Transcription
For as long as I can remember, I've been taught that God is above all and he created everything from nothing. Our spirits, our universe, the cosmos. But the more I consider the God of the LDS world and the God of Christianity, I start to wonder what it all means.
For example, one thing I don't understand is this. If God is above all and created everything from nothing, why would he create hell? Why would he create evil? Why would he create Satan? And why would he create some of his children with flaws so big that he would then send them to hell? What kind of a god does that make him?
The most common answer I hear to this is he created evil and hell and the devil and bad people so that we the good people can have free agency. But I don't buy that. Is it worth creating bad people and then sending them to hell just so that good people can rejoice in not being bad? What kind of God would intentionally create evil and place it in the world and then create us as innocent, naive, helpless people, lost and without God, and leave us unprotected against evil choices and sin?
To me, it's like putting a toddler in a crib next to a naked electrical wire, telling the child not to touch it, and then if it does, say, "Well, too bad. It had free agency." Just doesn't make sense. And then comes the next step. After creating evil and sin and hell and flawed humans, this god sets himself up as their savior to save them from the flaws that he created. It makes him both the arsonist and the fireman.
That reminds me of what Thomas Moore wrote in his book Utopia when he described the English rulers of his day. He said, "They forced the people, the common people, off the lands and into cities where there wasn't enough work for all of them. Many people were then reduced to stealing food. And when they were caught, they were hanged. And Moore asked, "What else is this?" I say, "But first to make thieves, and then to punish them."
All of these teachings and beliefs weigh heavily on me. And to be honest, I find it hard to love and believe in a God that creates us to sin and then sends us to hell. If anyone who doesn't repent of the acting the way he created us, to my feeble human ears, it sounds almost despotic, even Machavelian.
But what if what I've been taught about God is wrong? What if what I've been led to believe by religion is based on false premises? What if this isn't who God is at all? If I continue my theory from last video that God exists, that he is Jesus Christ, and that he is good, a kind, humble, merciful, loving person, then I find it almost impossible to think he is the father of defective people whom he creates to then send to hell. It would make everything I know about him a lie. It would make him two-faced, acting one way as God the Father and the opposite way as God the Son.
But Christ himself said, "If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." So would this God be divided against himself? Can he be the creator of both heaven and hell, good and evil? And I think the Book of Mormon teaches that he is not. I think it shows me a very different God to the one religion has led me to believe in and to fear. I think it shows me a God who did not create evil or hell or perhaps even our spirits, but one who works within a larger cosmos as a truly good person that rescues us from an equally determined but evil actor, Satan.
Let me see if this analogy works. I imagine a vast box canyon with wild mustangs roaming around in it. At one end of the canyon is a system of corral that lead to a silver mine. The owner of the mine is constantly setting traps to lure the mustangs into his corral where he can break them and chain them and put them to work in his minds. Many of the mustangs get caught in his nets and lured into this bondage and oppression. But on the other side, there's a narrow path that leads up and out of the canyon to a lush and protected valley owned by a benevolent rancher who loves mustangs.
The pathway leads first to a small quarantine field where the rancher can closely observe the mustangs who want to come to his peaceful valley. Do they live well with others or do they try to dominate or intimidate just like the minor? Do they bite and fight? When he sees these, he tries to work with them in kindness to teach them the laws of his valley. Some choose to change, others don't want to. And at the end of a probationary period, he allows every Mustang, no matter what color or breed, who desires to live in peace and harmony into his valley, where he protects them from the minor.
But those who don't desire to change and bring peace to the valley are sent back into the canyon. The benevolent rancher will not force them to change or ensnare them into his own valley. Otherwise, he'd become just like the minor. Therefore, every mustang who bucks and kicks at the rancher or the other mustangs and who willingly rejects his pathway out of the canyon are sent back down into the canyon where they're susceptible to the snares and chains of the minor.
This is how I envision the cosmos we live in. I think we like the mustangs existed outside of the ranchers valley or in other words outside of Christ's kingdom. Unlike the LDS church, I don't think Christ created our spirits out of nothing or that we lived with him in heaven before coming to earth. Else, why would he send us away? Instead, I believe King Benjamin was closer to the truth when he taught that it is not until we choose to follow Christ's path that we become his sons of dollars. He said, "Because of the covenant which ye have made, ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons and his daughters. For behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you. For ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name. Therefore ye are born of him and have become his sons and daughters. And under this head ye are made free and there is no other head whereby ye can make be made free."
