Sources for Ideas and Thoughts

I was reading the book Putting on the Armor of God by Steven A Cramer

and I came to a part that talks about the sources of thoughts and ideas.  He says that thoughts come from only three places: Our own independent ideas with no outside influence, from God through the Holy Ghost, and finally from whisperings from satan.  I have been taught this since before I can remember but it had not really sunk in until it was put that way.  And I realized that recognizing the source of inspiration is key to not getting lost or going astray...and continuing to progress and become better people.

Let me give an example that I had recently.  I was reading in Mosiah 25: 17-18, I was reading how Alma baptized all of Limhi's people. And I thought, "Why would all these people wait such a long time to get baptized?  They escaped imprisonment in the land of Nephi a while before Alma escaped his own bondage by the Lamanites.”  

I thought this because it was the same Lamanite guards who had been chasing Limhi's people that put Alma's people into captivity after they lost Limhi's people in the wilderness. So Limhi’s people had to either wait a very long time to get baptized which seemed odd because they were asking to be baptized before they has left the land of Nephi. Or they had to arrive in the land of Zerahemla around the same time. (Which Mosiah 25 sounds like to me what happened)

After thinking all this, the thought came into my mind: "This proves the Book of Mormon is not true!"

Then I quickly remembered all the many many times I have felt the Spirit while reading the Book of Mormon.  I remembered all the many times the words of that book had helped me throughout my life.  I remembered how I had seen the book change other people’s lives for the better.  And I thought “OF COURSE I KNOW THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!”

Then I realized that these three thoughts came from three different sources. The original question, I thought myself. The second thought came from satan and he was trying to do his best to convince me that what I knew to be true was somehow false. And the last thought was from the Holy Ghost reminding me of my testimony.

I still don't know the answer to my first question. Maybe Alma's people somehow did arrive around the same time as Limhi's people. Maybe Limhi’s people were inspired to wait to get baptized for some unknown reason until Alma arrived. I don't know. And I don't know that I will ever will know the answer to this question in this life. But it doesn't matter.

After all this I remembered the talk: Come, Join with Us by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf where he says, 

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters—my dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Having questions about things is good. It shows that we are thinking and trying to learn. But if we allow our doubts to overcome what we already know to be true then we have been fooled by satan.  He is the master of deceit.  He convinced one third of Heavenly Father’s children to doubt what they knew to be true and to rebel and follow him.  Satan is still trying to do the same things to us. (see D&C 29:36-39) Before we came to earth, we were successful in withstanding his lies and we need to do the same now.   We just need to remember what we already to know to be true and hold to that truth.  Even while stepping into the unknown.

The Master Mechanic

I have read a lot of questions recently about the relationship of God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and and the meaning of Oneness in the Godhead. So to clear up any misconceptions as best I can I have written the following post.

Here is the basic fundamental definition of what we believe the Godhead to be:

 D&C 130:22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.

So we believe that there are three separate beings that are members of the Godhead.  They are Heavenly Father (Elohim), Jesus Christ (Jehovah) and the Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, etc.)  Here is a more detailed description from Elder Bruce R. McConkie

“Three glorified, exalted, and perfected personages comprise the Godhead or supreme presidency of the universe. … They are: God the Father; God the Son; God the Holy Ghost. …
“Though each God in the Godhead is a personage, separate and distinct from each of the others, yet they are ‘one God’ … , meaning that they are united as one in the attributes of perfection. For instance, each has the fulness of truth, knowledge, charity, power, justice, judgment, mercy, and faith. Accordingly they all think, act, speak, and are alike in all things; and yet they are three separate and distinct entities. Each occupies space and is and can be in but one place at one time, but each has power and influence that is everywhere present” (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 319)

So in a scripture that says that They “are one” (here are a bunch: John 10:30, 1John 5:7, John 17:22-23, 3 Nephi 11:27, D&C 93:3, D&C 20:28) they are saying that they are completely united in all They do.  It does not matter which one is speaking because all three would say and do the EXACT same thing.

