The Good Ol’ Days!! These are pretty cool.

If we are not humble, we tend to demand that faith must also bring with it good health, peace of mind, good luck, success in business, popularity, world peace, and every other good thing we can imagine. . . . If we insist on other things as the price of our believing, we tend by that very fact to undermine our own belief.

Thomas Merton: 1915-1968, Catholic monk

Robert Millet

Spencer Fluhman

Doctrine & Covenants 1:30 uses what, at first reading, can feel like incendiary language to describe the recently restored church organization. “The only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” could appear to be a straightforward declaration that God sustains The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that, at the same time, He rejects the remnant of the Christian body. Now, while there may be a true underlying principle upon which this line of thinking is based, it is too often misunderstood and misapplied to the degree that people, both LDS and non-LDS, often use it to do significantly more damage than good.

Is D&C 1:30 saying that the LDS are the only authentic followers of Jesus Christ? That the Atonement is only effective for Mormons? That God only gives genuine answers to the prayers of the LDS? Absolutely not, and not only are these attempts to express Mormon beliefs not tactful, they are simply not accurate or honest.

In this discussion, Spencer Fluhman demonstrates that the language used in the 1828 revelation (two years before the restoration of church organization), as recorded in D&C 10, demonstrates how the Lord views this church in the context of the rest of the Christian body. Speaking of the gospel as contained in the Book of Mormon, the Lord states,

And now, behold, according to their faith in their prayers will I bring this part of my gospel to the knowledge of my people. Behold, I do not bring it to destroy that which they have received, but to build it up. And for this cause have I said: If this generation harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them. Now I do not say this to destroy my church, but I say this to build up my church. D&C 10:52-54

It is significant that the Lord refers to his “people” and his “church” two years before there was authorized baptism and restored priesthood organization. The Lord, in restoring the Priesthood and an authorized prophetic voice, was adding something to his already existing flock. A flock composed of followers that were found among the Presbyterians, Baptists, Universalists, Catholics, Methodists, or any other denomination. For these Christians, He was building up, not tearing down. He was causing the existing light to be strengthened, not introducing light where it had been totally extinguished.

Now, this is not said with any intent to downplay the importance of an authorized priesthood. There is a reason for missionary work, even among fellow Christians, and for the performance of baptism, even for deceased Christians. Nonetheless, it seems that we need to do better in how we view our Christian neighbors and how we share our unique and extraordinary offering with these, our brothers and sisters.

Listen to the mp3 here.

Click on the Arrow to Listen

The vote in California on Proposition 8 will take place on Tuesday. It would amend the California state constitution to clearly define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

This message, delivered at Brigham Young University, on 28 October 2008 is the most effectively articulated message on, as its title suggests, the moral purposes of law and government that I have ever heard.

If I cannot know something about these things which are to come in the eternal world, I have no religion; I would not give a straw for it… If there is a God, I want a religion that supplies some means of certain and tangible communication with him. If there is a heaven, I want to know what sort of place it is. If there are angels, I want to know their nature, and their occupation, and of what they are composed. if I am an eternal being, I want to know what I am to do when I get through with time; whether I shall plant corn and hoe it, or be engaged in some other employment, I do not want any person to tell me about a heaven that is “beyond the bounds of time and space,” a place that no person can possibly know anything about, or ever reach, if he did. I do not wish any person to frighten me… by telling me about a hell where sinners are roasted upon gridirons, and tossed up by devils and upon pitchforks and other sharp-pointed instruments… I want nothing to do with such things, I care nothing about them. But as an intelligent being, if I have a mind capable of refection, I wish to contemplate the works of nature and to know something of nature’s God, and my destiny.
-John Taylor June 12, 1853

Jaroslav Pelikan is interviewed by Krista Tippett on the history of ancient and fixed creeds

Speaking of Faith interview with Robert Millet about LDS doctrine and culture.