by Whitney M., member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and student at Brigham Young University (BYU).

The Love of God the Father

We learn that scripture, even though it can be written about what happened to someone else, still applies to our lives and God’s blessings described therein can be our blessings also.  I’ve just read the inspired account of Moses’ vision of God and encounter with Satan, as recorded in a modern volume of scripture known as The Pearl of Great Price: Book of Moses.

What Moses learned in his vision about God, his relationship with Him, and the blessings and strength in that relationship as a child of God, can also be applied to myself. The first part of this revelation that affects my relationship with God are the words endless, without end, and never cease. This beginning part of the revelation teaches me about the steadfastnesss of God and reminds me of the promise that our Heavenly Father is always there. God’s love, support, and power are never ceasing.

After the vision described in Moses  …..(see below Moses 1:10)  and Moses is fallen to the earth and finally regains his strength like unto a man he realizes that man is nothing, which is something he hadn’t before realized. This statement reminds me of the scripture that says you cannot serve God and mammon. It helps me to remember that we are here because of our Heavenly Father and that without Him and his gospel we are nothing.

 And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.

 

God is Our Literal Father

I like this because it is humbling and reminds me that we need to respect, love and honor our Heavenly Father above all others. My favorite part about Moses and what he learned is when he is approached by Satan. Moses’s simple answer to Satan when asked who art thou is “I am a son of God.” I love this simple and powerful statement. This reminds me about God our Heavenly Father that He is like our earthly father. He is here to guide us, give us comfort,give us reproach, to listen and love.

This strengthens my relationship with my Heavenly Father because I know He is like my own father. His hand is continually reaching out to support me, but it is my job to have faith and put my hand in his to receive his guidance. I love that Moses learns that his Heavenly Father does not abandon him. When Satan is in his presence and he feels such despair he calls upon the strength of the Holy Ghost and his Heavenly Father. It is a powerful example to me. Moses was literally face to face with Satan. I only face temptation and sometimes my faith can waiver. To surely know that God, your Heavenly Father is always there is a great faith builder to me.

God’s Irrefutable Love

The last excerpt that left an impression on me is when Heavenly Father tells Moses that his work and his glory is to “bring about the immortality and eternal life of man.” If this doesn’t tell us of  about God’s irrefutable love for his children then I don’t know what does. Our Heavenly Father’s goal is to help us make it back to Him and knowing that He is there to help me accomplish this is a great blessing in my life.

Additional Resources:

More on the Nature of God.

Attend a local meetinghouse and learn more about God.

When people struggle to know whether or not God and Jesus Christ are real, they often ask in frustration, “Why doesn’t God just show Himself?” It sometimes seems to them that if He wants them to believe in Him, that would be the simplest way.

Why doesn’t God just show Himself? To understand the answer to this question, we first have to examine why we came to earth. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, the explanation of life’s purpose begins even before birth. What happened to us before we were born explains why God seldom shows Himself today.

Mormon beliefs tell of a time before the world was created. God created our spirits. This is one reason Mormons consider God to be literally their Heavenly Father. Our spirits weren’t housed in bodies yet, although they had that form, but we did have our personalities, talents, and interests. In other words, we were uniquely ourselves. We lived with God during that time, getting to know Him and letting Him get to know us.

While this was wonderful, this experience didn’t allow us the full range of opportunity and experiences God wanted us to have. As a perfect Father, He knew we needed to  have challenges, tests, and hard experiences to become everything we could be. We know from our own experiences that we don’t entirely learn who we are until we live away from home and until we’ve faced some trials. If our parents make life too easy, we become spoiled and don’t develop fully.

To receive the full experience God planned for us, we needed physical bodies, families, and a chance to develop faith. Faith is the answer to “Why doesn’t God just show Himself?” While we lived right in God’s presence, we didn’t need faith to believe in Him. However, faith is an important part of life’s experiences. When we learn to have faith in things we can’t see, it dramatically improves our life experience. Learning to have faith can help us learn to love and to commit to a family even in hard times. After all, we can’t see or scientifically measure love and we can’t see into the future to know how family life will work out. So much of that is based on faith. With faith, we can have the courage to take risks that enhance our lives—trying a skill we’re not sure we’re good at, giving ourselves uplifting experiences outside our comfort zone, or making wiser choices.

There are many possible things to believe in, but when we’re forced to sort through them and make choices about what to believe and what to reject, we improve our ability to make wise decisions. The ability to make good decisions helps us in both our temporal and spiritual lives.

And so, God told us that if we chose to come to Earth, we would lose our memory of our time in His presence, and even of His existence. However, He would send along a toolkit that would help us to know it happened, if we chose to open the kit and use it.

One gift God gave us is the Spirit of Christ. Every person has this gift at all times. We can also receive promptings from the Holy Ghost, and after baptism and confirmation by someone with the proper authority, we can have the Holy Ghost with us all the time, as long as we are living worthy of the presence of the Holy Ghost.

Harold B. Lee, a past Mormon prophet, explained the Light of Christ or Spirit of Christ in this way: “Every one of you born into this world enjoys the blessing of this Light that shall never cease to strive with you until you are led to that further light from the gift of the Holy Ghost that may be received only upon condition of repentance and baptism into the Kingdom of God.” (See Decisions for Successful Living, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973, p. 144.)

God cannot show Himself to most of us because we agreed to come here in part to learn how to have faith. By having all of us learn faith by seeking out God and Jesus Christ, God is able to create a plan to help us learn. Of course, just as it is with anything we want to learn, we must make a choice to learn faith and we must commit ourselves to doing so.

The Book of Mormon, which God commanded ancient prophets on the American continent to create, was written to serve as a second witness of Jesus Christ. It is meant to be used with the Bible. It is structured much like the Bible, in that a variety of authors wrote the book and the book is filled with both stories and sermons designed to help us gain faith. One of the most famous sermons on faith in this book was given by a prophet named Alma. Alma taught listeners to conduct an important experiment that would help them gain faith. This experiment is as valid today as it was anciently.

Alma’s sermon was preached to a specific group of people called the Zoramites. The Zoramites had once been followers of Christ, but had somehow become sidetracked and had corrupted the gospel. They became very worldly and were entirely focused on wealth. They believed wealth was proof of God’s approval on a person. They believed this so strongly they would not allow the poor into their churches. Their services were nothing more than a celebration of how wonderful they were and once they went home, they gave no further thought to God until the next week.

