Imagination Plays a Fundamental Role in the Expression of Faith

I really liked this last 10 minutes of part 1 of the FollowHim podcast for this week. My take away: I want and need to visualize and imagine the life I want, the best person I can be. Don't hold myself back by my own unbelief in myself. Imagine the experiences I want to have in my life, and imagine all the details of it now. Visualize it, write it down for myself. Also imagine the life I will have in the hereafter,  IMAGINE IT and BELIEVE IT is possible. What is God inviting me to do? What talents has he given me? What promises are extended to me in the scriptures? Work to have faith that it is possible, imagine it and start to believe it and make it real in my imagination.

(I don't have a lot of experience trying to visualize, so here are 3 Visualization Techniques to help me learn.)

Starting at the one hour mark, (1:00:40) commenting on Exodus 19 and 20. 

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Dr. Daniel Belnap: You can actually see this best by restoration scripture. Meaning, if you turn to Doctrine and Covenants 84 beginning, yeah, 19 through 24. It's going to set this up. He's talking about the priesthood and about the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. And points out again, that in the ordinances, both the laws and in the ritual that we associate the priesthood. And without the ordinances thereof and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh. For without this, no man can see the face of God, even the Father and live. So Joseph is explaining, or at least the Lord is explaining to Joseph ways in which the priesthood is necessary for this incredible experience to see the face of God. Now, verse 23, this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God. This seems to be a direct illusion back to Exodus 19. That he did everything he could to sanctify his people to behold the face of God, but they hardened their hearts and could not endure His presence. That's exactly what Exodus 20 describes. That they hardened their hearts and could not endure. They did not enter into His presence. And therefore the Lord in His wrath for His anger was kindled against them swore that they should not enter into His rest while in the wilderness. Which rest is the fullness of His glory. I.E, they could have been in the presence of God and they did not. And therefore he swore, while you're in the wilderness, it's not going to happen. This event where Israel enters into a covenant relationship with God of which the culminating element of that should have been an experience where they enter into the presence of God and they did not. And this seems to be the ultimate provocation. 

Hank Smith: And why do you feel like this is in the origin story? Is it because later on they're going to do this so many times that it's going to be a pattern of God wants this, you agree, and then you fail to live up to your obligation? That's a pattern in my life. 

Dr. Daniel Belnap: I think ultimately it's because this is an experience that should be happening. This is, if you are Israel, this is what's going to make you separate and distinct: you have the opportunity to enter into the presence of the Lord. Hebrews chapter four and verse six, but as Christ as son over His own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm into the end, wherefore as the Holy Ghost sayeth today, if you will hear His voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness. That's Psalm 95, and then he says, "When your fathers tempted me, proved me and saw my works 40 years, wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always harden their heart and have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest." Now, if you go to chapter four, here's how it begins. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest any of you should seem to come short of it. The writer here is saying is that there was an early Christian understanding within the church in early Christianity that this promise applied to them as well. There's a promise that if you do these things, you can enter into His rest, the fullness of His glory. This is a promise that defines, I think Israel, regardless of what dispensation you're in, regardless of the differences of experience, this is a promise that is given to Israel, that I expect you to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. And by virtue of that, we're going to have to meet. 

Hank Smith: Yeah. And yet, so many of us fall short of it, it's so human. It's God wants this I want this. And when it comes to the moment of choosing I fall short. 

Dr. Daniel Belnap: Part of it could have been that they look at that and went, "There's no way (disbelief) I can be ready in three days." So it's back to this concept of faith. I always wonder about that. If I were told that the Lord is coming in three days and that I needed to meet him in three days, and here's what I need to do to be ready. Do I think washing my clothes would make me ready in three days? Do I think I could do it? And yet my response to that is, if the Lord tells you that three days is enough, then it must be enough. 

Hank Smith: So they don't believe Him? 

