If there is a God, why is there such suffering in the world?
Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why should there not be? What would the world be like without suffering?
If we are to believe that God should prevent suffering, at what arbitrary and subjective point should he prevent it?
What suffering should God prevent?
Should he prevent starvation which is an obvious target? How would he do so? By forcing the ground to produce crops spontaneously so that those starving individuals could just go out and harvest wheat or pick up manna from the ground? By forcing the rest of the world to somehow provide food for them?
Should he prevent murder, genocide, and all wars by either killing the murderers before they act or shocking them in such a way that they know they are displeasing God? Just think of the good God could have done and the suffering he could have prevented by killing Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and a host of other mass murderers before they acted.
Should he prevent adultery which harms the relationships of innocent spouses and causes hurtful grief and suffering?
Should he prevent theft, profanity that offends, liars that deceive people into giving up their wealth to help some “poor soul” (scam artist) that just needs to move $10 million out of Nigeria?
How should he prevent these things? By striking down the offender in the act, prior to the act when the thought is fully developed, or when the thought first occurs in their mind?
If one rationally thinks about these things, we would soon come to the conclusion that God would be hated by mankind for taking away the choices of any who might infringe on the rights of others, and thus God would be guilty of the same sin he is acting to prevent. We would soon worship the devil who would tell us we are free to do everything we want and our love for God would be extinguished in the moment our free will was taken from us.
It must become obvious that if there is a God, he must provide a level playing field for the souls of men to be able to, of their own free will and choice, follow God and find peace and joy through choosing to live his commandments, or else misery and pain by causing the suffering of others by their own actions. God’s laws are designed to give us choice with consequences that bring about one of these two ends.
God’s law of agency
In the LDS faith we call this principle, agency, or the ability to have free will to choose to serve God out of love and not by force. In the book of Revelation we read of a war in heaven in which Satan was cast out.
Revelation 12:7-9
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Why was Satan cast out in this war? From another book of scripture that we use in the LDS faith, we read two reasons:
Moses 4:3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;
First, Satan wanted to destroy our choice by creating a utopia where everyone would be forced to choose the right and everyone would wind up back in heaven because their agency would be suspended during this mortal testing period.
Second, because he was going to do this supposedly great work of ensuring that all of God’s children would return to heaven (albeit by means of force), he wanted God’s power for himself.
The resulting war in heaven had him forcibly removed and cast down to earth to tempt God’s children to sin by attempting to get them to violate others’ agency and establish his plan for forced righteousness on earth. We can see this in the actions of the communist philosophy which is forced equalization by those in power trying to create a perfectly organized society where nobody suffers (and yet everyone suffers). Misery abounds when agency is cut off.
Our Heavenly Father is a loving being that doesn’t operate under force. In a section of modern day scripture unique to the LDS church, we read God’s specific instruction to his priesthood holders about how they must act in order to please God.
Doctrine & Covenants 121:34-37
34 Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
35 Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson-
36 That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.
37 That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
Why does God allow for suffering?
God allows for suffering in this world because this world is a temporary proving ground, and for God to remove suffering would violate God’s laws and his honor and respect throughout the universe would cease. In essence, God would cease to be God. In order for God’s eternal plan for mankind to succeed, we must have our agency to choose eternal life with God. As for the suffering in the world, the true followers of Christ covenant with God to use their agency to do what God himself would do if he were here.
Mosiah 18
8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;
9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life-
10 Now I say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him and keep his commandments, that he may pour out his Spirit more abundantly upon you?
Of the Christian related Holidays, my favorite has to be Easter. There’s still the secular and fun element of my little children running around to find Easter eggs the Easter Bunny hid, but there’s not the amount of attention to shopping, wrapping presents, and avoiding the true meaning of the holiday that we see at Christmas. Easter is an easier day to celebrate and remember the real message of the season. It’s more of a sacred day since children aren’t running around playing with presents. We can be more contemplative of the sacrifice of the Son of God.
From the Book of Mormon, we read accounts of ancient prophets who also testified of Christ. When brought together with the accounts in the Bible we have two witnesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that he died for us to pay the price of sin and provide a glorious resurrection. This is the most fundamental core point of our doctrine.
Alma 22:14(speaking of the Atonement of Christ)
14 And since man had afallen he could not bmerit anything of himself; but the sufferings and cdeath of Christ datone for their sins, through faith and repentance, and so forth; and that he breaketh the bands of death, that the egrave shall have no victory, and that the sting of death should be swallowed up in the hopes of glory; and Aaron did expound all these things unto the king.
Alma 40:23-26(speaking on the resurrection)
23 The asoul shall be brestored to the cbody, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a dhair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and eperfect frame.
