I’ve been thinking a lot about what this life is. 

A lot of us have this idea that religion is everything, and obedience to religious dogma is what we are being tested on. 

That seems rather strange. If we are born and come into this life to live and to survive and to navigate our way, what makes religious observance preeminent? 

Are we saying that the whole point of our existence is to jump through religious hoops? To jump through the right ones, like hopscotch? Are we to spend all of our days inside a religious building, like a temple, to prove to God that we are worthy of him on the other side of this life? 

Why is it the churchy things that make the difference between us getting into heaven or not? 

And why do we believe that the whole purpose of this life is the next life? Why have we forsaken the current life? Have we checked out here? 

Certainly those who go to the temple everyday and just do ordinances for the next life have checked out of this life to a great degree. Is this what God wants? 

D&C 76 and The writings of Paul both mock this idea. Are you of Paul, of Cephas, of Apollos, of Christ? (Descriptions of Telestial order people.) Have you made your whole existence about the particular brand of religious theories that you think will get you to something in the next life? 

I know you think that your flavor of religion is the exception. Even if you have come out of a religion, whatever your current view is, you think is now the correct way. 

There are probably 100,000 different groups of people today that believe, no matter how small the group, that they have been chosen because their group is more special than other groups, and they have special insight better than the other 99,999 groups, and that when Jesus comes, or the end time servant, or Elijah, or whoever, that he will come to vindicate the views of that group. And their prayer meetings. And their doctrines. And their views on history. And their views on the second coming and how it is going to play out. 

So doctrine and dogma become preeminent. And just like it said of the Lamanites, we think that whatsoever we do is correct.

Does Jesus have anything to say about this? And what did he do? 

First off, Jesus did forsake his own will in this life. It is amazing to think that Jesus had enough knowledge of what this life was about to completely take a direction that was not about him at all. That is amazing because he put all of his eggs in one basket. Absolutely incredible that he had enough faith to do that. 

But, contrary to our way of doing things, Jesus did not subscribe to the creeds of religions. 

There were only a couple of hints that we get that he cared about earthly performances and ordinances at all. But he never bowed to the Church of his day.

First, Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized. Now where did he get the idea that this was necessary? Not from the law of Moses. Not from the Pharisees or the Sadducees. Not even from the Essenes.

Jesus said that he did nothing save he saw his Father do it. He said that he came to do the will of his Father. So Jesus learned, by seeking the will of his Father, that he needed baptism, and the Spirit told him to seek it of John the Baptist. When he was 30.

Not at 8 years old. At 30.

So how did Jesus get there? Was it him spending years decoding the scriptures? Was it his religion that he was brought up in?

It doesn’t seem so. When he was 12 the doctors in the temple were fascinated with him, because he didn’t act like the people of his day. He wasn’t following the prevailing thought or customs or traditions. 

If we were just random creatures, it would seem logical that to do anything but what we fancy would be stupid. Religion or seeking after the next life or putting ourselves second to anyone else would be folly. 

And, indeed, those who are atheist or agnostic teach that very thing. Why are you doing anything other than what is what you desire right now? 

There is one answer to all of this, and that is that from birth we have had the spirit of God dwelling within us. We have a conscience. We have the light of Christ. We know good from evil and right from wrong. Even as a child, you know. 

No, as a child you don’t know everything. You don’t know the meaning of life. You don’t know how to get to God. You don’t know what is in the next life. You don’t know which religion is true, if any. 

But you have a GUIDE. (Think taking the Holy Spirit as your guide.)

And, if we will admit it, we have been trained by this dark and polluted world to not follow that guide. 

What? But what about religion? Religion teaches you that the men in white are your guides. Trust them. Don’t do anything that contradicts the authorities that are over you. Well, if there isn’t a faster way to shut down your connection with God, it is to tell you that men are your connection to God. As in religious authority. 

If you were as a child, everybody would look the same to you. Religious authority would look the same as your next door neighbor. The Pope is a guy wearing a silly hat. He isn’t any more special than your parents. In fact, he is less special. 

So back to Jesus, we have Jesus who only wanted to do what his Father wanted. That indwelling conscience that he had from birth was absolutely his guide. And so, when the people of the day came and told him how special and important the religious leaders were, he didn’t let that override the internal thoughts that he had, and the feeling that we are all only special as far as we have a genuine connection to God. And so we are all running the same race. 

And when Jesus was on his way to synagogue on the Sabbath and saw an ox in the mire, it was plainly obvious that the ox was more important than getting to church on time. Even though his mom or dad may have been pretty stressed about that. He didn’t care, because that indwelling spirit within him at every moment let him know what was expedient and what was not. 

By the way, I am not going to differentiate between the Spirit of Christ or your conscience and the Holy Ghost. They are all different levels of the same thing. So when I say indwelling spirit, I am talking about that connection that we all have to God. No need to get any more technical than that for the purposes of this discussion.

