D&C 20:1 "one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh...on the sixth day of the month which is called April."
On my mission I ran into many evangelicals who spoke badly of the Church because we celebrated Christmas. They believed it was a Catholic holiday and thus a grievous sin to celebrate because nobody actually knows when Christ was born. I usually countered with something like, "is it not a good thing to celebrate Christ's birth? I wish that all days were Christmas, but sadly mankind only agrees to remember his birth once a year." (To me it was always a great sign of the hypocrisy of Satan, to one people he will tell them one thing and to the other he will tell them something else. In other words, in the US Mormons are often accused as being too strict and with too many rules, while in Latin America we are accused of being too liberal and worldly.)
Returning to the subject at hand, I recently realized how great it is that even though the Church has reason to believe Christ was born on the 6th of April and yet we still celebrate Christmas on December 25th. This completely nullifies those evangelicals' entire argument, since their main disclaimer was that nobody could know what day Christ was born and thus we shouldn't celebrate Christmas. The fact that we still celebrate Christmas on the 25th shows that the date really doesn't matter but that what matters is that the whole world is unified in remembering Christ's birth. If we wanted to join those evangelicals' harsh mentality we could start celebrating Christmas on April 6th and call all those that celebrate it on the 25th sinners like they do. But that would completely ruin the spirit and purpose of Christmas. Needless to say, good thing I only spent one Christmas in Guatemala because it was hard to hear all of these Christians ridiculing those that celebrate Christmas for the right reasons.
*For further LDS perspective on why we celebrate the 25th of December and not April 6th see:
http://lds.org/liahona/1998/12/i-have-a-question/i-have-a-question?lang=eng&query=april+6th+birth+christ
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Free Agency
2 Nephi 2:26- "because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon"
2 Nephi 2:27- "men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life,"
2 Nephi 2:4- "salvation is free"
Too often in the Church we get too nit-picky and lose sight of why we are taught certain things. One such example is the obsession some people have with the difference between "free agency" and "moral agency." This alleged difference is not scripturally based (as can be seen in the previous verses Nephi had no problem saying we are free to act). Today in Elder's Quorum someone sitting behind me felt it necessary to mutter under his breath a correction when the teacher mentioned the importance of "free agency" by stating that its not "free". This is a problem, especially since David O McKay (amongst others) was fine with calling it "free agency". I realize that some have spoken against that term but this should be intended only to help people avoid misunderstanding "free agency." In other words, for some people the term "free" is a problem because we know that "there is no such thing as a free lunch". For these people, it is a cardinal sin to say "free agency" because it can't be free, somebody had to pay for it (as evidenced by the war in heaven). I admit that it is a true principle that agency wasn't "gratis", it was paid for and so we cannot call it "agency without price" but free has multiple meanings other than just costless. A simple study of latin languages would show that the word used in "free agency" is not the same word used in "salvation is free." In free agency it is "libre albedrio" where libre has the same root as liberty, while salvation is free uses "gratis" which comes from the same root as grace (so in a sense we could even say agency is free because its due to grace [but grace came with a price as well], but then some people would really have issues with this).
So it is not necessary for us to correct everyone that its not "free" agency as long as we remember that it's not that type of "free" agency. It is free because we are liberated and allowed to act for ourselves. Agency comes from "agir" which means to act. So one way to look at it is that rocks and such don't have agency because they are "acted upon" but animals have agency because they can act. However, only humans have "moral free agency" (as Daniel Ludlow calls it) because they can choose to act morally or immorally. So the next time somebody calls it "free agency" think to yourself "liberated to act" instead of assuming the speaker doesn't understand the meaning of the word "free".
Monday, December 12, 2011
Judge Not
Lately I've been struggling with not being judgmental of others. The world we live in is very cutthroat and sometimes I feel like I have to compare myself to others in order to make myself look better. I tend to see others faults so as to justify my own. This is not what the Lord wants. Christ taught us not to judge others because we will be judged with the same measure. Now usually when I read that verse I think only of the final judgment and I say to myself "well that's ok cause I'm not doing the things that this guy is doing so I'm fine if they judge me against that." But a few days ago I had an epiphany. I realized there was a more immediate application. Another big problem I have is that I'm too hard on myself, demanding perfection and getting depressed when I continue to see the same faults. The realization I came to was that because I judge others, I've created a habit of judging that has no sanctuary, not even for myself. I judge myself too harshly because that's the way I judge others. I need to be more merciful towards others and remember that they are all children of God just struggling like myself in a very wicked world. When I see them like God does, namely, as spiritual beings having a physical experience, I can see myself as God does as well. This will allow me to not be so hard on myself by realizing that God is merciful and only asks that I let his Son cleanse and purify me. By having a compassionate judgment towards others I will be more compassionate towards myself.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Testimony Meeting
