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What I Believe I believe the basic tenet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Articles of Faith
Joseph Smith |
The Journey Continues
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Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward. (author unknown) I grew up in Samoa a Christian, and attended the Christian Congregational Church (London Missionary Society - LMS) and Methodist churches. The Christian religion was part of my upbringing, and it was something that was to be expected of all young Samoans. Did I believe? Yes. I believed God existed. I believed that Jesus died for our sins. I believed the Bible. However, it was more than just belief; it was part of my life growing up in Samoa. I remember fondly the times my grandmother read with me stories from the Bible. Community pressures constantly reinforced my personal belief in the Christian God. |
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When I left Samoa to join the military after high school, I felt somehow that I was freed from the culture requirement that tied me to the Church. Being separated from home allowed me to choose and not pressured by my parents to go to church. Looking back, I must admit that I made some wrong choices. Instead of attending Church, even when I was able to, I slept on Sundays or did other things. I had no desire to attend church, and I basically stopped attending it. When I visited Seattle, Washington, while I was stationed at Fort Lewis, someone gave me a flyer and asked if I were a born-again Christian. The question striked me in a strange way - Of course I was a Christian! I attended some services on special days like Easter and Christmas, but that was it. I lingered. After the Army, I went to live with my parents in northern California. It was late summer of 1978. I applied for entrance to Northern Arizona University and got accepted for the winter-1979.
While awaiting the start of school and working odd jobs, my religious life changed. Two LDS missionaries knocked at my parents' apartment - asking if we were interested to hear their message. My parents accepted their call, but only my older sister and I completed the discussions. My parents converted to the LDS Church a few years later. An appointment was made for each discussion depending on our availability and the missionaries' schedule. The conflicting schedules presented some brakes in the discussions, and since I wasn't fully convinced by their message, I hoped that the delays might have discouraged the missionaries and quit. That didn't happen. The discussions continued. Before the last discussion, my sister and I were asked if we wanted to attend the church service. The church building was located in Petaluma, California. It was different. It was interesting, and I liked how I felt that day. The few people we meet were friendly, included the couple that gave us a ride to church. At the conclusion of the discussion, we were asked if we wanted to get baptize - we both said yes. The same missionaries baptized my sister and I on September 1978.
Did I believe? Yes. I believed then that the LDS Church was much different than what I had in mind. There were no long stodgy sermons. The local church was organized around ordinary laymen, unlike the preachers I knew growing up. Those local church leaders volunteered their time for church work on top of their regular jobs. I've always thought that there's nothing that proves a man's sincerity than his actions.
During the discussions with the missionaries, I was also confronted with the subject of Priesthood Authority that became an important part in my conversion. The churches that I previously belonged to also permit people into their ministries, who became duly designated to perform church functions. Where did they obtain the authority to grant those permissions? That was a question that I faced, and the answer to that question was the first thing that I was certain about during my conversion over to Mormonism.
I liked what I saw. That was how I envisioned a church should be. I loved the hymns and the Sacrament meetings. During my baptism I felt that the LDS Church was where I belong.
When January came, I moved to Flagstaff, Arizona to attend school. One day, while walking around the campus, I saw the Institute of Religion sign with the familiar LDS Church logo. I stopped to ask about church, and was told that the student ward met there and was provided with the time for their service. While attending the student ward, someone suggested to me an institute class about Mormon (LDS) doctrines. I signed up.
The class centered on the "Doctrine and Covenants" with references to other books the LDS Church considered Scriptures that included the Bible. During the class, we discussed what I thought then as strange ideas about God. I was taught in my youth that there's only one God, and it was my understanding that everyone who believe the Bible teach that too. Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost were never an issue for me - until now. Why didn't I know this when I had the missionary discussions? Did this ever came up in the discussions? I don't know. The missionaries probably mentioned it and I didn't pay attention. I was troubled by the new information. I can become a god? My awareness of my many faults made the notion of my becoming a god laughable and troublesome. I didn't like what I heard, and I refused to believe it. That experience and a few other unsettling issues caused me to become less active. I started to spend more time with some non-Mormons who befriended me. I became inactive.
Several months later as I was sitting in my dorm room, bored on a Saturday, I decided to go for a walk around old downtown Flagstaff. During my walk I unexpectedly came upon a Mormon (LDS) bookstore. I decided to stop and have a look around. I was surprised to find out that the bookstore was own by our Bishop. He saw me first and asked me why I wasn't coming to church anymore. I made some nonsense remark and told him that I would come to church soon. I lied. I had no intention of going to Church. I'm sure that if I had seen him first before he eyed me that I would have turned and walk a different path. Anyway, I proceeded to look around his store and found a book called "The Mormon Doctrine of Deity" by BH Roberts. I opened it and read the introduction plus a few pages. The book covers the subject that perplexed me in the institute class; the nature of God. I bought it and walked back to my dormitory.