Dr. Daniel Belnap: Yeah. At some level they don't trust in that aspect of it. Chapter four of Hebrews continues this at the end of it talks about Christ and what He's made possible. And then it describes, an experience, verse 16, "Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace." Now that requires us to understand a little bit about the temple rather than the tabernacle. But if the throne of grace is God's throne, then it's within the holy of holies. And the same idea is repeated by the way, in Hebrews 10, which describes it this way. "This is a new covenant I will put in them." This is chapter 10, verse 16. "I will put my laws into their hearts and into their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Now where remission of these is there was no more offering for sin, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus. These two chapters, talk about the ability to enter into holiest of places or approach the throne of God. What strikes me about it is not only does it suggest that the atonement of Christ makes it possible for us to enter into the presence of God, literally enter the presence of God, but in both verses, it talks about being able to do so boldly. There's an understanding here that the atonement too of Christ makes it possible for us to be bold in the presence of God. And I don't think that means disrespectful, and it doesn't mean irreverent, but it does mean... Well, it means whatever you're going to define boldness with. Confidence, surety? These are the things that Israel could have had entering into the presence of God and yet did not. 

John Bytheway: Alma gives such an awesome contrast in Alma five, "When you're brought to stand before God, can you look up?" He doesn't say, are you clean? Or are you prepared? He just says, I love this, "Can you look up?" And Alma 12:14, I think that first one's Alma 5:14 or something, but Alma 12:14, you will not dare to look up. You will fame be glad to command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon you to hide you from His presence if you're not prepared. But the idea of can you look up? Reminds me too, of Enos who says, then I will see His face with pleasure. And maybe that's what that boldness means too. Because I've wondered, what does that mean boldly? It just, it means that you're confident in the Atonement? You're confident that you're prepared because of what the Savior's done for you? 

Dr. Daniel Belnap: Joseph F. Smith tells the story of a dream he had. And for those of you who studied the life of Joseph F. Smith, that mission in Hawaii was tricky. That was difficult, very difficult.

John Bytheway: He was 15 years old. Wasn't he?

Dr. Daniel Belnap: 15 years old. 

John Bytheway: Yeah. 

Dr. Daniel Belnap: You read it, he felt very isolated, very alone, very forgotten. He was sick. He has this dream in which he's going to go to the temple. And it's a very famous one, we all know it. But to me, it's a great example of this boldness. And can't find his temple clothing, finally finds it, runs to the temple. There's his what Uncle? Joseph Smith looking down on him, frowning disapprovingly. "Oh, you're late Joseph." And his response is, "Yes, but I'm clean." And just walks right by him. 

Dr. Daniel Belnap: That is that boldness. He knows he belongs there. He knows he deserves to be there and so he is. And so this boldness idea, I think John, you brought up Alma 5. One of the intriguing things about that is, that's of course the wicked, right? But Alma actually described earlier in the verses that, do you look forward with an eye of faith? Do you see your mortality putting on immortality?  Do you see your corruption putting on incorruption? Can you imagine unto yourselves, the God saying, "Enter in ye blessed." And I know that he's talking about it to the wicked going, "Or do you think that you're going to be able to lie to God?" But I think those other questions are intriguing, because I think they tie into this boldness, which is, do we think about that often? Do we think about what it's like to be in the presence of God? Do we imagine what eternal life is like? If those verses hold true Alma has just suggested that as weird as it sounds, imagination plays a fundamental role in the expression of faith. Looking forward with an eye of faith and seeing something that hasn't been yet, but will be. Do you imagine it? Do you imagine what it's like to be in the presence of God? Do you imagine it? Do we explore the contours of what it means to have eternal life? And it seems to me that that longterm, that ability to not just look up but as Peter's going to call it, see afar off. Becomes absolutely essential to survival. And in a day and age, particularly now, and this is me getting on my soapbox a bit, but in a day and age where so much information is flying around so fast, so often, that to some degree, there's an element of where we're constantly reacting to the barrage of inspiration that's coming in. It's a constant reaction. We have no choice, but to deal with what keeps flashing before our eyes all the time. And yet to see afar off means, you've got to lift yourself from that, lift your gaze from that and see a long perspective.