Unfortunately, they taught there was no way to worship God except inside their churches. The poor, being excluded, felt they were lost forever due to their poverty. When Alma and his missionary companions arrived to preach, the poor asked Alma what they could do to be saved. Alma taught them that what they needed was not to get inside this corrupt church, but to have faith.

He challenged them to experiment with faith. He assured them that all they needed to get started was a desire to have faith—just a desire, and nothing more. God could take that desire and grow it into something wonderful.

He praised them for being humble, but pointed out they were humble out of necessity. He told them they would be blessed even more if they were humble by choice as well. Humility is essential to gaining faith in God. By accepting they were not the greatest and highest power in the world, they could learn to obey God and accept His will, even if it wasn’t what they hoped it would be. This would allow them to repent when they sinned, and repentance allows God to forgive through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Alma then tells them something that helps us understand more about why God can’t just show Himself to us:

“17 Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe.

18 Now I ask, is this faith? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for if a man knoweth a thing he hath no cause to believe, for he knoweth it.”

19 And now, how much more cursed is he that knoweth the will of God and doeth it not, than he that only believeth, or only hath cause to believe, and falleth into transgression? (See Alma 32:17-19).

From this we see many people, even then, wanted signs—proof. But if you have proof, you don’t need faith. Furthermore, your punishment for failing to keep the commandments is far greater if you have proof of God’s existence than if you only have faith in it. Greater knowledge comes with greater responsibility. In addition, history has shown that having a sure knowledge doesn’t really convert the heart.

In an early Book of Mormon writing, we learn of a family that had four sons when the story began. The two oldest were self-centered and unfaithful. When they abused or tried to kill their brother, angels came to them multiple times. Despite seeing angels and many miracles, they were not truly converted. They continued to deny what God wanted them to do and to disobey commandments. They had proof, but they had no real conversion in their hearts.

This is why Alma found it so important to teach his students that they needed faith. He told them their faith would not be a perfect knowledge—if it were, it wouldn’t be faith. He compared the growth of faith to a seed. First, they must plant the seed in their hearts and not cast it out by choosing to not believe. The seed would then, if it was a good seed (meaning if God was real), begin to swell or grow in their hearts. When they felt this swelling feeling, and felt their souls enlarge, they would know it was a good seed—signs of the reality of God.

Alma reminded them that seeds bring forth their own kind. An apple seed will grow an apple tree. A seed of faith in God will grow faith in God and in itself, then, will prove that God is real. Satan cannot bring forth joy and peace, and that is what you feel when you are praying to know if God is real.

This part of the experiment leads to perfect knowledge, but only in one thing—whether or not the seed was a good one and capable of changing you. If we plant a tree seed, we have to nurture the seed to get the best results. Faith also has to be nurtured in order to grow. If you neglect it, it will die, not because it was bad, but because you didn’t take care of it.

Nurturing the seed of faith requires prayer, scripture study, and pondering of gospel truths that are learned. It requires us to agree to act on whatever God tells us, even if it isn’t what we hoped to hear. Alma warned his listeners that developing a strong faith requires a long commitment, just as growing a tree does. However, it leads to faith in God and eternal life. The rewards are more than worth the work involved.

Once we have faith, we no longer need God to appear before us. Our hearts, and the Spirit of Christ, will tell us everything we need to know.

Mormons (a nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) believe that God knows everything and sees the future. Mormons also believe we have free will—the right to choose for ourselves. To some people, these seem to be contradictory ideas. If God knows everything that will happen, doesn’t that mean it is all predestined and out of our control?

To understand how we can have free will and still have a God who knows the future, we need to have a clear understanding of our relationship with God. Let’s begin with what Mormonism teaches about our life as God’s children and then learn why He gave us free will.

Mormon beliefs tell us that God created our spirits and we lived with Him before our births. We didn’t have bodies, but we were ourselves. We spent time with God, getting to know Him. He also got to know us and this is important to understanding the answer to the question.

When it was time to come to earth, God promised we would still have the free will we’d had since the moment our spirits were created. We could choose to do right or wrong, but we couldn’t choose the consequences of our actions, either to ourselves or to others.

This tells us free will is very important to God. As much as He loves us, He knows we need to make our own choices, in the same way all parents must eventually let their children make choices, even if they are bad ones.

And yet, God sees the future. How does that affect our agency? There is an excellent discussion of this topic in an official Mormon lesson manual for college students. You can read the discussion here—scroll to the heading “Moses 1:6—All Things are Present in Me.”

In this discussion we learn that God isn’t bound by time in the same way we are. He can see the past, present, and future as easily and as clearly as we see the present moment—and with a perspective impossible for us to achieve.

Pick up a book of history or a biography. As you are reading this book, you know what choices the people in the biography or history made. You didn’t cause them to happen. The participants in the events made choices of their own free will. You know what those choices were and what the consequences were because you read about them after they happened.

In this same way, God can actually see the future, as if he were visiting it or reading about it from a future perspective. He is not just guessing or predicting what will happen. But this also means He can see the results of the choices we make. He knows that if we make Choice A, Result A will happen. If we make Choice B, Result B will happen.

We are free, as we go through our lives, to make our own choices. God isn’t sitting in Heaven controlling us like puppets. He knows what we are going to choose because He knows us so well from His time with us both before and during mortality. He also sees further down the road to know the results of our choices—but we are making the choices, not God. He is only seeing what we choose.

Because He is able to see what we are going to choose, He is able to make plans for us. If he sees we are going to make a mistake, but also sees that we will eventually realize we did make a mistake and decide to repent, He can plan to bring some good out of the errors we made. If He knows we are going to ask Him for advice before deciding, and that we are actually going to take the advice He gives, He can look ahead and decide what He should advise us to do.

James E. Talmadge is quoted in the discussion referenced above. He was, at the time of this quote, an apostle. He said:

“Many people have been led to regard this foreknowledge of God as a predestination whereby souls are designated for glory or condemnation even before their birth in the flesh, and irrespective of individual merit or demerit. This heretical doctrine seeks to rob Deity of mercy, justice, and love; it would make God appear capricious and selfish, directing and creating all things solely for His own glory, caring not for the suffering of His victims. How dreadful, how inconsistent is such an idea of God! It leads to the absurd conclusion that the mere knowledge of coming events must act as a determining influence in bringing about those occurrences. God’s knowledge of spiritual and of human nature enables Him to conclude with certainty as to the actions of any of His children under given conditions; yet that knowledge is not of compelling force upon the creature” ( The Articles of Faith, 12th ed., [1924], 191).

