Author: emilt

I was just reading in the Old Testament and I just wanted to share a little:

18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. 19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. 20 ¶ Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

Isaiah 45:18 – 20, 22

When I read this, I had a feeling inside that these things are truly from God. I wish you all could feel what I feel when I read certain passages. There’s this feeling of just knowing it’s true. I know these words aren’t just produced by a man for his own purposes.

Perhaps such words feel so true to me because they fit so completely with my own experiences where God has been there for me.

Anyway, Have a good Sabbath Day.

emilt

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything here. But the other day I had a thought that I wanted to post here. So here’s another post.

My previous posts have centered on God and spiritual things and of course this one is pretty much the same in that respect. I mean no offense to anyone by such posts. It would probably be worthwhile to remember the advice I’ve heard somewhere and paraphrase here:

A person is better off who takes no offense, even when offense is intended, than the one who finds offense when none is intended.

Anyway, I have sensed animosity from some of the posters here on this site toward God, religion, and/or the LDS church.

It may be true that many wars have been in some way connected with religion, as have other torment and atrocities. But “Pure religion and undefiled” the scripture says “… is … To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (see James 1:27) I believe it’s when people twist things that wars result “in the name of God.”

Anyway, to the thought I had the other day. Even if God did not exist, even if the LDS church were not true, would it really matter? As I follow them, I’m working for and promoting the cause of human happiness, of joy in people’s lives. The things I’ve learned there lead me to seek the good of others. As a result of the things I’ve learned through the church and my relationship with God, I strive to show love to others around me. (I know I’m not perfect, but I strive to improve.)

One could argue that truth is important and desirable, and that if the truth were that God did not exist or a particular religion were not true in its teachings, that they should be abandoned. But I would say that love is probably a higher cause than truth.

I’m not talking about romantic love that leads to desires of the flesh. I’m talking of love that leads to caring and concern for others, love that instills a desire to help someone else, even to give up something of value for the benefit of another. I’m talking about love that refrains from judging and overlooks negative things that may be obvious in another person, in order to lift him or her up.

Truth is a valuable thing, but I’d say that this kind of love is greater. So if my faith and belief in God and my following The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lead me to such a love, then weather true or false, how far wrong could I be?

To all those here who were raised in the LDS church (or any church teaching “love one another”) and then left it and say you’ve reasoned out for yourselves many good and noble things for the good of humanity, may I suggest that perhaps the foundations of your reasoning might come from some of the ideals taught in your years of upbringing by the church (and God) that you’ve abandoned?

If you were raised up in a Hitler-style environment, and you were not the target of the hurt and pain inflicted, would you have come to the same conclusions? Maybe…but can you be sure?

I am sorry that for those who have left the circles of religion (and in my mind especially the LDS church) that apparently negative things came from the same organization that leads me to work for good things. None of us is perfect and some still haven’t really got the vision of love that Christ’s gospel teaches.

It’s not about a list of rules that magically get you into heaven. It’s about love–love that Jesus Christ has for us and the love he asks us to actively show to his Father and to all mankind.

In my church involvement, I enjoy opportunities to cheer up some of the kids I know there, to give them a hug and make them feel good. I love to see their smiles and know that I’m doing something good. I enjoy home teaching and meeting new people and building a friendship with them and helping them at times. I see children being raised in the Church and being taught inspiring things that tend to lead them to higher heights and greater causes. I see people striving to become better than they were before, seeking that ideal of love. Weather or not the Church is true, weather or not God exists, I know that the core things I see there are good and right.

Unfortunately, this world has a way of beating people down, of taking those ideals and belittling them, of making them seem useless or unimportant. This world and the struggles in it slowly draw many people away from the good that is taught. So while a certain core of the people may get closer to the ideal, there are those (and I believe statistically they are many) who don’t seem to understand it.

In the end, if my following God and the LDS church, lead me to find peace, hope, and joy in my life and also lead me to strive to add some measure of joy to others, what is lost? Even if there were no afterlife, then I would have lived my life with joy and spread joy also to others and then my life would end. In such a case, are there many better things that could be said about one life lived?

emilt

In a previous discussion and in reference to a comment about me using a “God-based filter,” Matthew said:

This statement is you seeing things through your particular filter, for sure.

