be able to get a borderline HoFer in?

I wonder if the media is keeping him out. When women were first allowed to go into locker rooms apparently Brother Murphy protested because of privacy/modesty issues. His form of protest was to not give interviews to anyone inside the locker room. The sports media is kind of fickle, could this be part of the reason he is not getting more support for the Hall? Is there something we could reasonably do to get more support for Dale Murphy in terms of Hall of Fame induction?

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Flipping through the Scriptures

A couple of years ago, we had a high councilor visit our ward and suggest the we should occasionally just flip open the scriptures to a random spot and start reading. He promised us that if we did that we would be able to read something that will be very meaningful to us as a means of revelation to us (or words to that effect).

Normally I would feel that this is a bunch of hogwash. I would feel that way because of two reasons. One is that many people are so desperate for something - anything - that they could find meaning in flipping open a cookbook at random and start reading. There have been people I have known that I am sure would find deep spiritual meaning for themselves in just such an experiment. The other reason is that the scriptures are pretty good. And that if you read about any chapter in the scriptures there is bound to be something of value there.

Well, shortly after this high council visit I found myself waiting for an interview or something, and decided that while I was waiting I would try this experiment. Mainly I wanted to prove it wrong instead of right. So I was about to flip open the scriptures when I stopped and thought - what if I decide what it is that I would like to read about before I opened the scriptures instead of after. That would be a better test! So I thought about what I would like to read about.

I first decided that I would like to read about patience in prayer. At the time I had been praying for a blessing from the Lord for a long time, and was wondering how long I should wait for Him to bless me. I then thought about being a United States citizen. At the time I had been reading some things that brought out many criticisms people had made about the United States. I am very proud of my country and consider it the best country in the history of the world, and was wondering if I was justified in feeling that way - I would like to read about that. And then I thought of one other related thing. This was happening when the United States was first starting its operations in Iraq. What is the will of the Lord concerning one country going to war with another country? How should I feel about what we were doing in Iraq? I would like to read about that as well.

So with these three items in mind I decided to flip open my triple combination somewhere in the middle and start reading. My thumb stopped on D&C 98 and I began to read. At the first of this section we read:

1 VERILY I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks;
2 Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

Wow, that was pretty good. That answered item #1 so I kept reading. A few verses later we read:

5 And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.
6 Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land;
7 And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.
8 I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.
9 Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.

Amazing! I was really feeling something at this point. I continued and found this:

32 Behold, this is the law I gave unto my servant Nephi, and thy fathers, Joseph, and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, and all mine ancient prophets and apostles.
33 And again, this is the law that I gave unto mine ancients, that they should not go out unto battle against any nation, kindred, tongue, or people, save I, the Lord, commanded them.
34 And if any nation, tongue, or people should proclaim war against them, they should first lift a standard of peace unto that people, nation, or tongue;
35 And if that people did not accept the offering of peace, neither the second nor the third time, they should bring these testimonies before the Lord;
36 Then I, the Lord, would give unto them a commandment, and justify them in going out to battle against that nation, tongue, or people.
37 And I, the Lord, would fight their battles, and their children’s battles, and their children's children's, until they had avenged themselves on all their enemies, to the third and fourth generation.
38 Behold, this is an ensample unto all people, saith the Lord your God, for justification before me.

Are you kidding me?! All three of my predetermined issues were all directly answered in one section of the D&C. I had never experienced anything like that before. It taught me the God is in control and can even guide where my thumb happens to stop while flipping through the scriptures. This was a great experience for me. You should try it sometime.

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Atonement of Christ provides a perfect judgment

There is a common and popular analogy given about the atonement, perhaps most prominently by Boyd K. Packer. The analogy is the debtor/creditor model. In this analogy a man goes into debt and then can not make the payments. The creditor then demands justice by payment or else the debtor will lose his possessions and go to prison. The debtor asks for mercy so that he can keep his possessions and not go to prison. Christ then comes along and pays off the creditor and sets new terms for the debtor which can be met. Overall this is a good analogy, but I have a problem with it. That problem rests on the question of who is the original creditor?