This time, instead of reading a history book, let’s imagine time travel were possible. Suppose you were able to travel to the future to see what your life will be like in twenty years. The life you see will be the result of all the choices you have made to that moment you are visiting. You’ll also see how twenty years of decisions have affected others. When you return home, you can choose to follow the path you saw on your time travel journey or you can choose to avoid what you saw by making other decisions. The fact that you saw the future doesn’t mean it has to happen. It means it would happen if you made those same choices throughout life, but of course, you would be free to do otherwise, even though your future had already been seen.

God knows you so well He knows what you are going to choose, but He is not doing the choosing. You are. He is simply seeing what you are going to choose so He can plan for you. When you use a GPS system to navigate a winding road, you can use the machine to see the road ahead. You didn’t build the road or choose the path, but you know what is coming. God is doing the same—looking ahead to see what is coming, but not building the road. Although God knows everything, you are potentially able to prove Him wrong; however, he knows you so well, He knows when you will decide to go a different direction. However, the choice is always yours.

God is strongly involved in our lives. He has a plan for each of us, a plan we are free to choose or reject. Some things that happen to us are part of the plan, but other things just happen, the result of our choices or the choices of others, or even just chance. We are asked to pray to Him for guidance so that when there are crossroads, we can decide which ones to take. This gives us the best chance of navigating life successfully. Doing so doesn’t guarantee a life without trials, because that is impossible, and keeps us from growing. It does promise that we will be in God’s hands as we travel through life and that those things that happen won’t interfere with God’s plan for us. The things He needs to have happen to us will if we seek His help in our choices.

Having agency is a wonderful and powerful gift, one that comes with great responsibility, since our choices affect our own lives and the lives of others. However, it is reassuring to know God can see ahead and help us successfully make the choices we need to make—if we take the time to ask for help.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are often called Mormons by others, believe that Jesus Christ will return to earth one day. Mormons focus on what we know about that time and leave the rest to God.

Jesus Christ will return to Earth.

“Four matters are indisputable to Latter-day Saints: (1) The Savior will return to the earth in power and great glory to reign personally during a millennium of righteousness and peace. (2) At the time of His coming there will be a destruction of the wicked and a resurrection of the righteous. (3) No one knows the time of His coming, but (4) the faithful are taught to study the signs of it and to be prepared for it. (See Dallin H. Oaks, “Preparation for the Second Coming,” Liahona, May 2004, 7–10)

Let’s look first at the first and second principles Elder Oaks mentioned. Mormons believe in the Second Coming. We can over cover what will happen briefly in this article. For a more detailed explanation, read the chapter on this subject in a book called Gospel Principles, chapter 44.

Mormon beliefs outline four things that will happen when Jesus returns:

1.     The earth will be cleansed. The wicked will be destroyed, wicked things will be burned, and the earth itself will be cleansed.

2.     The people will be judged. Matthew 25 in the New Testament outlines what will happen at this stage of the Second Coming, as the righteous are separated from those who did not make wise choices or care for those in need.

3.     The Millennium will be ushered in. This is a one thousand year period when Jesus will reign on earth over people who lived good lives. Not all will be members of God’s church—they will simply be those who have lived moral lives. Missionary work will continue. During this time, Satan will have no power.

4.     The first resurrection will be completed.

5.     Jesus Christ will take his place as the King of Heaven and Earth. The church will become part of his government. He will rule here for one thousand years.

Elder Oaks reminds us we don’t know when that day will be. Matthew 25:13 says: Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. Mark 13 says:

32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

34 For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.

35 Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.

37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

Mormons are watchful, but they believe that they should always be prepared when the time comes, so knowing the exact date is not particularly important to them. They live each day to its fullest. Willford Woodruff, a former Mormon prophet, said that he lived as if it could be tomorrow, but he was still planting cherry trees.

Mormons believe that those who are prepared have no need to fear the Second Coming. They also don’t need to do anything special to prepare because they should be living the principles of the gospel every day of their lives, not just when they think it is time. Mormons believe they should live those principles out of love for the Savior, not out of fear. So, they keep the commandments and work every day on increasing their love for Jesus Christ. When the Second Coming happens, they will be ready without any special need to wait, worry, or change their lives.

However, they are taught the signs of the Second Coming and are taught to be watchful. This does not mean quitting jobs or selling what they own. It simply means they should be alert to the things happening around them—watching, but continuing to plant cherry trees. In other words, they prepare for the long-term future even as they see the signs occurring.

Following are some of the signs of the Second Coming: See Gospel Principles, Lesson 43, for details on these signs.

1.     Wickedness, war, and turmoil: While these have been a part of nearly every time period, Daniel says it will be worse than anything the world has ever experienced.

2.     Restoration of the Gospel: Some signs of the Second Coming are happy ones. Revelations, chapter 14, tells of an angel restoring the gospel.

6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

3.      The gospel will be preached to all the world. This was prophesied in Matthew 24:14.

4.      Elijah will come. This promise comes from Malachi 4:5-6. He said that in the last days Elijah would come to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. This is a reference to work done in Mormon temples and helps to explain the world-wide interest in genealogy that has arisen in recent times.

There are many other signs of the last days, and they can be fascinating to study and to watch for. They are God’s way of calling people to repentance. However, Mormons focus more on daily preparation than on watching signs.

Jesus told a parable of ten virgins invited to a wedding. When the bridegroom didn’t come as soon as expected, some people were not prepared to wait a little longer. Half of them had to rush out for more oil and ended up missing the wedding. Once the wedding began, they were not allowed in. It was too late.

Preparation is always the key to proper Christian living. Mormons are taught to repent of their sins, build strong families, study the gospel, pray regularly, read the Bible and Book of Mormon, and to generally live good lives. They are taught not to delay doing these things. They are advised to put together a temporal supply of food and supplies for the difficulties of the times ahead—a teaching proven wise by catastrophic events in Japan and other places. Spiritual preparation, however, is even more important.

What if the day of His coming were tomorrow? If we knew that we would meet the Lord tomorrow—through our premature death or through His unexpected coming—what would we do today? What confessions would we make? What practices would we discontinue? What accounts would we settle? What forgivenesses would we extend? What testimonies would we bear?

If we would do those things then, why not now? Why not seek peace while peace can be obtained? If our lamps of preparation are drawn down, let us start immediately to replenish them. (See Dallin H. Oaks, “Preparation for the Second Coming,” Liahona, May 2004, 7–10)

When people talk about Mormonism, they often focus in on small things that are not important, aren’t taught currently, aren’t even practiced today. By doing so they miss an opportunity to understand Mormonism as it lives today and even as it was originally taught.

