Accuser

This thought of accusing others has been on my mind quite a bit lately. Not just because the past couple of posts have been on different versions of the word "accuse", but also because my fiance and I are reading this book together called The Peacegiver. One thought that this book emphasis over and over is that one of the first steps to healing and developing a loving relationship with those around us is to stop judging and condemning others.

In John chapter 8, there is a story of Jesus that I have always loved. A woman who is caught committing adultery is brought to Jesus and the Pharisees ask Jesus what they should do about her. The law said that those committing adultery should be put to death, but Jesus turns the question on the Pharisees and says that whoever has never sinned can kill her. They all sort of guiltily wander away at that point, and Christ asks so lovingly:

"Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?"

When the woman responds that no one is left, Christ says that he will not condemn her and to go and sin no more.

Sometimes I wondering who in this story I am. I guess it switches, that some days I'm the woman hoping beyond hope for the mercy of Christ to make the accusers in my life go away, while other days I'm bringing others before him demanding justice.

Accuse

Christ is talking a lot about not accusing people falsely - in John 5:45 he says that he won't accuse them, but that Moses will. At first I thought this was saying that Moses in the final judgement day would be standing there pointing a finger at them, but Christ clarifies himself by saying that the words of Moses will condemn them. In other words, they should have and did know better - and that is what will condemn them. This fits with the doctrine of accountability also, where you will be judged according to what you are accountable for, or for what you knew about.

I also noticed something in this reading about how we should go about accusing people. The Pharisees were sitting and waiting to find something to accuse Christ of. The advice given to us is not to accuse falsely - which implies that there will be times when we should accuse others. But unlike the Pharisees, we should not be eager to do so and be looking for opportunities. It should not become a favorite pastime, but something necessary for the stability of society.

Accursation

In these scriptures, there is a focus on stories and doctrine focused on people bringing accusations against each other. Half of these scriptures are about people making accusations about Christ. I would like to talk about this first.

Toward the end of his mortal life, Pilot asked the Pharisees, "What accusations bring ye against this man?" They replied, "If he were not a malefactor, would we deliver him unto thee?" I feel that it is safe to interpret this reply as "We want him killed because of how we defined him in our heads, and not for any solid reason."

I wonder how often I judge my Savior based off the definition of him in my head. I create is picture of an all loving man who would do anything to make me happy - then become accusatory when things go wrong because the Savior I thought up would not let those types of things happen. Or I create a picture of a teacher who is so focused on helping me develop personally that I ignore grace and mercy, then feel abandoned when I become weak. The truth is there and it isn't in our heads, and the best way to find and maintain that truth is through constant experience of interacting with Christ. He needs to not be a memory in our minds that can become whatever our circumstances wish him to be, but a real companion that can not be distorted because he is always there to remind us of who he really is.

Now, as to making accusations towards other people, I had an experience yesterday that helped me to understand this concept. Something had happened where someone else did something hurtful, and I was justifiably upset about it. I still loved the person, but was so hurt and shocked that I felt that all the accusations I were making about this person was alright because, after all, they were accurate and I was clearly the victim. Then my wonderful fiance stepped in, and spoke some very touching words. Even though this person was guilty of what they had done I should not lose my compassion. Angry drives away the spirit, while empathy and concern for the hurt emotions behind the actions of this other person will help me to become more of a disciple of Christ.

In summary, be careful before you look for accusations towards others. Think if you are really trying to define another person, and be even more aware of what focusing on those accusations are doing to your heart.

Accursed

According to dictionary.com, accursed means

1.

under a curse; doomed; ill-fated.

2.

damnable; detestable.

In Joshua 6, the children of Israel are going around taking over Canaan. While they were sacking cities, the Lord gave them some specific instructions. One such instruction was that they were not to take things that were "accursed" because then they would become accursed themselves. The footnotes in the Bible say that things that are accursed are

"those things under a ban for the people to take, or dedicated for a sacrifice to the LORD."

The principle here that I believe the Lord was trying to teach was that what we influence ourselves with will determine what we will become. In this case, the Lord did not want the children of Israel to be influenced with certain booty that was probably more heathenistic than useful to them. Likewise, God does not want us to be influenced by objects, activities or people who would draw us away from Him. Like so many of God's commandments, this was more Him using His all knowing intelligence to tell us to stay away from that which is lethal to us.

What makes something accursed? I believe that something is accursed when it separates you from the Holy Ghost. An example could be when you are drunk. It is not just your senses and mind that become dull, your ability to be spiritually in-tune becomes significantly weakened to the point where the Holy Ghost cannot talk to you.

I do not think that God points a finger and curses things - I think that things become accursed through a series of choices that change its nature until it cannot be in the same place as the Holy Ghost. If the Holy Ghost is light, as Christ often said in the scriptures, then it cannot be in the same place as darkness. This is one issue where the physics and the doctrine unambiguously agree.

Age of Accountability

A discrepancy between Christian churches is their view on baptism. Some believe it is necessary, some believe that it is just a nice idea. Some believe it is for washing away sins, some believe it is for washing away Adam's transgression. Where this comes into play with the age of accountability is the LDS view on infant baptism.

