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Clay wrote:
There seems to be a few on this site who have experienced a crisis of faith. These crisis seem to be tied to Joseph Smith and church history. There are a lot of Christians out there who also experience a crisis in faith when it comes to the early history of the christian church and the compilation of the New Testament etc. Not to mention the whole conflict of how can a loving God allow the atrocities that occur every day in the word. I was reading in the Gospel of Thomas recently and wanted to share this, “(2) Jesus said, “Let one who seeks not stop seeking until that person finds; and upon finding, the person will be disturbed; and being disturbed, will be astounded; and will reign over the entirety.” Maybe this applies, as TS Eliott put it, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
A faith crisis is not limited to the LDS church. It might start with the church and then move on to God or Christ. It can also include faith in county, marriage or even family. Once the things we hold dear start to slip away or are not as we once thought, our world becomes very disturbed indeed. Holding onto faith of any kind can become extremely difficult.
Clay, i was just read what you said about many experiencing a crisis of faith because of things having to do with Joseph Smith and church history—-and it dawned on me that Joseph Smith did not receive all of his revelation in one day. He got it piece by piece, and line upon line. I wonder if maybe as he led the early church, he had to struggle a bit to fill in the blanks he had not received yet. I read a fascinating article about the WoW once that talked one of the presidents that drank brandy for medicinal purposes
I had recently heard a story about how this same prophet had refused to drink coffee as directed by his doctor, was given a blessing, and got well. The two stories didn’t seem to jive to me, because by the time we knew coffee was definitely a no-no
we also knew that alcohol was a no-no. I also read that both coffee and brandy were popular medications of the time.Why he refused one as a child and drank the other as an adult–I don’t know–and I don’t care. The article I read basically summed up the fact that the saints were living the WoW to the best of their ability according to their knowledge at the time, medical knowledge and some early discrepencies in the WoW between varieous people and various leaders.
I think most of them were trying to do the right thing.
momto11 wrote:…Joseph Smith did not receive all of his revelation in one day. He got it piece by piece, and line upon line. I wonder if maybe as he led the early church, he had to struggle a bit to fill in the blanks he had not received yet.
Definitely! Joseph Smith received some commandments without specific details on implementing them.
momto11 wrote:I read a fascinating article about the WoW once that talked one of the presidents that drank brandy for medicinal purposes
I had recently heard a story about how this same prophet had refused to drink coffee as directed by his doctor, was given a blessing, and got well.
Many children take amphetamine for medicinal purposes. It’s called adderall.many adults take amphetamines for medicinal purposes, or just to be able to function because of other health problems that leave them fatigued—-I happen to be one of those adults that takes amphetamines for medicinal purposes! thought you might get a kick out of that!!!! I take vyvanse—and and several other things that would be illegal on the street!LOL!! momto11 wrote:…it dawned on me that Joseph Smith did not receive all of his revelation in one day. He got it piece by piece, and line upon line.
I smiled when I read this. Joseph got it piece by piece. I’m reconstructing my faith peace by peace
I’ve made peace with the idea that Joseph might not have made literal translations of ancient documents.
I’ve made peace with the idea that some prophets are good men, inspired leaders who sometimes make mistakes and sometimes don’t correct them for a long time.
Piece by piece and peace by peace I’m making Mormonism work for me.
mackay11 wrote:momto11 wrote:…it dawned on me that Joseph Smith did not receive all of his revelation in one day. He got it piece by piece, and line upon line.
I smiled when I read this. Joseph got it piece by piece. I’m reconstructing my faith peace by peace
I’ve made peace with the idea that Joseph might not have made literal translations of ancient documents.
I’ve made peace with the idea that some prophets are good men, inspired leaders who sometimes make mistakes and sometimes don’t correct them for a long time.
Piece by piece and peace by peace I’m making Mormonism work for me.
Amen!
Even though I felt like i had lost a lot of my testimony, I’m not sure I had lost it completely, I probably had more of a testimony than I really thought–but I was still going through a faith crisis of my own. I had struggled to get help from my leaders—and after 5 years finally got the stake pres to commit to seeing us on fast sundays—he did great for while
he’s seems to have forgotten us—we haven’t talked to him for several months.But, you know what, I’m not going to let it tear me down this time. There could be any number of reasons why he seems to have forgotten us, or thinks we don’t need his spiritual counsel any more—but I am going to do my darndest to not let it get me down.
mackey, I should have posted this sooner. I am impressed by what you wrote.
mackay11 wrote:…But I’m aware that if I’m honest I was in a situation of some dissatisfaction at time of opening pandora’s box fully. I had (and have) every intention of staying there, but I wasn’t participating with the full delight had once had. I won’t go into the details. I don’t think anyone makes any major change in life (work/marriage/church/etc) when everything is going fine.
When I was converted as a teenager, I developed a solid relationship with Jesus Christ. He had rescued me from my lifestyle. It’s a long story, so I’ll just say that the Spirit influenced me less and less over several years after my mission until I was not on a solid foundation.Shawn wrote:mackey, I should have posted this sooner. I am impressed by what you wrote.
mackay11 wrote:…But I’m aware that if I’m honest I was in a situation of some dissatisfaction at time of opening pandora’s box fully. I had (and have) every intention of staying there, but I wasn’t participating with the full delight had once had. I won’t go into the details. I don’t think anyone makes any major change in life (work/marriage/church/etc) when everything is going fine.
When I was converted as a teenager, I developed a solid relationship with Jesus Christ. He had rescued me from my lifestyle. It’s a long story, so I’ll just say that the Spirit influenced me less and less over several years after my mission until I was not on a solid foundation.I was reading some threads on another forum recently where people were talking about their conversion to Mormonism. And a couple discussed their reactivation into Mormonism. They all shared the characteristic of a significant event or a time of soul-searching. The death of a loved one was a recurrent theme. On the same token I think people who leave or adapt their faith have probably somewhere in the process had an experience that has challenged or shook their life first, it could be something as simple as moving cities for a new job, which leads to asking some questions of their life values and faith position. This in turn can sometimes lead to faith crises.
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