Chapter Six

Faith, Testimony, and Our Perception of God

A little reflection, I believe, will suggest a number of differences [between our Church and other faiths], but the one I wish to emphasize . . . is our beliefs and faith in Jesus Christ—not our belief that there is a God, but rather our peculiar concept about his nature and identity, and our relationship to him.

Marion G. Romney

A Quick Review

Here is the premise I have tried to establish so far in the book:

A person’s concept of God and his or her understanding of God’s attributes and dealings with His children will directly influence the strength of that person’s faith and the depth of his or her testimony.

This is just another way of stating Joseph Smith’s three requirements for faith:

First, the idea that he actually exists.

Secondly, a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes.

Thirdly, an actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to his will. For without an acquaintance with these three important facts, the faith of every rational being must be imperfect and unproductive.¹

If that initial premise is true, which we affirm it is, then two more follow:

The stronger one’s faith is, the deeper one’s testimony will be.

The deeper one’s testimony becomes, the greater the likelihood is that one will successfully cope with the challenges of life and endure to the end.

Since our perception of God and faith are so closely linked together, coming to a correct understanding and acceptance of the nature and character of God has great relevance for those who live in these perilous times. This is what makes the difference between a Stillman Pond and a Symonds Ryder, a Drusilla Hendricks and a Thomas B. Marsh.

With this in mind, let us explore various conceptions and perceptions of God that are prevalent in the world today and are held among Latter-day Saints to one degree or another. These are general summaries rather than a detailed exploration, and I recognize, at the outset, that people’s beliefs, suppositions, or conclusions are held with varying degrees of intensity and may change over time or due to specific circumstances. Also, human nature being what it is, often a person holds (to at least some degree) more than one of these concepts of God at the same time, even if the ideas may seem contradictory with each other.

As we examine various perceptions, I shall make a few comments on how this belief might influence an individual’s response to the challenges that come in life.

A Nonexistent Deity

While my wife and I were doing mission tours in Europe, we heard many missionaries talk about people they had met who were members of one church or another but declared themselves to be atheists. When asked by the missionaries if they belonged to a church, they would nod and say, “Well, I’m a Catholic (or Anglican, or Lutheran, or Presbyterian, etc.), but I don’t believe in God.” (I know one or two avowed atheists or agnostics who still hold affiliation in or identify themselves with the LDS Church, strange as that may seem.)

Many educated and highly intelligent people consider themselves in this category. They openly reject or scoff at the idea of a supreme being. Like Korihor in the Book of Mormon, they believe that men fare in this life “according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and . . . every man conquered according to his strength,” and that “when a man was dead, that was the end thereof” (Alma 30:17–18).

To them, a tsunami that kills hundreds of thousands of people is a force of nature. It is not some cosmic punishment, as some would have us think, or part of a grand design for mankind. In fact, this group often points to such events as proof that there is no God. Adversity happens, they say. Tribulation is part of life. Trying to credit every misfortune to some supernatural entity is pure foolishness, and whining about them is an exercise in futility.

An Irrelevant Deity

Many other people in the world do not reject the idea of a God, but they don’t see that He has any personal relevance in their lives or any place in the modern world. While serving in the area presidency for Western Europe I saw many examples of this belief. Church attendance among most Europeans is sparse. Often they come to the church for help only in the three great events of life: birth, marriage, and death.

One night on television we saw a news special on religious attitudes and practices in the United Kingdom. When asked to name the individual who had the greatest influence on determining how they lived, the person named first by more people than anyone else was David Beckham, the famous British soccer superstar. Mother Teresa of India was second. Jesus came in fourth.

On another similar news broadcast, a reporter interviewed various people on the street and asked them how they felt about God. I remember clearly the answer of one pleasant-looking young man in his mid-twenties. When asked if he believed in God, he furrowed his brow momentarily and then shrugged and said, “Yeah, mate, I suppose I do. But to be honest, I don’t really much care one way or another.”

A Distant and Holy God

Most devout and dedicated believers in God believe there is a tremendous gap between man’s own inherently evil and imperfect nature and God’s majesty and perfect holiness. We feel this difference keenly and this creates a deep sense of reverential awe, perhaps even fear. But this sense of distance can also create a feeling that God is not approachable by people like us. We do not pray to Him because we feel our problems are so far below His exalted station, that it is highly presumptuous to ask for His help.

