The Nature of God - A Doctrinal Analysis

Who or what exactly is God? What is it that we worship? What are the laws which govern His actions, and why does He do the things He does?

So often I hear people say things like "I'm pretty sure God is fine with ..." Or, "God doesn't care if I ..." Oh, foolish generation, seeking to make a God in their own image! As Christ declared to the Samaritan woman, "Ye worship ye know not what."

Is it wise to claim to worship something you do not comprehend? How can we properly give our respects to that which we do not understand? God would not have us worship Him in ignorance. Though He is not like us exactly, and "No man hath seen God at any time, save he hath borne witness of His son," He has given us some understanding into His own nature. It is through this revelation, and not mere opinion, that I give an explanation of the nature of God.

First and foremost, God is our loving Heavenly Father. He is called Father, and requests to be called such, all throughout the scriptures. We are His spirit children. As a perfect father, God wants what is best for us, and that is to teach us His laws so that we are able to inherit "all that [He] hath."

Because He wants what is best for us, God cares about what we do. He has set clear boundaries and limits according to His commandments. Though we are free to accept or reject these commandments, we cannot be prepared to receive God's gifts unless we humble ourselves through obedience. This is why we make covenants - not to limit our freedoms, but to enable us to receive blessings.

So God does care about what we do with our lives. As Elder D. Todd Christofferson stated in October 2014, "A God who makes no demands is the functional equivalent of a God who does not exist."

Much earlier, the prophet Lehi explained, "And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away."

If God did not command us, if God had no laws, if God allowed mercy to rob justice, then it might as well be as though He did not exist, in which case this life is ultimately meaningless. We live, we die, and there is nothing else. How sad an existence would that be? Nothing would matter, ultimately. Crime, transgression, obedience, family, past, future? What would any of this mean to a soul which was not destined for anything more than a one-time shot at existence? I am sorry, but even if that were true, I would rather be deluded into believing there is purpose in life than accept a world where nothing mattered.

This whole "mercy and justice" thing as well trips many people up. If God loves us, why would He consign some of us to everlasting punishment? Why would He not just save all of us? Well, first, that would once again render any of our actions ultimately pointless if the murderer, the adulterer, the righteous martyr and the prophet were all given the same reward in the next life. Truly this would be an injustice to they who followed God's commandments if they who did not were treated as if they did.

The prophet Alma explains this point in excruciating detail in Alma chapter 42, but here are some headlines;

-If there was no law, there would be no sin and no punishment. For example, if there was no law against murder, if one man killed another then nothing would be done about it.

-God's justice thus executes punishment upon all who have sinned.

-Christ's Atonement offers mercy to the penitent - His sacrifice pays the price of sin, and we are allowed to stand in God's presence again.

-Once in God's presence, we shall be judged of our works.

Thus, God is both just AND merciful, and His love is perfect whilst also not nullifying His law and justice.

As I understand it as well, Christ's sacrifice offers what is known as His Grace, which is the saving, redeeming and uplifting power freely available to all of us. Grace is not barred by laws, covenants, anything; it is freely given to all men. Thus, when people claim to be "saved by Grace," in some ways they are correct.

However, simply being "saved" is not the end. I refer back to my earlier blog post, where I discuss the difference between salvation and exaltation. To be saved is free, but to be exalted requires personal effort, and if we are not worthy, then ultimately we will be the ones to walk away from God. He would love to invite all of us to stay, but none under a perfect consciousness of their own guilt would want to stay in the presence of a perfect and just God, feeling judged and condemned every day, so they will ultimately flee His presence.

I hope some understanding has been brought to you by my words. If this improves the life and understanding of at least one person, then I know I have done my job.

While this document uses quotes from general authorities as well as the Book of Mormon, it is not an official statement of doctrine by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and represents only my personal witness and beliefs.

God's Omniscience and Human Agency - A Case for Both.

So often when people hear of God being all-knowing and all-powerful, they think "well, why did he let X happen?" Or they simply deny it, because in their minds, "nothing can be all-knowing." It just doesn't seem to make sense. Indeed, for the majority of people, God's will is not understood, and His true nature is thus lost.

