The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not Damnation

Somebody on Twitter asked a question that showed up in my feed that misunderstood the "Mormon" concept of damnation as binary. It was essentially, 

Mormon damnation is being prevented from progressing. Why would a just God force us into a situation where we would have to be impossibly perfect to avoid damnation?

Some of my friends have expressed similar questions.

Digging deep into these kinds of questions means you have to choose between abandoning the hope of finding meaning in life -- or abandoning binary interpretation. I think it's wiser to abandon binary interpretations.

The following is what I understand about this. It works for me, but it may not work for other people.

Before I dig into what I understand about damnation, I want to point out a couple of things Joseph Smith reported revelation on.  One, the pre-mortal Jesus said this to Moses,

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Pearl of Great Price -- Moses 1: 39)

The other, Abraham explained why he broke away from the idolatry around him:

... finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, ... (Pearl of Great Price -- Abraham 1: 2)

And we have this familiar verse in which Jesus taught this about what is the most fundamental commandment:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
(Matthew 22: 35 - 40.)

Given the parable of the Good Samaritan, neighbor basically includes everyone, regardless of race, religion, ideology, creed, or whatever.

More background, Joseph Smith described the fundamental Gospel of Jesus Christ as follows:

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

These are the first four of what we call the Articles of Faith. When they were written about 190 years ago, they were fairly easy to understand. But the common use of English, and the common semantics about religion and Christianity have changed so much that they seem to mean things that they do not.

My interpretations of these four articles goes something like this:

(1) The Parent/Progenitor is the principle of creation and procreation, but, because of limits in human language, we have usually called the Progenitor principle the Father. The principle is both abstract and tangible, and there are individual beings who take on the role of Father/Progenitor. Relative to our world (and maybe the solar system) there is a specific Individual who generally assumes the role of Father/Progenitor. 

(We sometimes refer to that Being as "Elohim", but that name is also used for certain idolatrous gods, so I won't use it here.)

The Child is the principle of being created. Again, because of limits in our language, we usually refer to the principle of the Child as the Son here. The role of the Son, for our world, is filled by Jesus Christ. (But, being perfect, He can also fill the role of Father for us, and He often does.) Being, as it were, our Elder Brother, he can stand as mediator between us and God when we need it.

The Holy Spirit is the influence of God throughout the universe. It is the medium by which information flows. It is also the origin and core of the human conscience. 

(Emphasis on core. We get a lot of false traditions and stuff layered on top of that core as we grow up in this world.) 

The physical interpretation the Holy Spirit is also valid. Without the Holy Spirit, there would be no exchange particles and no thermodynamics, among other things. (This should not be seen as a threat, because, quite clearly, God makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on both believers and non-believers.)

On the reasonableness of believing that there could be beings who could fully embody the principles which underlie the creation and operation of the universe, in other words, embody all principles of truth, I suggest that, if we can conceive of extraterrestrial intelligent species, we have to consider that our own species is at a point where we are either going to destroy ourselves or evolve past the mad competitive nature that now consumes most of our energies. If we are not alone in the universe, surely other worlds have preceded us well beyond the decision point we now face, and it may well be that some of them evolve so far as to find no meaning except in helping new worlds evolve, and that they would probably stay as much behind the scenes as possible.

(2) There is a difference between punishment and consequence. We all take on damage as a result of the sins of our parents and the sins of society around us. But that is collateral damage, not the punishment of God.

The punishments and rewards of God are usually simply the natural consequences of our own choices, actions, and words. In some cases, God does alter the natural consequences to help us change our behavior.

Ultimately, though, when we stand before God to be judged, the judgement we receive is based on what we ourselves have done with what we have been given. God is both just and fair, even though it sometimes seems He is asking way too much of us.

Sometimes way too much. Well, we have to trust Him, particularly in this idea that there is a next life where the injustices of this life will be taken care of. 

(Why do we have to trust Him? I've noticed that many who refuse to trust God begin to believe that the universe itself is out to get them. But that is not the real reason. No God who is not the embodiment of all truth is worth being called God. I'd personally prefer to trust the truths I don't yet understand long before I'd want to trust something that I know is not true.)

(3) Obedience is a hard thing to understand, because we tend (again, because of things we get taught in this world) to believe that obedience is about doing what someone else tells us to do -- some mortal human no better than ourselves.

God put us here and commanded us to figure out what is right and wrong. It is a commandment to use our own judgement. Listening to others is a good idea, but being obedient to people who are not God may or may not end up being obedient to God.

How can we be obedient to God? 

It often requires us, for example, to dig through lots of layers of false understanding that have been wrapped around our conscience by this imperfect society in which we live. 

It requires that we learn truth, and that we follow the truths we learn.

