More on Doctrines (some deep-ish) of My Church

Susanne asked some really GREAT questions on a blog belonging to a friendly aquaintance of mine.  I loved the questions so much, especially after the challenge and joy of responding to some questions my friendly aquaintance posed as queries others might have (on her blog), that I decided I just needed to answer Susanne!  I hope you don't mind, Suzanne, assuming you ever read them.  ^_^
Your questions are in italics, unaltered.  I'm totally happy with any comments or questions you may have, too.

"Aren’t we good enough to be in heaven without having to adopt extra gods?"
I'm not really sure why you think we have to adopt extra gods.  Certainly Mormons believe in only God the Father, Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost which three constitute our One God.

"or being sealed forever?"
Being sealed to one's spouse for eternity is not a matter of being good enough.  The sealing ordinance performs the unification of two into one for longer than life.  Marriage under man's law makes the union for life, sealing carries it through death.  So, the sealing ordinance has really nothing to do with being "good enough," except that both parts of the union must be striving to be "good enough" to be exhalted.

"or having to accept Joseph Smith as a prophet?"
I would ask a question in return: Aren't we good enough to not need Moses as a prophet?  Or, weren't the Israelites good enough that they didn't need Moses for a prophet.  I think the answer is both yes and no.  Yes, certainly they could return to Father's presence without Moses.  But no because they could not escape the captivity of their generation.  And for generations afterward (and Jews still today) who practiced the ordinances of the Mosaic Law.  These are performances that are meant to sanctify and bring those who do them unto the Lord.  So too, for the contemporaries of Joseph Smith through the generations to the present day.

"or having to do good works?"
So, would you refute the Bible?  Faith without works is dead, it says in the Holy book.  But you would argue that we are 'good enough' without good works to get into Heaven.  1+1=2 whether we like it that way or not.  :)

"What if we simply want to accept Jesus’ work on the cross as the only thing necessary for salvation and realize our good works stem from abiding in Him not as a means to earn a higher level of heaven?"
Such a desire is perfection.  Our good works DO stem from abiding in Him.  They do not "earn" us a higher degree of heaven.  By abiding in Him (doing good works), we are sanctified and purified and perfected (not made perfect in this life, but moved ever nearer to perfection).  This sanctification and purification and movement toward perfection enable us to endure a potential eternity nearer His presence.  No unclean thing can enter His presence, so surely no unclean thing can abide His presence for eternity.  No one of us will ever attain perfection in this life.  So we must rely upon Grace.  However, let's say there are two people who profess Jesus as their Savior on the same day.  Then one of them spends the rest of life abiding in Christ, performing good works under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and loves to and years to abide in His presence always, then dies.  While the other falls into lustfull living, doing all manner of evil in the sight of the Lord, and lives in a manner so that this person feels GREAT discomfort at the thought of being among believers and cannot even contemplate entering God's presence for the shame of the life this person led....  Would it be justice for our Father in Heaven to force this second person into the same place as the first?  Would it be justice in God to force the first to endure eternity in the environs that second would feel comfortable in?  This is where the Degrees of Glory come in, you see.

"'Without me you can do nothing,' Jesus tells us. He tells us to abide in Him and He would bring forth good fruit in us. Why do we need to accept LDS doctrines?"
We believe... I believe that the Doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are the fully restored Doctrines Jesus Christ taught when He was in His ministry on earth among the Jews.  We/I believe many plain and simple truths were lost through the Great Apostacy, which Jesus and Paul (I think) prophesied.

"I’m curious why the need for LDS missionaries – is this not a waste of time and resources that could be used to feed the poor or fight sex traffickers or provide clean water or mosquito nets that would save thousands of lives?"
We believe it is the duty of every person who learns truth to share it with their spirit siblings.  We believe we have the most complete truth about the nature of God and His Way for His Children, and desire to share these truths.  Missionaries are full-time sharers of these truths.

"Maybe you believe you are encouraging people to marry and be sealed for all time and that idea is worth going into all the world and preaching to every creature? Is this why Mormons are all over the world?"
Missionaries teach about those things, it is true.  And yes, this is part of the message we are striving to share all over the world.  But it is only a part.  We also teach about the true nature of God, the truth of our Father speaking to and visiting His lost sheep, and more.

