Truth Reconciled

To be clear, this post in no way contradicts or attacks any of the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I consider this gospel to be true and perfect. I want to support it, not try to destroy it. My goal with this post is to clear up misconceptions about church doctrine that weaken the testimonies of the members.

Like many many other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who grew up in the 90’s, I experienced a dramatic shift in culture from a more traditional faith-based understanding of the world to a highly analytical one. Ideas and knowledge are now shared on the internet at a rate that far surpasses anything we’ve seen in history. In this new environment, truth has a greater potential than ever to conquer the world. We see the evidence and we follow the evidence. We hear many different arguments and learn to recognize the good ones. We reject ideas that are demonstrated to be false.

This is great news for any belief system that was based in the truth to begin with. Over time, such a belief system will become increasingly validated. However, it might leave you severely disappointed if your testimony was strongly rooted in the pseudo-doctrines of Mormon mythology instead of the official doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Over time I have learned that many of the things I was taught growing up were simply not true. Some of my peers have realized these facts as well, and an unfortunate number have lost their testimonies because of it. The reason I have not lost my faith is because I have been able to distinguish between true doctrine and made-up myths. In every case, it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is in error, but the members themselves who are ignorant of the truth.

In this essay, I’ve compiled a list of the top 10 most harmful myths or false beliefs that I have come across in Latter-day Saint circles. These false teachings tend to be strongly ingrained in the minds of many members, and tend to have devastating effects when these members realize they were wrong. I hope this essay will help some people locate the mistakes in their thinking and avoid throwing out their entire belief system over a small error.

1. Keeping the commandments will make you happier.

This is the first on the list because I believe it is the most important lie that my generation needs to abandon. This was taught to me as doctrine all my life, and I believed it and taught it to others. So of course, when life got hard, my first thought was, “Why am I so unhappy if I’m keeping the commandments?” If you believe that God promised you happiness for keeping the commandments, then moments like these can feel like a spiritual car crash and your testimony can fly out the window. 

Why is this lie so widespread? Where did it originate? The most popular scripture used to teach this myth is from King Benjamin’s discourse in Mosiah 2:41:  

“And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.”

This was the scripture that always came to my mind in those difficult times, because it clearly says to consider the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments. Apparently the righteous were happy in King Benjamin’s time, probably because their government and the society at large were on their side. Everyone got converted in those days. However, just because righteous people were happy in King Benjamin’s time and culture doesn’t mean they will be happy in ours. Even in those days they weren’t happy all the time. King Benjamin says that the state of “never-ending” happiness comes after we reach heaven.

Happiness is not obtained by simply following a set of rules. Jesus was perfect and yet he was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). We also read in the bible that “Jesus wept.” Just because you do all that God commands doesn’t mean you’re going to be happy all the time.

In a world that rejects many of God’s commandments, you can expect to feel burdened, outcast, and isolated when you strive to follow him. This point was made several times in recent General Conference addresses, such as those by Sister Craig and Elder Holland. A widely shared blog post also touched the topic of people feeling happier after leaving the church. When you choose to follow God more fully, you will probably be less happy in the short term, but you will grow spiritually and gain eternal happiness in the next life.

2. God is displeased with you when you sin.

It is sad that so many latter-day saints believe this lie. It is not the Spirit of God that puts this idea into your head. How many times does God have to tell you that he loves you unconditionally? Maybe your parents are displeased with you, or your grandparents, or your spouse, or your bishop, or your other leaders, but God is not. Do you think he expects you to get everything right the first time? I promise you he doesn’t. He expects you to get a lot of things wrong, over and over again, for your entire life. That was the plan. That’s why we have a Savior.

Believing that God is displeased with you will crush your hope and erode your testimony over time. Will you really keep working for a boss or training for a coach or learning from a teacher who is always disappointed in you? I wouldn’t. I would leave and never want to see them again. That’s exactly what happens to many members of the church who grow up with this false belief. At first you feel guilty and strive to be better, but no matter how hard you try you will fail again and again. This makes you feel even more guilty and unworthy of love and respect. Eventually, you abandon all hope of ever pleasing God. Finally, you wonder why you ever tried to please such an uncaring and judgmental being in the first place.

But it turns out that it was actually Satan judging you the whole time. God knows your weaknesses and is there to help you, not condemn you. Don’t give up. Know that God is on your side no matter what.

3. God denied the priesthood from people of African ancestry because of Cain.

Yes, this really was preached to me as a child. It is very racist and very false. The church published an article a few years ago called Race and the Priesthood that officially debunked this myth once and for all. Here’s a brief summary of their conclusions:

There were no race-based restrictions in the days of the prophet Joseph Smith. Blacks were baptized and ordained to the priesthood like everyone else. However, racism was rampant in those days, and because of that, church leaders over time created racist policies. In the meantime, members tried to figure out why those racist policies existed, so they made up theories like this one.