Dr. Daniel Belnap: In my Pearl of Great Price class, I talk about the importance of the vision of scale and recognizing that one of the things that when prophets have visions is more often not they're shown the scale and the immensity of this work. It's cosmic in scope. Moses sees the earth and all the inhabitants of the earth and every particle of the earth. And Enoch sees millions of earths like this. And Abraham has the work of God expanded before his eyes, and John and all of these individuals have this expansion of vision, not just the vision itself, but an expansion of an understanding of the cosmos and the work of God within that huge cosmic scale. And I think there's an importance to seeing afar off.

Hank Smith: They say, man is nothing, which I think I'd never suppose this idea of I'm seeing life in its proper perspective. Instead of like in it with information flying around me, I'm seeing, oh, I'm seeing it from God's point of view a little bit.

Dr. Daniel Belnap: Right. Right. And that experience that the Israelites were meant to have, I think is tied into that. Why weren't they ready in three days? I don't know, but it makes me think they were concentrating on three days more than the horizon. They didn't see afar off.

Hank Smith: What if my clothes aren't clean enough? Yeah.

Dr. Daniel Belnap: And maybe part of it is we don't actually believe that that's an event that can really happen. I don't think we think enough about entering into the presence of God and what that's like. And yet the Doctrine and Covenants is full of that. And the Book of Mormon has narrative after narrative of people who do, and the New Testament talks about it. There's a promise. There's a promise that's given that this can happen so that you can bless all mankind. You're expected to be a kingdom of priests to bless everybody. And so yeah, the story isn't ultimately negative for Israel at that time for those 40 years, but it lays out an experience that any Israelite is expected to have in any dispensation. In fact, I've quoted enough of Hebrews, but there's one more, you get to Hebrews chapter 12 and you get verse 18. And this is what it says, "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words," that's our illusion back to Exodus 19, isn't it? Exodus 19:20. And it's saying, "You are not supposed to have that experience," verse 20, "For they could not endure that which was commanded. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, "I extremely fear and quake." He says, that is not the experience that we're meant to have. Verse 22, "But ye are coming to Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 

Dr. Daniel Belnap: See that you refuse not him that speaketh. See that you refuse not him that speaketh." This is the experience that Israel could have had and did not have. This is the experience that the writer of Hebrews is saying the Christians should have, whether or not they did is another story.

FollowHIM Podcast with Dr. Daniel Belnap Exodus 18-20 - Part 1 1:00 through 1:13

The Photograph of Faith

I loved the end of this talk, where Brother Jared Halverson shares how faith is like a black and white photograph. We may have questions (dark parts of our photograph) but there are things that we know (white parts). We may try to throw it out when we start to focus on the dark parts and cause we can't find answers, but we can't really throw it away. All we're doing is flipping the photograph. Start at 1:26:58

"It's like you have this black and white photograph of your faith and the light parts of the photograph are what drew you to it. The dark part you don't even tend to look at. ...until you start seeing them and someone brings them up and pushes them in your face and you start really worrying about and wrestling with these things and pretty soon you get so fixated on the negative, or the dark parts of the photograph, and again since we're all human, and there's going to be both light and dark parts of it, that we start to forget about the light parts. And so what do we do? "I can't do this!" and we throw away the photograph. The thing is, we can't. If you're truly intellectually honest, you can't destroy the photograph. You can only replace it with it's negative. Now all of a sudden you're looking at the same picture, it's just reversed. 

"The old question marks, you don't have to worry about now. Now they're exclamation points. Or atleast non-punctuation marks. 'I don't have to worry about plural marriage, or race and the priesthood, I don't have to worry about any of that stuff, I'm out of the church! It doesn't matter to me.' Fine. So your old question marks have become exclamation points, but did you notice that your old exclamation points, if you're still honest, have now become your new question marks? You used to not be able to explain those tricky parts of church history. Now how do you explain the things you once knew to be true? How do you explain, or explain away, your old spiritual experiences? 

