The Church has said many times that our mortal life was to dwell in the flesh and prove ourselves worthy by keeping the commandments so we can return to the presence of Heavenly Father.
How many members may have bucked at such a statement, feeling that phrase “prove ourselves worthy” seems to suggest we are currently worthless or have lost something before? It does seem to suggest a daunting task when looking at it in terms of something lost by coming into mortality from the spiritual realm. Of course, some other Christians believe the worthless concept. They believe we never had a spiritual life before mortality because we were made from the lowly dust of the earth and become spiritual on our resurrection, which is a belief that contradicts the very example set by the birth of Jesus Christ, born of spiritual origins. Bearing thoughts of unworthiness, then maybe feelings of despair to a seemingly hopeless task of proving oneself that can, for some, lead to forms of self-retribution,… if Satan got his way.
The basic tenet here is the belief that we are not worthy, devalued, even diminished in importance. It is a despair style of perception. I hear it in the cry from other Christians with their constant calls and reminders that we are worthless sinners. This is a hard thing to endure after being continually basted with it. Pretty much like the Christmas turkey, you’ll eventually get quite cooked by it.
I do not denounce what the Church teaches or how they phrase their words, but the problem arises from our human and mortal tendancies to take a negative view of what God actually means. That is why I write these blog entries, to present more of God’s meaning to his gospel and teachings. To share “God’s” angle to it, so to speak.
As it stands, we are required to prove ourselves as worthy, so what does this really mean?
