Following and believing in prophets - God's time

I went through and changed the titles from part numbers to something indicating which aspect was being covered. This series is going on longer than I expected, so better organization seemed advisable.

I also keep getting nagging feelings that I have written about some things before, but repetition is important; some of us are slow learners.

Just in this series, we have covered how some leaders and some commandments may not be so much for your benefit as others, but they are for other people, and that's valid. Last week was about how there are always opportunities for personal enlightenment, beyond what is generally available. What all of that is leading to is that everything works out for everyone eventually.

This life is a blink in eternity. It's an important blink, but still, it is finite.

In some ways, this post is more about believing in God in general, but often when people get irritated with the prophets, and don't trust them, it is because the message does not seem to be working out for them, so how can it be trusted?

It's like the question of why good things can happen to bad people. So much of it happens because we have choices, and those choices have consequences. It would be unfair that your bad choice can affect my happiness, but there is also the potential for my choice to affect you, and also your choice may not have been intentionally bad, and if God were interfering all the time, our choices would become meaningless.

God respects us too much to be a micro manager, but He loves us too much not to help. So, we have a world where we do not remember Him, but we can feel Him. We are subject to death and diseases, but we are promised resurrection. We are prone to sin, but welcome to forgiveness. We have prophets to teach us, and we have the Holy Ghost to confirm their teachings. Some people don't get taught in this life, but they will get the chance to learn after death. The Atonement of Jesus Christ balances justice and mercy, and between life, and after life, and the Millennium, there is a chance for everything to be reconciled and healed.

In my mind I have thought of this as God playing the long game. That does not sound right, because it's not a game, but there is still the point in there that his goal is not a fast partial victory, but taking time to bring back as many as possible.

Think of the apostasy. From the time of the apostles being killed or taken up, centuries had to pass before the Restoration. If you think of the conditions it required, the Reformation, and the formation of the United States, it took a lot to get to a spot where you can even have a new prophet whom the government or church won't kill. Even then, he does still get murdered, but he has time to accomplish his work. If people would not be so terrible, it wouldn't take so long, but that is not His fault. So instead He has a plan that no matter what we mess up, there are remedies in place.

We are slow learners. I am constantly amazed at God's patience with me, and it's not just for me. He is patient for everyone. So, when there are things that seem horrible, that are blamed on God, are used as proof of His absence, no, the problem is us, and He is the solution. But that's really more of a point to make for atheists.

For people who do believe in God, but have grown skeptical of His servants, maybe, right now, this thing is not about you. I will still promise you that there is room for you in it.

Following and believing in prophets - when you don't know about prophets

What I was leading to last time was the personal revelation part; we should ask, and we will receive.

One story that affected me a lot was about a friend of Wilford Woodruff. He had a vision where he understood that the earth was in an apostasy, but saw that a restoration was coming, and that he would know of it, but not be able to partake of the fruit. He did learn of the restoration as he was dying.

I did find the video, which can be seen at https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-07-003-the-great-apostasy?lang=eng.  It is a little long, because it is not really about the friend, but it was his story that stuck with me.

In the Church, we hear spiritual stories all the time, and shortly before seeing this, I had read some stories of things being revealed to the parents and grandparents of Joseph Smith. This was the first thing that really brought home to me that there are opportunities for revelation to everyone, everywhere. Yes, the earth has had long years of apostasy, and there are continents and countries that have been very hard to reach, but that has never made God unavailable.

When I was working with the Laotian refugees, most of them passed through some pretty dangerous times, and it was common that they found themselves praying. The prevalent religion there was Buddhism with roots in animism, but they knew they weren't praying to Buddha. They did not know whom they were praying to, but they sensed there was someone there.

We believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost, and I hope we appreciate how wonderful that is, but also, we believe in the Holy Ghost, and we believe in the Light of Christ. There is always the opportunity for spiritual knowledge.

There are some things worth noting from Robert Mason's story. One is that he had the vision, but he prayed to understand it. We can get some information and not follow up on it.

Also, just for having the vision in the first place, he thought about religion a lot, and about authority. He was trying to understand. That would put him in a place where having that vision made perfect sense.

It is very easy in our society to stay trivial. There is plenty of entertainment and plenty of distraction, and we can easily avoid going deep. It is also easy to be exhausted, and not have time to think about God and our relationship with Him.  This society has problems. We know that.

But also I know that there is a path to God. Even without teachers, there is the ability to know what is right, and what is good, and build on that. He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.

Following and believing in prophets - personal responsibility

Last week I focused on the alcohol part of the Word of Wisdom. I know there is more to it. One thing that has been interesting to me is that I have heard that a lot of members in the South are vegetarian or flexitarian, taking the "meat sparingly" part very seriously. Almost no one does that out here.

