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.

Salvation vs Exaltation - A Doctrinal Analysis

       Salvation is the focus of nearly all of Christianity. Christ's Atonement offers Salvation to all who will accept it, "Without money and without price." Grace is His gift, and it frees us of the burden of guilt we accumulate through sin. Being "Saved" in this sense truly is as easy as accepting Jesus Christ as your savior.

So, if that is salvation, then what of principles and ordinances? Why would man be forced to follow a strict path if accepting a freely offered gift is all that is required to achieve this salvation?

In truth, man is not forced to follow a path; he is "free to choose liberty and eternal life, ... or captivity and death." What we do in this life, what we ultimately achieve, is in our own hands. In this, Salvation is but the beginning of an eternal journey. Exaltation is, or at least should be, the true purpose of life. "This is [God's] Work and ... Glory; To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." As Salvation, and thus immortality, are freely given, He has already completed his first goal. His second, granting us eternal life, depends much more on our own choices.

If we are to understand why eternal life is so important that God has made it his goal to grant it unto us, we must first understand what it truly is. Eternal Life is more than merely living forever - that is immortality, already covered through the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ. But what is merely living? What more could there be? It is how you fill this life, how you "fulfill the measure of [your] creation," which leads to joy.

Fulfilling the measure of our creation is our ultimate purpose. For what were we created? Adam and Eve were created in God's own image to "Multiply and replenish the Earth." Raising posterity is certainly a large measure of our creation, and one of the greatest blessings of eternal life.

What else is the measure of our creation? To learn, grow and even create by ourselves. We are commanded to "Be ... Perfect, even as [Jesus and our Heavenly Father are] perfect," but how are we to attain this perfection? "Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little." Certainly that implies the acquisition of knowledge is at least a part of our purpose for living, and the use of said knowledge is just as important, if not more so. If wisdom is the correct application and use of knowledge, then the Proverb-writer was right to proclaim its worth as "far above rubies." How we use our knowledge will ultimately determine if we are becoming perfect, and thus if we are filling the measure of our creation.

Eternal life is to fill the measure of our creation endlessly, both in this world and the world to come. This blessing can only come about if we earn it, and God has declared that it will only be available to those who achieve exaltation, the highest degree of glory in the Celestial Kingdom. To enter this kingdom, we must be able to pass its gates, and that can only come about by providing the proper signs and tokens, just as passing an earthly gate comes through providing proper identification or authority. God's kingdom is just and perfectly ordered, and thus nothing can enter in except by the way He has declared. This way is Christ, as he declared when he said "I am the way; ... No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." We need to follow Christ to get back to God, and that means far more than accepting Him as our savior - it means becoming like Him, following His example, taking upon us His name and attaining the attributes he displayed.

If Eternal Progression is reserved for those who achieve Exaltation, then what of those who do not achieve Exaltation? They who merely accept Salvation, or who do not accept Christ at all? What is the fate of these, given every chance to change both in this life and in the next, who refuse? Now, I do not claim to know their fate, but by my understanding, they are "consigned to that gulf of misery and endless woe." The "pains of a damned soul" may not be literal fire, it may not be punishment as we understand it, but in the eternal scale, it is a far worse punishment than mere pain.

Those who are unchanged by the Atonement of Christ will remain unchanged. They will not be worthy to inherit "All that [God] hath," and more than that, they will not even want to. The responsibility, the pressure, the power will be more than they can accept. They will WANT to flee God's presence, to reject the great gift He has laid before them, to find their own place of happiness. They do not progress - as such, they are damned. In fact, rather than progress, they will regress, becoming beings capable of finding happiness in their endless lives devoid of growth and change. Such a fate is unfathomable, and is true suffering to anyone with the Godly desire to grow and create.

The separation of these other groups, those not achieving exaltation, is a simple delineation.

        Those who rejected the Plan of Salvation in the pre-mortal life, who never were given the opportunity to progress because they "kept not their first estate," are cast out of heaven. These are joined by those few who in this life had gained a sure witness of the Holy Ghost, but denied its truth. These are they who openly rebelled against God, despite having a true knowledge of His character. They inherit no glory, and are called the Sons of Perdition, dwelling forever in Outer Darkness, devoid of light and life.

        Those who do not accept Salvation exist under a burden of all their guilt, suffering even as "angels to a devil," those followers of Perdition, save it be they have still "kept their first estate," attaining a physical body, and not denying a sure witness of the Holy Ghost. They are still immortal, they still have some power in a physical sense, but their progress is stopped, and they are burdened by chains of their own design. These are they who inherit the Telestial glory.

Those who accept Salvation, but refuse the signs and tokens God requires, enter a kingdom of their own. They are free of the guilt of their sins according to the Atonement, but their progression is still halted, and they do not have power and glory given to them from on high. They do not live in God's presence, and do not feel worthy to approach His throne, so they stay where they are, content with what they have achieved. These are they who inherit the Terrestrial glory.

There are those who inherit lesser degrees of the Celestial glory. These are they who follow Christ, accept Salvation, and even present the signs and tokens to enter God's presence. They have followed Him and His Son, but have fallen short of true eternal progression, as they have not entered into "The New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage," which is required to have and maintain posterity throughout the eternities. They are servants of God, His angels and loyal children, and know incredible joy. They progress to an extent, but they cannot inherit "worlds without end," as they do not have posterity unto themselves. These are they in the first and/or second degree of the Celestial Kingdom.

Those who accept Salvation, follow Christ, present all the signs and tokens, have entered into the New and Everlasting Covenant, and are truly changed, will enter into the Third Degree of the Celestial Kingdom, the Glory of Exaltation. They will continue to progress throughout the eternities, they will have an endless posterity, inheriting "worlds without end," and ultimately know complete joy. "All that [God] hath shall be given unto them," and they will receive it with gladness.

With this greater understanding of the doctrine of Salvation and Exaltation, I hope that some confusion has been cleared up over what the difference between them is, and why Exaltation is so much more than Salvation. 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.