There are a few instances in the scriptures in which the phrase "the earnest of the Spirit" is used. That specific phrase is found in 2 Corinthians 1:22 and 2 Corinthians 5:5, and the blessing the phrase is describing is referred to, though not in the same words, in other scriptures.
So, what is an earnest? In the Bible Dictionary found in the LDS edition of the King James Version of the Bible, it is described this way: "Earnest. A pledge or security. The word thus translated is a commercial term denoting the deposit paid by a buyer on entering into an agreement for the purchase of anything. As used by Paul (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14) it means that the Lord gives us his Holy Spirit in this life as a foretaste of the joy of eternal life. The Spirit is also the Lord’s surety that he will fulfill his promise to give eternal life to the faithful."
What an incredible blessing, to think that the Lord gives us a foretaste of the joy of living with Him for all eternity! When we feel the Spirit in this life, that is exactly what it is - a foretaste, a small nibble, of the feast of blessings and glory prepared for us as we follow Christ. "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
When things get hard, as they often do along our mortal journey, we need to keep in mind the earnest of the Spirit that we have received. As we continue faithful, that witness from the Spirit is God's personal assurance to us that we will receive eternal life.
I was reminded of this concept of the earnest of the Spirit as I was just reading in The Magician's Nephew, the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia. The characters are there as Narnia is coming into existence and they hear the song of Aslan, who is C.S. Lewis' symbol for Christ throughout the series of books. As the stars appear and join in glorious song with Aslan, one of the characters, a Cabby, exclaims "Glory be! I'd ha' been a better man all my life if I'd known there were things like this." What a poignant statement. If any of us could remember seeing the creation of the world, the majesty and beauty of that process would certainly motivate us to live better lives. If we knew everything about the blessings God desires to give us, we would certainly realize that the things that we often place above God are really of no lasting worth.
My invitation is as the Savior's: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33). For surely, as we receive the earnest of the Spirit, we understand a small piece of what it will be like to live with God. Knowing that what I have felt is only a foretaste of eternal joy, I want to give my heart, might, mind, and strength to the Lord so that, in the Judgment Day, I will receive the entire feast He has prepared. And oh, what a glorious feast it will be!
Matt, I'm an ex-Mormon atheist. What did your post say except "my belief makes me feel good"? I'm sure it does, but don't you have to acknowledge the astronomical improbable chance of being born into/found the right religion?
ReplyDeleteLDS claim to have spiritual experiences (and I had what I used to call spiritual experiences myself). But when every belief system in the world is producing those same feelings as evidence for the validity of THEIR religious claims, don't you ever wonder what makes your spiritual experience any different from theirs? With this sort of approach, you'd have to admit that if you were born in the Middle East, you'd be writing a blog called "Man of Mecca."
I only say this because you appear to invest a lot of time in your blog. Imagine all the tangible good you could be doing. Do you have any idea how (ironically) hard it is for the Provo soup kitchen to find volunteers on Sunday?
In addition to service, do you know what you, personally, are missing? Imagine if you had your ability to experience emotion taken from you. Imagine if speech were withdrawn. Finally, imagine knowledge itself stripped from you... This one isn't so hypothetical. As the priest said in the Count of Monte Cristo, "It can never be taken away." But is having knowledge taken from you any worse than never having it to begin with?
The time you spend writing your blog, fulfilling your calling, attending church, serving missions, attending the temple... You don't have time to learn anything on your own time: least of all the knowledge in the world we BOTH can agree on, most of all anything that conflicts with LDS theology.
Life after leaving the church has been like feeling emotion for the first time. If you can't imagine having the beautiful things in your life taken from you, don't let dogmatic belief KEEP them from you.
Best wishes
Dear ex-Mormon atheist,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I appreciate you spending the time to share your thoughts with me. I hope you enabled notification of future comments so this reply gets to you, and I apologize for not replying sooner. There have not been many comments on my blog as of yet and I just noticed this one.
It seems to me from the beginning of your comment that you have doubts that there could be one "right" religion, and that therefore it is doubtful that God exists because people believe so many contradicting things about Him and try to follow Him (or her or it, depending on who you talk to) in so many different ways, and because so many of them describe being happy doing so. Please correct me if I misunderstood what you meant.
While I do not have a perfect knowledge of many things, I do know some things with a certainty that cannot be shaken. I listen to the apostles and prophets and do my best to follow their counsel, but it is not blindly. The experiences I have had personally are what lead me to follow their counsel.
When the Spirit of God witnesses of truth to my spirit, it gives me as much certainty of that knowledge as reading research about organizational behavior gives me certainty about the important role that a well-planned culture plays in the success of a business... if not more so. I know that God lives. I have read the entire Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price, and the Spirit has witnessed to me that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that Joseph Smith was His instrument to restore the Church that He (Christ) established while He was here on Earth.
What you say may be true - if I were born in the Middle East, I may have been writing a "Man of Mecca" blog. However, that does not destroy God's Plan of Salvation at all. Not all of His children receive a knowledge of Christ and His gospel in its fulness while they are here in mortality. However, if I were writing "Man of Mecca" right now and never heard of Christ in this life, I would hear about Him after I died, and would learn about how the happiness I felt in Islam on Earth could be increased exponentially by accepting all of the teachings of Christ and becoming even more like Him.
That is the true glory of the gospel - the eternal picture that enables each person who ever steps foot on Earth to eventually come to a knowledge of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which gospel is service, for "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17).
Service is an essential part of my life and I know that I am doing tangible good in many ways - whether that is donating goods to a local homeless shelter here in Boston, writing my blog, tutoring kids in a low-income area by helping them with their homework once a week, attending the temple, or spending many hours at church on Sunday worshipping the Lord and strengthening relationships with others who are also seeking to become better people.
I seek knowledge and have found great treasures of knowledge by studying the gospel of Jesus Christ in great depth, as well as by studying many subjects in the world such as business and psychology. The most precious knowledge of all to me is that I have found the way to eternal happiness and can help others find it too - and that is a knowledge I'm certain of. As you and the priest said, "It can never be taken away."