"My mom’s family has several missionaries so I try to understand the missionary mindset, but it makes more sense to me when I feel like they want to tell people about Jesus so HE can save them from hell. But if there were no hell (by the way, I’d love for y’all to be right about this!! truly!) then I wouldn’t bother. If most everyone is OK just as they are, why leave family, go to another land and tell people their faith isn’t good enough (which can be insulting if you think about it)? Maybe “going to hell” is a bad reason to share your faith and yours is better? But what is it? You have to be LDS in order to have the BEST heaven? I’d join LDS just because their hell is so small, but what if you are wrong about that and hell is bigger than we think?"
We do teach that Jesus Christ saves us from evil and the result of sin.  If we sin with knowledge, we are exiled from God's presence.  As "nice" as the Tilestial (lowest degree of heaven) is, it's NOT eternity in God's presence.  And I'm pretty sure there is reference in the Bible to the idea that living out of God's presence is no treat, regardless of how nice it is.  The only way to attain eternity in God's presence is in and through and by Jesus Christ.  For, as you know, He is the way, the truth and the light.  And only in and through Him can we be saved.

Being able to attain the Celestial Kingdom (the BEST heaven, as you put it) is determined more by sanctification and whether all of the necessary ordinances to obtain the presence of God have been performed.  Since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the physical manifestation of the RESTORED fullness of Christ's Gospel, we have the most truth and part of that truth is the ordinances necessary to obtain the Father's presence.

Whether we (Mormons) are right or wrong about the number of folks who may be exiled to outerdarkness (hell) or not should really not be a concern for any good Christian.  For if we, Christians, are leading lives Led of the Lord we don't have to worry about hell... and focusing our attention there avails us less ability to focus where we should be focused.  If we only do good to avoid hell, then we're running away from something, rather than focusing on Christ and being sanctified.

"I always heard Lucifer wanted to be like God and this was what caused his fall. You have to understand why it’s difficult for someone like me to accept the notion that Mormons *want to be like God.* Or be gods…how is that different from Lucifer?"
This is different from the devil because we Mormons do not desire to take our Father's Glory.  We strive and work and live and love (just as all Christians do) to Glorify our Father.  The deceiver wanted to perform a form of the saving work Jesus Christ actually did, but instead of doing it the Lord's way (which Christ did do), the devil wanted to do it his own way AND obtain God's Glory for his own.  Jesus Christ was our exemplar when He said by His life and death, "Thy Will be done, not mine."  I believe that by becoming a god with my eternal mate I will always be a child of my Heavenly Father's and that any Glory I may attain will also be His... so, in the way that my earthly parents are always older than me, God the Father will always be "ahead" of me.

"Or maybe you believe Lucifer isn’t so bad and we have wrongly pegged him when he, too, will really be in that big wonderful heaven. Do you?"
Lucifer is the pre-existence name of him who is now known as the devil.  He is the father of lies.  He is the evil one.  He is the great deceiver.  He is miserable and desires all of us to be miserable as he.  We, Mormons, know these truths, as do you.

"By the way, do you believe Jesus and Paul were married?"
No way.  I've heard a lot of out-there stuff, but that's the most out-there to date.

"Also, how do gay couples figure into Mormon theology?"
Gay marriage, in our belief, is not recognized by God.  He did not organize or intend for a homosexual couple to copulate, much less consider themselves 'married.'

"And divorced people?"
I'm not completely sure.  I believe (that we believe) there will be a great deal of Grace for those divorced during our day.  Perhaps an even greater measure of Grace, given the world in which we live.  I definitely believe (and Mormons do) that divorce is not the goal; whether you are married by man or in the temple.  We DO believe the Bible to be the Word of God, so long as it is translated correctly.  So, Paul had a few words about marriage and the use of it.  I know, at one point, he said that if one were married to an unbeliever the believer should never leave, but if the unbelieving spouse left, to let them go.  Also, I believe he also said that it was important that the believer NOT leave because s/he never could tell if they would be the way and means by which their spouse would be saved.

"And couples unable to conceive?"
They are able to enter the Celestial Kingdom if all else is in accordance to God's Commands and Expectations.  He is the ultimate judge of all, anyway!

"or couples like me and my husband who never wanted children?"
Living childless for selfish reasons is, I believe, not pleasing to the Lord (given His first Commandment in the Garden) and could potentially cause those who make such a choice to suffer more than necessary if they had kept that Commandment.  If they were able, and chose NOT to keep the Commandment (just like any Commanment)... well, there is a blessing and punishment predicated on all obedience or disobedience (respectively).

NOTE:
I did strive to declare what I believe, but I do believe what I believe is according to correct Doctrines of my Church.  :)

On Some Deep-ish Doctrine of My Church

I know a sweet, lovely lady who writes beautifully.  Recently she wrote a post which contained questions she proposed that others might have about our Heavenly Mother.  I'm LDS (plain to see by lots of things in the sidebars).  If you didn't know we believe in a Heavenly Mother, like unto our Heavenly Father, then I encourage you to learn more about my religion.  And if you'd like a great blog to read about this and other topics pertaining to the LDS Faith, I'm happy to share!

