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Choice and Faith vs. the veil

Pres. Monson on Choice:

"Although in our journey we will encounter forks and turnings in the road, we simply cannot afford the luxury of a detour from which we may never return."

"I plead with you to make a determination right here, right now, not to deviate from the path which will lead to our goal: eternal life with our Father in Heaven."

"Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you." (citing Moses in Deuteronomy)


Detours, deviations, turning to the right or left. The metaphor of the path chosen, and the consequences which inevitably accompany the choice can't be stressed enough. You pick up one end of a stick, you've also got the other end.


The problem is that with the veil in place (LDS terminology for necessary forgetting an immortal spirit goes through as part of the process of its coming to a test in mortality) all paths are necessarily blind ones. So how does one know what the consequences of any given path will be so as to make an informed choice?


The answer is that none of us are smart enough to FULLY realize ALL of the results of ANY of our choices. That makes the choice of path to eternity totally a matter of faith. And ENOUGH is given to us to get ENOUGH of it right to get us set off on the right path. Because causes DO have their effects, whether or not we believe in them, or understand them. The trick is to make it a goal to find out for oneself what path is the correct one. Once THAT testimony is acquired, it's a simple matter of acting as if it's true. The claims made about the results of righteous living can be tested quite easily.


If any man will ado his bwill, he shall cknow of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.


I have faith that God is ultimately a God of fairness. I don't know how it's all going to work out, but despite all the unfairness there seems to be out there in the world, I trust that He knows how to make sure each of us individually get an exactly FAIR judgment. That trust enables me to personally put up with a TON of static, because I can act as if ALL of it is ultimately only temporary, and that NONE of it is too much for me to handle. It also provides me with an explanatory theory for evil in the world: it's part of the test, some people choose wrong, and some innocent people suffer for it, but there WILL be, at some point, complete, total and ultimate fairness for both the victims and the perpetrators.


A lot of assumptions stacked on top of each other? Not really, just one: I assume Christ is who He claimed to be as is recorded in Scripture. The rest follows logically, as all truth will. My tests of faith have confirmed these truths along the way also.



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