While I do not claim to understand exactly what God is (as that would be creating God in my own image), I do have some possible explanations as to how He can be all-knowing, and yet allow us our free will and ability to affect our own destiny. Note that this is a thought discussion, not an official declaration by the Church, so any attempt to frame my words as such is illegitimate.

To begin, let us look at the very idea of an Omniscient God, and what that might mean for us. To be all-knowing includes past, present and future, no? If so, then most people paint the picture of a God who deals in Predestination - the idea that everything that happens is all part of some cosmic plan, and that any supposition that we have any choice in the matter is merely coincidental. In simpler terms, God planned out everything we would say or do, and thus we are just puppets on a stage for Him.

Church doctrine disagrees with this idea, and mere logic does as well. In terms of doctrine, we are all "Free to choose Liberty and Eternal Life ... or Captivity and Death." Also, we believe that God loves all of His children. If we are free to choose our ultimate destination by our actions today, then does not that imply that our decisions are our own? Else God has sentenced us to our eternal fate, and this Earthly life is effectively meaningless.

The Love of God is also broken by this false doctrine of Predestination. If all things were in God's hands, if He truly loved all of us, then He would want all of us to receive exaltation and eternal life. Thus he would have simply given them to us if it were possible, or if coming to Earth were necessary but choice were not, then He would arrange our lives perfectly to "cycle through" all His children in the most rapid manner, to exalt all of us with the least amount of pain possible. Or He would simply create us and destroy us in an instant, leaving no doubt of our innocence and Eternal inheritance. Now, as this is certainly not the case, and horrible tragedies are allowed to be committed, we can either assume that God is not a puppet-master, or else he does not perfectly love all of us, and we are mere tools to Him. We believe He loves all of us, so this eliminates the doctrine of Predestination.

Another possibility which would allow God to be Omniscient and still allows man his agency is the doctrine of Foreordination. Now, the lines of this doctrine cross and vary between people, but here is a possible explanation as to the desired meaning of Foreordination:

Foreordination means that God has placed specific people in specific places at specific times to do specific tasks. As He knows all things, He knows that these tasks will be accomplished by these people, and thus create a landscape wherein the agency of man is intact, yet His plan will always go forward. The questions that arise from this are first, whether those being "used" to forward His plan have any choice in the matter, and second if the rest of our choices really make any difference. This also asks whether God knows all about the actions of the rest of us, or if He even cares.

Now, it may just be my opinion, but I believe that God's Omniscience and man's agency are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, they cannot be, else the entire Plan of Salvation would be void. In some way, then, God knows all our actions and their results, yet we are still able to make choices which affect and change our destiny. How can this be? I am not entirely sure exactly how this works, but I have considered it many a time and have come up with some possible theories.

Primarily, this revolves around the idea that God perceives time in a different way than we do. Perhaps it is because He is Eternal but we are fallen and mortal, but He is able to see and understand the entire "timeline," as it were, at once. This is supported by Christ's Atonement, which although it occurred in "the Meridian of Time," (roughly 33 A.D. by our current reckoning), it manages to affect the lives of people both before and after its occurrence. How else could those who lived prior to the birth and death of Christ, if their records be true, have experienced such mighty changes of heart by belief on His name? Additionally, we have witnesses after Christ's death, even to the current day, of the saving grace of His Atonement. How would one life in the middle of the time stream be able to affect potentially every life, both before and after, if it were not something eternal? Another way of putting this is that God is a "Fixed Point." He is an anchor to which all things lead, and by which specific things must come to pass.

In viewing things this way, the only possible explanation I can offer which would be understandable to a mortal point of view is that God sees all possibilities of choices, knows all events, and thus can see the end result of every interaction we make, shaping it into His grand tapestry of events whilst we are free to make choices which truly affect our own lives and the lives of those around us. The end result of our own lives is thus under our control, but God ensures that elements key to His plan are always accounted for.

I do not personally believe in the theory that each choice we make creates an alternate universe of possibility, as this would split our very essence an uncountable number of times, and it would be effectively impossible to reunite all of ourselves with any coherency. That is all I will say on this subject.

