The Initiate Speaketh?

To all the people in the house who regularly give serious thought to what they believe:

You are wonderful and refreshing, whether you're Christian, Mormon, Buddhist or Atheist. Unless you're Rasta. Thinking and Rastafarianism are mutually exclusive.

[This level of compounded stupidity is absolutely terrifying.]

This would actually be my first contribution to this blog, and I am ashamed (somewhat) to say that it's not going to be as technical or fancy as everyone else's, in all probability. I'm an abstract thinker and somewhat shaky when it comes to holding on to a train of thought. However. I may have some good thoughts for you. I hope. I'm just going to use my first post to briefly explain why I'm still a Christian.

Put simply, I believe it's the truth. But the most compelling reason for that, surprising as it may sound, has nothing to do with the numerous paths of logic which have so heavily influenced my weak and doubting faith. It's the people. Paul will probably want to kick my butt when I finish posting this. It was supposed to be full of scholarly research and similar nonsense. But it's true: I'm a Christian because there's something empowering and liberating about being with Christians. I have talked and eaten and laughed and enjoyed life with people of diverse faiths, but when I'm with people who profess Jesus Christ's redemption, and who have the stunning humility it takes to admit that without a loving God, we can never succeed, I feel truly free and truly cared for. The freedom that comes from submitting to a God so merciful that He'd save even someone as pitiful and disgusting as me is enough to make my whole life different. And it makes me want to inspire that kind of change in other people.

I've heard many people say the Christian faith is logically inconsistent because it's so full of paradoxes. I don't think that's true. The Christian faith IS one big, beautiful paradox—all of it—even the parts that make sense. Because at the root, it started with love, and it moves and breathes through love, and God Himself is love, but love is something nobody fully understands. The rest is just details. That's where I'm coming from, and that's the standpoint I'll be writing in my future posts—the ones where I'll specifically be writing about the “details”.

I've been told I'm not one-hundred percent sane. I've been told I'm incapable of forming a coherent argument. But then again, like the Bible says in First Corinthians 1:27,

“God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.”

Let us hope so. I look forward to digging into questions of faith with all of you, be you Mormon, Christian, or Druids.

[Any worshipers of Kernunnos in the house? No? ...I guess I'm not surprised.]

Be blessed. I'll be back next month.

When I grow up, I wanna be a gladiator!

Alrighty alrighty! Sorry that this post is kind of late... I am going to talk about Grace and what Mormons believe about Grace. This is a pretty deep subject, so I am just going to focus on the basics.

Grace is the divine help or strength given through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. (The Atonement is very central to Grace.) It is a gift given to us. It is not something we can earn because we would never be able to do anything sufficient enough to receive it as an entitlement. Because we have agency, we all experience the consequences and effects of sin, or spiritual death. None of us would be able to return to the presence of God without grace. Through the Atonement we can come unto Christ and be forgiven. To receive this enabling power, we must obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ which means to have faith in Him, repent of our sins, be baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and follow His teachings for the rest of our lives (Ephesisans 2:8-9; James 2:17-22; 2 Nephi 25:23; 31:20).

There is also a difference between mercy and grace. Mercy is God’s compassion or His patience. God extends His mercy by granting grace to His children.

We believe that through the Grace of God, everyone who has lived will be resurrected and will live forever. (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) But resurrection alone won’t allow us to enter into the presence of our Heavenly Father, and there is a difference between living forever (immortality) and having eternal life (living forever with our Heavenly Father). This is where our part comes in! To be exalted and have eternal life (to live with Heavenly Father and achieve the fullness of Godhood) we must do all that we can do to make ourselves worthy to dwell with our Heavenly Father. Our sins make us unclean and unfit to be in God’s presence, and we need grace to purify and perfect us. But effort is required on our part to receive the fullness of God’s grace. There is a story told by David O. Mckay that illustrates this concept very well. There was a group of boys who were learning to swim when one fell into a treacherous hole in the stream. The boy would have drowned but for the quick-thinking companion who extended a branch to him and helped pull him to shore. He says: "There are those who claim that no one will sink and be lost if he will look to Jesus on the shore and say, ‘I believe’. There are others who declare that every one must, by his own efforts, swim to the shore or be lost forever. The real truth is that both of these extreme values are incorrect. Christ redeemed all men from death which was brought upon them through no act of theirs, but He will not save men from their personal transgressions who will put forth no effort themselves, any more than the young rescuer on the river bank could have saved the drowning lad if the latter had not seized the means provided him. Neither can man save himself without accepting the means provided by Christ for man’s salvation” Works must be coupled with grace so we can be cleansed from our sins and be perfected.

Soooo That’s all folks! I would love questions or any input or insights!