Mormon Direction

Many have said that God loves them no matter what, or God accepts them for what and who they are. Do these people who believe this know exactly what they are saying and why?

It is true that God loves us but the key to understand what he loves and what he does not resides in what he created and made. When people look if God loves them, they see it from their personal perspective and not from the eternal one God has. A person does not have to be like a god to have some understanding of what God loves from his eternal perspective.

When God the Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to give us the opportunity to salvation into his kingdom where he resides, that says God the Father is asking us to return to his kingdom. His kingdom is a place of perfection not imperfection, of incorruption not corruption. We can reside with him, but not as we are now, living in corruption, so God the Father set conditions by which we must abide in order we can reside with him.

The scriptures clearly set these conditions out. Faith and obedience are the two main ones. To have faith in God the Father is in spirit and in truth and to obey all his commandments, which his Son Jesus Christ has given. Without proper faith and obedience, no matter how much we believe God loves us, we cannot enter into his kingdom.

Doing our best for God becomes important and establishes the ground by which we stand and move toward God. Without this, how can we abide in God’s will?

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Reading the Bible, a question was posed to Jesus Christ about Caesar and the “tributes” paid to him (see Luke 20:22–25). Jesus replied, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.”

From what principle, doctrine or spiritual law did Jesus speak from?

Paul addressed the same thing much later in his epistles to Titus (see Titus 3:1). Paul said that the Saints of God are subject to the principalities, powers and magistrates of the land. Peter the apostle said the same thing, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;” (1 Peter 2:13).

The statement from Jesus Christ to render to Caesar that which is Caesar is an act of “civil obedience”. The principle shown by the scriptures is God’s will of how his Saint is to act in society. Civil obedience is a trait of a true Saint of God. Abiding in the laws of the land, with government and assigned civil authorities.

This brings to question the civil disobedience caused by those Christians in the name of God. Where in the Bible does it give these Christians the right and power to disobey the laws, or cause or create civil discord? It does not matter if a person has the right to protest, what is right is first with God, not with the way the world has taken itself.

Do these Christians disbelieve in the first commandment, to love God with all their heart and mind and the second commandment, to love our neighbor? This says that our behavior and actions must first abide in the laws, commandments and principles of God and in doing so, we will then have no need to create, encourage, support or be part of any civil disobedience (D&C 58:21).

What is more disturbing is to see a Latter-day Saint move in his or her life in a manner that is rebellious against civil order. Yet, that is something that Latter-day Saint needs to learn and overcome, an obvious shortcoming.

When we see people who claim to believe in the Bible, yet act in a manner that is civilly disobedient or rebellious are therefore not true Christians. For what ever good they may have done at some other time, the act of rebellion or civil disobedience makes them as “non-Christian”. It does not matter the self-justification, such actions or behaviour is unacceptable to God.

What matters is the manner of proper accord a person operates by. For all proper order in society, laws are in place to allow a person to dispute things and in this order shall a person carry his or her concerns. It is never carried in the act of civil disobedience against the laws or government or toward anyone else for that matter. To use any form or manner of civil disobedience to push beliefs is not of God and shall never be.

Anyone who encourages, teaches, preaches, desires or acts civil disobedience, it is best to stay true to God and stay far from his or her intended discord (Romans 13:13 ; Titus 3:9).