24 And now, my son, this is the restoration of which has been aspoken by the mouths of the prophets--
25 And then shall the arighteous shine forth in the kingdom of God.
26 But behold, an awful adeath cometh upon the wicked; for they die as to things pertaining to things of righteousness; for they are unclean, and bno unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of God; but they are cast out, and consigned to partake of the fruits of their labors or their works, which have been evil; and they drink the dregs of a bitter ccup.
Here is a video the LDS church recently released about the real message of Easter. Yes, Mormons celebrate Easter for all the right reasons.
How did God Create the World?
The debate rages on between scientists and religionists over the creation timeline, but it can all be easily explained when we understand LDS theology and how creation was a 2-step process.
Spiritual vs. Physical Creation
In Hebrews 11:3 we read:
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
What does that mean? In the LDS book of scripture known as the Doctrine & Covenants, there are a few verses which help expand this concept.
31 For by the power of my Spirit created I them; yea, all things both spiritual and temporal-
32 First spiritual, secondly temporal, which is the beginning of my work; and again, first temporal, and secondly spiritual, which is the last of my work-
The Lord declares here that there are two different types of creation at work. One was spiritual, and the other was temporal. In the beginning of God’s work, he created all things spiritually before they were created physically. At the end of the world, he will transform the temporal or physical things into spiritually perfected creations to endure through eternity.
Genesis 2:4-5expresses the creation concept in this way:
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
So was it 7 days or millions of years for the earth to be created?
In the LDS faith, we have another book of scripture we use called the Pearl of Great Price, and in it there are two accounts of the creation story. The first one is in the book of Moses and gives us an account of the spiritual creation, while the second account from the book of Abraham is an account of the physical creation.
In the book of Moses, each period of creation is called a “day,” which Peter informs us that God’s days are like 1,000 of our years ( 2 Peter 3:8).
However, in the book of Abraham, it does not identify the creation periods as days. but as times. So things happened in the first time, second time, and so on.
Now this part isn’t something I’ve been taught as official church doctrine but it’s a way for me to mesh these concepts in what seems a logical way. God is a being that is not limited by linear time such as we are. Imagine that after planning the creation out during the spiritual creation, God then stepped into our temporal time line and initiated the gathering of star dust to form the earth, or even brings a massive star from another dimension and causes it to explode here in our universe. He then steps back out of the temporal timeline and as a multi-dimensional being, a moment later steps into the temporal timeline millions or billions of years after initiating this action. He observes the gathering of the atoms and particles and gives his next set of instructions from the spiritual creation plan and again steps out of the timeline. He then re-enters millions of years later on that timeline but to him it is just a short moment. Angels and servants of God could step into the work at important points to assist in beautifying and populating the earth by creating rivers, valleys, plants, trees, creatures, and eventually man was placed on the earth to begin the temporal existence of man on the earth. Each object has it’s spiritually created form placed within the physical to give it life and a connection to God.
Now I don’t know that that’s really how things worked, but I do know from the scriptures that there was a spiritual and temporal creation and that someday all things will be revealed to us in a way that makes perfect sense. Knowing that all things are before God (D&C 88:41), and that he is not a being constrained by time, seems to make sense to me that he can influence things in lower dimensions as needed and at will much like we can turn to any page in a book and read or write on that page because we exist outside of that book. It makes sense to me though, that the spiritual creation may have taken 7 days of God’s time to do all the planning and then the implementation could have been a much shorter period of time for God but in our earthly timeline represented millions of years. I realize this is speculative, but it’s sort of how I make sense of things until I receive additional light and knowledge that refines these thoughts on how God created the world.
Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
On Christmas Day, 1977, I was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I don’t remember much from it being so long ago and only being 8 years old at the time, but I’ve always appreciated that my parents arranged for me to be baptized on Christmas in honor of the Savior’s birth.
As members of the church, we have several key beliefs that help us understand the importance of baptism.
Jesus was baptized as an example to us
When Jesus began his ministry, the first thing he did was sought out John the Baptist and asked him to baptize him (Matt. 3:13-17). At that event, while Jesus was in the water, the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the sign of a dove, while the Father spoke from heaven his witness of the importance of this event saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
In the Book of Mormon, an American prophet named Nephi explained the reason for Jesus’ baptism in these words (2 Nephi 31:4-7):
4 Wherefore, I would that ye should remember that I have spoken unto you concerning that prophet which the Lord showed unto me, that should baptize the Lamb of God, which should take away the sins of the world.
5 And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!
6 And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?
7 Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments.