I spend most of that Saturday night reading it. Come Sunday, I didn't go to church. I spend sometime reading more of the book. "The Mormon Doctrine of Deity" provided me with the best introduction to this topic. I don't know if it was Roberts' writing, or my eagerness to understand, but somehow I started to appreciate what I was reading. I began to see the difference between what the LDS Church teaches and what other Christian churches teach about the nature of God. Roberts' explanation about God started to made sense to me. The idea of a physical God that we can comprehend appealed to me. I always knew of Jesus as a person that I could relate to on the physical level, and I thank BH Roberts for clarifying this LDS doctrine to me. It clarified for me then why the LDS Church builds temples, value marriage, and cherishes the family. It made the "Doctrine and Covenant" more meaningful and also prodded me to see Joseph Smith differently from that moment on. I gained more respect for Joseph Smith and his vision of God - the Father and Jesus Christ. You might say that, as far as my membership in the LDS Church goes, after three years since becoming a member, I just took my first step.
Today, my testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is stronger than any previous time, which I plan to keep working to improve. I do believe the basic tenet of the Church - The Articles of Faith. My activity in the Church through the years has been a roller coaster. I've learned a lot throughout my ups and down, and my testimony continues to increase. There are still things that trouble me, but my experience back in college with the concept of God has taught me to be patience. I will get answers - "...line upon line, precept upon precept..." (1)
Soon after that experience, I committed myself to study the Book of Mormon. I never really had a testimony of the Book of Mormon when I was baptized, but since the LDS Church also uses the Bible, that wasn't an issue for me then. In a later time, however, the Book of Mormon presented some difficulties for me. It took me awhile to gain a true testimony of the Book of Mormon. My personal scripture reading included the Book of Mormon, but I delicately deferred parts that I had issues with. You might be asking why that was a problem to me when I already believed and accepted Joseph Smith as a prophet. Well, it's not really that simple for me to explain. Although I accepted the Book of Mormon based on my faith and testimony of Joseph Smith's prophetic calling and vision, there were some aspects of it that I had issues with. That's my approach to many things - religious or otherwise. I'm a slow stubborn learner, and I don't trust people easily. I have to see and understand things on my terms. Am I a doubting Thomas? Maybe I am. Maybe it's just a yearning for the truth. I needed to continue - to study more and to pray more. Happily, I have moved beyond many difficult parts of the Book of Mormon, but not necessarily through reasoning based entirely on evidential proofs. From reading the Book and Mormon and other writings, and listening to talks, I have gradually gained a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon, which ever since 1984 (six years after my baptism) had increase steadily through the years. Today, I'm firmer in my belief that the Book of Mormon is a true record of an ancient people that was translated by Joseph Smith.
Someone asked me, "Why do you believe the Book of Mormon?" I replied that the question was neither fair nor genuine. I felt that the questioner wasn't seeking information about the book, but was instead questioning my mental ability. A better question might have been - "What does the Book of Mormon do for you?" My answer is simply that it gives me PEACE. The Book of Mormon emphasizes the grace of Jesus!
Searching
If a man begins with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. (Sir Francis Bacon)
Why bother searching beyond faith about issues relating to the Book of Mormon? I'll answer this question by telling you my thoughts about "searching for God."
"And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou? And I said: I desire to behold the things which my father saw. And the Spirit said unto me: Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken? And I said: Yea, thou knowest that I believe all the words of my father." (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 9: 2-5)
I agree that it's our personal responsibility to know God. I think that we shouldn't hush or prevent anyone from seeking truths - even if they are about established doctrines. Let each person seek answers to whatever he or she desires - to his or her satisfaction. Jesus said, "This is life eternal that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Know them as what? As separate individuals as Joseph Smith saw or parts of some mysterious Trinity?
Joseph Smith said,
"If any man does not know God, and inquires what kind of a being he is - if he will search diligently his own heart - if the declaration of Jesus and the apostles be true, he will realize that he has not eternal life; for there can be eternal life on no other principle. My first object is to find out the character of the only wise and true God..." (Lecture on Faith #6)
Joseph, in an 1844 sermon during a funeral service of a Mr. King Follett in Nauvoo, taught the following subject.
"It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God.."