To understand Mormonism, you must focus on core doctrines, those things which are canonized as official doctrine and taught consistently. While church practices sometimes change, truth does not.

There are a few guidelines that can help you evaluate whether or not a teaching is a core doctrine—or even a true doctrine of Mormonism.

First, it is important to understand that every word spoken by a prophet is not necessarily doctrine, particularly in the earliest days of the church. In the beginnings, the church was run much more informally. People talked among themselves and sometimes others took notes and published those conversations or informal speculations of church leaders.

The Journal of Discourses is the usual source for speculations by people of other religions. Journal of Discourses is not an official church publication and is not used as a source of official doctrine. It was compiled by people who took notes of speeches, prayers, sermons, and other events in shorthand and then transcribed them. However, not all the transcriptions were accurate. None were evaluated by or approved by church leaders as being official pronouncements of doctrine. It was privately published in England to provide income for the owner of the journals, although Brigham Young approved the project as a way for European Mormons to find out what was going on in Utah. It was basically the equivalent of a newspaper. Today, the Mormons own Deseret News, but articles that appear in the newspaper are not considered official doctrine, and neither are articles in the Journal of Discourses. With the availability of modern technology, many errors have been officially documented.

Because the church was small, even in General Conference, today a very formal event, people were free to ask questions. Because Mormonism focuses on continuing revelation and learning “line upon line” much of the doctrine was not yet known. Therefore, leaders sometimes speculated about possible answers. These speculations did not become doctrine unless Brigham Young or other prophets prayed and received confirmation of the truthfulness of the doctrine. Otherwise, it was just personal opinion and even a prophet is allowed to have an opinion.

So how does one know if something is an official doctrine? Both official Mormon websites, Mormon.org (intended for people who are not LDS) and LDS.org (aimed more toward Mormons but open to anyone) contain official statements of doctrine. Look for official announcements there.

It is important to remember that not all doctrine is given equal weight or importance in Mormonism. It is also important to remember that in a church that does not refuse to allow God to continue to speak and to lead, doctrine is given in increasing steps, what Mormons call learning line upon line. This means Mormons have, over the years, been given doctrine suitable just for one time period or doctrine that might be considered beginner doctrine. As the church membership grew and people became more informed about the gospel, God gradually added to their knowledge. An easy way to understand how this works is to read the lesson manuals written for children. Although the same subject might be covered in each age group, older children are given more complex information because they are ready for it. Mormons are taught by God in increasingly sophisticated stages.

Joseph Smith outlined thirteen Articles of Faith that explained the core beliefs of Mormonism at that time. These are still taught and even memorized by children. Reading them can help earnest students of Mormonism, those determined to learn only what is true about Mormons, to recognize core doctrine. The first Article of Faith is the very core of Mormonism:

“We believe in God the eternal Father, in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”

This creates a foundation on which all other doctrines are based. The first Article of Faith makes possible the fourth, which succinctly summarizes the core of Mormonism:

“We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Faith in Jesus Christ is critical to the mission and doctrine of Mormon beliefs. Repentance, the second portion of this article of faith, refers to Mormon belief in the atonement of Jesus Christ and the importance of both grace and repentance in the process of living a Christian lifestyle. Baptism, performed after the manner in which Jesus was baptized, allows people to be forgiven of their sins and is a result of grace, which came to us through the atonement. The Holy Ghost was a gift Jesus Himself promised to send to His followers once He was gone.

Another principle of Mormonism is that of continuing revelation. Nowhere does the Bible state that once Jesus died, God would no longer be willing to communicate with His children or to send them prophets. While the apostles lived, they received revelation and guidance from God and functioned as apostles, seers, and revelators. Once they died, God did withdraw for a time, an event known as an apostasy. It is not that God is not willing to have prophets on the earth at any given time, but mortals are not always willing to accept and honor prophets. When this happens, they are the ones who remove the gift of prophecy from the earth. This happened frequently throughout the Bible and happened for the longest period of time after the apostles died.

However, the Bible assures us that God will do nothing except through his prophets. (See Amos 3:7.) This means that in order to prepare us for the return of Jesus Christ, another core doctrine of Mormonism, God must restore prophets to the earth. He did this when He chose Joseph Smith as His first prophet in the last days. Today, the Church is led by Thomas S. Monson, the Mormon prophet.

There is no question as to the need for a prophet in today’s world. A short drive around most towns will show a large number of churches, all with conflicting doctrine. Clearly, original doctrine has been corrupted over time—this process started even during the New Testament times, leaving the apostles to regularly fight to overcome misunderstandings in doctrine. Without a prophet, no man can do any more than just guess at what God wants of us today or of what specific doctrines mean. Modern-day revelation is key to giving people a fair chance to prepare for the Second Coming.

Another core doctrine of Mormonism is family life. Mormon beliefs include strong teachings on the sacredness of the family unit. Families were planned by God to help Him further His work on earth and are one reason we came to earth. Mormons teach that God’s plan for families today are that families consist of one mother and one father and are meant to last forever. Mormons can be married in a Mormon temple and have their marriages “sealed” for time and all eternity. This means they do not get a divorce at death, but continue the marriage forever if they live worthy of God’s greatest blessings. In addition, parents and children are joined together forever, something most people instinctively understand, even if they say they don’t believe it. Listening to comments at a funeral often reveal a deep belief in eternal families. (“Mom and Dad are together again.”)

Central to Mormon doctrine is the Plan of Salvation. It is the story of our eternal life and unifies the most important teachings of the Mormons.

Our stories began when God created our spirits. We lived with Him as spirits for a very long time, learning truth, learning to love God, and deciding what kind of person we wanted to be. Eventually, as is the case with children living at home, we could progress no further without leaving home and going out “into the world, one God and Jesus would prepare for us. He explained that when we went there we would lose our memory of our time with Him because this journey was about faith. However, we would gain bodies and families and the Spirit of Christ would go with us to help us recognize truth if we wanted to find it.

During our time here we would face trials—different trials for each person—and we could choose our responses to them. Agency was, in fact, key to the experience. Our choices would, as Mormon prophet Thomas Monson likes to say, determine our destiny. However, we could not choose the consequences of those actions.

