We believe in God…
Jun 17th, 2007 by Glenn
A few weeks ago I started writing a little story over email with my ten-year-old daughter. My job requires that I travel, and I have been away more than I have been home the past few months, so this has been a way that we have kept in touch despite the distance. My daughter has picked the character and the setting and told me some things she wants to see, and now it is up to me to build the story.
She wants a hero quest, and my idea is to write a sort of allegory – a quest where each step of the way a new insight is learned and the hero is pointed to the next task. This is a traditional narrative structure that I am sure is familiar to all of you. I want to use this allegory as a way to explore the articles of faith and I would like to ask for your help.
The articles of faith are, in many ways, the foundation of our worldview — they are not the end of our beliefs, but the beginning. I think of them as a template we adopt and then build upon through unique experiences and perspectives that color what we do with that template and what it actually means to us personaly. That masiac of belief within the framework of each article is what I hope to explore.
Over the next few weeks, I will post each of the articles of faith and attempt to categorize the main topic of each (example: I think Article 1 is about our believe in divinity). I would like you to share with me your insights. Do you agree with my catagorization? With my elaborations? How would you elaborate? If you were contacted by a descendant of John Wentworth and asked to explain a bit more about these early summaries of LDS belief, what would you add? What would you change? What unique perspectives or experiences do you have that give these articles meaning in your life?
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Article 1: Divinity
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
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If I were to add to this first article of faith, I would add something like this:
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. We believe in the literal light of Christ, which is the divine spark of eternal potential in every woman and every man; that God’s work and glory is to provide opportunities for us to refine and magnify that spark; to redeem us from our mistakes that we may fully grow from those opportunities; to pave a path on which we may find immortality and eternal life.