Posted by:
armtothetriangle
(
)
Date: December 30, 2013 10:29PM
Congratulations on law school!
Mission seems to be the initiation of doubt, for you, and for me over 30 years ago.
It's a natural reaction when you learn the church your life centered around, and the prophet the church centers on, aren't what you thought they were, to conclude God is equally false. I understand this. Ultimately you may agree. It's your journey.
Because Mormonism's foundation is a belief in the legitimacy of JS, and a relationship to the church and its community, your trust was more in Smith, the church, and Smith's successors, rather than in the Creator or in Christ. To trust God is a paradigm shift. You have an incredible opportunity to explore what you believe is your relationship to the infinite, without the Mormon filters, among those the belief the Holy Spirit is flighty and takes orders. Do you know several traditional churches practice confirmation in which the confirmands receive the Holy Spirit, and have for centuries before JS was born? If you want a more philosophical treatise explaining the difference in the relationship, look at Martin Buber's "I and Thou",
https://archive.org/details/IAndThou_572 . Tscc maintains an I-It relationship whereas what God wants and what we seek is I-Thou.
Take it at your own pace. Let me suggest starting with the Bible in modern English. Find the one that's easiest for you to read. I like English Standard Version and it's classic, any modern translation is easier to read and more accurate than the KJV.
The Bible, especially the OT, gets blasted by atheists on this board. Paraphrasing a Hasidic rabbi, because Jews know it best, the OT is meant to be interpreted on multiple levels- as simple stories children can understand, as instruction, spiritual guidance, even esoteric knowledge.
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6)
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22)
Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4)