If we didn't believe in Grace, I don't think my parents would have named my sister after it...
When I do scripture study, I read one chapter out of the Book of Mormon, and one chapter out of the Bible. I know a lot of people like to do the topic-based scripture study, and there's nothing really wrong with that. But I like running into topics that you never thought would be in there. Especially in chapters that you had kind of written off as filler. Don't pretend you don't know the chapters of which I speak.
Right now, I have the privilege of having one of the best combination of Book of Mormon and Bible. In the Bible, I am in Psalms. In the Book of Mormon, I'm in 2 Nephi. And both of those are perfectly gorgeous collections of scripture. Today, I was thinking something of grace as I read.
Probably the biggest criticism of Mormonism that I hear, especially from Evangelical Christians, is about grace. Here's a little tidbit that I came across in college, though. When I was a--I think--a sophomore in college, I took a class called "American Christianity." It was a fascinating comparative religion course between Mormonism and the American brand of Christianity. We talked about Methodists, Puritans, Evangelicals, Congregationalists, Pentecostalism, Episcopalians. Any form of Christianity which was either formed in America, or was especially important in the American brand of Christianity (such as Puritans). Partway through the semester, BYU hosted a interfaith outreach for a group of students from an Evangelical Seminary college. As part of their trip, they sat down with a bunch of us from this American Christianity course. We had lunch and just talked about religion--well and some C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, but that's irrelevant. We talked about similarities. We talked about differences. We asked questions about each other's religions. The ground rules were that there were no ground rules. If they wanted to ask about polygamy, they could. If they wanted to ask about Adam-God doctrine (a esoteric past doctrine which was never really doctrine), they could. If they wanted to ask about the God-Mary union that Talmage talks about (another one of those never really doctrines), they could. As long as they did not ask us to break any temple covenants, they could ask it.
This discussion was one of the most pivotal moments of my faith. I learned so much about my faith, but I also learned so much about their faith, and I learned one huge thing: I don't know why Mormons and Evangelicals aren't the best of friends. If I had to pick one religious group on earth who hated Mormons more than the rest of them combined, it would be Evangelicals. But it's kind of silly, because we actually agree on a huge amount of things and many very pivotal and important things.
Of course, you put a bunch of Evangelicals and a bunch of Mormons in a room together, and you tell them to have at it with religion, there is one topic which couldn't be not breached: Grace.
Ask an Evangelical to make a statement with "Mormon" and "grace" in it, here it is: "How could you Mormons possibly be so conceited as to believe that you have any power to save yourself? We are saved by grace! Christ's grace is the only thing that can save you!"
Ask a Mormon to make a statement with "Evangelical" and "grace" in it, here it is: "How could you Evangelicals possibly believe that God doesn't care what you do? Works matter! Grace isn't a get-out-of-jail free card!"
Most Evangelicals believe that Mormons don't believe in grace. My parents named one of their daughters after it (it's her middle name), so we probably do. Most Mormons believe that Evangelicals believe that you can go around raping, pillaging, plundering and murdering, so long as you believe in Christ. But, Evangelicals still strive to do good things, so they probably don't. Maybe we're both misunderstanding.
And that is the ah-ha moment I had in that room with the Evangelicals. I don't remember which of my Mormon cohorts it was that said it, but they put it beautifully (rough summary, don't remember the exact words). "Well of course Christ is the only way, and we could never save ourselves, but if you actually believed in Christ, you would make every effort you could to be like him. If you don't try your hardest to be worthy of his grace, you obviously never really believed on his name anyways."
And that was the moment when the Evangelicals kind of stopped. "You really believe that?" We all nodded. "We are saved by grace. Our works are the evidence of our faith. That's what faith without works is dead means."
And then one of them said, "That's what we believe. We don't believe that you can just believe in Christ and do whatever you want. We believe that you have to believe in Christ, but that your works are the manifestation of your faith."
And then, magically, that topic was ended. We had realized that we had been scoffing at each other for years, and we believed the same exact thing. Of course, we hadn't gone into the whole, salvation vs. exaltation aspect, but really that's irrelevant to the question. Grace is sufficient. But grace is dependent upon faith. And works are the manifestation of faith.
We had actually gotten onto the topic when an Evangelical person had said, "I've heard that Mormon parents are really strict about good grades and stuff. Is that true?" Almost all of us were kind of surprised by that stereotype, but after we all thought about it, we said, "Well, I guess in my house it was that it was fine if you weren't perfect so long as you tried your hardest." A co-Mormon then related that to how we believed that it is "by grace that [we] are saved after all [we] can do."
Christ isn't the get out of jail free card. He is what makes up the difference after we can't do it. And some people's difference is greater than other people's difference. But Christ makes them all up. And our works don't save us. They never did. But neither are they irrelevant. And I think all of us in that room, Mormons and Evangelicals, learned something very important that day. Don't ever rail on how someone is wrong when you never even took the time to figure out what they were saying. We were speaking different languages, but when it came to translation, it was all the same thing.
And as much as I learned to articulate my faith, and how marvelous that was, I learned many things that day about Grace, about my doctrines, about prayer, about revelation, about destiny/fate/etc. But the biggest lesson that day was to learn to understand.