There is a oneness in the Godhead as well as a distinctness of personality. This oneness is emphasized in the sayings and writings of prophets and apostles in order to guard against the erroneous idea that these three may be distinct and independent deities and rivals for our worship” (Joseph F. Smith, “Answers to Questions,” Improvement Era, Jan. 1901, 228).

So what is our relationship with Members of the Godhead between the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost?

Bruce R. McConkie answers this question in a talk he gave at BYU on March 2, 1982 (click to read the whole talk)

 First, be it remembered that most scriptures that speak of God or of the Lord do not even bother to distinguish the Father from the Son, simply because it doesn't make any difference which God is involved. They are one. The words or deeds of either of them would be the words and deeds of the other in the same circumstance. 

Further, if a revelation comes from, or by the power of the Holy Ghost, ordinarily the words will be those of the Son, though what the Son says will be what the Father would say, and the words may thus be considered as the Father's. Thus any feelings of love, praise, awe, or worship that may fill our hearts when we receive the divine words will be the same no matter who is thought or known to be the author of them. 

And yet we do have a proper relationship to each member of the Godhead, in part at least because there are separate and severable functions which each performs, and also because of what they as one Godhead have done for us. 

Our relationship with the Father is supreme, paramount, and preeminent over all others. He is the God we worship. It is his gospel that saves and exalts. He ordained and established the plan of salvation. He is the one who was once as we are now. The life he lives is eternal life, and if we are to gain this greatest of all the gifts of God, it will be because we become like him. 

Our relationship with the Father is one of parent and child. He is the one who gave us our agency. It was his plan that provided for a fall and an atonement. And it is to him that we must be reconciled if we are to gain salvation. He is the one to whom we have direct access by prayer, and if there were some need—which there is not!—to single out one member of the Godhead for a special relationship, the Father, not the Son, would be the one to choose. 

Our relationship with the Son is one of brother or sister in the premortal life and one of being led to the Father by him while in this mortal sphere. He is the Lord Jehovah who championed our cause before the foundations of the earth were laid. He is the God of Israel, the promised Messiah, and the Redeemer of the world. 

By faith we are adopted into his family and become his children. We take upon ourselves his name, keep his commandments, and rejoice in the cleansing power of his blood. Salvation comes by him. From Creation's dawn, as long as eternity endures, there neither has been nor will be another act of such transcendent power and import as his atoning sacrifice. 

We do not have a fraction of the power we need to properly praise his holy name and ascribe unto him the honor and power and might and glory and dominion that is his. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. 

Our relationship with the Holy Spirit is quite another thing. This holy personage is a Revelator and a Sanctifier. He bears record of the Father and the Son. He dispenses spiritual gifts to the faithful. Those of us who have received the gift of the Holy Ghost have the right to his constant companionship.

So putting this in simple terms that I can understand I picture this as a father that is a master mechanic who owns an auto repair shop that has an adult son who is not officially certified to work but knows all that his father knows and is being certified as a master mechanic by fixing us, the broken down cars.  By doing all the work the Son is becoming like the Father.  The Father is ALWAYS looking over the Son’s shoulder and is intimately involved with the repairs but He is letting the Son be hands on and do the work for His Son’s benefit.  So the Son can become like his Father.

In this scenario, the world and everything in the world are the cars that are being fixed, so to us both the Father and the Son are the mechanics (Gods) because they are both working on us.  To us when one speaks of the mechanic it does not make much of a difference if we are talking about the Father or the Son because they are both working on us and both are performing exactly how the other would act if they were to act alone. 

But when we have issues and when we want to talk to the mechanic (pray in this case) we pray to Heavenly Father, because not only is He the master mechanic, he is our Father, He created us, just like He created His Son.

I hope this helps.  I know this scenario does not include an example of the Holy Ghost but I have never had that hard of a time to understand His role.  But it took me some time to wrap my head around the idea of the roles of Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.  By knowing the true nature of God and our relation to each member of the Godhead we know more about ourselves.