here's another one of those legitimate brain dumps:
i will put a disclaimer on this post and say that it is purely my opinion and not anything i can actually document or reference in the scriptures; it is purely my speculation.
it's about both the law of moses-like things and scribe-like and pharisaical practices in the modern-day Church. when Christ came, He completely fulfilled the Law of Moses and the new law became (1) to love God above all other things and (2) to love thy neighbor as thyself. that was it. excepting those two, the commandments were totally gone and there was no longer any need for them *if* the people obeyed those two (everything else would simply fall into place).
fast forward about 1800 years exactly and Joseph Smith receives the revelation about the Word of Wisdom, laying out a an entire litany of specific things we should or should not ingest.
i think these two paragraphs have completely and totally contradicting ideas--the first saying that we need only love God and that we don't need any other specifications, while the second saying to do this, avoid that, etc.
so why all the specifics?
here are my thoughts:
we aren't spiritually mature enough to obey the spirit of the Law of Christ completely. people often talk about "the spirit of the law" as if it were somehow more lenient and easy to live/obey. i totally disagree; when we live the spirit of any law, we generally follow MUCH stricter policies or guidelines.
take, for instance, the word of wisdom: what is the spirit of the law behind that one (or in other words, what was the Lord wanting us to do when He gave that law?)? in my opinion, it was to take care of our bodies. the spirit of the law wasn't "don't ingest alcohol, tobacco, tea, drugs, or coffee," but rather, "keep your body in good condition." this would of course include all those other things mentioned, but it would also include eating healthily in general and exercising. so many people concentrate on all the things you can or can't do that they lose sight of what the law is really about. this is EXACTLY what happened with so many of the scribes, pharisees, and saducees. as a result of this, [i hypothesize] we have a ton of people in the Church who are just terribly unhealthy because of their eating habits, etc, but by all technical terms, are still "worthy."
another example of this is the sabbath. a couple of weeks ago i went to church at a branch in Glennallen, AK, where the lesson was on the sabbath. we talked about all the things people should or shouldn't do on sundays. i have to confess that i did NOT like the lesson because it was totally law of moses. i felt like we were totally shooting past the mark and losing sight of what the law was really about.
The law is about keeping the Lord's day as holy as possible, not about doing such and such activity and not doing another because it is or isn't on a list. frankly,i could do all those things on that list, but not keep the sabbath holy if i din't do them with the right spirit or focus.
now i'm going to go off my train of thought and write some stuff my roommate and i were talking about, just so i can get it sorted out in my head.
the Spirit will teach us at our own pace. in the lesson i was talking about, in that list, there were a few things that were put out by the Church that i wouldn't do because i don't feel comfortable doing them on Sundays. conversely, i do some things on sundays that others don't do because they don't feel comfortable doing them. so, in essence, we all do what we feel comfortable doing, according to the promptings and teachings of the Holy Ghost. the Spirit could come to us and tell us to work on some aspect of our spirituality, while He may tell someone else something else. it is then of course our responsibility to obey that and make it a part of our lives. as we do that, HE will teach us the very spirit of the laws we are attempting to live at the time.
what i am trying to get at is that we must live the laws as we know how to live them. in 1st corinthians 8:4-13, the new converts who had previously practiced the law of moses were upset about the gentile converts eating the used sacrificial meat (now why they were still doing sacrifices is totally beyond me) because they felt that it was totally irreverencing it. however, the gentiles didn't have any problem with it because they had not lived under the law of moses and had no dogmas attached to the meat. paul's response was to simply be careful that the meat not become a stumbling block to the saints in corinth.
similarly, i believe we musn't let the specific guidelines the Church or more importantly, the Church MEMBERS attach to the commandments be stumbling blocks for us or we will "look past the mark," and fall short in keeping the commandments.
and now i will step down off my soap box and stop preaching logan doctrine. i realize that some of this is not terribly accurate and is instead opinion, but i thought i'd write it down nonetheless. let me know your thoughts, especially on my point about the Lord giving us specific guidelines about the commandments as a result of our spiritual immaturity to fully live the commandments without specific delineation as to how to live those commandments.
it's now been about two months since i wrote this (it's 0ct 17th and i am editing this post) and President Uchtdorf said something absolutely brilliant in his talk at conference:
The Savior Himself provided the answer with this profound declaration: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”1 This is the essence of what it means to be a true disciple: those who receive Christ Jesus walk with Him.2
But this may present a problem for some because there are so many “shoulds” and
“should nots” that merely keeping track of them can be a challenge. Sometimes, well-meaning amplifications of divine principles—many coming from uninspired sources—complicate matters further, diluting the purity of divine truth with man-made addenda. One person’s good idea—something that may work for him or her—takes root and becomes an expectation. And gradually, eternal principles can get lost within the labyrinth of “good ideas.”
i have no comment on this, except "AMEN!"
