The other day I was reminded of a question that I had heard once, and decided to relate my experience here. I was approached by a gentleman and he asked me if I have accepted Jesus as my savior, and I said yes. He continued to tell me that I have not accepted Jesus and that I need to do so to be saved. The way this gentleman responded to me and treated me gave me a concern about his belief about me and my salvation. There are two main issues that I would like to address in this blog.
The first is about the belief is our belief in Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been accused of not believing in Jesus Christ. This however is not true. To me at least this is something that I have never understood. The name of the church alone reflects the belief in Christ and his centered roll in our lives. One of my favorite scriptures in The Book of Mormon is in the book of 2 Nephi chapter 25 versus 26, and it reads,
“And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”
Jesus Christ is the center and chief corner stone of the gospel of the LDS faith. Nothing can be more important to a member then the savior of the world. “For there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)”
The second thing that I would like to address is the fact of the “accepting Christ and then you’re saved” doctrine. This is something that I cannot understand. I really don’t like to be mean or to “bash” on other peoples belief or doctrine, but I cannot accept this as a true doctrine of God. It just isn’t fair or makes sense. One thing that I think all Christians can agree on is that our Heavenly Father is fair to all of his children. He does not like one more than the other because he loves us all the same. To say that all that we have to do to be saved is accept Jesus Christ as our savior would be to say that God is not just or fair.
To explain this I will use a simple example. Let’s take one person that accepted Christ when they were in their teens and lived close to the commandments for all of their life. Then we take another person who also accepted Christ when they were young but then continued to do wicked things, like murder for the rest of their life. Would it be fair to allow both into the kingdom of God? I personally believe that this would take away from the justice of God. This is why James explained that “… faith, if it hath not works, is dead… (James 2:17)” This is the reason why God gave us commandments and why he has asked us to obey them. We will be judged by our works which is influenced by our faith.
Finally, this is why finding the correct doctrine is so important. Without the true church and the correct doctrine we could not be guided back to our Heavenly Father. I have not always been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the reason why I am is because of their teachings. They always taught to pray about what they taught and earnestly ask for an answer and you will receive one. It may not be the first or second time, (because faith without works is dead) but when we truly want to find the answer and we do not have preconceived answers in our head, we will find the true answer for Heavenly Father. This is my testimony, that it works and that we anyone can receive these answers.