So, I'm not the final word, or anything, of course, but I feel like I have something to say about this quote I found in this amazing lady's blog.  She wrote, "If we worship our  Father, what could be inappropriate about worshiping our Mother? Is there something inherent about being female that makes Her unworthy of worship? Is She a lesser being, not quite as divine as the Father, a sort of demi-goddess? Or not divine at all? Is She perhaps just some lucky woman who ended up married to God?"

Good questions, right?  Well, I hope you think my answers are somewhat acceptable!  ^_^  I'm not the final word, but I feel like I've been Led pretty strongly to some great points of understanding... I feel great clarity about this subject... I only hope, by The Holy Spirit, I'm able to communicate it here to you!!!  ^_^

One answer I'd always heard is that Heavenly Father loves his wife so much that He cannot stand for her to be profaned.  This could (did to me!) seem like a bit of a cop out.  "Yeah, right.  SURE!  What-ev!" I thought and felt!!!  Truly.  I did!  Don't you!?!

But I've had some experiences in my own horribly human marriage (which is not eligible for sealing by the Holy Spirit of Promise as yet since my husband is not LDS and so, of course, we have not been sealed in the temple).  Notwithstanding our marriages cyclic horrible and numerous problems, Jessie is a good guy.  A really good guy, when he's on that side of the line!  There have been quite a few instances, a few distant and one all too recent, when others in the world have been on "attack Tori" mode.  To my great surprise and pleasure, Jessie has put on some mighty spiffy armor and gone in sword raise to defend me.   Then there are some instances in which our children have shown more than the normal disrespectful behavior toward me with my husband present and his armor appeared out of thin air.  The point?  The point is that his outward show of protective love for me is a mere smidgey, practically insignificant relatively speaking, show compared to how Heavenly Father loves His woman.  A smidgey... insignificant... (NOT to ME... but in comparison!)

Can you imagine how much our Heavenly Father would want to do harm to those who would malign our Heavenly Mother (His Wife)?  I mean, think about the peeps at Noah's time... that was for, what?  Because they didn't worship Him, right?  I mean... it wasn't like he gave them a day and said, "If you don't shape up, you're all going to die!"  He gave them more than 600 years worth of days.  Right.  But reason the whole earth was depopulated was for lack of devotion and worship of their creator... not necessarily constant maligning of Him... just disobedience.  ("Just"  HA!  I know that's silly... but I use it to make a point.)  I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to think that, among the other bad choices made, there were plenty enough of those who didn't get on the boat who were worshipping Gaia (or some such heavenly mother of all (including any and all gods)).  I guess I can just see so much more now how that really could be a BIG part of the direction to focus on worshipping God, rather than trying to split worship.  And as I wrote those last few words of that last sentence there comes to my mind a scripture that references serving two masters.  I'm sure you know the one.  I'm not going to look it up right now.  The meaning is written on my heart, if you need the book, chapter, and verse, I'll leave you to that.  ;)

I also feel like Heavenly Mother doesn't care for the attention.  Now, this could come from observation of some really amazing women (and some men), but the most amazing servants I have observed are usually those who don't want anyone to know they are serving.  They feel uncomfortable when others speak to them of their service.  I think this is a trait born of our Heavenly Mother.  She is the origination point (from the Whole) of that feeling... at least, this is what I feel and believe!  :)

Also, I think it becomes difficult for humans to differentiate between God worship, God AND Godess worship versus exclusive worship of a godess.  I think that the way I just wrote that may not be very clear....  To explain differently: if we, as the LDS church, were to try to promote worship by addressing the pair as a whole, too many Mormons AND non-members alike would be unable to focus on the two and would turn to only one or the other.  (go back to the book, chapter and verse I know you totally had to look up... and we find a potential key to the problem?)  Yes, Mormons (mostly) know that the Heavenly Couple are United - a whole, incomplete without the other.  However, the very nature of your (our) questions, reveal how much we truly do NOT understand the totality of the wholeness and unity which IS Them.  Ya know?