I hope this discourse has enlightened some minds, and perhaps provided possible answers to the great questions of life. I hope that you do not merely take my word as truth, however: Go to God, who is the source of all truth, and ask Him for a personal witness and understanding of these things. It may not come all at once, or it may never fully be given you, but if you ask in faith with real intent, you will receive something of an answer. This I testify of, in Jesus' name. Amen.

This document is not claimed to be an official statement or doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is merely the discussion points and personal beliefs of one of the Church's members, and should be taken as such.

Grasping the Concept of Eternity - A Discourse

We are immortal beings at heart. This life in a mortal, physical body is a mere dot in the vast universe which is our personal timeline, if you will. Be it a few minutes or a hundred years, this life will end. Mortality is important - vastly important - but it is a means, not an end in itself.

To believe in a God, a being who is all-powerful and all-knowing, is comforting. Believing that He created us out of nothing is rather unsettling, because if we were entirely his underlings from eternity to eternity, we could have no hope to progress like Him. He has even stated that "All that [He] hath shall be given unto [us]," according to the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood. How would we be able to receive all that He hath, which includes being co-eternal with all things, if we were not co-eternal with Him from the start?

Looking forward is a common pastime among humankind. It involves thinking about decisions made now, possibilities for the future, and perhaps at what life could be like after death, if one believes in such. It is comforting to believe that death is not the end, but also can be extremely nerve-wracking, depending on your perception of the afterlife. It makes one consider their whole being, and if they are doing anything of lasting value.

Looking backward, past our mortal history, is a less common pastime. Who or what were we before we existed as we are? Are we just creatures of some cosmic creation, or are we something more? What exactly is creation, anyway? The list of unanswered questions grows exponentially when we consider that birth was NOT our beginning, and such a belief solidifies the idea that death cannot be our ultimate end.

The prophet Joseph Smith once said, "Is it logical to say that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, and yet that it has a beginning? The intelligence of spirits had no beginning, neither will it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a beginning may have an end. There never was a time when there were not spirits."

If we take this concept as a possibility, and consider what it truly means to be eternal, we discover an idea that mortal minds simply cannot fully comprehend - perpetual existence, breaking supposed laws of physics as we understand them today. Entropy, enemy to eternity, is the target of this doctrine. If one is true, the other must needs be disproved to some extent. If something can exist eternally, it must not experience entropy, or else it has ways of counteracting entropy. If something experiences entropy as I understand it, however, then it physically cannot sustain itself eternally.

Then, there is the idea of eternal progression. Much like the universe is ever-expanding and yet not running out of energy (as of yet), so too is the intelligence of man's spirit. We are constantly learning, growing, absorbing new information and reacting to it, accepting or rejecting new ideas and opportunities that come our way. In this, the ideal is that we never stop learning, never stop growing, until we reach a point of omniscience, of perfect knowledge, where we - like God - can know and understand all things, from eternity to eternity.

This doctrine of omniscience also calls into question the idea of agency, and how much control we actually have in our own lives. I have not the time nor capacity to fully analyze this argument at this time, but I mention it because the power of choice is something we have always had, to some degree, and will always have forever. In the pre-mortal existence we had a choice to follow God's plan or rebel against it. In this life we are given effectively infinite choice, as we control our own bodies and, in this way, our own destiny.

I close with a reference to pagan belief. Some concept of eternity has always dominated the minds of mankind, and even those who do not fully understand God's ways have visualized something of eternity. The Celtic Knot, for instance, can be viewed as symbolic of eternity. One single thread, looping endlessly on its course, "one eternal round," just as God's course is said to be, never varying from its perfect path.

Of course, this is just one interpretation of the Celtic Knots. Since the originators of the design are not alive today we cannot ask them of their initial intent in creating these images, so we are left with our own ability to interpret them according to our culture and understanding.

I believe, however, that some semblance of Gospel truth exists in all things, no matter how twisted or broken it has become. I hope that all men, no matter their belief, can consider the concept of eternity, and how their lives may weave into an eternal tapestry, from unending to unending, if they accept God's wise plan of exaltation.

This document does not in any way represent the official views of the Church as a whole; it is merely the theories of my own study and personal revelation, written down in a manner suitable for presentation and future personal study.