I am even more impressed when I read chapter 8. Even more common are the folks discussed in this chapter who take the attitude of "eat, drink and be merry; nevertheless, fear God-he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God." There are so many of these people and I know many like this. I actually believe that many LDS folks run into this situation and try to justify. Justification is the lie the Devil tells. I remember Mom saying to me once how justification, is the small lie that sets off the course that eventually leads to us being far away from our intended destination. Just like how an airplane can just be off by a couple degrees in the beginning of a flight and end up hundreds of miles away from the intended destination. I once heard some claimed christians justifying smoking weed by saying that "if it does not change the way that I feel about God, then it is okay to do." This is the lie of the Devil.
On this same note I wanted to share an excerpt out of a book that Kent gave me a while back. While it is not a religious book, I really took heart to the following; "The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as "My or our God is the only true God, and your god is false."
It is my challenge to myself to not justify beyond any of God's teachings. It is also my challenge to myself to find testimony about what this word means to me and how I can improve my life.
2 comments:
As you point out Nephi really hit the nail on the head when he prophesied about the "eat, drink and be merry" attitude many people would have in the last days. It's another witness to me that the Book of Mormon is true.
I'm so glad that you are able to see the fallacy in the reasoning of the world. Satan is real and he works all day every day to try to get us to believe his lies and then, if we do, he abandons us when the consequences hit. A general authority spoke once at BYU when I was there and he advised us to pray about the teachings of the Gospel but instead of asking IF they are true, we should ask WHY they are true. When I have done that, it always becomes very clear to me.
Post a Comment