1 Corinthians 14:31 "For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted."
Revelation 19:10 "for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
On one occasion someone asked Joseph Smith if he truly was a prophet. To which Joseph replied that he had the testimony of Jesus and thus possessed the spirit of prophecy. Therefore, all of us can in that sense be a prophet (not to be confused with THE presiding Prophet of the Church). So viewing these two verses together we see that Testimony Meeting is when we share our testimony of Jesus one by one. This means that the purpose of Testimony Meeting is that all may learn and be comforted. I believe we could all get a lot more out of Testimony Meeting if we looked for what lessons we could be taught and ways that the testimonies could comfort us through our trials. For instance, when I hear someone bare testimony of how they know that Jesus is the Christ through study of the Book of Mormon, I learn that I should follow that pattern. Likewise, if I hear how someone pictures the Savior, I can be comforted whenever I find myself needing His presence.
Revelation 19:10 "for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
On one occasion someone asked Joseph Smith if he truly was a prophet. To which Joseph replied that he had the testimony of Jesus and thus possessed the spirit of prophecy. Therefore, all of us can in that sense be a prophet (not to be confused with THE presiding Prophet of the Church). So viewing these two verses together we see that Testimony Meeting is when we share our testimony of Jesus one by one. This means that the purpose of Testimony Meeting is that all may learn and be comforted. I believe we could all get a lot more out of Testimony Meeting if we looked for what lessons we could be taught and ways that the testimonies could comfort us through our trials. For instance, when I hear someone bare testimony of how they know that Jesus is the Christ through study of the Book of Mormon, I learn that I should follow that pattern. Likewise, if I hear how someone pictures the Savior, I can be comforted whenever I find myself needing His presence.
Sheaves
D&C 75:5 "If ye are faithful ye shall be laden with many sheaves"
Institute Manual-"If the Elders have been faithful, the harvest is sure. The seed they have sown may sprout and come to maturity years after they have been released."
A few weeks ago Erica and I returned to my mission for the Xela Temple Open House. It was a great opportunity to be able to see so many people that I had touched and that had impacted my life. One such person is Edgar. Edgar is an example of how prayers are answered.
I first met Edgar on the first day of my last transfer in the mission. My companion Elder Willmore and I knelt and prayed and expressed to the Lord our concern that we didn't have anyone to teach. We promised Him that we would talk with the first person that we saw as we left the house. Sure enough, right as we opened the door we saw Edgar walking up the road. We spoke with him for a minute and could tell that he was interested so he described where he lived. Little did we know that he was blind and NEVER leaves the house. He later told us this was one of the few days he had left his house that year and that the reason he was walking passed our house was because his son was sick. When we visited his home we discovered that he leaved with a lot of his wife's family at a location we had contacted many times but never had success. They lived behind the rest of the family and we would never have been able to talk with them had we not found each other on the street. I can't do this story justice as the Spirit restrains me from going into more detail, but suffice it to say that Edgar was a miraculous answer to our prayers.
Upon returning to the ward I found out that Edgar is now the Ward Mission Leader. Not only that but he has introduced the Church to a region where it had never been before. He was originally from this small village and so once he found the gospel he wanted to share it with his cousins and other family members back where he came from.
I am so grateful that the Lord used me as an instrument to bring about so much good. Even though I was only there to plant the seed, Edgar has produced many sheaves.
Institute Manual-"If the Elders have been faithful, the harvest is sure. The seed they have sown may sprout and come to maturity years after they have been released."
A few weeks ago Erica and I returned to my mission for the Xela Temple Open House. It was a great opportunity to be able to see so many people that I had touched and that had impacted my life. One such person is Edgar. Edgar is an example of how prayers are answered.
I first met Edgar on the first day of my last transfer in the mission. My companion Elder Willmore and I knelt and prayed and expressed to the Lord our concern that we didn't have anyone to teach. We promised Him that we would talk with the first person that we saw as we left the house. Sure enough, right as we opened the door we saw Edgar walking up the road. We spoke with him for a minute and could tell that he was interested so he described where he lived. Little did we know that he was blind and NEVER leaves the house. He later told us this was one of the few days he had left his house that year and that the reason he was walking passed our house was because his son was sick. When we visited his home we discovered that he leaved with a lot of his wife's family at a location we had contacted many times but never had success. They lived behind the rest of the family and we would never have been able to talk with them had we not found each other on the street. I can't do this story justice as the Spirit restrains me from going into more detail, but suffice it to say that Edgar was a miraculous answer to our prayers.
Upon returning to the ward I found out that Edgar is now the Ward Mission Leader. Not only that but he has introduced the Church to a region where it had never been before. He was originally from this small village and so once he found the gospel he wanted to share it with his cousins and other family members back where he came from.
I am so grateful that the Lord used me as an instrument to bring about so much good. Even though I was only there to plant the seed, Edgar has produced many sheaves.
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