"I had an evangelical friend call me once, an anti mormon, but we got along well, and he said 'Halverson, just leave your Church and join mine! You know you like evangelical doctrine!' 'I do! I love how much you love Jesus. But I love him that much too. I just know a little bit more about him, Premortally and American ministry, and there's just no, I'd miss too much. I appreciate your concern for the welfare of my soul, but in the arithmetic of my deconversion it would be nothing but subtraction for me.' And he said 'I know! Because you Mormons added things you shouldn't have so you need subtraction in your life!' I'm like 'I know where you're coming from... the difference is though, If I were being honest with you, and I'm trying to be, if I left the church over issue A, B, and C, and I know they're there... they've driven some people out.... I would lose sleep every day for the rest of my life over the Book of Mormon. Cause I wouldn't be able to explain it in any way that was intellectually satisfying, not to mention spiritually satisfying. That book has a hold on my head and my heart in ways that that exclamation point would forever remain a question mark for me if I left.'"

The Purpose of the Temple Endowment

From the FollowHim podcast episode #33 discussing D&C Section 88 with guest Anthony Sweat - Part 1 and Part 2 - a one sentence summary of what the temple endowment is by Bro Sweat:

It's the power and capacity to come into the presence of God and receive a fullness of his blessings, 

"I wrote [the book "The Holy Invitation"] because I sensed a large number of young people were not grasping the endowment as you could take the average Latter-day Saint and say, "In one sentence, give me the purpose of baptism," and they could do it pretty well. In one sentence, give me the purpose of the sacrament, they could summarize it well. In one sentence, even give me the purpose of an eternal marriage and they could summarize it well, but if you say, "In one sentence, give me the purpose of the endowment," the answers start to become nebulous and they shift, and they're not very clean and they hem and they haw. They come with general answers like, "Oh, it's a gift," and you say, "A gift of what?" They'll say, "A gift of knowledge." "Well, a gift of knowledge of what?" "A gift of knowledge of God." "For what?" They just don't know. One of the reasons why I'm so passionate about this is because I actually think Section 88 unlocks the endowment for us.

"Do not confuse the presentation of the endowment with the power of endowment. The presentation of the endowment is a ceremony. It's a dress rehearsal. It's a ritual trying to teach concepts, so that we can achieve endowment in our lives. Don't confuse the two. There's a difference between the presentation and the power.

"Here's my one sentence summary. It's the power and capacity to come into the presence of God and receive a fullness of his blessings, period. That's what the endowment is trying to do. It's the power and capacity to come into the presence of God and receive a fullness of his blessings." - Anthony Sweat

The Rocket

These two thoughts stood out to me because of a long text conversation Corey has been having with a friend who is a priest in another faith and has been sending lots of accusations and assertions about our religion to Corey. From the book "Embraced by the Light" by Betty J. Eadie during a near death experience in Nov 1973 where she talked with the Savior, from pages 45-46:

"I wanted to know why there were so many churches in the world. Why didn't God give us only one church, one pure religion? The answer came to me with the purest of understanding. Each of us, I was told, is at a different level of spiritual development and understanding. Each person is therefore prepared for a different level of spiritual knowledge. All religions upon the earth are necessary because there are people who need what they teach. People in one religion may not have a complete understanding of the Lord's gospel and never will have while in that religion. But that religion is used as a stepping stone to further knowledge. Each church fulfills spiritual needs that perhaps others cannot fill. Noe one church can fulfill everybody's needs at every level. As an individual raises his level of understanding about God and his own eternal progress, he might feel discontented with the teachings of his present church and seek a different philosophy or religion to fill that void. When this occurs he has reached another level of understanding and will long for further truth and knowledge, and for another opportunity to grow. And at every step of the way, these new opportunities to learn will be give. 