God knew we would all sin, and He wanted to make it possible for us to return to Him even when we did sin. He loves us and wants us all to make it back home. For this reason, He promised to send a Savior who would live on earth for a time, teach the gospel, and take our sins on Himself, saving us through grace. This grace would allow us to rise from the dead, repent, and make it back to God if we kept the commandments. Grace cannot be bought—we do not have, in ourselves, the power to bring about resurrection or forgiveness. However, the Bible is very clear that only those who keep the commandments and who repent of sins will be allowed to return to God.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). The Bible warns us that faith without works is dead. If you say you believe and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are saying only words unless obedience follows the words.

Some were unwilling to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, preferring Satan’s unscriptural promise to save people without any risk of any kind. That meant we would also have no agency. We would simply be puppets of Satan and this would render life meaningless. One-third of the spirits chose to follow Satan and were denied the chance to come to earth. All those who were willing to make a commitment to Jesus were allowed to be born.

Life here on earth is not easy, but it is designed to allow us to have opportunities for growth. It allows us to seek out and find truth if at all possible.

But of course, it is not possible for everyone. Some people live their entire lives never having heard of Jesus Christ—some because they lived before He was born and some because the gospel simply never reached them. Over the centuries, theologians have debated what happens to those people. Would God unfairly punish them for something out of their control?

No, of course not. God is loving and fair and He sent us here. This means He will give everyone a fair chance to accept or reject His gospel. Those who die without being given that opportunity will receive it after their death—not a second chance, but a first chance, the only way a loving God would choose to do it. They can, just as we can, accept or reject Jesus Christ’s teachings and accept the blessings and consequences of their choice.

The Plan of Salvation is a kind, loving, and brilliant plan by our Heavenly Father, designed to give us an opportunity to become everything He intended us to become.

As you continue to study official church websites, take note of what Mormons are being currently taught in their classes. The lesson manuals are all openly online. Those teachings are the core. Mormons are impacted only by core doctrines—those taught by current prophets that affect our eternal salvation.

On February 4, Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former state Supreme Court justice spoke at Chapman University School of Law on religious freedom and it’s constitutional history and importance. The Mormon apostle focused on why the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom is important to the future of the United States and on the dangers of religious relativism.

The speech, which received a standing ovation, focused on four main points, that were summarized in this way near the end of his talk:

1. Religious teachings and religious organizations are valuable and important to our free society and therefore deserving of their special protection.
2. Religious freedom undergirds the origin and existence of this country and is the dominating civil liberty.
3. The guarantee of free exercise of religion is weakening in its effects and in public esteem.
4. This weakening is attributable to the ascendancy of moral relativism. 

Elder Oaks reminded listeners that religious freedom was a founding principle of the new nation and that religion has had a powerful and positive influence on the good changes to our nation.

The earliest documents of the country mention God and religion openly, without fear of censorship. The Declaration of Independence warned the king that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…”  This statement suggests that the founding fathers understood that human rights are derived from God and religious sources, not the secular desires of humans. Many of these unalienable rights, which had their foundations in religious freedom, found their way into the legal system. Elder Oaks reminds us that the Constitution itself has a foundation in religion. “Its formation over 200 years ago was made possible by religious principles of human worth and dignity, and only those principles in the hearts of a majority of our diverse populations can sustain that Constitution today.

Because the Constitution is the foundation of religious freedom, Elder Oaks discussed what the Constitution says on the subject and what it means.

“The first provision in the Bill of Rights is what many believe to be its most important guarantee. It reads: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’

“The prohibition against ‘an establishment of religion’ was intended to separate churches and government, to forbid a national church of the kind found in Europe. In the interest of time I will say no more about the establishment of religion, but only concentrate on the First Amendment’s direction that the United states shall have ‘no law [prohibiting] the free exercise [of religion.]’ for almost a century this guarantee of religious freedom has been understood as a limitation on state as well as federal power.

“The guarantee of religious freedom is one of the supremely important founding principles in the United States Constitution, and it is reflected in the constitutions of all 50 of our states. As noted by many, the guarantee’s ‘pre-eminent place’ as the first expression in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution identifies freedom of religion as “a cornerstone of American democracy.”15 The American colonies were originally settled by people who, for the most part, came to this continent for the freedom to practice their religious faith without persecution, and their successors deliberately placed religious freedom first in the nation’s Bill of Rights.

So it is that our federal law formally declares: “The right to freedom of religion undergirds the very origin and existence of the United States.”16 So it is, I maintain, that in our nation’s founding and in our constitutional order religious freedom and its associated First Amendment freedoms of speech and press are the motivating and dominating civil liberties and civil rights.”

The history of good changes in this nation is often also a history of the efforts of religious people and churches. It is through the churches that much of the charitable work in the country is done and it is from the pulpit that many of the humanitarian changes to The United States’ practices first took hold. Without religion, many millions would be suffering as the resources for financing and volunteer service would disappear, both here and world-wide. For instance, Mormons operate LDS Charities and Humanitarian Aid to provide assistance world-wide, regardless of religion, because Jesus commanded His followers to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and care for the sick. Mormons, like other Christians, work to emulate the Savior and so they are highly motivated to do good things for the world God made them. Christians, Jew, Muslims, and other religious people take that desire to help into other aspects of their lives, both religious and secular.

“Our nation’s inimitable private sector of charitable works originated and is still furthered most significantly by religious impulses and religious organizations. I refer to such charities as schools and higher education, hospitals, and care for the poor, where religiously motivated persons contribute personal service and financial support of great value to our citizens. Our nation’s incredible generosity in many forms of aid to other nations and their peoples are manifestations of our common religious faith that all peoples are children of God. Religious beliefs instill patterns of altruistic behavior.

Many of the great moral advances in Western society have been motivated by religious principles and moved through the public square by pulpit-preaching. The abolition of the slave trade in England and the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States are notable illustrations. These revolutionary steps were not motivated and moved by secular ethics or coalitions of persons who believed in moral relativism. They were driven primarily by individuals who had a clear vision of what was morally right and what was morally wrong. In our time, the Civil Rights movement was, of course, inspired and furthered by religious leaders.”

Elder Oaks pointed out that if religious people had been banned from the public square during those times, as people are trying to do today, the end of slavery, civil rights for racial minorities, and other critical issues might not have been achieved.

Dallin Oaks also quoted an agnostic Oxford-educated journalist, Melanie Phillips, who said, “One does not have to be a religious believer to grasp that the core values of Western Civilization are grounded in religion, and to be concerned that the erosion of religious observance therefore undermines those values and the secular ideas they reflect.”