I think, also, that our egos are way more of a problem than we realize.  We, as humans, but perhaps especially women (because we live in a Patriarchal world (for the most part)) are put in a position in which we "must" be humble... maybe even more humble, generally speaking than men?  I mean, what man could deal with constantly being told he was (whether purposefully or not, whether by word or deed) "less than" his wife.  Admittedly, those men who do this (whether in leadership or simply in the home are exibiting the epidomy of unrighteous dominion, but that's basically a whole other subject, isn't it??)  Okay, well, the current mainstream culture is being excluded from my consideration for the sake of the position I'm presenting (particularly because the whole man-hate thing is really NEW in the scheme of things - at least in the last hundred + year)... Guys just couldn't deal/cope/function and still stay faithful and attend church regularly and feel good about themselves generally.  Feel free to tell me if you think I'm wrong about that.  I am NOT male bashing here.  I'm just suggesting that men cannot cope with being in women's shoes (just as I could not and DO NOT want to be in a man's!!!!).  Not most guys, anway!  But as a woman, we must do as most men could not because human males are, well... HUMAN!  They (general assumption, I DO know there are exceptions!) just don't GET the unity thing and, instead, buy into the easier: "I'm the man, so what I say goes," malarky.  Which means they are discounting or completely ignoring  other aspects of how Father God has told them to be toward their Wife (even in only the Holy Bible, for crying out loud)!

To answer the above quoted questions more directly (for my own clarity of thought):

Question:
"If we worship our Father, what could be inappropriate about worshiping our Mother?"

My DIRECT answer:
Taking the two apart is a bit of sacrilidge, maybe?  I mean, they twain shall become ONE is so much more complete than I think we can possibly understand.  So, trying to take them apart and address them seperately is #1 beside the point, #2 disobedient to what we have heard from our Prophet, and #3 see number one.  Right?

Question:
"Is there something inherent about being female that makes Her unworthy of worship?"

My DIRECT answer:
ABSOLUTELY positively and without a shadow of a doubt: NO!  It is, I believe, truly the opposite of this.  It is desire to protect, shield, shelter, defend that our Father God would have us not address her.  For to address her respectfully puts Her in the light of awareness to all and thus sort of paints a target on her for those who would DISrespect her....  I mean, there must needs be opposition in all things.  So if there are 10 folks (like you) who desire to worship Her openly, there must needs be 10+ folks who would malign, disrespect, abuse, and otherwise negatively treat Her to the best of their ability.
Question:
"Is She a lesser being, not quite as divine as the Father, a sort of demi-goddess? Or not divine at all?"
My DIRECT answer:
No way.  See above.  Not just the direct answers.  :)

 Question:
"Is She perhaps just some lucky woman who ended up married to God?"

My DIRECT answer:
Certainly you know this is a rather silly question as soon as it is re-read.  Don't you??  We learn and must know, on some level, that Godhood (of male or female) is UNachievable without the Other.  So, the Other is a key "ingredient" or a key Member of the whole that achieves.

If one (lone male) cannot achieve that Celestial degree of Glory, then the contributions of the Other will necessarily CONTRIBUTE to the achievement.  Right?  Thus, she is not the lucky "one," but, in fact, they are the "lucky" pair to have found and worked hard enough together to stay together and stridently enough to achieve unity.

I'm thinking of a climbing analogy.  I don't climb, but tried it.  I wasn't good at it.  I slipped a LOT.  I dislike holding others down or back!  Anyway... the analogy:  A couple meet in the midst of their climb.  They get married.  By their married (sealed or civil) they accept bindings to each other.  A temple sealed marriage has a sort of binding that is more complete than a civilly married couple.  The two look ahead and plan the point to which they desire to climb and agree on a course to achieve it (hopefully).  So, they set out.  Sometimes they each climb really well and they are both happy with each other.  Other times one slips and the other has to try to not slip.  This is frustrating for the one who did not slip and can result in some negative returns.  If there are too many slips on the climb to Celestial Glory from either (or, heaven forbid both) partner(s), the pair will not reach the pinnacle in any sort of timely fashion... if ever.  Only when there is constant thought, desire (emotion for my analogy), spiritual commitment, and temporal effort made from both spouses will the pair achieve the topmost point/goal of their climb.  Once sealed, two are tether together by almost unbreakable chords.  Discord, malcontentment, anger, hate, etc. can break them, it is true, but only after long sawing at the bindings.  Those who reach the top have achieved a point of Unity which is Sealed by the Holy Ghost, which makes their binding truly Eternal, more complete than we can understand in our finite condition.

The point?  She didn't just luck out in finding a good climber.  They were either both good climbers.  OR the better climber taught the other, in a way that the other could receive, how to climb so that they could achieve their goals.  Is one luckier than the other?  I think not!  For even if one started out a better climber, s/he could not have achieved the top unless the other made equal efforts.

So, too, with our Heavenly Mother.  She did not dangle on the end of her bindings.  The Holy Spirit would not Seal such.  Don't you think so?