So it is belief in Christ that causes us to be born of him. Also unlike modern Christianity, I don't believe Christ created the devil or hell or the cosmos he works within. Just as the medent rancher, in my analogy, didn't create the canyon or the mines or the mustangs. But I do believe Christ himself developed the lush and peaceful valley where he lives. And he wants to save all of us into his kingdom who want to be saved. Nephi says, "He inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness, and he denieth none that come unto him."
And I believe God created this quarantine field of our bodies, our lives, this world we live in right now. King Benjamin said, "Believe in God. Believe that he is and that he created all things both in heaven and in earth." And Elma said, "This life became a probationary state, a time to prepare to meet God." I also believe God created the narrow trail out of the canyon. Nephi said it like this, "Be reconciled into Christ and enter into the narrow gate and walk in the straight path which leads to life and continue in the path until the end of the day of probation."
I think Christ chooses each day to do all of this because of his great love for us. As Moroni described in Ether, thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men. And now I know that this love which thou hast for the children of men, is charity. Christ's great overwhelming desire, his love, is to save mankind from the devil, who leadth mankind by the neck with a flax and cord until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.
This is the Christ that I believe in. Not the creator of evil, but one who saves us from it. Not the architect of hell, but the one who provides a pathway to escape it. Through Christ's path, as many as are willing to listen to his voice and to act like he acts are invited into freedom and peace. Even those who might start out a little rough around the edges so long as they are willing to be to repent. In this way, the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled. who said, "For shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered, but thus sayeth the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered, for the mighty God shall deliver his covenant people." He can save us from the corrals, from the mines. I imagine we'll thank him eternally at that day with Jacob, the brother of Nephi, who said, "Oh, how great the goodness of our God who prepared a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster. Yay, that monster, death and hell."
But this brings me to my final burning question for today. Who then goes to hell? I have to admit this question hangs on my mind probably more than any other in this life. If God loves us so much and he is so merciful and kind and forgiving, why would he send anyone to a fate so miserable as death and hell? If he is at least as good as me, and probably infinitely better, wouldn't he with the sons of Mosiah say that he could not bear that any human soul should perish? Yay, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble. Why doesn't he just save everyone? If endless torment is so bad, why not bring everyone to heaven?
This is the mystery that I think the Book of Mormon has an answer for. Let's see. It's not that God chooses to cast us whom he loves so much into hell. But instead, it's that he cannot cast anyone into heaven against their will. Let me explain this with four scriptures.
Number one, the Book of Mormon seems to show that even God acts within eternal law. And if he broke the law, he would cease to be God and would become like the devil. One of those laws is God cannot force mankind to his will just like the minor or the devil seeks to. Or else he would cease to be God and would become like the devil. God cannot go against justice or fairness just to save us. Elma describes it to his son Coranton like this. Do you suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, nay, not one wit. If so, God would cease to be God.
So number two, God's love and his perfection. Everything that makes him God causes him to allow us the freedom we existed with outside of himself. Therefore, he allows us to choose for ourselves. Alma says, "He granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life. He that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience."
So number three, because he wishes to save anyone who will let him, he offered himself to redeem us through his atonement, but not to override our desires. So the atonement is universal, but we still get to choose. Amu taught that the Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins. I know that's a fine point, but it's so important.
And it brings us to that that last final moment of truth number four. when we judge ourselves as Jacob their brother and Nephi saw. Woe unto all those who die in their sins. For they shall return to God and behold his face and remain in their sins. That is the powerful key.
This metaphor, this God makes so much more sense to me than any other god I've ever been taught to believe. This God didn't create the rules. Instead, he chooses every day to act righteously within them. He didn't create our flawed human spirits. Instead, he sees them and chooses to love them. And he didn't create sin or devil or hell. Instead, he works every day to try and save mankind from them.
Christ is the one who Nephi described that would say to the prisoners, "Go forth." To them that sit in darkness, "Show yourselves, and they shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun smite them. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them. Even by the springs of water shall he guide them, and I will make my all my mountains away, and my highways shall be exalted." It sounds exactly like the rancher with his valley and the mustangs.
So then, what does that make this life? Why are we here? To me, this becomes a time to show every day that I want to follow Christ's humble path and live in his peaceful pastures. Not to fight or make war, not to lifts up above others, not to despise or look down on or judge others, and not to take advantage of or oppress others. This is my probationary time. I want to love and be with this benevolent God. I want to live in his new Jerusalem, his heavenly valley, where all are loved and valued, where we all are allowed our own personalities, our interests, our desires, and most importantly, our freedom. So long as we love each other and live in care and harmony. This is a God I can have faith in. Not a king on a throne, but a friend who opens the gate.
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