Our understanding of the true God, then, according to Joseph Smith, is fundamental to true faith and testimony. The Lord also instructed Joseph Smith, and us too, to "seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning even by study and also by faith." (Doctrine and Covenant, Section 109) Reading opens the mind with wonder and to question.
Albert Einstein said,
"The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead."
The following quote (Cited by Reed C. Durham, The Great and Abominable Church, unpublished lecture given at the Salt Lake Institute of Religion, February 18, 1966.) is attributed to Elder Orson Pratt.
"There is no harm for any man or woman letting the mind expand to lay hold upon all that God has revealed and to ponder upon it as the ancient children of God did. Nephi said, - I ponder upon the things of God continually which He has revealed unto me, and there is no harm for us to do the same. We should not get into that old sectarian notion that we have no right to know anything about this, that or the other, and we must not pry into this, that or the other. That is an old sectarian notion which we have fought against all the day long, and we do not want it to creep into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the privilege of its members to let their minds expand and to ponder upon the things of God and to inquire of Him and by and by when we have prepared ourselves by getting all the knowledge we can from that which is written, God will give us more."
Joseph Smith also gave a similar advice.
"I advise all to go on to perfection, and search deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Godliness." (Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol 6: 363)
The early leaders of the Roman Catholic Church hindered the publication of the Bible in the common languages. They thought the information was too intricate for the common citizens to comprehend. I'm so glad John Wyclife, Martin Luther and other heroes of the Reformation movement disagreed with that notion. Richard Bushman said of Joseph Smith ("Joseph Smith and the beginnings of Mormonism") - "Like his mother and father before him, Joseph learned early to trust his own experiences above the influences of established authorities and institutions." I'm glad that Joseph had that kind of temperament. If Joseph Smith didn't take the step to seek truth, he might not have started the Restoration. If he had listened to the preachers who taught that there were no more revelations, Joseph Smith might not have had the First Vision.
"We should be in the forefront of learning in all fields, for revelation does not come only through the prophet of God nor only directly from heaven in visions or dreams. Revelation may come in the laboratory, out of the test tube, out of the thinking mind and the inquiring soul, out of search and research and prayer and inspiration." (Hugh W. Nibley, "Collected Works of Hugh Nibley", p.254)
I agree wholeheartedly that our primary responsibility today is to attain perfection by doing God's will, and work to better ourselves, our families, and our world. But, the yearning of a sincere heart must not be obstructed. The result of a prayerful quest is a true knowledge and appreciation of the divine.
Much of what are quoted, as admonitions from the Elders of the Church about this subject, I think, are instructions to avoid disputations, endless debates, and errors. I don't think the leaders want members to avoid personal studies and contemplation. Part of what's unique about this Church is our belief in personal revelations and Priesthood, which, in affect, Joseph Smith said the following.
"no man can receive the Holy Ghost without receiving revelations, the Holy Ghost is a revelator." (Words of Joseph Smith, p. 256)
"A man must have the discerning of spirits, as we before stated, to understand these things, and how is he to obtain this gift if there are no gifts of the Spirit? And how can these gifts be obtained without revelation?" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Four 1839-42, p.206).
I believe that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet of God. I believe that Joseph Smith restored Christ's Church, and that he taught the true nature of God. I know this to be true. Not by taking others word for it, but by the exercise of my own small and simple mind.
"In sum, Joseph Smith believed that man is a child of God and, when worthy, is able to communicate with his exalted Father; it is likewise not out of the ordinary for God to speak to man, whether through feelings, thoughts, or open vision. A final statement from Joseph indicates his feelings about the matter of spirituality as a process, an arduous journey from the finite to the infinite, but a journey whose sublime by-products are worth the struggle." (Robert L. Millet, "Joseph Smith: Selected Sermons and Writings", p.51)
Disclaimer
I'm not a professional researcher, writer, nor an authority on Mormonism or ancient studies. I don't want to give you the impression that I'm expressing something sanctioned by the Church, or that I'm professionally qualify to write. I also don't want to cause any confusion about the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So, I want to make it absolutely clear that this is a personal view, and it doesn't in any way speak for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The authorized leaders of the church are the sole expositors of the Church's views. Period!
If what I'm saying in some way helps the cause of Christ, give thanks to God only. If it doesn't, then blame only me. This document is entirely of my own doing, and all errors are mine.
If you want to know the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on any particular subject, you may visit lds.org - the official church website (see also mormon.org). If you want to know how I feel about the Church and how its teaching effect me personally, you may always contact me.
Pen Fiatoa
Columbus, Ohio
October 2003
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