All posts tagged wickedness

Charity Rejoiceth in Truth

One of my favorite scriptures has always been a declaration by Nephi:

“I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.” – 2 Nephi 33:6

I love the simplicity of Nephi’s testimony. And I love that he rejoices in simplicity and truth.

My love for this scripture hasn’t waned. In fact, in times like election years, I find myself wishing that there were more people who rejoiced in truth.

Of course, Nephi’s declaration also makes me think about myself. Do I truly rejoice in truth?

What is truth?
Several years ago, I had a college professor who was a self-proclaimed post-modernist. (The whole idea makes me laugh. You don’t hear things like that anywhere but in college, it seems). I went to college in Utah, and there were many professors who loved to shake things up by questioning religion, especially the Mormon faith. This professor was no exception.

One day, he started in a tangent about truth. He said, that there was no such thing as “truth with a capital-T”. Everything was just relative. It seemed to me that he had the notion of truth confused with beauty (Truth is in the eye of the beholder.) He challenged us to define Truth.

The challenge was rhetorical, but I knew the answer. Earlier that week, I had been in an institute class where we discussed truth, and the divine definition of truth:

“And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;” – Doctrine and Covenants 93:24

Can you think of a better definition? This is the answer to what truth is. Truth isn’t the popular belief at the time. Truth is the knowledge of how things are. And it is more than that. It is the knowledge of how things are, eternally.

After the class, I went to tell the professor my definition of truth. I remember his response. He dismissed me before I even finished my sentence. Maybe he didn’t rejoice in truth. He couldn’t refute it. He just said, “Well, that’s what you believe.” (I didn’t mention that this was from the scriptures. I just said, “Here is how I define truth…”) So. I feel pretty satisfied – Truth Exists. Incidentally, I rejoice in this fact.

How to come to know the truth.
So…maybe it is still tough to understand what truth is, let alone rejoice in it. We don’t need to fear. We have a way to find out the truth.

“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” – Moroni 10:4-5

Spiritual Scientific Method

  1. Receive things – We make an observation.
  2. Ask God – Ask A question. (don’t you love this?! Heavenly Father wants us to ask questions. He wants us to know. He doesn’t want us to follow Him blindly. He wants us to follow Him firmly.
  3. Have a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ – Make a hypothesis and experiment. We need to come up with some kind of resolution. The Lord has told us – we need to study things out in our minds.

    Additionally, we need to experiment. How on earth do we expect to have our hypothesis proven or disproven if we haven’t experimented? The idea is ludicrous.

  4. The Holy Ghost will tell us the Truth of all things – In this phase, our hypothesis, through appropriate experimentation and observation, will be either proven or not. We can then choose to accept the hypothesis or reject it. Either way, the Holy Ghost will tell us what is actually true.

Why does it matter?

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – John 8:32

Truth leads to freedom. Have you ever seen this in your life?

I will give a fairly dramatic example.

In my first marriage, I was married 7 years. Throughout my marriage, I had no idea of the truth. I thought that I was married to a man who respected me and honored God. Anyways. I didn’t. He lived a double life. He was having many affairs and was living in a way completely contrary to the gospel and to what I had agreed to when marrying him.

The entire situation came to me as quite a blow. The Truth, stung me in a way that I can’t describe. It was a shock. I remember someone asking me if it would have been better if I didn’t know.

Of course not!

And there were two reasons:
1. Even though I was married, things were amiss in my marriage, and I never could determine the problem. I prayed about it. I went to the Lord. Nothing ever seemed to be resolved. I learned why once I found out about my ex-husband’s affairs: the Spirit cannot bear false witness. He could never make me feel better about my marriage because it was a lie.
2. As difficult as finding out the truth was, I was so grateful for it. The truth led me to shedding the shackles of a very bad marriage. I believe it was also better for my ex-husband. He could be relieved of his duties and obligations as a husband. Because I knew the truth, I was able to be freed. As much as it hurt, I felt better, I felt free.

Truth leads to freedom in every instance. For me, I rejoice in truth because I’m pretty happy about freedom.

Jesus Christ is the Truth

“For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” – Doctrine and Covenants 84:45

The word of the Lord = Truth → light → Spirit → the Spirit of Jesus Christ

This also makes me think of what we know about the Devil:

“And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.” – Moses 4:4

We can find the source of truth with Christ. If something is not true, we know who is the author of it.

Our Response to Truth
Those who have a charitable heart, respond to truth with rejoicing. We will be like Nephi who “glories” in it.

