God the Father

LDS believe that God is the Father of our spirits. We believe that the soul consists of the union of a physical body and a spirit body, and that God is our heavenly Father. We believe that we lived prior to birth (as spirits) and have always existed and will live forever. We believe that this is true of everyone on earth. That makes each person on earth the literal brother or sister of everyone else.

We don't believe in a capricious god, but in a God of unwavering goodness, perfect in the attributes of love, justice and mercy. We believe that He is omniscient and omnipotent. There's no point in having faith or belief in or to rely on a capricious or vindictive or fallible god. Such a god could err and would deal with us according to whim or fancy, and be impossible to predict. We could not rest our hopes in good faith on His mercy or justice. Seeking wisdom from Him and following His counsels would be meaningless--they might change at any time and for any reason. They may lead to misery or error.

But by believing in a God of truth, wisdom, justice and love, we believe that there are absolute values and goodness and that we can rely on His promises without any degree of doubt or concern about whether He will abide by them.

As the Father of our spirits and an omniscient Being, He knows us. He knows our thoughts, our fears, our needs. As a Being of love, He is concerned with our well-being and happiness. He wants us to succeed and to find true joy. Being all-wise, He knows how we can do this. He is selfless, which means that rather than keep His happiness and knowledge to Himself, He wants to share them with us.

Being just and merciful in perfect proportion, He can balance the need for justice and fair play with the need for mercy and second chances. As a just Being, He will ensure that the injustices of life are repaired and that we are held accoutable for our good and bad choices. As a merciful Being, He has prepared a way for us to overcome our bad choices--a way that satisfies the demands of justice, while extending the greatest degree of mercy (more on this later). We believe that He blesses us to the fullest extent we allow Him to.

We believe that God the Father prepared this life for us as a way to progress and as an opportunity for growth and to prove ourselves before Him. We believe that He sent us to mortality to see if we would follow the road map to happiness and eternal life--His commandments.

Eternal life is the ultimate goal.. To quote from www.lds.org: "Eternal life is the phrase used in scripture to define the quality of life that our Eternal Father lives. The Lord declared, 'This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man' (Moses 1:39). Immortality is to live forever as a resurrected being. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, everyone will receive this gift. Eternal life, or exaltation, is to live in God's presence and to continue as families (see D&C 131:1–4). Like immortality, this gift is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. However, to inherit eternal life requires our 'obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel' (Articles of Faith 1:3)."

Personally, I don't recall ever not believing in God. From my earliest recollection, I had a sort of awe at an all-knowing, all-powerful supreme being. I remember standing in front of my school in kindergarten with other kids talking about God and looking up at the sky and being quite impressed.

As I've matured, my feelings of respect and reverence have deepened. I have a deep, undeniable knowledge that God lives. I know He does. I am more sure of this than anything. My eyes can be fooled, my ears can be wrong--all my senses can lead me to error. But the imprint of surety left on my heart and mind can't be denied. God lives. He's real. He loves us and knows us and wants us to have every good thing. To know that we are all His sons and daughters--to realize that I, in my simplicity and place of minimal import in the world, am His son--is such an important and unfathomable (yet simple) concept. It makes all the difference if we can know and retain in our remembrance that fact.

I struggle when I try to communicate this surety to others and they don't accept it. I want everyone to try it on for size. In France, on my mission, there were many atheists and agnostics (as there will be any where) with whom I discussed my belief in God. They were often so consumed with how someone can't know that (which I disagree with, but I'll leave that for another post) that they wouldn't even give room in their hearts for the possibility. They refused even to consider it. It stuns me when someone can be so foolish as to try smoking or drugs for themselves (as though they don't know they're addictive and harmful until they try it for themselves), but are completely unwilling to try out a belief in God. I can't grasp it. Some reject the idea as "too good to be true"--as if because it implies and even promises all sorts of great things, it must be the product of wishful thinking.

It's a stunning conundrum because how on earth can you compete with that? It seems like there's a determination to believe that nothing can be all that good. That good hopes and dreams are mere fantasies. It's a deep-seated cynicism that everything ultimately has no purpose and meaning and is empty and death is the end. And it's couched in "rationality."

I would hope that I could at least convince people who doubt or disbelieve to give it a fair shake. If God lives and He has the characteristics I describe above, then He wants to give us every good blessing. And in order to do that, we need to do things that will bring those blessings. If you want to build a good house, you have to follow the plans. If you want to make a good cake, you've got to follow the recipe. If you want a good car, you've got to abide by the design based on sound engineering, which acknowledges and responds to the laws of physics and practical testing. If we want true happiness and the blessings God promises, we need to adhere to eternal laws and principles.

I invite anyone struggling with doubt or disbelief in God to plant the seed of belief and try it on for size. Don't rely on someone else's belief or disbelief--figure it out for yourself. If you give it a sincere effort and test it earnestly, you will find out for yourself that God lives. I know He does. It's a significant truth with great implications. I invite you to reflect on it, consider it, live as though it's true, try to be more just and merciful yourself, try communicating with Him. Like any study or worthy endeavor, you need to try and put in an effort and be willing to change and sustain your effort. Things of worth seldom come without effort--exercise, invention, learning, changing habits: all require sustained effort. Quick, short spurts do little. Then you can sincerely say you tried it out, tested it, and gave it a sincere shot. It moves you from the camp of the passive to the doers, from the academic to the real. Then you are qualified to speak from your own experience instead of others'.