What I believe is that all men will be punished for their own sins - so needing to get ride of Adam's transgression in the garden isn't needed. I also believe that one of the main points of baptism is that it is an outward acceptance and acknowledgment that you are going to follow Christ as your Lord and Savior. A more wide spread comparison can be why do people have marriage ceremonies when really they could just say "Yup, we know it our heart and everything so why do we need to go through a ceremony?" Logically we can think of lots of reasons not to, but something inside us says that it is important to go through the ceremony.

With that in mind, I do believe that a child needs to be old enough to know what they are getting into. I was told the other day that 8 years old (when LDS children get baptized) is actually a minimum date, not a set in hard fast rule, to help with the administration of the church ordinances. It is up to each individual Bishop to seek revelation as to if an individual is ready to be baptized.

When I was 8 years old, I knew a lot about the gospel (or so I thought) and I remember that a member of the Ward Presidency came to my house and asked to speak with me alone. He asked me questions about Jesus and God and John the Baptist and dug around to make sure that I knew what I was doing. Looking back, I've never doubted that I entered the waters of baptism fully aware of the choice I was making. In contrast, I have an older sister who passed away as a baby. I've never doubted that she is innocent and with Jesus waiting for the rest of us.

For a more detailed sermon on this topic Moroni 8 is a great chapter.

Accountability

I guess to start out with, I think Alma 29:5 gives a pretty good definition of what it means to have accountability:

5 Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.

A few days ago, I had an interesting encounter. Ever since college, I've had a curiosity to get to know people who are different from me. I guess I kind of think that a good way to understand the world is to learn why people do what they do. A minister sat next to me on a plane, and I was curious as to what made his church different from the other churches in his town. Growing up LDS, which church you go to is strictly based on where you live - so it wasn't until a couple of years ago that this idea of "church shopping" became introduced to me. Also, a new Mormon church is built in a town when there is a need because of numbers. I know that protestant church's didn't work this way, so I've always been curious as to why a minister builds new church and how they get their congregation to choose to attend their church.

When he found out I was LDS, the conversation didn't go very well. The only piece of doctrine he told me, other than Mormons got it all wrong, was that he believed that when everyone dies, God is going to look at you and say "You made some mistakes, but come on in any ways."

This is a nice notion - kind of like some sort of big happy ending - but a phrase that comes to mind is "Mercy Cannot Rob Justice." God couldn't have gone to all the trouble of creating everything, creating rules and blessings conditioned on those rules, and then in the end decided it doesn't matter because he just loves us all so much. I'm not saying that God doesn't love us more than we could ever comprehend, but that for me it doesn't make sense and it doesn't ring true that I can read 21+ verse just from the Bible that clearly state that God expects us to live by his rules, and if we don't then we don't get the blessing.

The good news is that we don't have to do it all alone. We have Christ - and because of Christ's suffering in the garden and the cross we can return home to God without having to suffer the consequences of our sins. However, this is not a get out of jail free card either. Christ seemed to tell everyone he healed or forgave "to go and sin no more." I don't think it was a suggestion, I think it was a commandment. He commanded all to become baptized - not just suggested that it might be a good idea if we felt like it. The mercy Christ extends to us is conditioned on us choosing to follow him, and along with that is following his commandments as well. And excellent short movie on this topic is The Mediator.

A final thought on accountability is from D&C 82:3

3 For of him unto whom much is given much is required; and he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation.

Everyone is accountable for what they have - and I hope that I'll figure out a way to better use to gifts and opportunities given me.

Account

Back again after a nice little hiatus!

I want to start this post with a little story. Back in high school, I was talking to a friend about scripture reading and why I do it - and he didn't buy the whole "spirituality" thing at all. Finally, I just told him that reading my scriptures calms me down and helps me to feel peace. I promptly forgot about this experience until this morning.

You know when sometimes you start feeling like everything is falling apart, but if you stopped a looked around you would realize that nothing is actually attacking you? My mind was just going in circles this morning and taking my mood into a downward spiral. I was getting more and more anxious and nothing seemed to stop it. Then out of the blue, I got a great desire to literally run to my scriptures. Then this experience from high school came to mind, and I instantly felt peace. Even if you don't believe in the Spirit, returning to something that has brought you peace in the past is a great way to relieve tension. For me though, I believe in a little of both.

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This past weekend I caught up on my budgeting. I look at my checking and credit accounts, and record how much I spent on what. This ritual always makes me nervous, as money tends to be an abstract concept when you swipe your credit card that has very concert consequences. In Matthew 18, there is a story about a rich man who was doing this same sort of accounting and realized that a servant owed him money. The servant begged forgiveness and was forgiven, but then turned around and sent another servant to jail that owed him just a little bit of money.

I saw a lesson in this story I had not seen before about empathy. One of the age old questions is why do bad things happen, and I propose that bad thing happen so that we can learn empathy, and from empathy learn mercy and forgiveness. When the first servant was brought before his master, I can only imagine the anxiety he must have felt. When he turned and accused his fellow servant, I felt outrage at first - then shame at how many times I do that. But, like always, I felt hope afterwards and a deeper realization of why the atonement was necessary.

Christ is the ultimate example of one who empathizes - and I think that is why he is the ultimate source of peace and mercy. This morning, when I was freaking out about essentially nothing He was there like he always is to understand my fears and embarrassment. If He did not suffer in the garden, then I doubt He would be able to help me as much He does. Likewise, if we never suffered, I don't think we would be able to help others as much as we are able to.