Don’t you also use a non-god filter? Because of our beliefs, we all filter what we experience through them. Have you ever bought a new car and then you start to notice that model everywhere? I’ve had that kind of experience with several vehicles and also with other things. Or once I become a part of some group, I start to notice others of that same group, even though I didn’t even see them before. This is our mental filters in action.

The one problem I see with a “non-god filter” is that a filter can’t detect the absence of something, but only its presence. So, through your filter, you detect the presence of other things that make sense but don’t see evidence of God and therefore might conclude he’s not there.

Here’s an example using simple science. You and I are looking at a picture and I say there is red in that picture. I’m looking through my red filter lens, of course. You, looking through your green lens, insist there is no red in the picture. You only see shades of green, blue, and yellow. Looking through your filter, you would never know if there was red in the picture or not–the shades of red and the absence of any color at all would look the same.

In the world of electronics, we can see the same sort of thing with radio waves and tuned circuits. I might have a radio receiver with a tuned circuit that receives signals between 88 and 108 MHz (millions of cycles per second)–this is the FM radio band. You have a receiver with a tuned circuit that receives signals between .540 and 1.6 MHz–this is the AM radio band. Either of us could insist that a station the other is listening to doesn’t exist because we can’t receive it. If we each understood that we were each using a different radio circuit that received different signals, then we could open up to the idea that each had found something valid and perhaps share both sets of signals for greater enjoyment. Without that understanding, we could waste a lot of time debating the existence of some particular station, and create a lot of contention and so on.

In a less technical example, could one ever know that FM 100 exists, by only watching their satellite TV system? Their frequencies are different as well as their modes of receiving the signals, and the way information is placed on the signal. (I know, maybe if it was satellite with FM stations included, then it would be apparent. But you get the point, right?)

So, it would seem the only way to prove that God does not exist would be to use the God-based filter and still see nothing. I have to say, my God-based filter sees a lot of God in the world. I also understand that your non-god filter does see many important and useful things in the world, without a hint of God in it.

Most evidence of God is in the hearts and minds of faithful people; it comes from the lives of those who look for him and find him. One can’t find God through scientific measurement, if he chooses not to be found that way. I would say it is faith in God that provides the filter we need to see evidence of him.

In my life, I’ve seen too many “coincidences” to believe it’s all just coincidence. There is an intelligent power in this universe–beyond our human understandings–that does indeed respond to us when we seek him. He has power to shake the earth to its foundation, power to create or destroy life in a instant, power to do all things he sees fit to do. I know this intelligent power, this being, as God.

emilt

Matthew,

I keep receiving e-mails from your site saying I have new private mail. I click the link and it says “Access Not Authorized” or something like that. It doesn’t seem to matter if I’m logged in or not.

How do I get to this private mail (and end the stream of daily e-mails)?

Thanks, emilt

I feel special–I’ve got my own blog now. Also, thanks for the Yoda picture, Matthew. I didn’t like that monkey.

After pondering things Matthew said about coercion and also about my approach he said was a sales tactic and also some comments about honesty, I feel I need to say the following:

Everything I’ve said in my previous posts is true, honest, and sincere. But I’m informing everyone now that I only logged onto this web site for one reason. I’m here to talk about God, I’m here to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m here to do battle on a spiritual plane–God and his believers against secularism and the worldy things it embraces (I include godlessness in that).

Are you up to the battle? If you (those who embrace secularism) win, you’ve lost nothing. If I (or we who trust in God) win, you’ll gain even more.

As with any civilized battle, we need rules of engagement. I propose the following.

– we take the time needed to research or develop our responses – we each take whatever time we need to recover from the blows – we can always refer back to older posts and add more information, as needed – if a post makes us angry, we contain the anger to our own home and keep successive posts respectable – no personal attacks, such as, “you are so …” or “how can you be so …” etc. – no bad language – no silly bantering (this is serious business, so if you don’t have anything useful to post, please refrain)

do you have anything to add or remove? do you accept the list as it is?

(This isn’t a personal battle i.e. person against person; it’s a battle of truth against lies. The question is what is the truth? Kind of like in a physical war, both sides fight believing they are right or fighting for the better cause. I don’t suppose we would truly be able to establish a total, complete, all-encompassing truth, but hopefully we might open up a larger view of the truth than we now have.)

———

Matthew, I want to tell you about another sign that, to me, points to God–and you and I are in the middle of it.