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4 comments:
Amen and amen Logan! I had this same sort of conversation with a friend and she said that we'll probably even have alcohol in heaven. I was surprised to hear that, but then after some contemplation agree on the same principle that the Word of Wisdom is a stricter law to keep up in line. I then brought this up with another friend and he said it won't matter, which also blew me away but I also agree upon. We have all these commandments that the Lord through the Church gives us, but in the end in eternal glory it won't matter because we will be simply righteous. Sure we will still have laws and ordinances to abide by, but righteousness will prevail, not the strict obedience of the law (spirit vs. law), although both will occur.
I also think we are in inclined to be in a pharisiacal mindset because of such things like the BYU honor code, mission rules, etc. Don't get me wrong, I know the purpose of those things and I uphold/upheld them (all except some, but this was a conscious decision) when they applied however we as a culture of a Church often lose sight about agency and what is right and wrong. I don't know if you remember President Kearl's phenomenal talk on agency Spring '08. He taught us to consciously know what is right and wrong, foolish or not in regards to our agency and the BYU honor code. Examples he gave were that there is no sin in being in a girl's room or in an apartment after midnight, however there is foolishness in doing so. Another example I have is sleeping in on your mission until 9 am is not a sin, it's just being foolish as to the greater purpose of being a missionary. We get so high strung on trying to keep rules that are there to prevent sin or disobedience, that we genuinely believe we're sinning, when we're just being foolish. There is a difference, and many people don't realize that. Your take?
Logan, welcome to my world! Now you can see why I find the church so frustrating sometimes. Few things. 1. The Word of Wisdom as we know it is not what was given to Joseph Smith. The original revelation says that we can drink beer and we could still use wine for the sacrament. Furthermore, nowhere in the revelation does it state what hot drinks means. It is only several years later that Hyrum Smith and Brigham Young state that it means tea and coffee. 2. The revelation specifically mentions that it is "To be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom... Given for a principle with a promise." It is not a commandment and there is no official church declaration that it is, although there is much UNOFFICIAL and circumventing regulations that make it appear that way. Which brings me to 3. The Word of Wisdom was not made a pre-requisite for entering the temple until 1902, and even then Joseph F. Smith said to be lenient with older members that used tobacco and tea. Also, around that time, people as prominent as the first counselor in the first presidency used beer and wine. It wasn't until 1921 that President Grant made adherence an absolute requirement for entering the temple.
To sum up, I don't necessarily think it is God, but the constraints of running an institution that by definition needs rules and regulations to operate, that creates the Law of Moses aura. People like to be told what they can and can't do. They like structure, they like strong definitions. That is WHY they are a part of an organization. Otherwise they would just read the scriptures on Sunday and say they love God. They like knowing if they are or are not saved. And the church and it's doctrines mold themselves to accommodate.
I totally agree that the church unfortunately fixates on the wrong things (see my most recent blog http://musingsfromzion.blogspot.com/2009/08/absurdity-explained.html), which is one of the reasons I left. Hopefully if/when Christ comes again, it will all get straightened out and we can all be on the same delightful side again :)
Shannon
PS. I REALLY like your friend's comment about sinning vs foolishness. VERY well put.
I think the most important principle to learn about these various guidelines for our lives is that through our obedience we will receive the blessings. Taking one drink of alchol won't ruin our spiritual salvation, but it might put us in a position that will compromise other laws. As we saw on our mission, those missionaries who were obedient were blessed. Sometimes missionary rules seem extremely restrictive, but those missionaries who lived the rules were those who were the most successful and the happiest because their conscience and spiritual growth was not stopped by not living the rules. We learned so MANY times that when there was something wrong, there was something wrong, usually it was the result of a previous act of disobedience.
I guess I have enough faith and selfish enough that I will live the laws just so I can receive the blessings.
Brenda, I'm intrigued by your comment that "Taking one drink of alchol won't ruin our spiritual salvation, but it might put us in a position that will compromise other laws." From this it sounds like you don't feel that some of the commandments (like not drinking) have an inherent moral imperative. If this is the case, why keep any of the commandments at all? If having one drink isn't inherently bad, then why would it be bad to break other laws?
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