"Having received this knowledge, I knew that we have no right to criticize any church or religion in any way. They are all precious and important in his sight. Very special people with important missions have been placed in all countries, in all religions, in every station of life, that they might touch others. There is a fullness of the gospel, but most people will not attain it here. In order to grasp this truth, we need to listen to the Spirit and let go of our egos."

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Another thought on different churches and religions - this one from the book "I Stand All Amazed" by Elane Durham sharing her Oct 1976 near death experience, page 66-67 (she passed away in May 2021): 

"I was told by the angel that all these churches have a portion of the truth. ... He was referring specifically to the various churches that had fragmented away from Christ's perfected church, but who nevertheless continue to seek diligently for a greater oneness with God. These have a portion of the truth. But only the church as it was created in heaven has all of it.

"To help me better understand this the angel lifted his hand and pointed overhead. As I looked upward I saw all manner or means of transportation crossing the dark and sky, moving from left to right. These means ranged from individuals walking, to horses with carriages, stagecoaches, cars, boats, ships, and all sorts of aircraft, including a rocket. While some of these went at faster speeds, with the rock at the fastest of them all, others went slower, with no two of them going at the same rate. I also noted that while they were going in the same direction, almost all of them were stopping or slowing to crawl along the way. Some went hardly any distance at all, others went farther, a few went a great distance, but only the rocket went all the way from one horizon to the other.  

"The angel explain to me that just as in modes of travel, so we who go to various churches that contain portions of God‘s truth travel the spiritual pathway leading to our ultimate heavenly home. Some of us go rapidly, others slowly; some go great distance, others not so far; and both our speed and our distance are determined by the amount of God‘s truth taught by the church which we choose to join. The more of God's truth in the church we unite ourselves with, and the more we personally adhere to that truth, the faster and the farther we will go. And only Christ’s perfect church--represented by the rock I had seen--could take us all the way to the highest heavenly realm in the shortest amount of time. 

"According to the angel, who was confirming what Christ explain to me earlier, we will each choose our church according to the degree of spiritual comfort we feel in it with it, and will grow from there through spiritual lightening as fast as we desire, and are willing, to receive it."

Genesis 3-4, Moses 4-5 Notes for lesson

Have you ever walked into a play or a movie late? If you miss the beginning of a story sometimes the middle and ending can seem really really confusing. Without the first part of the story you might not know who the villains are, who the heroes are, or what any of them are fighting for. The first part of a story usually sets up the stakes - the conflict - that define the rest of the story.

The book of Genesis tells the story of the fall of Adam and Eve, but the account of the fall found in Genesis essentially leaves out the first part of the story. In the book of Moses which is the restored version of Genesis there is an important prologue to the story of the fall found in Moses chapter 4 verses one through 11, and this helps us understand the good guys and the bad guys. Just after setting us up for the story the fall, Moses for employs a flashback that takes us back to the root of the conflict that plays out in the garden of Eden. 

We learn to even before Adam and Eve or any of us came to earth there was a great council in heaven. The Father proposed plan. Sometimes when we imagine this scene, we make it seem like there was some kind of election and that Jesus just got more votes than Lucifer so he was chosen as the savior. Instead Moses tells us that Jesus was the Father‘s beloved and chosen from the beginning. Heavenly father didn’t ask for volunteers. He had already chosen Jesus, the only person qualified to act as the savior and is the key figure in the plan. 

When Satan said here am I send me he was acting against the wall the father because the father had already chosen Jesus as the savior. 

we do get a little bit of Satan sales pitch in these verses however he apparently said that if he was sent instead of Jesus that not one soul would be lost. The passage also says the Lucifer became Satan and that he’s sad to destroy the agency of men. We sometimes summarize this by saying that Satan‘s plan was the force everyone to be righteous but there are problems with oversimplifying his approach in this way. 

First there’s no mention of Satan having a plan in any of the scripture passages to talk about the premoral War in Heaven. Satan didn't have a plan. Just empty promises that he couldn’t even fulfill. 

