Chinese at my Apartment

This is something of a Bookslinger tribute...

I came home at the close of a long YSA fireside about going on a mission (check) and getting married (not-check). I met a man of Asian decent at my apartment, it turns out he lives there/here and has being doing so for the last few months. My flatmates come and go with such frequent regularity that I often lose track. By chance, or possibly uncommon foresight on my part, I happened to have a Chinese Book of Mormon in my room for just such an occasion as this. I casually approached the gentlemen, his name is Ricky, and offered him the book. He said "Thank you."

"I'd like to share a revelation..."

Revelation is an important part of LDS living. Although it cannot be reduced to anything close to being scientifically verifiable, it is nonetheless a part of our lived (yes, even my lived) Mormon experience and unfalsifiable on those grounds. This may seem a convenient claim, on our part, in the mind of the skeptic, but it remains an important part of religious life in the hearts of saints worldwide.

Revelation is often accompanied by the feelings described in the book of Galatians "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Say what you will for qualia, or the correct neurons firing in my hypothalamus or wherever I'm not sure where or how it all operates, experiencing the sublime is sometimes vague and profound all at once, it's just another one of the infinite paradoxes of life (lets leave this aside for another time).

What I'm interested in is personal revelation. Dalin H. Oaks says there are two channels through which we receive communication from God. The hierarchical vehicle which accounts for many (some might say all) the churches policies and then there is the direct line wired into each of our souls. Now I am of the mind that when we touch or are touched by God -- according to Newton's third law you can't really have one without the other -- that we don't just instantly become puppets rattling off whatever is dictated to us. Fist of all, it rarely seems as if any particular words are being dictated to me at all. Secondly, my Patriarch speaks broken English and I unsurprisingly received a patriarchal blessing in broken English. Thirdly, this model of personal revelation equals us plus the promptings/sensations of the spirit, seems to make sense of why the Book of Mormon is written in the style that it is (i.e. King James English).

Well, as we start to recognise the Spirit what happens when revelations collide? When the Hierarchical and Personal disagree? That is for each of us to decide in our time and in our own way. We are instructed to follow the Brethren and we are also instructed to find out for ourselves. When facing this tension, it may be important to remember that personal revelation trumping all else is implicitly built into Mormonism. When we accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God, we also accept that we may one day be moved to decapitate another person and that if we follow through it will have been the right thing to do.

Perhaps I've gone too far...

Plan(s) of Salvation

Before the foundations of this world a plan was proposed and each of us who is born to the earth "shouted for joy". After the ancillary celebrations (and the notable expulsion of a farely large group of dissident party poopers), we left heaven with the promise that one day we could return if we were obedient to God's law. Sometimes I wonder what we were thinking.

In life we have many different challenges, this I suppose is built into our purpose for being here. Sometimes we even share the same challenges as others around us. Case in point: One day the Lamanites decided that they were going to wipe out the Nephites (again) and also the recently established People of Ammon, both of the non-aggressive groups had a different way of responding to the threat. The Nephites fought "for their homes and their liberties, their wives and their children, and their all, yea, for their rites of worship and their church." The People of Ammon on the other hand buried their swords "deep in the earth" and refused to retaliate.

Which reaction was correct? They both were. "If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever;" Captain Moroni lead the Nephites in the defence of their nation. Consider the other side: "And as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them—yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away." "And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace."

One problem, two very different solutions, now what's the point of all this? The Plan of Salvation is an all encompassing thing that effects each of us. In saying this, the Lord understands each of our unique situations; so there is the Plan of Salvation and then there are my acts of salvation (the actual salvation part being made possible through Jesus of course). We each come from different backgrounds and contexts just as the People of Ammon were different from Captain Moroni, so we will be schooled according what best serves our needs. The path is straight and narrow, but even on a finite straight line there are an infinite number of points. There are common points we all need to pass through (baptism's probably a good place to start), but in the end we need to choose our own way back to heaven. When we make peace with this fact, that's when the fun begins and maybe that's what we got so excited about in the first place.

Part-Time Missionary

I really enjoy what Bookslinger is doing over at Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon. So, much so that I'm "almost convinced" that I need to start my own version of his missionary minded efforts here in little old NZ. There's probably no reason to stop at an Agripa level of commitment though, not when all it takes is a few spare copies of the Good Book(s) and some concientious concern for the people around me. First recipient? I think my flatmate would be a good person to start with.