This theory is officially declared to be false and should never be taught again. Fortunately, most members seem to know this now. But I still include it in the top 3 because of how damaging it is.

4. The world is very bad and getting worse.

I grew up believing this because it was taught to me by adults. I was taught that people were more righteous in the past, or in other words, their behavior aligned more closely with the moral rules taught by our church, but over time the world has been slipping away into increasingly unrestrained wickedness. Eventually it will reach the point where society collapses, and everything will fall into chaos. Famine, pestilence, and war will cover the earth. Anyone who doesn’t want to fight their neighbor to the death will have to flee to Zion. Eventually, Jesus will come and destroy all the wicked people and only the righteous will remain.

Talk about pessimism. These teachings are scary for young people, and I think that was the whole point. Teachers share these ideas to scare the kids so they won’t break the rules. But in reality, it doesn’t help the kids follow the rules; it just makes them afraid of the world and afraid of judgment from an angry God. This is not a good foundation for a healthy relationship with God or with the rest of the world.

The idea that the world is evil and just getting worse finds its origin in doomsday prophecies of the last days, as in the very last days, right before Jesus comes again. I’m not saying the prophecies are false, but I will say that the usual interpretation doesn’t seem to be describing the current state of the world. The world is far better today than it was in the past, by almost any metric you choose to measure it by. Violent crime has been decreasing steadily across the world for the past 30 years, continuing a downward trend that has persisted for centuries. Poverty is on the same trend, decreasing steadily for centuries and especially in the last few decades. We also observe steady declines in child mortality, deaths by infectious diseases, deaths in violent conflicts, and deaths by natural disasters. At the same time, we have seen and continue to see dramatic increases in education, literacy, freedom, wealth, quality of medical care, and good feelings between groups of people who historically hated each other. Advances in technology have also made every aspect of life much easier than before, including connecting with friends and family, traveling, and getting work done.

It doesn’t take much research to realize that the world is better than it used to be. Just look at the history of the church. When was the last time an angry mob came with weapons to drive us out, steal our stuff, burn our houses, and rape our women? In the United States, I think it has been at least a century. Do you still think the non-members in this country are more wicked now than they were before? I don’t think so.

It seems to me that this myth of the world constantly falling deeper into hell is based almost entirely on an apparent observed increase in open sexual immorality. This was usually the topic at hand when the myth came up. But I have learned that this is a very North American idea. After my mission, while researching genealogy in Latin America, I realized that single mothers have been far more common than married parents for centuries, at least in that region of the world. There are millions of records to prove it. Sexual promiscuity is nothing new.

What I see is that people nowadays are far less likely to judge each other for differences in culture and behavior. This is a good thing. I also note that the sexuality of today is more consensual than in the past. If you look at statistics of sexual assault, they follow the same downward trend that we see in all other types of crime. So stop judging the world and start loving it like God loves it.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The world is always improving. The gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to all the world, and not just by members of the church. I see Christ exemplified by people of all religions in all nations. I see his doctrine being clearly explained by psychologists, motivational speakers, and social media influencers, even though many of them would not identify as Christian. I see atheists working with believers, building the kingdom of God through Christlike love for their neighbors. The future looks bright to me.

But what about the prophecies? It does seem clear from the scriptures that there will eventually be a massive division between people with different ideas about what is right. It will reach the point where many will gather together to “destroy” the Saints of God. I’ve always interpreted that literally, but I’m not sure anymore, since so much of what God says is intended to be spiritual. In any case, Jesus will come with the Kingdom of Heaven to save the world from the real bad guys: Satan and the spirits who followed him.

5. Polygamy will eventually be reinstated.

I think all the women and most of the grown men in the church will agree with me when I say, “Oh please God, no!” If this is what awaits us in heaven, then we might as well stop following God right now to avoid the impending misery. This false belief assumes that the only reason polygamy ended is because society wasn’t ready for it. In reality, God commanded the church to stop practicing it in revelations to the Prophet Wilford Woodruff. 

In the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Jacob clearly explained that monogamy is God’s law and that polygamy is an exception for special circumstances, to be practiced only if commanded by God.

“Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none; … For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.” (Jacob 2: 27, 30)

In the early days of the church, God gave the unusual command, but only for a very small number of saints for a relatively short time. The command was rescinded in 1890. Polygamy has never been taught as acceptable by leaders of the church since that time.