Second forced righteousness is a philosophical impossibility. If you have to force someone to commit a righteous act it just isn’t a righteous act. Righteousness is found when we willingly follow God‘s commands. No one can force a person to be righteous because removing our will from the question removes righteousness as well. 

So how could same destroyer Agency? There are several things required for Agency to exist. 

First for agency to exist they have to be laws that allow us to know good from evil. 

Satan can’t destroy the laws but if he ensure that we never knew about them it would seriously limit our power to choose.

We all also have to know about those laws in order to follow them to grow in progress in this life. 

If Satan kept us in ignorance about the laws, it would limit our agency. There must also be opposites or opposition in all things. There have to be good and bad choices for Agency to exist. Again Satan can’t take away opposite but he can deceive us into thinking there is no right and wrong and that whatever person feels is right is right.

If we don’t believe in objective good and evil, then our choices don’t have any power to bring about good or evil things in our agency is limited again. 

Finally we have power to choose. God empowered Adam and Eve when he explained the laws they have a follow in the garden of Eden. He also told them they were free to choose. All along the way God was giving them knowledge to allow them greater Agency, while Satan was covering up and blurring the truth in an attempt to deprive them of their agency. 

This culture culminated in Satan‘s approach the Eve in the garden. He told a half truth telling her that she would know good from evil like God but lied by saying that she wouldn’t taste of death when she took the fruit.

God wants us to have greater Agency. he’s constantly seeking to give us light and knowledge, increasing our understanding of the laws of the universe, it’s light and darkness, AND helping us on our way to immortality and eternal life. 

Satan wants to limit our agency. The only real tool he hast to do this is the blur our perception of the way things really are. They both want us to become like them but God wants us to become beings of light and knowledge while Satan wants us to become like him: a creature of darkness, misery and ignorance

Mastering the Mind

I really liked this podcast today - "All In" podcast with Craig Manning. Transcript here. I'll try to come back later to note out my favorite parts

Trusting When Things Look Scary

"There are things, say in learning to swim or climb, which look dangerous and aren’t. Your instructor tells you it’s safe, you have good reason from past experience to trust him, perhaps you can even see for yourself by your own reason that it is safe. But the crucial question is will you be able to go on believing this when you actually see the cliff edge below you, or actually feel yourself unsupported in the water. You will have no rational grounds for disbelieving; it is your senses and your imagination that are going to attack belief. Here, as in the New Testament, the conflict is not between faith and sight. We can face things that we know to be dangerous, if they don’t look or sound too dangerous, our real trouble is often with things we know to be safe but which look dreadful. Our faith in Christ wavers not so much when real arguments come against it as when it looks improbable, when the whole world takes on that desolate look, which really tells us much more about the state of our passions and even our digestion, than about reality.

When we exhort people to faith as a virtue to the settled intention of continuing to believe certain things, we are not exhorting them to fight against reason. The intention of continuing to believe is required because, though reason is divine, human reasoners are not. When once passion takes part in the game, the human reason, unassisted by grace, has about as much chance of retaining its hold on truths already gained as a snowflake has of retaining its consistency in the mouth of a blast furnace.

The sort of arguments against Christianity which our reason can be persuaded to accept at the moment of yielding to temptation are often preposterous, reason may win truths, without faith she will retain them just so long as Satan pleases. There is nothing we cannot be made to believe or disbelieve. If we wish to be rational, not now and then but constantly, we must pray for the gift of faith, for the power to go on believing not in the teeth of reason, but in the teeth of lust and terror, and jealousy and boredom and indifference that which reason, authority or experience, or all three, have once delivered to us for truth.

And the answer to that prayer will perhaps surprise us when it comes, for I am not sure afterall whether one of the causes of our weak faith is not a secret wish that our faith should not be very strong. Is there some reservation in our minds, some fear of what it might be like if our religion became quite real? I hope not, God help us all and forgive us.”

C.S. Lewis, Religion: Reality or Substitute?