As a carpenter, or whatever his occupation, it wasn’t as much about getting wealth as it was about providing for the necessities of 1) himself and his family, and 2) the people who had needs for which he could provide a solution. 

And how do you know what is expedient when it seems that those two things conflict? Well, you just consult your conscience and do the best that you can. And you learn from that. And you get better and better and better at honing the skill of listening. And, frankly, that antenna gets stronger and stronger. Because it really is all about that connection. 

Most of us get a job and go to work and kind of check out as far as listening to that voice. We are going to get our paycheck and we are now part of the system, and hopefully we get a raise next year, or we can get another job, or whatever. And so yes, we provide for our families, which is absolutely necessary. But are we honing that antenna constantly? Probably not. 

Would it be better if we spent all day in the temple? 

Jesus provides a pretty direct answer to this in the parable of the sheep and the goats. He says inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me. When we provide for our family, we are doing it unto the least of these. That is why getting a job and getting married and having kids and working for the benefit of your family is so productive. But, of course, there are different ways to provide for your family. One way is to do whatever you can to get money. Another is that you seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, constantly doing the work that is before you and listening to the spirit, and all of these things are naturally added to you. There are a ton of levels in between. Here on Earth, it is rare for people to mingle their conscience with their work. In other words, it is rare for people to actively consult God in their jobs. Because we are told that righteousness really is at church, and in our closet in prayer, and in our callings, and that work is a necessary evil? But is that really true?

Paul mentions in 1 Timothy that women will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. That sounds rather misogynistic, doesn’t it? But then what are women doing when they are providing for one to least of these, or two of them, or five of them? They are doing God’s work. They are providing for his poor and needy children. Because they are hungry and naked and destitute from day one. With honest and unselfish work, we naturally attract the Spirit of God. Because this is the kind of stuff that God really, really cares about.

So don’t be discouraged when you don’t spend all day in the temple or at church, or in a calling, or whatever. Your most holy obligation is toward your family. Toward providing their needs. And they have lots of them. 

So God sets up this world in a way that by the nature of marrying and giving in marriage and raising children and building a home, and doing what is obviously most necessary, which requires definite sacrifice to do it right, helps you learn how to do God’s work. 

And we look in 4th Nephi about the people who live in a terrestrial state for a couple hundred years, and it says of them that they did these exact things. They were married and given in marriage and lived after the manner of happiness. Why doesn’t it mention religious rites? Because that’s not the point of our existence. At all. To even think that it is is a complete lie.

By following his internal compass, Jesus increased more and more in the knowledge of God. His Father. And we know that it is impossible for us to out-do our Father in heaven, or get upside down with him, making him owe us one. 

So as Jesus obeyed his conscience, which was the voice of his Father to him, he continued to get more and more of his Father’s communication and blessings. It was no longer just his basic knowledge of right and wrong, but then he came to an understanding of what the scriptures really meant. Because he started to understand the nature of his Father. How? Because your conscience brings into you a knowledge, that is internal, of how your Father is as you obey what you feel is right. And then you look at the scriptures, where it says do this or do that, and you say, how does that work? Is it okay for Abraham to lie? Is it okay for Judah to sleep with his daughter-in-law? What does it mean when Isaiah says “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting?”

And pretty soon you have an understanding that is greater than the priests-in-name-only of your day. That’s fairly easy if you are constantly connected up to God and are doing things every day to keep that connection alive. 

So, why would Jesus forsake the world for religion? The fact is, he did not. Religion was telling him the whole time to forsake his conscience and his father. Jesus never forsook the world. He forsook his natural man self in favor of something higher, and he was taught about that higher thing through his Father’s spirit, which actively repulsed the inclinations of the natural man.

Jesus’s connection to his Father was something that he learned very early on that he never wanted to be without. And so he could say of himself, I never do anything but what the Father tells me to do. This brought him immense peace, and turned out to be far better than what the world offered.

Satan has bought up all of the world’s armies and navies and false priests. There is only one who completely broke the mold of the world and showed what it is like to take the straight and narrow way.

Satan has provided a false idol of holiness in false religion and a million different flavors of “the truth.” When we talk about holding fast to the Word of God, that word has to be within us. Yes, it is in scripture, and we absolutely cannot ignore or treat lightly what we have received. But that external word of God is meant to ignite something within you so that you can plant the seed and nourish it so that God’s spirit is continually within you. 

That doesn’t mean there isn’t still a fight. It doesn’t mean that the natural man goes away completely. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to study the scriptures anymore. It just means, that like Jesus, we care so much about hearing God’s voice and doing right by ourselves and our family, and especially by God, that the voices of the world become absolutely secondary to doing our Father’s work. And finding out the next step in Father’s work is continually our goal.