“Consent lies at the heart of the Christian life, consent to an offer of salvation through grace, and consent to obey God’s commandments. It is impossible to spread Christianity by the sword. To the extent men have tried, they have succeeded only in compelling false conversion and distorting what Christianity is.” (Dinesh D’Souza) What a true statement—neither can parents force their child to believe what they believe, nor can an army force a village to believe the way they believe. Conversion comes only through the spirit and the spirit comes only through study and prayer.
When I was a young man of twenty years (1954), I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after having read the Book of Mormon and knowing in my heart that it was a true book. However, being converted and joining the church is a long way from an in depth knowledge and testimony of the fullness of the Gospel. We may hear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a simple Gospel and that one may be saved by having faith sufficient for repentance, to be baptized and to receive the Holy Ghost by one having proper authority. Those simple but significant acts are considered sufficient to gain the Kingdom of God. However, there is somewhat more to it than just that for a complete and comprehensive conversion.
The Old and New Testaments say very little in reference to or about the Plan of Salvation. There’s an old Dutch proverb that states, “For the concert of life, no one receives a program.” The Plan, or program is available but it has to be searched out. It is designed to provide an eternal perspective for the direction and destiny of man as he travels through life on the good ship earth.
The Plan, and its several names, is primarily found in those scriptures referred to as ‘Latter-day Scriptures.’ From my point of view, the very best description of that Plan is described in the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price (Moses 6:59–62) The last verse identifying the Plan states: “I say unto you: This is the ‘Plan of Salvation’ unto all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian of time.” (Moses 6:62) Every member of the church should memorize those 4 verses and say them to him or herself every time the Sacrament is taken.
There are many things that a person must learn to be a productive and contributing member of the Church. There are many things expected of a member that are only learned through continued activity and over time. With no paid ministry, we are all expected to do our share to make our Wards (local church) function: “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:22) The payment of tithes may be a separate conversion process by itself, it is not just our time that is shared, but our income as well. Additionally, it may take decades to be converted to what is referred to as the eternal family concept, that of tying generations together as far back as we can find legitimate records and then doing their work by proxy in the Temples of our God. There are many aspects of conversion that may not be touched upon by missionaries in depth or by one converted as I, by only reading the Book of Mormon. Those things that go unmentioned, and are assumed, are things that will be picked up as we become involved in the church. Those are things that may trip some new converts up and lead them to inactivity. They are the things that most likely never have been a part of their former religious practices.
Several years after joining the church, and being the only member in my large family of siblings, my older brother mocked me for trying to find some family history information. His philosophy was, ‘Let the dead bury the dead.’ He referred to a couple of verses from the Bible apparently deriding those who were employed in genealogy. One of those was found in Timothy, “Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith:” (1 Timothy 1:4) Another verse similar to that, “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.” (Titus 3:9) At that time, I did not have a good answer for him even though I was not dissuaded from continuing my search. Subsequently, I had wondered why Timothy and Titus had referred to Genealogy in a derisive way when most other references to genealogy in the scriptures were positive. Especially when there are pages of genealogies in the bible. Having and knowing one’s genealogy seemed important and significant to tie families together eternally and I was determined to do so.
Recently, one of the staff at the FamilySearch Library came to me with an article written as: ‘Answers to Gospel Questions,’ by Joseph Fielding Smith (1:214–15.) An article that answered my brother’s question. I have no idea why she gave me an article which, unbeknownst to her, answered a forty year old question posed by my brother, but I am glad she did (providentially).
President Smith said that, “The Jews had scrupulously preserved their genealogical tables, till the advent of Christ…but we are told that Herod destroyed the public registers: he, being an Idumean (having come from Edom or a Southern Jordan area), was jealous of the noble origin of the Jews: and (so) that none might be able to reproach him with (respect to) his descent, he ordered the genealogical tables, which were kept among the archives in the temple, to be burned…From this time (on) the Jews could refer to their genealogies only from memory, or from those imperfect tables which had been preserved in private hands; and to make out any regular line from these, must have been endless and uncertain. It is probably to this the apostle refers; I mean the endless and useless labor which the attempt to make out these genealogies, must produce; the authentic tables (having) been destroyed. So we may well conclude that the denunciation was towards doubtful and untruthful genealogies which had been tampered with for improper purposes.” (Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 1:214–15.) Thank you, President Smith!
Even though, at the time, I could not explain away my brother’s derisive comments I never lost faith even for a minute in what I was doing. Families will be linked together because of the love we have for them generation by/after generation. Thank goodness for the technology of our day and the work the church is doing to make good and accurate records available to us. We can accurately link our families together going back many generation as a labor of love and as commanded of the Father. God bless us to do for them what they would do for us, were our circumstances reversed.
By way of proselytizing, the church has 70,000+ missionaries spread out across the world, the church other than by birth, is the fastest growing church in the world. The church is currently in 180 of the 230 countries in the world. Language barriers are being overcome and various customs seem not to be a problem.
“There’s always going to be bad stuff out there. But here’s the amazing thing—light trumps darkness every time. You can stick a candle into the dark, but you can’t stick the dark into the light.”(Jodi Picoult) “ If people are properly taught, they never will fall away: ‘And as sure as the Lord liveth [ that is an oath], so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working miracles in them—yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth [a second oath], as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were converted unto the Lord, never did fall away’ (Alma 23:6; emphasis added).” [Page 59] From Boyd K. Packer. If members, “Live in such a way that people who know you, but don’t know Christ will want to know Christ because they know you.” —quoted by Bishop H. David Burton.