6. God was once a Savior like Jesus.

I first heard this nugget of depressing “doctrine” in a seminary class. As soon as I heard it, I immediately lost hope of ever becoming like God. If our Father in Heaven was the Savior and Redeemer in a previous Plan of Salvation for billions or trillions of children of our grandfather God, what are the odds that we would end up being his children instead of the children of one of his siblings? Why would we be so lucky to be the children of the Savior of the previous generation? The odds are inconceivable! One in a trillion or less! Unless, of course, nobody else managed to reach godhood.

In other words, if this teaching is true, then none of us have a chance at godhood. That’s reserved for Savior-types like Jesus. No one else is good enough, nor will they ever be good enough. Maybe it’s true. But if it is true, why doesn’t God just tell us that? Why are we all aiming for something impossible? Why is he giving us this false hope? Why is he making us believe that we have a potential that we really don’t have? What was the point of the infinite Atonement?

I don’t believe God is deceiving us. The doctrine of eternal progression and inheriting the Kingdom of God is much more concrete and defensible than this random idea that my seminary teacher and other members have spewed. The doctrine and the myth contradict one another. The doctrine brings feelings of hope and belonging while the myth brings feelings of worthlessness. I believe this myth needs to be completely rejected.

The myth seems to have originated from misinterpretations of some quotes by Joseph Smith:

“As the Father hath power in Himself, so hath the Son power in Himself, to lay down His life and take it again, so He has a body of His own. The Son doeth what He hath seen the Father do: then the Father hath some day laid down His life and taken it again” (History of the Church 5:426)

“I want you to pay particular attention to what I am saying. Jesus said that the Father wrought precisely in the same way as His Father had done before Him. As the Father had done before? He laid down His life, and took it up the same as His Father had done before. He did as He was sent, to lay down His life and take it up again; and then was committed unto Him the keys. I know it is good reasoning.” (History of the Church 6:373)

Joseph is clearly teaching that our Father in Heaven once died and was resurrected. Jesus was the only person born on Earth who was a biological son of a resurrected being. He inherited power over death from his father. I see nothing in this quote that proves that God the Father was also a Savior and Redeemer who took upon himself the sins of his generation.

7. Tattoos are evil.

I believed this while growing up in Utah. But I have no idea how this myth got started. You can literally get a tattoo on your way to a temple recommend interview and still pass. Jesus himself has unnecessary marks on his hands and feet and in his side. He is a resurrected being. He should have a perfect body, but for some reason he kept those marks. Is it because he has no respect for the body that God gave him? I don’t think so. The marks serve as symbols and reminders of who he is and what he has done. We read in both Isaiah 49:15-16 and 1 Nephi 21:15-16:

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

Members of the church often make character judgments based on a person’s physical appearance. This has more to do with the members’ own insecurities (see myth #2) than with the person being judged. The scripture most often used to support the false belief that tattoos are evil is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Paul was talking about fornication here. Read the chapter if you don’t believe me. Let’s try to be honest and not take scriptures out of context. Another scripture that is often taken out of context is 1 Corinthians 3:16–17:

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

Read the chapter. Paul says nothing in the whole chapter about our bodies. He is talking about the branch of the church that he and Apollos worked to build, which is metaphorically similar to building a temple for God to dwell in at Corinth. Some of the saints were defiling the temple (i.e. the branch) with conflict and contention.

It is true that President Gordon B. Hinckley counseled the youth to avoid getting tattoos, and the world gives the same counsel. In your teenage years, you are not even close to really figuring out who you are, so your tattoos will usually not age well. While it is not a sin to get a tattoo, it is certainly a sin to judge people and treat them as less because of their physical appearance.

8. The temple garment magically provides physical protection.

One of the most common things that non-members sneer and laugh at when talking about the “Mormons” is their “magic underwear.” I don’t blame them though, because it makes me laugh as well. But at the same time, it makes me sad, because this mystical belief acts as a roadblock to people who might otherwise be interested in the church.

Why do so many members believe this? How many members of the church have been injured or died while wearing the temple garment? The idea that the garment provides physical protection has no basis in church doctrine and has only negative effects on our testimonies and on our relationships with each other and the rest of the world.

The church recently published an article all about the temple garment which says nothing about any physical protection it can provide. To the contrary, the article states that “we are promised blessings of protection against temptation and evil.” The garment serves as a reminder of the covenants we made in the temple. In this way it serves as spiritual protection against temptation. It was never meant to be interpreted as physical protection.

Please don’t reject the gospel of Jesus Christ if you trip while wearing the temple garment.

9. Traditional Creationism.

Many Latter-day Saints hold on to beliefs from other religions because they haven’t studied their own religion enough to know any better. Probably the most controversial belief of mainstream Christianity is traditional Creationism. The idea is that God created the entire universe 6,000 years ago, and it only took him 6 days. Of all the Christian churches, we’re supposed to be the ones who don’t believe this. Joseph Smith radically taught the opposite of this when the church was first established. And yet, it is still common to hear members complain about scientific research related to the history of the universe, the Earth, and the origin of humans.