A survey of our most basic laws demonstrates a correlation to early religious values, including many found in the Ten Commandments or even earlier. As an example, God punished Cain for killing his brother after the first murder, and murder is an unquestioned illegal act in our society under most circumstances. Many of the values taught in the Bible and preached on Saturday or Sunday are also coded into our laws. In the earliest days of our country laws were based on religious values and many of those laws have survived.

Elder Oaks discussed the government’s role in eroding religious freedom over time, pointing out that these efforts were often leveled at smaller religions with less influence and power to fight back. He accepted that there must occasionally be restrictions on religious freedom, primarily in the case of danger to health or security of others. He argued, however, that in most cases, religious freedom should be a priority over other types of freedoms, and suggests its separate mention and prominent placement in the Bill of Rights demonstrates original intent by the Founding Fathers to secure that freedom above other freedoms.

Elder Oaks suggests the cause of the campaign to end or reduce religious freedom stems from the growing tradition of moral relativism. He told listeners that people are increasingly deciding that all morality, authority, and rules should be man-made and can be changed to meet the current fashions of the time. Many even believe every person should be able to create his or her own morality without consequence. Nothing, according to some is absolute or true.

Elder Oaks quoted Rabbi Harold Kushner:

“As I see it, there are two possibilities. Either you affirm the existence of a God who stands for morality and makes moral demands of us, who built a law of truthfulness into His world even as He built in a law of gravity…Or else you give everyone the right to decide what is good and what is evil by his or her own lights, balancing the voice of one’s conscience against the voice of temptation and need…”

He also referred listeners to Timothy Keller, a popular pastor, author and speaker, and the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City:

“Though we have all been taught that all moral values are relative to individuals and cultures, we can’t live like that. In actual practice we inevitably treat some principles as absolute standards by which we judge the behavior of those who don’t share our values…People who laugh at the claim that there is a transcendent moral order do not think that racial genocide is just impractical or self-defeating, but that it is wrong….”

Elder Oaks called for an end to moral relativism and for religious groups and people of character to work together to protect morality. He suggested this didn’t require the groups to accept each other’s doctrines or even to care in what ways the doctrines are the same or different. It requires only unity in the belief that there are permanent standards of right and wrong and that those standards are set by God, not man.

“I am not proposing a resurrection of the so-called “moral majority,” which was identified with a particular religious group and a particular political party. Nor am I proposing an alliance or identification with any current political movement, tea party or other. I speak for a broader principle, non-partisan and, in its own focused objective, ecumenical. I speak for what Cardinal Francis George described in his address at Brigham Young University just a year ago. His title was “Catholics and Latter-day Saints: Partners in the Defense of Religious Freedom.” He proposed

“that Catholics and Mormons stand with one another and with other defenders of conscience, and that we can and should stand as one in the defense of religious liberty.  In the coming years, interreligious coalitions formed to defend the rights of conscience for individuals and for religious institutions should become a vital bulwark against the tide of forces at work in our government and society to reduce religion to a purely private reality. At stake is whether or not the religious voice will maintain its right to be heard in the public square.”

We join in that call for religious coalitions to protect religious freedom.”

Read the complete speech on religious freedom and the constitution.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, member of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles, spoke at Harvard Law School on 26 February 2010. This speech was part of the annual Mormonism 101 series. In the talk, Elder Oaks addressed a number of basic

principles of Mormonism, explaining that a survey showed few people really knew anything at all about Mormons, and what they did know was wrong or misunderstood.

“My object is to illuminate several premises and ways of thinking that are at the root of some misunderstandings about our doctrine and practice.

We Mormons know that our doctrines and values are not widely understood by those not of our faith.  This was demonstrated by Gary Lawrence’s nationwide study published in his recent book, How Americans View Mormonism.  Three-quarters of those surveyed associated our Church with high moral standards, but about half thought we were secretive and mysterious and had “weird beliefs.”[1] When asked to select various words they thought described Mormons in general, 87% checked “strong family values,” 78% checked “honest,” and 45% checked “blind followers.”[2]

When Lawrence’s interviewers asked, “To the best of your understanding, what is the main claim of Mormonism?” only 14% could describe anything close to the idea of restoration or reestablishment of the original Christian faith. Similarly, when another national survey asked respondents what one word best described their impression of the Mormon religion, not one person suggested the words or ideas of original or restoration Christianity.[3] “

Elder Oaks focused on three aspects of Mormonism in his discourse:

1.    The nature of God, including the role of the three members of the Godhead, and the corollary truth that there are moral absolutes.

2.    The purpose of life.

3.    The three-fold sources of truth about man and the universe:  science, the scriptures, and continuing revelation, and how we can know them.

These three principles form the foundations of Mormonism and the explanation for why Mormons believe what they believe. However, they are also frequently misunderstood or misrepresented.

Elder Oaks explained that while most Christians believe in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, Mormons have a somewhat different view of this Godhead. This belief is the first statement in the Articles of Faith, a document listing thirteen fundamental principles of Mormonism. Mormonism teaches that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, unified in testimony, purpose, and values.

“We maintain that these three members of the Godhead are three separate and distinct beings, and that God the Father is not a spirit but a glorified Being with a tangible body, as is his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ.  Though separate in identity, they are one in purpose.  We maintain that Jesus referred to this relationship when he prayed to His Father that His disciples would be “one” even as Jesus and his Father were one (see John 17:11)—united in purpose, but not in identity.”

Elder Oaks explained that Mormons believe Jesus Christ is the only Begotten Son of God, that He created the earth, that He is our teacher, and that through Him, we can be saved.

“Because of His resurrection all who have ever lived will be raised from the dead.  He is the Savior whose atoning sacrifice opens the door for us to be forgiven of our personal sins so that we can be cleansed to return to the presence of God our Eternal Father.  This is the central message of the prophets of all ages.  Joseph Smith stated this great truth in our third Article of Faith:  “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we testify with the Book of Mormon prophet-king Benjamin that “there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:17).”

The second principle Elder Oaks introduced was that of the purpose of life, something most people worry about. For Mormons, the purpose of life is rooted in what happened before we were born. Mormons teach we lived with God prior to our births, as spirits, and that we agreed to come here to gain bodies and to be tested. Through the atonement and obedience to the commandments God and Jesus patiently taught, we can return to God’s presence someday.

