Implausible Doctrine

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is hard. But is it hard...intentionally. There is only one way to true conversion and discipleship and that is by living the Gospel with intention. 

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Welcome to the Verbal Motivation podcast. Where we talk about the things that motivate our lives, our religion and our relationships. My name is Nathan Vail. 

If you have an opinion about the subject matter in today’s podcast, please leave it in a voicemail at 530-876-4153 or you can send an email to verbalmotivation@gmail.com. 

This is episode number 33 called implausible doctrine.

I’d like to start by sharing a profound lesson I learned about free agency in my youth while living in Hyde Park. There was a young woman in my friend group that no one ever asked out on a date; despite the fact that she was attractive and a lot of fun to be around. The challenge was that her father would not let her go out on a date unless he first interviewed the prospective young man.

I’m not talking about a shake your hand, what's your name standing on the porch kind of interview. I’m talking about a grueling 45 minute interrogation about what are you doing with your life now and where are you going in the future. My friend Joey and I felt bad that she never went out on dates but we were too intimidated individually to face her father, so we decided one day to ask if we could be interviewed together. To our surprise, her father agreed. 

Even together it was as brutal as we imagined. We hardly had plans past that evening, we certainly had no plans to share about our long term future or ambitions. It was pretty obvious that he was not terribly impressed with us. As fate would have it, he was in a hurry that day so he told us that he would have to forgo his usual driving test. Ultimately we were given permission to ask her out, but the interview was so intimidating that neither of us ever did. 

This is only interesting because she got pregnant during our Senior year of high school. We were all shocked when we found out. But, in my opinion, it was at least partly because the only people who would date her were the young men willing to sneak her out the window at night. I know nothing about her family other than that they were active in their faith. Her dad, well meaning as he may have been, was trying to superimpose good decisions on his her rather than teaching her correct principles and letting her govern herself. 

This was a case study in the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ only works when you act intentionally and of your own free will. 

I judged this father pretty harshly at the time because I felt like he was discouraging all the decent young men with his overprotective tactics. Having now experienced parenting myself, I can certainly understand his desire to protect his daughter from the world. But that doesn’t change the fact that a person must decide for themselves what path they will take.

In stark contrast, I will never forget the day my dad sat me down at a little kitchen table in Smithfield and told me that if I never got into trouble, I would never have any rules. Well, I didn’t want rules, so I was careful not to get into trouble. 

But even in that circumstance, there is a big difference between doing something out of a love for that thing and doing it for fear of punishment or a desire for reward.

As children of God, we can be made to know something, but we cannot be made to believe it.

I read an article published years ago in a college newspaper by a woman named Ellie Schaack called Confessions of a cultural Mormon.  She is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but she grew up living the life of a member of our Church in Colorado.

A portion of her article reads as follows, "Nearly all of my friends were LDS, and the only way to have sleepovers on Saturday [night] was to accompany them to church on Sunday. The only way not to miss out on fun week night activities with the group was to go with them to Young Womens. The only way not to be friendless for a lonely week during the summer was to go to Girl’s Camp, which is a Mormon sleep-away camp up in the mountains. I’ve acted out scenes from the Book of Mormon between the Nephites and the Lamanites; I’ve sung 'I know a Mormon boy; he is my pride and joy.' I know what it means to CTR (choose the right) and Return with Honor."

Ms. Schaack then goes on to talk about how religious beliefs are preposterous generally and in “Mormonism,” specifically.  The interesting part is how her article ends, saying, 

"Our generation goes to church less and less. This column is definitely not a plea to go to church more—I recognize that Mormonism made me happier, yet that isn’t reason enough for me to overlook the implausibility of the doctrine..."

How profound. She recognized the happiness that comes from living a Gospel centered life, yet that increased happiness was not enough for her to want to live it. Perhaps that was because she was not actually participating in it. She was only there out of a desire not to be left alone during girls camp or not miss out on fun week night activities and therefore,  she witnessed only as a bystander the increased happiness in herself and the other girls.

I heard someone say the other day that there is a difference between eating at a restaurant because you don’t want to cook or do dishes and eating at a restaurant because you love their food. There is only one path to conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is to live it intentionally.

One way to look at it is that the blessings that come from living the gospel are more like the frosting on the cake rather than the cake itself. That is why play-living and even recognizing the benefits of living the gospel don’t produce true conversion. There are numerous examples in the scriptures like Lamen and Lemuel in the Book of Mormon who are surrounded by a gospel centered environment and even see miracles occur, but they don’t take to it because they never did it willingly; it was always done to avoid punishment.

In any event, Ms. Schaack's article is a perfect example of how a person must first have a desire for truth; a willingness to accept difficult principles through faith and refuse some of the pleasures offered by the world before they can embrace and form a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Elder David A Bednar recently illustrated this principle even within the Church saying, “I …encounter brothers and sisters who fulfill their callings dutifully but for whom the restored gospel has not yet become a living and transforming reality in their lives.”

Many years ago, our bishop Doug Danz gave a talk he called works without faith. At first I thought he had misspoken but then he gave a profound description of how you can go through the motions of righteousness without getting anything from it. 

Moroni 7:8 also declares, “...if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift…” 

It is not the acts we perform in this life that matter, it is the reasons why we are doing them. Because that is what determines the effect it has on us and on our testimonies.

Is it possible, I wonder, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is intentionally implausible so that there is no path to true discipleship except through faith? 

I saw a sign once on a construction site that said, “Safety is no accident.” Meaning of course that safety can only happen intentionally. Safety is a decision. And so is faith and discipleship.

I find it curious when people say that they were born in the Church…because there is no such thing. The Gospel is intentionally too hard. If you are able to truly live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is because you have been converted to it. 

Where you were born only indicates your relative starting point to that conversion. 

Knowing the Gospel is true doesn’t make it easy to live any more than knowing the 70’ trench your digging out in the sun for the sprinklers your installing is headed the right direction. But when you know it’s true, you can do it because you want to become something, not because it has to be done. That is what makes it easier. 

A fascinating phenomenon illustrated also by Bishop Danz on another occasion, is how many squirrels become roadkill. They are fast enough and agile enough to avoid any car. But when they are on the road in the path of a car, they cannot decide which way to run. So they scamper one direction and then back and then back again, until the passing car leaves them permanently embedded in the asphalt. They are only victims of their indecision, the passing car would be inconsequential, if they could just make up their mind. 

There have been many talks given in the last few general conferences about living within the safety of our temple covenants. I believe that some day and probably more than once, the natural challenges that accompany this life will come at us like a car towards the squirrel, and if we are truly converted and live intentionally within our temple covenants, we will know where to run for safety. 

But if we oscillate between the world and the Gospel, we will discover as “that Satan will not support his children at the last day.”

I was making a presentation a few years ago and the woman I was speaking to asked if I was a “Mormon.” Back then we didn’t correct that nickname so I smiled and said, In fact I am. Why do you ask? I was waiting for something spiritual or complimentary like, you have a glow or kindness about you. But she said, I am a professional linguist and I can tell from your accent and your hair cut that you are probably from Utah. I tried very hard not to show my disappointment in the reasoning behind her deduction. But just like the way a portion of the culture I grew up in rubbed off on me, the way we live and what we pursue will do the same for all of us, but it only sticks spiritually if we do it intentionally.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Jesus actually lived and died for us. And if you think that His Gospel is implausible, you might consider the fact that it was designed that way, so that every person has to act intentionally and by faith in order to become a convert and a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

My name is Nathan Vail and this is the verbal motivation podcast