(4) In some ways, you could say that the fourth article is the summary of the Gospel. It does make a good summary if you understand it right, not so much if you don't.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ --

The name "Jesus" can be interpreted in several ways. Some interpret it as "God is our help.", with emphasis on "our", believing that God helps no one else but them. This is not correct. God helps anyone willing to be helped, although He doesn't just solve our problems for us magically. (Have you ever seen magical solutions actually help anyone?) He helps us when we have done what we can.

And sometimes the help isn't what we thought we wanted, but if we are patient, we eventually see what He has done for us, and the faith we have to have is that it will lead us to better things. Some people talk about trials that help us be stronger. Some people talk about the world not being to supposed to meet the limited ideals that we humans invent. Life can be really, really hard, but that doesn't mean God isn't there. Again, it's a matter of trust, and of willingness to believe that this world is not all there is.

The name "Christ", as I understand it, is indication of the requirement that we ultimately choose for ourselves to follow Him or not.

Repentance --

We get all sorts of false ideas about repentance from misled and misleading religious teachers and philosophers (and irreligious teachers and philosophers, as well). 

Repentance is not about suffering and punishment. Repentance is changing our minds, turning our hearts towards God, and letting the change in our thoughts and hopes change what we do. 

Yeah, change can be brutal. But suffering is not really the point. 

Suffering now because we hope for something better can be good. But the real point is the change, even if the change seems to portend worse suffering until we can see the results of the changes.

This is the purpose of faith. It's the faith that makes us willing to change.

Jesus taught us the way to turn ourselves towards God, both in word and example, and he said, "Come unto me." and "Follow thou me."

Baptism -- 

Baptism is a covenant and an ordinance. It is the way we make a formal commitment to God, committing to faith and repentance and following Jesus's teachings. In exchange for our commitment, God is better able to help us.

And the pattern of baptism is symbolic. It is not just about washing away our sins. We have to understand what is actually sinful about our sins before we can put our sins away. When we put them away, we can rise out of the water, either literally or symbolically, with new hope and the will to actually change, one step at a time.

The gift of the Holy Ghost --

The better help that God can give us when we accept baptism is essentially given through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The written scriptures are useful to help us get an idea of whether we are on the right track or not. They can be very useful when we take the time to understand them.

But, ultimately, what has been written before by others in situations that were often similar, but were never exactly the same as ours, is not sufficient guidance for our day-to-day needs. The Holy Ghost can give us guidance through our conscience. 

The general principles as I have given them above are rather abstract -- the love of God and neighbor, faith in a God that helps us, turning our hearts and actions towards God, committing to continue, and being guided by the Holy Spirit. It is the guidance of the Holy Spirit that enables us to apply these principles in our individual situations, in the details of our own lives.

The gift of the Holy Ghost is more constant than just occasional guidance. 

We eventually to learn to distinguish between what we wish were true and what really is true, but it takes experience.

As we try to change, to live according to our best understanding, the Holy Spirit can help us peel back false expectations and understandings that have built up over our conscience and our minds, that have prevented us from fully understanding and correctly following the teachings of God. This is an important part of the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The gift of the Holy Ghost can help us to set aside the commandments of men -- the limited and false ideals and ideologies that mortal men and women have taught us, so that we can follow God.

We don't have to assume that these ideals and ideologies were all taught in bad intent. Many of those who have taught us have simply passed on to us what they learned for their situations, but their situations are not ours.

We don't have to judge intent. We can simply say, maybe those ideals and ideologies will help me and maybe they won't. And we can seek the better way through the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the holy Ghost is that God can help us better when we have really decided we want to be helped.

Yes. I know that doesn't sound like a sure bet. But, in spite of what the slick sales approaches of other philosophies say, there really isn't anything else that is secure. Nothing else can take you beyond the limits of what you understand today.

If I seem to be disparaging other religions, I'll repeat, we don't have to assume bad intent. 

Also, our 11th article of faith is this:

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

If what other people believe helps them, I don't want to try to force them not to believe it, any more than I want them to try to force me not to believe what I believe. The purpose of faith is to help us move forward from where we are, not from where we aren't. Maybe it will help if I mention this:

... he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. (Book of Mormon -- Alma 12: 10)

If we accept what we have been given, God will give us more.

Incidentally, the following verse sort-of explains that damnation can  be seen as something that we do to ourselves:

And they that will harden their hearts, to them is given the lesser portion of the word until they know nothing concerning his mysteries; and then they are taken captive by the devil, and led by his will down to destruction. Now this is what is meant by the chains of hell. (Book of Mormon -- Alma 12: 11)

So the trick -- no, not the trick -- the path to salvation is to accept what you are given, and keep your heart open for when God wants to give you more.

Damnation is being stuck in the limits of what you understand today, with no way out, because you refuse, or perhaps because you don't know how, to reach out to God for help. Hanging on to old, limited, and false ideals and ideologies is definitely one pattern of damnation.

The Gospel is not about being absolutely perfect immediately, now. That would damn us all.

The Gospel is about believing that God will help us to find better happiness in being better people, if we just try to do what we understand today and keep believing that God can help us understand how to be better as we go.