Another purpose of life on earth is to gain a family. Mormons teach that family is not something created just for life on earth, to end in divorce at the end of life. Rather, the reason God made our feelings of love for our families so powerful was because He never intended for us to force that love out of our hearts when we arrive in Heaven, a place we will be happier than we ever imagined. To be truly happy, most of us need our families, and God planned that we could earn the right to have them with us for eternity. That provides a family-centeredness that is made more powerful by knowing it is forever.

Elder Oaks said, “My faithful widowed mother had no confusion about the eternal nature of the family relationship.  She always honored the position of our faithful deceased father.  She made him a presence in our home.  She spoke of the eternal duration of their temple marriage and of our destiny to be together as a family in the next life.  She often reminded us of what our father would like us to do so we could qualify for the Savior’s promise that we could be a family forever.  She never referred to herself as a widow, and it never occurred to me that she was.  To me, as a boy growing up, she wasn’t a widow.  She had a husband and we had a father.  He was just away for a while.”

Mormons teach that marriage and family are essential to God’s eternal plan. He planned for us to have families and taught the pattern for family life, a traditional family consisting of a mother, a father, and children.

Elder Oaks quoted the speaker of the previous year, who pointed out that congregations are assigned geographically. Mormons do not decide which congregation they wish to attend. This causes them to be diverse, racially, economically, and in other ways, including age. A middle-aged couple might find themselves in a congregation with many young college students. A wealthy member might be assigned to an inner-city congregation. As Mormons move or boundaries change, they learn to interact with and respect people of all ages, economic standings, races, and other ways of being different.

Mormons are also assigned church work, often placing them in positions with people very different from themselves. An organizational president might be just twenty-three years old, with counselors serving under her who are twice her age. They learn to respect the younger woman’s leadership, and the young president learns to respect the experience and wisdom of the older women. Today’s leader might be tomorrow’s nursery assistant. People aren’t promoted, but simply assigned to a variety of positions in a lifetime, some requiring them to lead and other positions requiring them to follow.

One unique aspect of Mormonism, addressed in the final principle of Elder Oak’s talk, is that of sources of truth. While Mormons accept many sources as a place to find truth—including science—they recognize some things can never be proven in a laboratory.

“We seek after knowledge, but we do so in a special way because we believe there are two dimensions of knowledge, material and spiritual.  We seek knowledge in the material dimension by scientific inquiry and in the spiritual dimension by revelation.”

Elder Oaks explained that Mormons believe in revelation. Throughout the Bible, we learn that God communicated with His children through prophets. Today, Mormons proclaim that prophecy has returned to earth, just as it often did in Biblical times after episodes of apostasy. A prophet heads the church and receives revelation from God to guide the church and the people.

However, individual people also have the right to receive revelation, not for the entire church, but for their own sphere of responsibility. A person can always turn to God to know whether or not the Church is true and the prophet speaks the words of God. Prospective members are counseled to avoid blind obedience and to instead pray and ask God whether or not what they’ve learned is true. After baptism, they are always free to again turn to God for confirmation of anything they aren’t sure of.

“Personal revelation—sometimes called “inspiration”—comes in many forms.  Most often it is by words or thoughts communicated to the mind, by sudden enlightenment, or by positive or negative feelings about proposed courses of action.  Usually it comes in response to earnest and prayerful seeking.  “Ask, and it shall be given you;” Jesus taught, “seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7).  It comes when we keep the commandments of God and thus qualify for the companionship and communication of the Holy Spirit.”

This personal revelation is the reason Mormonism continues to grow and to produce a membership with unshakable faith. If a person takes advantage of God’s promises, really working to know the truth, and being patient, they develop an unshakable testimony in time.

Read the entire talk: Fundamental Premises of Our Faith.

In the strictest sense, the word exmormon simply refers to someone who chose to end his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of the Church are sometimes referred to informally as Mormons, and so an ex-mormon is a former Mormon. However, the term is more commonly used to refer not to people who simply left and moved on, but to those who then devote themselves to attacking the church.

There are many reasons a person might do this. While most people who leave a religion—any religion—simply join a new one or abandon organized religion and go about their new lives quietly, a few feel a need to attack and to demonstrate hatred for the life they left behind. Some who do this had a disagreement with another member or with a leader. Some objected to counsel given to them by a leader. These people find themselves unable or unwilling to forgive or to resolve the matter in an amicable and Christ-like manner and as a result, organize their new life around a pattern of revenge. Some are unhappy at the church’s unwillingness to let fads and fashion dictate truth, and are resentful that the Church has chosen not to make their favorite sins acceptable. Others feel uncertain about their decision and feel the only way to justify their choice is to “prove” the church is untrue. They feel if they can find or invent enough negatives and convince others to agree with them, it will help to justify their actions, even though the only people they need to convince are themselves and God.

Frequently their behavior demonstrates itself in repeating very old and usually disproven arguments to those who have not taken the time to research them, in hopes of bringing other religious people into their fold. They sometimes hold the Book of Mormon to a different standard than they hold the Bible. For instance, they write long papers on the lack of scientific evidence for horses in the Americas in ancient times, while ignoring the  lack of scientific evidence for lions in the Biblical lands. These arguments frequently confuse faith and science. Generally, the arguments developed, with minor tweaks, back in the early days of the church and regenerate each generation.

The majority of religious people are not especially interested in attacking Mormons and so these numbers, while working hard to maintain a loud presence, really make up a very small segment of the religious population or even the former Mormon population.

There is a story in the Book of Mormon about a prophet named Lehi and his son Nephi, who also became a prophet. Lehi saw a vision that was later shown to Nephi, who recorded it in the early chapters of the book. In this vision, there was a beautiful tree. Lehi understood the tree’s fruit was highly desirable and eating it will bring great joy. He invited his family to eat the fruit, and the righteous family members did, but the unrighteous chose not to partake.

There is a river running toward the tree, and a straight and narrow path beside it. Along the path is an iron rod. As multitudes of people strove to reach the tree, a mist of darkness arose, making it difficult for people to see how to reach the tree. However, those who held onto the rod—which represents God’s word—reached the tree safely. Those who did not were lost.