We read in Abraham 3:24:

“And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell.”

Notice that there was already “space” to go to and “materials” to be used. Under the direction of God the Father, the Savior organized the Earth in a universe that already existed. God never revealed exactly how it was done or how long it took. The word “day” as used in Genesis is known to refer to a nonspecific period of time, not a 24-hour period. Why would it refer to Earth’s day when the Earth didn’t exist yet?

The Earth is extremely old, and the universe is far older. Scientists have demonstrated these facts in a myriad of ways, using geology, biology, radiochemistry, and physics. The church has never preached official doctrine that contradicted the scientific claims on this subject. Brigham Young himself said the following in 1871:

“In these respects we differ from the Christian world, for our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular…whether the Lord found the earth empty and void, whether he made it out of nothing or out of the rude elements; or whether he made it in six days or in as many millions of years, is and will remain a matter of speculation in the minds of men unless he give revelation on the subject. If we understood the process of creation there would be no mystery about it, it would be all reasonable and plain, for there is no mystery except to the ignorant.” (Journal of Discourses 14:116)

There should really be no need to say so much about this, since it has nothing to do with our eternal salvation. But so many people put so much faith in these ancient superstitions that it creates an unnecessary divide between religion and reason. These religious extremists lock themselves out from greater knowledge of the universe, and they make it much more difficult for reasonable people to take religion seriously. It’s a lose-lose situation.

10. The Holy Ghost feels like a burning in the bosom.

I remember when I was 14 years old, a teacher asked me if I wanted to share a spiritual experience. I told her no, because I had never had a spiritual experience. All my life I heard the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God described as a “burning in the bosom” or a “still small voice.” These descriptions are fine as long as the listener understands what is meant, but I never did. I expected a feeling of increased temperature in my chest. I expected to hear a voice or a whisper in my ears. I had never experienced those things, so I thought I had never felt the Spirit or heard one of its promptings.

As a young man full of faith, I still believed it was possible. I thought that I just hadn’t been spiritual enough or worthy enough to have a spiritual experience, but I would continue to try. A few months later, I did recognize a spiritual experience for the first time. It came when I was praying for help to find something precious to me that I had lost. I didn’t feel anything in my chest; and I didn’t hear anything in my ears; I just had a thought to look somewhere where I hadn’t looked before. I immediately got up and found what I had lost in the place that had come to my mind. That was when I began to realize that my teachers had not taught this subject correctly.

I know I’m not the only one who has been confused by these strange, ancient descriptions of the Holy Ghost. It’s common enough that there is an article about it in LDS Living by John Bytheway. If you’re going to use those descriptions, make sure you clearly explain what they actually mean. Otherwise you’re just going to confuse people and drive them away from God.

In my experience, there is never any kind of physical sensation related to the Spirit of God. Let me describe what it’s like in more modern terms. The Spirit of God feels like a serene and logical state of mind, in which your emotions are calm, your worries are put in the proper perspective, you can learn things easily, and you can see the truth clearly. The “burning in the bosom” probably refers to the peace and confidence that come when you are in the right state of mind, when you know what is right, you know what to do, and you know that there is really no reason to fear. You feel driven to do good. The “still small voice” refers to the clarifying and peaceful thoughts that come to your mind. These kinds of thoughts, or promptings, are easily distinguishable from worrisome thoughts that steal your inner peace, angry thoughts that push you to fight with others, or addictive thoughts that consume your mind and make it hard to think logically.

There are scriptures that teach the doctrine of the Holy Ghost more clearly than the “burning in the bosom” or the “still small voice.” Fore example, Galatians 5:22-23 describes how you can expect to feel:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

We also read this clarification in Moroni 7:13:

“…every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.”

In other words, anytime you have a thought to do something good, you can be sure that you were inspired by the Spirit. It isn’t any more complicated than that.

Conclusion

I hope this essay has been elucidating for some readers. Don’t give up on Jesus just because one obscure principle of the gospel was taught to you incorrectly. The members of the church are and always have been imperfect. Cultural misconceptions can endure for generations. Those who taught you to believe things that are false were most likely unaware of their error. It is usually only through mixing cultures and resolving differences that we can discover our biases and refine our beliefs.

Every year we see more of this refinement occurring in the church and in all the world. Every year we are more grounded in the core principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, inside and outside the church. Every year we care less about the little things and more about the “weightier matters of the law.” Members and non-members all over the world are learning to be more loving and less judgmental towards others and towards themselves, and to give value to those things that are truly valuable. I look forward to a future of unity in Christ, brought about by a greater understanding of the truth of all things.