Sorry if I paraphrase here. You said for the past seven years you have been interested in studying religion and I assume also the question of God’s existence. During that same time I’ve been recovering from my godless time, gaining strength of faith. For me that started in the 1998-1999 time frame. It seems perhaps I was being prepared to “face” you while you were being led to seek.

You said you are better at written debate. I hope you don’t doubt my truthfulness, but so am I.

You said you used to be quite belligerant toward believers or religious discussions (something like that). So now I arrive from Texas after you’ve softened your stance toward people like me.

The first time I met you, we had a religious discussion (brief as it was) that put in my mind the urge to talk to you about these things. I couldn’t ever quite bring myself to go over to your house to discuss them. Then, surely by the hand of God, I was told about your web site. I had to check it out and now here we are.

Is it just me looking through my God-based filter? I don’t think so. Although without such a filter, one could never see God’s influence. That filter, of course, is connected with the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit.

I have felt the difference without the Spirit and with the Spirit in my life and I’d never want to go back there again (without the Spirit).

– the God I believe in In some of the posts I’ve read here, I’ve seen references to God, talking of a cosmic vending machine and a supreme warden and who knows what else. Somewhere someone has really twisted who God is.

I’d like to paint a verbal picture of the God I believe in. No one can find out all the doings of God, but this gives a basic overview of my understanding of him. My understanding of God, of course, draws from LDS teachings. I know that as I read the following later, I will probably think of things I forgot to mention, so please realize this isn’t the whole picture. I’m sure I haven’t explained everything I believe about God.

Envision God, all-powerful, and full of love and caring. He creates a multitude of spirit-children, whom he loves. He desires for them to experience the joy and wonder that he experiences. In time, a particular one of these spirits desires to take the power and glory of God for himself. This particular spirit convinces about a third of the other spirits to follow him in rebellion against God. After a war in heaven (See New Testament | Revelation 12:7 – 9), the rebellious spirits are cast down to earth–the Sons of Perdition, led by Satan.

God, our Heavenly Father, still desires for those remaining spirits to enjoy all that he enjoys. But first he has to prove them. Will they choose to follow him or, if given the chance, will they follow the deceiver, the father of lies–Satan? He places the spirits on earth (in their appointed times), in physical bodies with limitations that challenge them. Satan and his followers are still on the earth able to tempt the embodied spirits.

Heavenly Father places within our reach (we are those spirits in these bodies of flesh) enough knowledge and guidance to discover him and follow his ways. He will not force us, though. We can walk away, we can follow the master of lies if we choose. He also put within each of us the “light of Christ” or a portion of the Holy Spirit to lighten our minds to desire to seek good. But we can push that out if we so choose.

We are here to be tested and also to learn to be more like our Heavenly Father. If we pass the test, and learn to be more like him, we can, after being judged worthy, gain fellowship with God, but not only that. As children of God, we can become like him with powers, abilities, and glory like his. He is refered to as our father for a reason in the scriptures.

God loves us enough that, since he knew we would stumble and fall, with this challenged body, he prepared a way to be redeemed from those falls (i.e. not meeting his standards). He prepared to send a Savior to atone for us.

God is a being of great love, of perfect goodness and righteousness. Two aspects of his love are justice and mercy.

His justice must be perfect. Justice is a part of love in that we get what we deserve. Surely, though, we might not always like what we deserve.

That’s where mercy comes in. God, in his perfect justice, could not just excuse our wrongs without a penalty. So in his perfect mercy, he prepared a way that the penalty might be paid by another, whom we know as Jesus Christ–one who could endure it.

When I talk of following God, and doing as he asks, it’s because I honor him, I am thankful for what he has given me. It is also because I do desire the rewards in this life and the life after. It is also because I see the light (goodness) in following his ways.

I must also say, that all of you who say you are godless, I don’t think you’re as godless as you think. The things you have said in various posts lead me to believe that the light of Christ is still in you and a portion of his Spirit is still there.

On the vending machine issue (above), how many of you are fathers, I mean vending-daddies? Your kid does what he’s expected to do and he’s rewarded. If he decides to ignore what he knows you’ve asked him to do, aren’t there consequences? Would it be surprising if God teaches us in a similar manner?

I’d like to say more, but it’ll have to be later. I must sleep. Goodnight. emilt