Some ignored the rod or got tired of holding on and let go; these fell away and were lost. Others held onto the rod and reached the tree. They tasted it, but were unable somehow to experience the joy others felt upon tasting it. This is because they looked around to see how others were reacting to all this. Those people noted a large and spacious building nearby, filled with people in expensive, elegant clothing. The people in the building were laughing, mocking, and harassing those who ate the fruit. Of course, some were secure enough to trust their own judgment and wisdom and they ignored the mockers, enjoying the full benefits of the fruit, which represented God’s love. Others, though, could not tune out the mockers. These people were embarrassed at being laughed at, and listened to the words of the mockers. They wandered off the path and went back to their former lives or chose new ones, forgetting or ignoring the goal they had once worked to achieve. However, some simply could not just move on. They went to the building and joined the mockers in a life filled with the emptiness of contention and anger.

This is, in many ways, representative of the exmormon world. Mormons feel sorrow for those who leave. They are Mormons because they believe it is the straight and narrow road to Christ. Those who leave are not usually overwhelmingly obsessed with what they left behind, although they often have a sense of what they have lost if they have maintained contact with the Spirit. Most Christians are too busy living lives of Christian service and sharing their own beliefs to worry too much about the teachings of others. Those who abandoned religion completely generally just move on to a secular life.

It is those who hang out in the great and spacious building and devote their lives to mocking and attacking who generally receive the title of exmormon. Rather than focusing on the love and service Christ taught us to live by, they remain trapped in a world of anger and contention. Paul warned:

8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. (See Titus 3)

The Church hopes former members will allow healing to enter into their hearts and longs for their return.

In 1985, at Christmas time, the leaders of the church prepared a special invitation to those who had left the Church. It read in part:

We are aware of some who are inactive, of others who have become critical and are prone to find fault, and of those who have been disfellowshipped or excommunicated because of serious transgressions.

To all such we reach out in love. We are anxious to forgive in the spirit of Him who said: “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.” (D&C 64:10.)

We encourage Church members to forgive those who may have wronged them. To those who have ceased activity and to those who have become critical, we say, “Come back. Come back and feast at the table of the Lord, and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the Saints.”

We are confident that many have longed to return, but have felt awkward about doing so. We assure you that you will find open arms to receive you and willing hands to assist you. (See News of the Church,” Ensign, Mar 1986, 82–88.)

Recently, Elder Russell M. Ballard spoke to graduating students at Brigham Young University, a school owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of this church are often informally known as Mormons. He counseled them in ways to discuss their religion with others, pointing out

that most topics of greatest interest to detractors are not critical elements of the current religion, but are fringe elements or practices no longer carried out. He advised them to keep the discussions focused on the core of the religion, the elements that affect salvation, rather than those that are merely interesting intellectual discussion points.

“When all is said and done, the most important thing about you and your testimony is that you base your beliefs on what Jesus Christ taught, and you try to follow Him by living your life in a way acceptable to our Heavenly Father and to the Lord.

This is your foundation. It was Joseph Smith’s foundation. He said: “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, he was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”

(See Elder M. Russell Ballard: Engaging Without Being Defensive.)

Every religion has information or writings that cover a wide spectrum of information. Some of this information is essential to the salvation of the believer, but much of it is not. For instance, we must know who created the world and believe that, but we don’t have to know exactly how long it took. That is merely interesting fodder for debate or curiosity, but has nothing to do with our salvation. It’s interesting to read the genealogy in the Old Testament, but there won’t be a test on it when we stand before the Savior in judgment. Some stories in the Bible are curious and we don’t really understand why a Biblical prophet made the choices he did, but most of the time, we don’t need to know.

What we do need to know is that God is our loving Father in Heaven, and Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son. Jesus died for us and is the only path through which we may return to God someday. We need to learn how to identify truth by communicating directly with God to learn it.

It is these things the Mormons focus on in their daily spiritual life. They work to build a loving relationship with God and Jesus Christ and to understand how They would have us live from day to day. They strive to be good family members and good citizens. They study the Savior’s life and then try to understand how to live that way themselves.

While groups who work to oppose the church often focus on unimportant intellectual games, the Mormons are busy trying to be like Jesus. When talking with a Mormon, it is important to remember they aren’t generally very interested in those fringe topics. Their testimony isn’t based on history or science, but on faith. This faith came about after developing a close and personal relationship with God and then trusting Him to answer their questions in ways they could understand. They worked to know God so well they easily recognize Him when He communicates with them.

There is little purpose in presenting a Mormon who really knows Christ with the teachings of men, which are unreliable and changing. They aren’t interested in using those teachings as a foundation for their eternal salvation. They know the Creator, and it is only His words that matter.

The Pew Forum, which is not affiliated with the Church in any way, did a study of Mormons in the United States. One aspect of Mormons in their personal lives involved their feelings about and relationships with God.

The study found that every Mormon surveyed believed in God, which was higher than any other religion previously

surveyed. In addition, nine out of ten were absolutely certain of God’s existence. Ninety-one percent of Mormons believe God is someone you can have a relationship with. All these figures are well above the normal for other groups.

What is it about the Mormons that makes them so likely to believe in God in a very personal way? One reason Mormons have a high rate of belief in God is that much time is spent teaching children and investigators of the church about God, and about how to find out if He is real. Those new to the faith, whether due to age or experience, are taught that they can pray to God and receive an answer to their sincere questions. They are taught to recognize how God communicates with His children.

Mormons teach that prayer is an intensely personal experience. Although prayers are offered in public and family settings, each member is also encouraged to have individual conversations with God several times a day. No recited prayers are taught; members are instructed to use their own words and to speak the deepest, most personal thoughts of their hearts. They greet God by name, thank Him for specific named blessings, and ask for those things they need. They close in the name of Jesus Christ. However, within the basic pattern of prayer, they are also taught to make prayer a conversation. There are many times when a Mormon simply wants to talk to God about an experience or a concern, and this too is encouraged. With practice, a person who prays soon becomes familiar with the ways God communicates with His children and learns to trust what he is experiencing.

This emphasis on prayer is one reason ninety-one percent of Mormons feel they can have a relationship with God. Another reason is based on the specific ways Mormons view God. They believe God knows them personally because He created their spirits and then, before the earth was created, they lived with Him for a time. During this time, everyone was becoming a real person, with talents, personality, and interests. Each person was deciding who they were and how obedient they were. God was there, as our literal Father, watching over us and guiding us. For this reason, His love for us is very personal.

Mormons view God as a literal Father, loving but strict. Good fathers understand they must make rules with rewards and consequences, and God is always a good Father. Mormons accept the rules and the natural consequences because they see them in the light of a loving Father, not a strict, uncaring, and distant ruler.

With this information in mind, it is easy to understand why Mormons who have a strong testimony of the principles of their religion have a nearly perfect rate of belief in God and a personal relationship with Him.