More or Less
Alan Brown
Science, the study of God's master craftmanshipJust now
Alma 9:27
27 And behold, he cometh to redeem those who will be baptized unto repentance, through faith on his name.
3 Nephi 11:32-40
32 And this is my doctrine, and it is the doctrine which the Father hath given unto me; and I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and I bear record that *
33 And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.
34 And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned.
35 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost.
36 And thus will the Father bear record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one.
37 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.
38 And again I say unto you, ye must repent, and be baptized in my name, and become as a little child, or ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.
39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.
40 And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.
Hmmm. Tricky question. I feel enveloped by a dear friend who I respect and love for whom he is, nevertheless, I will endeavor to answer this request as I know how important this topic is to him and everyone when considering the salvation of mankind.
It is very interesting that this answer is requested today. I am feeling a bit more mortal than usual having to get general anesthesia in the morning. I am not terribly worried about that, but one never knows for sure.
I will answer this referring to Christians only, thusly…
I recognize instantly the metrics for this answer should be steeped in scripture references, examples and support, as the author of the question is the most masterful, expert scriptorian I have ever encountered. He has one of the biggest hearts ever, completely and totally dedicated to seeking out God for he knows without God we are literally nothing, destined for hell. I am blessed to be able to call him a dear, fellow brother in Christ.
A bit of illustration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as its purpose of being a beacon of hope and desire to all those who would partake of it. As this Gospel beckons us, there are certain requirements for us to partake of it and “officially” become Christians.
ye must repent, and become as a little child, and be baptized in my name, or ye can in nowise receive these things.
This is as specific as it gets! These requirements are non-negotiable, which is an entire subject to answer, another time maybe. Suffice it to say that this is what is going to open the door when we knock on it for entrance into the Kingdom of God. Certainly, these are the first steps onto the narrow path through the straight gate of successfully getting home again.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt. 7:13–14
.)
Therein lies the basis, the essentially minimalist criteria to enter into becoming a Christian. This then begs the question, “What do we have to do next to continue successfully along the path home again?”
IMHO, THIS is where much of Christianity then begins to go astray? Certainly, there is much discussion and disagreement regarding the next and subsequent steps required to get successfully home again. Even the term “home AGAIN’ becomes a point of contention in some Christian circles.
Is the Gospel purposely confusing in order to limit the amount of those transiting mortal life from successfully getting to Heaven? I KNOW THAT IS NOT SO! I am 100% certain that a loving Heavenly Father would want as many of His children to make it back to Him again! Thus, why the “mass confusion” regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
There are any number of reasons, starting with pride, arrogance, Satan, misunderstanding, etc., etc. that there is so much derision associated with this issue. And, as these are the very last days, there is that, too. That is, the sifting of the chaff from the wheat and the removal of the wheat from the tares in preparation for the purifying fire which is coming.
As this is a very significant issue, how do we LDS sort out what is important to do or avoid while making it home again?
Obviously, we are not immune to any of the conditions that other people experience like pride, arrogance, etc. Hopefully, we are living our lives worthy enough to be blessed to have the Holy Spirit as our constant guide and companion.
Obviously, Satan would be ecstatic to keep us arguing with each other instead of working together to help each other get home again.
Then, how do we stay on the straight and narrow path?
There are two main camps of what is important to avoid being ensnared by the devil.
There is the Scripture based camp and the Spirit based camp broadly speaking.
The Scripture-based camp believes every question related to anything of the Gospel can be answered clearly and concisely through scripture study.
The Spirit-based camp believes that Moroni's challenge of Chapter 10: vv 3–5 that is, expressing the Holy Spirit should be the final arbiter of any absolute truth from Heavenly Father regarding questions important to sort out how to get home safely again.
As there are so many different kinds people in the world, there are many different levels of understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and even the ability to understand the deeper intricacies and finer points of the Gospel. Then there any number of “paths” one might take to get back home again. As well, there are any number of people at every different point along the specific path they are on.
Thusly, IMHO, there MUST NEEDS BE a looser requirement to enter into receiving the cleansing grace and mercy of Jesus Christ in order that our garments are washed white, and we are made perfect to enter into the presence of Heavenly Father. By “looser”, I mean a more moderate set of metrics than a more rigid and strict set of metrics. Why?
As stated, there are too many different types of people with so many different life experiences and even, differing mental capacities to demand a very rigid and strict set of standards be met or the individual will be assigned to an eternity of hell.
Then there are other mitigating or extenuating circumstances and factors of consideration. There is the fact that there are no perfect individuals on the earth, at all. Obviously, we can expect some to be less sinful than others, yet we all are all prone to making errors, every one of us!