(If you want to have your mind blown in a similar way, read "How Wide the Divide: A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation" by Craig L Blomberg and Stephen E Robinson)
Right now, I have the privilege of having one of the best combination of Book of Mormon and Bible. In the Bible, I am in Psalms. In the Book of Mormon, I'm in 2 Nephi. And both of those are perfectly gorgeous collections of scripture. Today, I was thinking something of grace as I read.
Probably the biggest criticism of Mormonism that I hear, especially from Evangelical Christians, is about grace. Here's a little tidbit that I came across in college, though. When I was a--I think--a sophomore in college, I took a class called "American Christianity." It was a fascinating comparative religion course between Mormonism and the American brand of Christianity. We talked about Methodists, Puritans, Evangelicals, Congregationalists, Pentecostalism, Episcopalians. Any form of Christianity which was either formed in America, or was especially important in the American brand of Christianity (such as Puritans). Partway through the semester, BYU hosted a interfaith outreach for a group of students from an Evangelical Seminary college. As part of their trip, they sat down with a bunch of us from this American Christianity course. We had lunch and just talked about religion--well and some C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, but that's irrelevant. We talked about similarities. We talked about differences. We asked questions about each other's religions. The ground rules were that there were no ground rules. If they wanted to ask about polygamy, they could. If they wanted to ask about Adam-God doctrine (a esoteric past doctrine which was never really doctrine), they could. If they wanted to ask about the God-Mary union that Talmage talks about (another one of those never really doctrines), they could. As long as they did not ask us to break any temple covenants, they could ask it.
This discussion was one of the most pivotal moments of my faith. I learned so much about my faith, but I also learned so much about their faith, and I learned one huge thing: I don't know why Mormons and Evangelicals aren't the best of friends. If I had to pick one religious group on earth who hated Mormons more than the rest of them combined, it would be Evangelicals. But it's kind of silly, because we actually agree on a huge amount of things and many very pivotal and important things.
Of course, you put a bunch of Evangelicals and a bunch of Mormons in a room together, and you tell them to have at it with religion, there is one topic which couldn't be not breached: Grace.
Ask an Evangelical to make a statement with "Mormon" and "grace" in it, here it is: "How could you Mormons possibly be so conceited as to believe that you have any power to save yourself? We are saved by grace! Christ's grace is the only thing that can save you!"
Ask a Mormon to make a statement with "Evangelical" and "grace" in it, here it is: "How could you Evangelicals possibly believe that God doesn't care what you do? Works matter! Grace isn't a get-out-of-jail free card!"
Most Evangelicals believe that Mormons don't believe in grace. My parents named one of their daughters after it (it's her middle name), so we probably do. Most Mormons believe that Evangelicals believe that you can go around raping, pillaging, plundering and murdering, so long as you believe in Christ. But, Evangelicals still strive to do good things, so they probably don't. Maybe we're both misunderstanding.
And that is the ah-ha moment I had in that room with the Evangelicals. I don't remember which of my Mormon cohorts it was that said it, but they put it beautifully (rough summary, don't remember the exact words). "Well of course Christ is the only way, and we could never save ourselves, but if you actually believed in Christ, you would make every effort you could to be like him. If you don't try your hardest to be worthy of his grace, you obviously never really believed on his name anyways."
And that was the moment when the Evangelicals kind of stopped. "You really believe that?" We all nodded. "We are saved by grace. Our works are the evidence of our faith. That's what faith without works is dead means."
And then one of them said, "That's what we believe. We don't believe that you can just believe in Christ and do whatever you want. We believe that you have to believe in Christ, but that your works are the manifestation of your faith."
And then, magically, that topic was ended. We had realized that we had been scoffing at each other for years, and we believed the same exact thing. Of course, we hadn't gone into the whole, salvation vs. exaltation aspect, but really that's irrelevant to the question. Grace is sufficient. But grace is dependent upon faith. And works are the manifestation of faith.
We had actually gotten onto the topic when an Evangelical person had said, "I've heard that Mormon parents are really strict about good grades and stuff. Is that true?" Almost all of us were kind of surprised by that stereotype, but after we all thought about it, we said, "Well, I guess in my house it was that it was fine if you weren't perfect so long as you tried your hardest." A co-Mormon then related that to how we believed that it is "by grace that [we] are saved after all [we] can do."
Christ isn't the get out of jail free card. He is what makes up the difference after we can't do it. And some people's difference is greater than other people's difference. But Christ makes them all up. And our works don't save us. They never did. But neither are they irrelevant. And I think all of us in that room, Mormons and Evangelicals, learned something very important that day. Don't ever rail on how someone is wrong when you never even took the time to figure out what they were saying. We were speaking different languages, but when it came to translation, it was all the same thing.
And as much as I learned to articulate my faith, and how marvelous that was, I learned many things that day about Grace, about my doctrines, about prayer, about revelation, about destiny/fate/etc. But the biggest lesson that day was to learn to understand.
(If you want to have your mind blown in a similar way, read "How Wide the Divide: A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation" by Craig L Blomberg and Stephen E Robinson)
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