What does the Book of Mormon actually teach?

[Anonymous]

rrosskopf wrote:

Old Timer wrote:

Quote:

“Does the gift of God seem too meager for you?”

Consider, please, how condescending and condemning that question sounds to someone who has been uber faithful in the past and now is struggling.

I guess it could be taken that way. Some people would just realize that it is a gift from God and that they should look it from that perspective. There is no need to overcomplicate things. We don’t need to know all things from the beginning. We don’t need a perfect church. We don’t need perfect prophets. We do need to know the consequences of our actions. We can learn those the hard way, or the easy way.

I actually like this perspective. We don’t need a perfect church, we don’t need perfect prophets. If this is an acceptable idea, then let’s treat the church and prophets as if they were not perfect but trying their best. Then we can learn to self-ponder and study what we are taught in the imperfect church by the imperfect prophet… sort of like the home study program! I like to see the prophets as imperfect humans with a stressful calling. When we see them this way, it becomes easier to relate to them, but to not take every word they say as doctrine or perfect gospel teachings. This in return can promote the self-discovery principle the home-centric gospel program is encouraging. All in all, we all benefit.

[Anonymous]

rrosskopf wrote:

I guess it could be taken that way. Some people would just realize that it is a gift from God and that they should look it from that perspective. There is no need to overcomplicate things. We don’t need to know all things from the beginning. We don’t need a perfect church. We don’t need perfect prophets. We do need to know the consequences of our actions. We can learn those the hard way, or the easy way.

I am not looking for perfection. I am looking for “good enough”. And there are many instances in which the Church has not been “good enough” for me. I try to “make it work”, but it is an incredibly painful process, and at times I want to do away with it all together. As strange as it seems to some members, some people go to church and come home feeling worse. Some people open up their Standard Works, and just don’t receive the answers they need. Sometimes, people pray and don’t receive an answer in the Church’s favor. Your experience is different, but that doesn’t give you the right to invalidate another’s experience.

I’m sure you can come up with a dozen reasons why, which fit your world view. I even heard an instructor several Sundays ago tell the class the number one reason people go inactive is because they stop attending church. 😆 He was dead serious too. But the reality is, many people… good, honest, rational people… are leaving the Church. Judging them isn’t bringing them back. Saying they should appreciate it, isn’t bringing them back. Saying the Church leaders “aren’t perfect”, isn’t bringing them back. Shifting the blame onto those that leave isn’t working. I feel you’re approaching folks like me the same way the Church has approached us for years. It’s not working.

[Anonymous]

dande48 wrote:

I even heard an instructor several Sundays ago tell the class the number one reason people go inactive is because they stop attending church.

There are two types of people, those that attend Mormon worship services and those that do not. 😆 It can be frustrating when the answers given to almost any problem are instead the answers to how we can stay more closely loyal and aligned with the institutional church. As if to say, “You may be going through a soul-crushing experience, but at least your butt is in the pew every Sunday and that is what counts.” I love my ward family and I can testify that they do care, it is just frustrating that we place so much emphasis on sorting people into the in group and the out group.

[Anonymous]

dande48 wrote:

I am not looking for perfection. I am looking for “good enough”. And there are many instances in which the Church has not been “good enough” for me.

What more could the church possibly do? What other churches have done more?

[Anonymous]

What does the Book of Mormon actually teach?

That’s the thread title.

We could probably move much of this discussion to a new thread.

[Anonymous]

[Admin Note]: Those are questions for a different thread. If you want answers to them, please write a new post.

Everyone, let’s focus on the original post and it’s central question. We are straying too far from it now.

[Anonymous]

Bringing it back to topic.

On my most recent reading of the BoM, this question was very much what came to the surface. I started my reading to gain a testimony and instead really came to distill the essence of what Christ and God care about. That’s one of the things I think is really great about the BoM. Both the NT Gospels and the BoM really hammer home the core of the true gospel of Christ.

A note from my journal as I read compares the teachings in Mosiah 25 to Matthew 22. In Mosiah, it is said that the only doctrines taught were repentance and faith in God. Jesus says that there are two great commandments upon which everything else rests: love God and love your neighbor. All throughout the Book of Mormon, the doctrine is taught very simply. There isn’t a lot of ceremony, policy, or other fluff. Everything comes down to God. I loved this as well as found it very distressing. It spoke to me – it’s what I have for years thought the gospel should be. But it was not what I expected or what I was familiar with, in this church of handbooks and policies.

The other lesson that really stood out was the realization that our “keystone” manuscript teaches quite explicitly that we don’t have everything. Again and again, especially in the second half, I found references to the fact that God would withhold some truths from the earth until the day of His coming. So the references to fullness that were being debated prior, I think are quite explicitly settled within the text itself. We do not know everything. God does not intend us to know everything. And this includes the prophets and the leadership of the church. Along with this is the statement that Jesus had “other sheep” still to visit after He came to the Americas. He explains that the Jews were confused when He referenced “other sheep.” Because they misunderstood, He didn’t explain to them. He says this. Then He tells the Nephites “I say unto you that I have other sheep, which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister. … I have received a commandment of the father that I shall go unto them, and that they shall hear my voice.” So we also have the text quite explicitly telling us that there are more people who saw the resurrected Christ that we know nothing about. They likely had records. So there is again more proof that we don’t have everything.

So to me, the primary lesson of the Book of Mormon is twofold: the gospel is simple – live it; there is greater truth to come – wait for it.

[Anonymous]

Daughter1 wrote:

So to me, the primary lesson of the Book of Mormon is twofold: the gospel is simple – live it; there is greater truth to come – wait for it.

This is beautiful – thank you!

[Anonymous]

Daughter1 wrote:

They likely had records. So there is again more proof that we don’t have everything.

I agree. Even in my TBM days I imagines being in heaven with individuals from all the different dispensations. I figured that if the gospel that these individuals lived was true and yet they would still have to make large adjustments to align with the heavenly order of doing thing – perhaps I too with my modern interpretation and understanding will have to make similar adjustments.

It is a good reason to keep dogmatism and certainty in check.

[Author]

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