Adam Awake

One Day

by Lucas Jackson · · 5 min read

There will come a day for every member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they will wake up and say, “What has happened to my religion?” Some have already gone through this paradigm shift years ago. Some within the last few years, myself included. Some in only the last few months. Many more will wake up shortly.

Truth is a delicate thing. This world is very corrosive and everything is subject to entropy. What is acceptable and even true in one generation, becomes forgotten, and perhaps even unacceptable to the next. Culture reigns, and demands continual change. It seems as though no organization on earth is immune to culture or the ever changing opinions and ideas that people embrace.

When we make a subtle change to any practice or teaching, it affects future generations. These changes may be understood and agreed upon at the time, but the young children will not understand or even realize the change has happened. As time passes, the next generation adopts the new practice and before you know it, it becomes an essential part of the religion or community. Some are wise enough to check against God’s standard, the scriptures, and realize there are some problems. The institution or its leaders create an answer to try and satisfy the misfits in the society. After many generations, the majority of people have adopted countless traditions handed down by men. These traditions are mixed with the original foundations, but eventually the traditions overpower the roots.

I have seen this happen in large corporations. New hires are taught silly practices that are left over from previous employees, or those who have successfully climbed the ladder. Let’s say an employee of a large company is using a certain selling technique and having success. The employee takes the initiative to build a training program and it’s fully adopted and taught to other employees. Years go by and the employee who started the technique has moved up the ladder to a leadership position in some other department. A few more years go by and the trainees are now using a technique that was successful years ago. Eventually the technique becomes antiquated and outdated. However, the training is still grudgingly taught by instructors who don’t like the method, and received with skepticism by the new employees. Soon everyone is controlled by the institutional practice instead of thinking for themselves. We do it because that’s how it’s been done in the past. It happens a lot. It happens in education, government, and every other place on earth. It is the nature of the Telestial world in which we now live.

As you awake, you will begin to wonder why we don’t do what the Book of Mormon teaches. The manner of blessing and passing the sacrament seems very different than what I see in church. Why doesn’t the church kneel with the priest, as Moroni describes?1 Why do we serve the presiding authority first? Does the Lord give an order?2 Why did we switch out wine for water?3 Why do deacons administer instead of priests like the Book of Mormon teaches?4 Are requirements for baptism assessed according to Christ’s Doctrine?5 Why don’t we get baptized more than once like the Book of Mormon suggests?6 Why don’t we talk about the Baptism of Fire?7 The list will grow. Don’t try to fit square pegs into round holes. Believe the most correct book on earth.8 Trust it. Trust God. Believe Him.

Your day will come, and when it does, it will be a hard day. It will be a tough week. You will mourn for months, even years, like I have done.

Don’t give up on God. Don’t give up on the restoration. Don’t stop pursuing truth. The Book of Mormon is a good place to start. Brush away all of your preconceived notions, all of the things you’ve been told the text is saying, and start anew. Seek to be taught by the Holy Ghost. Don’t rely upon the arm of flesh.9 Let God speak to you Himself.

The truth will shine through boldly and simply if you will have eyes to see and ears to hear. Re-align yourself with Christ and His word. See if these steps begin to bear fruit. Make Him your only desire. Serve Him. Seek Him.10

Notes

  1. Moroni 4:1–2; D&C 20:76: “he shall kneel with the church.” ↩
  2. 3 Nephi 18:1–5; Moroni 4. ↩
  3. Moroni 5:1 and D&C 20:79 name wine. In D&C 27:2–4 the Lord says “it mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory,” and then commands the Saints not to buy wine from their enemies but to use wine “made new among you.” That was 1830. In 1833 the Word of Wisdom set wine apart for the sacrament: “And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make” (D&C 89:5–6). Wine was still in use at the turn of the century; the First Presidency and the Twelve began using water in their temple meetings in 1906 (Thomas G. Alexander, “The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement,” Dialogue 14, no. 3 (1981): 80). ↩
  4. Moroni 4:1; D&C 20:46, 58: “neither teachers nor deacons have authority to baptize, administer the sacrament, or lay on hands.” ↩
  5. Moroni 6:1–3; D&C 20:37; 3 Nephi 11:23, 37–38. ↩
  6. 3 Nephi 19:11–13. See also Alma 5:62: “I speak by way of command unto you that belong to the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance.” ↩
  7. 3 Nephi 9:20; 2 Nephi 31:13–17; 3 Nephi 12:2. ↩
  8. Joseph Smith said “the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any Book on earth & the keystone of our religion & a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than any other Book” (Remarks, 28 November 1841, Wilford Woodruff’s journal, Joseph Smith Papers). ↩
  9. 2 Nephi 4:34; D&C 1:19. ↩
  10. Ether 12:41: “I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written.” See also Seek This Jesus. ↩

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