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The first important point to keep in mind is to remember that there is a difference between ''what we experience and what our experience tells us'' and how ''label'' that experience or ''understand its cause''. | The first important point to keep in mind is to remember that there is a difference between ''what we experience and what our experience tells us'' and how ''label'' that experience or ''understand its cause''. | ||
− | Moroni tells us that we should “not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the | + | Moroni tells us that we should “not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.”<ref> [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/moro/7.14?lang=eng Moroni 7:14]</ref> Therefore, we should be careful to review our experience and what the scriptures say about that experience to accurately determine what might come from God and what might not. We look to the scriptures since, as Christ tells us, if we look to his words then we will not be deceived in the last days.<ref>[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/js-m/1.37?lang=eng Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:37]</ref> |
====If someone feels like they ''can'' or that it is ''okay'' to leave the Church, we may understand this experience better in light of 2 Nephi 2:27-28.==== | ====If someone feels like they ''can'' or that it is ''okay'' to leave the Church, we may understand this experience better in light of 2 Nephi 2:27-28.==== |
As a part of their epistemology, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that commitment and/or belief may be established by spiritual experience. This experience is known as having an experience with the “Holy Ghost” aka the "Holy Spirit."[1] As part of the experience of feeling the Spirit, members will frequently report (among other sensations and phenomena) feelings such as swelling motions in their chest, warmth in the chest, clarity of mind, and revelation of knowledge. These spiritual experiences are said to be able to lead you into the truth of all things.[2]
Some have reported that they have had spiritual experiences that have confirmed to them that they are okay to resign membership in the Church. Why would the Spirit confirm to someone that they’re okay to leave the Church?
This article responds to this question.
The first important point to keep in mind is to remember that there is a difference between what we experience and what our experience tells us and how label that experience or understand its cause.
Moroni tells us that we should “not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.”[3] Therefore, we should be careful to review our experience and what the scriptures say about that experience to accurately determine what might come from God and what might not. We look to the scriptures since, as Christ tells us, if we look to his words then we will not be deceived in the last days.[4]
Some might have experienced receiving a prompting that they can or that it is okay for them to leave the Church should they desire it. This is entirely consistent with what we find in 2 Nephi 2:27-28:
What’s interesting about this passage is that it tells us to choose eternal life, according to the will of his Holy Spirit. We are free to choose eternal life and salvation or captivity and death. The Spirit can confirm that we are free to choose either and encourage us to move towards salvation. It cannot tell us that we should move towards captivity and death. This is where we proceed to the other half of conversation.
Some might have experienced receiving a prompting that they should leave the Church. These experiences will need to be interpreted as inspired by false spirits and revelation. We are told by the Lord that there are “many spirits which are false spirits, which have gone forth in the earth, deceiving the world. And also Satan hath sought to deceive you, that he might overthrow you” (D&C 50:2-3).
Satan and these spirits are naturally going to try and lead you away from God, Christ, and their Church. The scriptures warn us about this several times (Moroni 7:12, 17).
Doctrine and Covenants 52 gives us this pattern for understanding spirits. Doctrine and Covenants 52 was given through Joseph Smith at a Church conference in Kirtland, Ohio on June 6, 1831. As the section heading to D&C 52 states in the 2013 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, “certain manifestations of false and deceiving spirits were discerned and rebuked.” This portion of the revelation, consisting of verses 14-21, gives a pattern whereby all people can know if a spirit is from God or not:
Thus, if you are being led to not obey God’s ordinances (probably best interpreted as “commandments”) that he has given to this Church, then you are being led away from him. The people who are following true spirits are those that are being made strong and bringing forth fruits of praise and wisdom because they follow the revelations and truths that God has given us.
What are some of those commandments? These include being baptized in the Lord’s “only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (D&C 1:30). The Lord commands all people to even be rebaptized if not baptized into his true church (D&C 22). They include enduring to the end faithful in the covenant made with God so you can have eternal life (2 Nephi 31:16, 20). If a spirit is leading you away from these commandments, then it cannot be the Holy Spirit and should therefore be rejected.
D&C 50:31–33 gives us another way to discern false spirits:
This procedure may be helpful for dealing with this type of impression.
Some people might have one last question spring up because of an experience like this and that is “how am I supposed to really know that I’m following spirits that actually exist and not just my own brain chemistry being interpreted as such?”
This is a good question. There is perhaps a lot more that can be said about this elsewhere on the site.
One point that might be brought up here is that revelation given through Joseph Smith has a lot of evidence to support it. The Book of Mormon, Book of Moses, and Book of Abraham can be rigorously defended as authentic and ancient by some of the best that secular scholarship has to offer us today.[5] If these books of scripture are historical, then they confirm that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that actual spirits exist, and that this way of interpreting spiritual experience is the one that will actually lead us to eternal life with God.
These questions are sometimes scary if we don’t have the right principles in mind when evaluating spiritual experiences and revelation; but it is the author’s hope that laying the right principles out in this article explicitly will help bring some peace to the hearts of those that have struggled with this question and lead all of us to the “thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths” that our Heavenly Parents have promised us if we are faithful to the end and keep all their commandments (D&C 132:19).
Notes
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