There is the fact that we are in the last part of the seventh 1000 years of tribulations wherein the calamities are worsening in frequency and intensity and the devil has been completely loosed to wreak as much havoc as possible. Also, the scriptures and living prophets and leaders have for many, many years warned us that even the most devout, rock-solid Saints will have their testimonies tried so severely that everyone is in danger of failing the current and coming trials of our faiths.
So, what do we have to do to endure until we are called home or caught up to meet Him as He comes again in Glory to rule the earth for one thousand years?
IMHO, aside from loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, we must be living the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes well and we should be very serious about living the Golden Rule. We are warned to have the light of Christ in our eyes upon His return and the Pure Love of Christ and, as well, we must be found to have Charity in our hearts for ALL of mankind, not just other Latter-Day Saints. We need to be acknowledging that there are other excellent Christians in other Christian churches living good Christian lives and we should reach out and support each other and our Christianity against the ensuing onslaught coming from the adversary. We must stand fast, together, in harmony and collusion to withstand the fiery darts of the devil. We must be fast to forgive and slow to criticize.
Even more important, IMHO, is that we live Alma Chapter 7: vv 23–24.
23 And now I would that ye should be humble
, and be submissive
and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.
24 And see that ye have faith
, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.
As I aver, “be humble
, and be submissive
and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things, see that ye have faith
, hope, and charity”, it is critical to have these attributes.
Notice this does not say, be a force unto oneself, be angry that an imperfect man, like a prophet can say things in error, isolate yourself from others, be contentious be a loner, apostatize, alienate oneself, be frustrated all the time, nor believe that you are the only one with insight into how we are “really supposed to live”. or find fault with everyone, even brilliant spiritual minds like James Talmage and then find favor with anyone or anything outside of the accepted cannon of works this Church has sustained as being the most correct on the face of the earth.
IMHO, our minds are just like CPUs in computers. Our neuronal synapses either fire or they don’t, that is they are either on or off, 1 or 0. Fifty years ago, computers required punch cards to load a program into the CPU. The truest and most favorite acronym of that time was GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. Our minds are the same way. R rated movies puts garbage in our minds, hence we should expect garbage out which is not going to be very becoming of a Christian. Conversely, anger, pride, arrogance are all results of letting the adversary slowly take over our minds over decades of time.
Why GIGO here? Because as we go about seeking the mysteries of heaven, the adversary is going to quietly and quite surreptitiously lead us into down paths of influence that we should not go down. That is, we will be innocently reading garbage from the adversary who makes that garbage all seem so reasonable and closely aligned with our thoughts and principles that we begin to subconsciously accept that garbage until it becomes our new truth and normal. Many years later, instead of forgiving imperfection and praying continually for our leaders called of God, we are critical of them not just mentally but verbally and we have set our own feet on the apostate roadway.
Hence, we must stay in the boat, support each other when one of us needs a friend in the Gospel and a helping hand up, support the leadership with prayer, and accept that the leaders are the ones with the necessary keys, rights, and privileges of their assigned callings which will very likely cause them to make statements or decisions that would make a weaker soul question to the point of erroneously falling away.
We must ALWAYS keep in mind that we don’t have the rights, nor keys, nor privileges to understand why the prophets and first presidency makes the statements or actions that they do, especially when those actions seem contrary to what we know to be true.
When we feel we are at odds with what comes out of the mouths and actions of these duly lived, and duly called leaders, we MUST REALIZE that it is the adversary trying to ensnare us!!! Remember, THIS IS A TEST! If it was anything other than a test, WE WOULD HAVE INFORMED YOU THROUGH THE OFFICIALLY CALLED MOUTHPIECES OF THE LORD!!
Our rights to personal revelations WILL NEVER SUPERCEDE a prophet or apostles rights to revelations for the entire Church!!
It absolutely matters not that we believe the leader is wrong in what He has done or said. It only matters that we allow whatever was done or said to cause us to apostatize and destroy our Covenants with God that we made in the Temple and destroy that peace, security and joy that our sealed spouses and families know because heretofore we were faithful, diligent Latter-Day Saints.
In such a case, it is not we that have won by standing our ground criticizing our leaders. It is us that have lost by being unteachable, recalcitrant and denying what we at one time knew was true beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Indeed, how is it that we read material by authors not in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and come to some absolute conviction that those authors have “the Gospel of Jesus Christ” right when they don’t have the necessary keys, etc., to be a correct source of the Gospel??
Pride goeth before the fall. Is it any wonder that when we go looking for other explanations of what we know and live every day, 24/7, that we will ultimately be led astray by the seduction of the devil at work???
Is there LESS to the Gospel than meets the LDS eye?
I personally find fault with the question initially presented for answers here. It is not up to us to decide whether or not there is less to the Gospel than meets the LDS eye. We must always be diligent and watchful that WE DON’T TRANSGRESS APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY, and become a force unto ourselves, which we don’t have proper authority to do.