Some people are very against drinking cola, due to the caffeine, because of the hot drinks. I have been like that, and now I rarely drink pop at all. It's not good for you. It ruins you for water, which is good for you. At the same time, give me about three days without meat and I will become a danger to people.

My point is that even with the guidelines that we have, there is a fair amount of latitude in how you interpret and live them. Some things are pretty basic, and some things come up in temple recommend interviews, but even then, you have some leeway. For example, they will ask you if you are a full-tithe payer, but they will not ask you if you pay on your net income or gross income, or ask to see a W2 and compare it to your tithing totals to see if it is really ten percent.

This is not encouraging anyone to lie, but to get at the importance of the individual relationship with God. We need to think about things. We need to understand why they are important. Sometimes you learn the importance of a commandment through practicing it, so it is not that you will always work it out before you live it, but it is not blind faith either. It is informed faith, and that is important.

This is not a secret. In part this series was inspired by frustration with how people blend their faith with their political ideologies. You would think that the announcements over the pulpit every election year reminding the congregation that we don't endorse candidates or parties, and that we don't hold political events, and that members are encouraged to study the issues would kind of give a hint that automatically assuming you need to belong to a specific party, and vote that way, is misguided.

When I was teaching Sunday School, there were many times when people would be surprised to find out that I teach adults, because there is this idea that Sunday School is for kids. It's not. We all study the scriptures together every Sunday, with extra classes during the week for high school students (seminary) and college students (institute), and then as adults we still study. It is the most popular class to skip, but the opportunity is still there.

Education is encouraged. Learning is encouraged. Pondering is encouraged. And yes, we still have leaders, and we are still supposed to listen to them. There is general council that works for the majority of us, and there are organizational issues, and it makes sense for those things to come out of leadership. There is also a great deal that is individual, where it makes sense to come to us directly, and personal revelation is important there.

There is also a need to know that the leaders are worth following. This is certainly something for investigators. If you don't believe in God or prophets, or if you believe in prophets for Biblical times but not for the modern era, you would need a witness from the Holy Ghost to get you there.

In addition, if you are a member, and have been, but the prophet says something you don't like, or you get a bishop in who is a real stick in the mud, then you need the Holy Ghost again.

We get commandments that are guidelines. It's not that they are not specific necessarily, but it is fascinating how people will build on them, either to justify judging others, or to build a Pharisaical hedge around the law which seems like it will help keep the law but really just creates a burden and removes the spiritual blessing of the law.

We need the Holy Ghost.

Following and believing in prophets - as times change

I want to briefly go over how it's okay that things change, and the Word of Wisdom seems like a good place for doing that.

We know it was given because early members of the church did smoke and drink, or it wouldn't have come up. We don't necessarily know about tobacco in earlier times, but certainly wine is mentioned often in the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and while there are occasionally mentions of the negative effects of drinking too much, alcohol is not described as inherently evil.

So, it is reasonable to look at our abstinence today as part of our covenant for this time and place, and we adapt to it without constantly needing to rewrite it. There is no mention of recreational drug use, but as we understand the purpose of the law, it's a very logical extension.

One thing to remember is this point that I periodically return to, in that not everything we do has to be personally for us. Verse 3 kind of points that out:

"Given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints."

There are members who would probably be fine drinking alcohol, just as there are people outside of the church who sometimes drink and sometimes don't, and for whom it does not become an issue. On my mother's side (in Italy), wine and coffee are pretty standard with meals, and they overall have good health and longevity and they do pretty well with it.

There are people for whom it is a big issue. On my father's side, I know of a few drinking problems, and that's with no one ever really talking about it. I have strong reactions to pretty basic medications, and am quite probably among the weakest of the saints for that issue. That covenant has protected me.

We don't usually know who would have an issue and who wouldn't, but there are other valuable things that come with abstaining. There is freedom from addiction, and the heartaches that can bring, but there is also a clear head, and one less thing interfering with listening to the Spirit. Because there is no using alcohol to lower inhibitions, we have to learn to deal with the inhibitions. We can't deaden our emotions that way, so perhaps we are more likely to deal with them. There is even the simple lesson of obedience that comes with keeping a commandment that is not cool.

It is not hard to believe that there is more benefit to abstaining from alcohol in this modern society, with so much leisure time, and advertising, and less physical labor, than there would have been many centuries ago.

Whether is is offering sacrifices, or paying tithing, or living the United Order, there are similar lessons, but perhaps better tailored for the time. If we are going to believe in revelation and divine leadership, then it makes sense that things can change and evolve. It also makes sense that we can gain individual reassurances, and we will be spending more time on that next week.