If we don’t have charitable hearts, and if we don’t cleave to truth, we may hate it.

“And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of speaking to my brethren, behold they said unto me: Thou hast declared unto us hard things, more than we are able to bear.

And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.” – 1 Nephi 16:1-2

Nephi teaches us the ways both the righteous and the wicked feel about truth. The righteous are justified by the truth. They find solace, peace, and ultimately freedom in truth. Those who are wicked are pained by the truth – it cuts them to the core.

How do you respond to truth? Do you like it? Glory in it? Do you try to avoid it? What are ways that you can improve? Do you find that sometimes it is easier to believe a lie rather than truth? How can you develop more charity so that you begin to rejoice in truth?

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by chococatania on February 9, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Book of Mormon, Charity Study Series, Doctrine and Covenants, Insights
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Posted by chococatania on February 9, 2012

http://thatgoodpart.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/charity-rejoiceth-in-truth/

Joy and Thanksgiving: Compare/Contrast Those who keep the Commandments

In today’s Joy and Thanksgiving assignment, we are comparing and contrasting two groups of people described by King Benjamin. This is kind of a long scripture block…just so you know.

“And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom’s paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved—

I say unto you, that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples.

Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever.

And now I say unto you, that mercy hath no claim on that man; therefore his final doom is to endure a never-ending torment.

O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can understand my words, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might understand, I pray that ye should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression.

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.” – Mosiah 2:41

Here is how I mark scriptures that compare and contrast.

When we compare and contrast, we look for what the items being compared have in common and how they differ. Usually, we can learn something from this comparison!

Commonalities between the groups

  • They both had been taught the things of the gospel.
  • They both had known the things of the gospel.
  • They both make choices based on what they have been taught and what they know.
  • They both experience consequences based on their decisions.

Differences between the groups
The First Group

  • The first group chooses to sin. As a result, they withdraw themselves from the spirit of God.
  • The Lord can no longer guide, bless, or prosper them.
  • Come out in open rebellion against God – listing to obey the evil Spirit. – This is open rebellion because they knew better.
  • An enemy to righteousness.
  • Is an unholy temple, so the Lord will not dwell with them.
  • If they die before repenting, then they die an enemy to God.
  • Bound by justice, and because they refused to repent, cannot receive mercy.
  • No Lord, No Righteousness, No Mercy → guilt, pain, anguish, fire.

When I think about this first group, I realize that King Benjamin doesn’t tell us these things to “scare us into righteousness.” These verses aren’t a manipulation. They are the facts. When someone refuses to keep the commandments and come unto Christ, then he cuts himself off from the atonement of Christ. He cuts himself off from the Spirit and the happiness of God. It is what it is – simple.

The Second Group

  • Keep the commandments.
  • Blessed and Happy
  • Blessed in all things: both temporal and spiritual
  • Received into Heaven
  • Dwell with God in a never-ending state of happiness.
  • Keep the commandments → Never ending happiness

As I write this, I keep getting impressed by the fact that a part of keeping the commandments is repenting. We aren’t expected to be sinless. We are expected to keep the commandments. Because this is the expectation, then we are allowed room to sin – as long as we repent.

If we refuse to keep the commandments, then we refuse to repent.

I don’t mean this to be an excuse for sinning and breaking the commandments. We need to do our best. However, we’re human, so we will sin. Also, if we could perfectly keep the commandments, then there would be no need for Christ. Which is ridiculous. We need to keep the commandments – which means we need to repent. Which implies, that the Lord knows that we’ll sin, he just wants us to change it when we do.

Then, when we repent, we are blessed. We are blessed through the atonement of Jesus Christ. We are received into Heaven, thanks to His infinite Mercy, and we are able to dwell with God in a state of Never-ending happiness.

It’s a really good deal for us.

***
For tomorrow’s assignment, click here.

1 Comment
by chococatania on November 16, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Book of Mormon, Compare and Contrast, Insights, Joy and Thanksgiving, Mosiah, Scripture Study
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Posted by chococatania on November 16, 2011

http://thatgoodpart.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/joy-and-thanksgiving-comparecontrast-those-who-keep-the-commandments/

Joy and Thanksgiving: Theme – Wickedness Never Was Happiness

Before I get started, check out the Book of Mormon Forum Blog Hop happening at We Talk of Christ… There are several really great posts here about the Book of Mormon.