In other words, Christ was baptized, not because of a need to for Himself, but to fulfill a righteous commandment and to set an example for us.
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Nicodemus was one of the ruling Jews, a Pharisee, and he came to Jesus by night asking some questions about the Savior’s teachings. Jesus told him he needed to be born again and this confused Nicodemus who asked how a person could enter the womb a second time. Jesus replied “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). These 2 events, being born of water, and of the Spirit, are baptism (by water) and the receipt of the Holy Ghost (of the Spirit).
At the end of Christ’s ministry, he also instructed his disciples to go into all the world preaching the gospel and “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-16). This doctrine can seem harsh until one understands the nature of what he means by damned (explained in another article “Do Mormons believe everyone else is going to hell?“)
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The word baptism comes from a Greek word meaning to “make whelmed” or fully wet. Jesus was baptized by immersion to symbolize his death, burial (under the water), and resurrection (coming forth from the water) (Romans 6:4). When we are baptized we also signify that we are beginning the process of taking Jesus’ name upon us by doing the things he did.
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Not everyone can baptize someone. They must receive their authority from God, not through a certificate of having attended divinity school. The Priesthood of God has been restored to the earth again, and authorized servants again have power to baptize and confer the gift of the Holy Ghost on people who desire to make covenants with God. (John 15:16)
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There are some churches that teach that baptism isn’t necessary, and others who believe it so necessary that any who die, including babies that never received baptism, must be going to hell.
This article has addressed the necessity of baptism. In another article I have addressed the topic of people who die without baptism having the ordinance performed for them so they are not held back from their eternal progress. Now I want to briefly relate why infants do not need baptism.
Baptism is a covenant we make with God. It is an action where we promise God to live His commandments in exchange for His blessings such as the opportunity to return and live with Him again someday.
In the Book of Mormon, there was a period of time when some people were of the belief that little children who died without baptism were going to be cast off forever. The prophet Mormon corrected their thinking in this way.
Mormon 8:5-15
5 For, if I have learned the truth, there have been disputations among you concerning the baptism of your little children.
6 And now, my son, I desire that ye should labor diligently, that this gross error should be removed from among you; for, for this intent I have written this epistle.
7 For immediately after I had learned these things of you I inquired of the Lord concerning the matter. And the word of the Lord came to me by the power of the Holy Ghost, saying:
8 Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in me, that it hath no power over them; and the law of circumcision is done away in me.
9 And after this manner did the Holy Ghost manifest the word of God unto me; wherefore, my beloved son, I know that it is solemn mockery before God, that ye should baptize little children.
10 Behold I say unto you that this thing shall ye teach-repentance and baptism unto those who are accountable and capable of committing sin; yea, teach parents that they must repent and be baptized, and humble themselves as their little children, and they shall all be saved with their little children.
11 And their little children need no repentance, neither baptism. Behold, baptism is unto repentance to the fulfilling the commandments unto the remission of sins.
12 But little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God, and a respecter to persons; for how many little children have died without baptism!
13 Wherefore, if little children could not be saved without baptism, these must have gone to an endless hell.
14 Behold I say unto you, that he that supposeth that little children need baptism is in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; for he hath neither faith, hope, nor charity; wherefore, should he be cut off while in the thought, he must go down to hell.
15 For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish because he hath no baptism.
So is baptism necessary for salvation? Yes it is, but little children, defined in the church as under the age of 8, are innocent before God and do not need that ordinance for God to save them. Those who die without baptism over the age of 8 also have provisions made by God to receive that required ordinance.
Why Do Mormons believe the Constitution of the United States was inspired by God?
To a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, there are few principles as important as the principle of “agency.” Agency is a gift from God to allow us personal growth through liberty and choice. In life, we choose what to be and how to live. God sent His Son Jesus Christ to free us from the bondage of sin and give us liberty through the gospel, but he also knew that oppressive governments would never allow the gospel to flourish. Totalitarian states create systems of control over their populations such that the right to worship is restricted or controlled.
Consider the case of the early settlers of this country. Many of them fled England because their natural rights were being violated. They had no freedom to worship God as they saw fit. To hold political office and influence laws, one had to be a member of the state church, the Church of England.
The Land of Promise
Ancient prophets on the American continent had great views of latter-day America. They saw things concerning the destiny of this country and how God would use it as a base of freedom, both religiously and politically, and called this country “the land of promise.” These prophesies are recorded in The Book of Mormon, another witness of Jesus Christ, and a companion volume of scripture to the Holy Bible.
One such prophet named Nephi, saw in vision the events that would lead up to the founding of this nation. He recorded in 1 Nephi 13 the following events (red text are my comments): Continue reading
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