Some may think that the original creditor is Heavenly Father. This leads to believing that God has laws, and if these laws are broken then someone must suffer for it. Heavenly Father apparently doesn’t care much who does the suffering, as long as there is suffering. There are apparently many members who believe this, but I have a problem with it.

Some may think that the original creditor is Satan. This leads to believing that when we break God’s laws that we somehow become the hostages of Satan. Jesus then pays a price, to Satan, to ransom us from his grasp. The hymn ‘I Believe in Christ’ by Bruce R. McConkie has lyrics that suggest this. Again I have a problem with this.

I happen to believe that the analogy that was given by Dallin H. Oaks is a superior analogy to the debtor/creditor. His analogy is more of the mentor/intern, Father/Son, Teacher/Pupil type. Once the mentor decides that the intern has developed the proper characteristics and knowledge then the intern (or son or pupil) can graduate and become independent. This puts Christ in the position of the mentor and us in the position of intern. Since Christ is the perfect judge of character we are in good hands. I believe the atonement allowed Christ to know what would otherwise be unknowable and allows his to be a perfect judge. There is some scriptural evidence of this in Mosiah 3.

7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
9 And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.
10 And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.

Elder Oaks analogy, and others like it, combined with this scripture from Mosiah offer me the best explanation I have heard about what the atonement was, and what it means to me.

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Accountability in the Church

Something I have heard often recently is that what we need in the church is more accountability. I often find myself wondering what people who say this really mean. It seems to me that what they want is something like priesthood leaders forcing people to do what they should. Or else final judgment now.

Accountability in the workplace is fairly easy as far as I am concerned. You agree to do a certain job for a certain wage. If you do well you may get a raise, or a promotion, or more interesting work assignments, or keep your job, etc. If you do not do well you will not get a raise, nor a promotion, nor more interesting tasks, and you may lose your job.

But what of accountability in the church?

Some people appear to want priesthood leaders to be much tougher on members of the church. But is this what they should do?

I feel that the only real accountability within the church should be between the individual and the Lord - not between an individual and a priesthood leader. Now I know that priesthood leaders represent the Lord - but what should they really do to people who appear not to be performing as well as someone thinks they should.

If you do well, the Lord will bless your life. He can send callings your way that will help you become the type of person you need to be. He can bless your life in a number of ways, and ultimately grant you eternal life if He sees fit.

I read in the Melchizadek Priesthood manual B in a chapter on conducting priesthood interviews that the only evaluation that is done in the church is self evaluation. This seems proper to me. So, what (if anything) constitutes proper accountability within the church - specifically in our relationships to each other?

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My Impressions of the October 2005 LDS General Conference

I thought I might post a very brief impression of the recent LDS General Conference (yes, a few weeks late).

My favorite talk of conference came from Dallin H. Oaks. His contrast between the family and the church was very refreshing. It was also meaningful to me because I have a hard time with boy scouts. So, yes, with 4 boys I am going to be involved at some level in scouting for the next 16 years at least. My problem is that life is busy enough, and with scouting taking up so much time and effort on things which I consider indirect to meeting eternal and family goals, I consider that a waste. I wish boy scouts would just go away and that the church would develop its own program similar to the young women's program (and simpler than scouting) for the male youth. Anyway, Elder Oaks comments on single parents, and the need for young men who do not have a father in the home, made me see a more meaningful purpose in the programs of the church.

One talk that I found amusing was Boyd K. Packer. He mentioned in his talk that many people feel that they could endure trials better if there was more revelation in the church today like there was in the early days of the church.

I have heard people say, "I would have willingly endured persecution and
trials if I might have lived in the early years of the Church when there was
such a flow of revelation published as scripture. Why is that not happening
now?"

He then went into a long description regarding the LDS edition of the scriptures, and how it was evidence of continuing revelation. I found this ironic. It seemed like saying that everything since Joseph Smith has been nothing but footnotes - literally.

Anyone have similar thoughts about conference?

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