***

So…I get excited about the literary elements of the scriptures. I get excited about connections, symbols, lists, and themes. Obviously, I’m kind of a nerd, but maybe you are, too. :) And if you aren’t excited yet, hopefully this scripture study series will convert you…

A theme is a broad, sweeping idea. It is often found repeatedly in the scriptures. Today, the theme we’ll be studying is wickedness never was happiness.

How I mark themes in the scriptures. I use a little post-it flag. I have tons of flags and will figure out what to do with them someday.

“Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.

And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness.” – Alma 41:10-11

A few points from these two verses:

  • We cannot expect to live this life in sin and then live in happiness the next. It just doesn’t work that way

    • Don't you love this?

  • Wickedness never was happiness.
  • We are currently in a natural, carnal state. This state is in the “gall of bitterness.” Sounds rough, and sometimes I don’t feel like I am suffering so much. But the reason why Alma says this is because we are separated from God. Now, I think that when we do things that are good, and we covenant with God, then we make connections to Him. Thanks to Christ, we are able to be atoned. So, we can experience happiness. But when we live as fallen men and women and give into our natural, carnal selves, we cut ourselves off from God, and that is a bitter place to be.
  • The nature of God is happiness.

As I read these two verses, I realize that I often do not define happiness the way that Alma does here. Sometimes, I’m led to believe that happiness is what feels good. Which is why I hesitate on doing dishes. It is why I gobble up brownies. Yet, happiness is putting off the natural man (what feels good) and turning to God. We turn to God by putting off the natural man and yielding to the promptings of the Spirit through the atonement of Christ. (See Mosiah 3:19.)

This is true, too. As often as I give into my natural desires, I feel like I’m pleased momentarily. Then the pleasure goes away, and I’m left with the fact that I just ate five brownies, and now I can’t remember what the chocolate tastes like, but I know I don’t feel well physically or emotionally. Or, I put off doing something that I should – like dishes. I go and have fun, but am left with the stress of a messy home and a big mess that’s harder to clean than it needed to be.

“But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head.” – Helaman 13:38

This scripture emphasizes the theme that wickedness never was happiness. Seeking for happiness by following the appetites of natural man will result in failure. It is impossible. It isn’t because happiness doesn’t exist. We just can’t find happiness in sin because that’s now where happiness is.

For example, you can search for a polar bear in the Caribbean sea, but you won’t find one. Does that mean that Polar Bears don’t exist? No! You just have to look in the right place.


“But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” – 1 Timothy 5:6

When we seek only for pleasure, then we become dead while we’re alive…so…we’re basically zombies. Of course, here, Paul means that we are spiritually dead while physically alive. And what good is it for us to die spiritually? Instead, we should seek the Lord, and become alive in Christ.

“But behold this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin.” – Mormon 2:13

Here, the consequence of the theme we’re studying is fully illustrated – in reality. The Nephites were completely wicked. They mourned. This mourning wasn’t a result of their conscience or repentance. They were sad because they lived sad lives. They were sad because that was their only option. They had shut their lives off from the Light, life, and love of the Lord. The only thing left was coldness, death, and misery.

I guess an example would be, if you had a fire, and you didn’t feed it, over time, it would die out. It wouldn’t get cold all at once, though. The fire would still burn. It would get smaller, but the coals would still smolder. Eventually, all of the fire would be gone, and the ashes would cool. You would then be left without any light or heat. You are left in the cold – not because the fire refuses to burn, but because you refuse to feed it.

I don’t want to end on a sad or depressing note, so one last scripture:

“And he hath brought to pass the redemption of the world, whereby he that is found guiltless before him at the judgment day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom, to sing ceaseless praises with the choirs above, unto the Father, and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Ghost, which are one God, in a state of happiness which hath no end.” – Mormon 7:7

We can be found guiltless. We can dwell in the presence of God and experience happiness which hath no end. We just need to desire to give up our natural desires (which takes a lifetime, I really think) and choose to accept Christ’s atonement by covenanting with Him. It is simple and do-able. We don’t need to be perfect, we just need to be made perfect in Him. Then, we will be able to experience the happiness and blessings that He has in store for us.

Eternal Happiness – sounds pretty cool, actually.

***
You can find tomorrow’s assignment here.

4 Comments
by chococatania on November 14, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Alma, Insights, Joy and Thanksgiving
Tagged , , ,

Posted by chococatania on November 14, 2011

http://thatgoodpart.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/joy-and-thanksgiving-theme-wickedness-never-was-happiness/

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