Some Christians look to Mary or canonized saints to serve as intermediaries between them and God. Since the saints lived exemplary lives of sanctity and righteousness, it is believed they have more ready access to God and thus can enhance the likelihood that one’s prayers will be heard by God.

Though we may not carry it out in such a formalized way, this desire to enhance the likelihood that our petitions will be heard by God is quite natural and may be manifested in other ways. For example, members of Protestant churches may ask their pastor to pray for them in difficult times because they feel he or she may be “more in tune” than they are. Some in the Jewish faith write their petitions on small pieces of paper and insert them into the cracks of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the only remaining remnant of God’s holy house in Israel. Sometimes in our own church, a father will seek out the bishop, stake president, or even a General Authority to give a priesthood blessing to a family member because the father doesn’t feel that he is as faithful as one of his leaders. Another common practice is to ask family members or friends to join us in fasting and praying for help from the Lord. This desire for greater power with God is a human reaction to our very keen awareness of the difference between God’s holiness and our humanity.

Another common, yet more concerning manifestation of this sense of distance, comes when an individual engages in a lifestyle contrary to Church standards. This creates a sense of guilt and unworthiness and adds to one’s feeling that he or she cannot approach God directly anymore. It is not that they believe that God isn’t there, or that He doesn’t care. It is that they cannot believe that He could still care for them after all they have done.

This point of view is well illustrated by the words of a young woman who had grown up in the Church and had a strong testimony of God’s reality. At age ten she was sexually abused. She hid the abuse and the growing sense of utter worthlessness and guilt that rose in her. Eventually she entered a same-gender relationship. Though this met her longing for love and acceptance, it added to her guilt, and she began abusing alcohol and drugs. She struggled constantly to overcome the addictions. She met with priesthood leaders, studied the scriptures, fasted, and prayed. Sometimes she made progress; other times she fell back. She described her struggle in these words:

I continued to abuse alcohol in an attempt to fix the pain and build a bridge across the great abyss. The pain was debilitating. The darkness was all-consuming. It was as if my very identity was being ripped apart. . . .

When I needed strength from the Lord, I often could not grasp it. I believe He was holding out His hand, but I felt terribly unworthy to respond. I mistakenly believed His love had to be earned.²

Here’s how another victim of sexual abuse expressed it:

Because of things which had been done to me in my childhood, it was very difficult for me to want to establish a close relationship with God. . . . It was much easier for me to worship him from a distance. I had no desire for him to know me, and I thought I could hide myself from him. In my opinion, he didn’t really want to know someone like me anyway. I had been through such awful experiences, and I was sure that God, in all of his perfection, would be abhorred to know who I really was.³

These individuals do not question God’s reality, and the one even mentions His perfection, but they still view Him as unapproachable. That is an excellent example of how a person can hold two conflicting perceptions of God at the same time.

A Living but Uninvolved Deity

Another perception of God is that He is real, that He exists, but that His relationship to us is not personal. Such people refer to God in more general terms such as Providence, or the First Cause, or the Grand Designer. They do not in any way doubt the existence of God, but neither do they perceive Him to be a deity who is intimately, or even distantly, involved in our lives. They typically do not believe in supernatural (i.e., miraculous) events. They do not think of God as hovering in the heavens above us, watching our actions and intervening in our behalf.

To them, when tragedy or misfortune strikes, they do not look to God for help. They feel that it is something that is a natural result of the divine creation, and they feel they have to learn to accept it and deal with it as best they can.

A Harsh and Vengeful Deity

In the scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, there are many references to God’s anger, and numerous warnings that He will take vengeance upon the wicked. In one instance, He sent down fire from heaven to destroy them (see 2 Kings 1:10). In another case, the earth opened and swallowed up those who had been disobedient (see Numbers 26:10). The New Testament also speaks of a “lake of fire burning with brimstone” to which the wicked will be consigned for eternity (Revelation 19:20). During the Dark Ages and Medieval times, this view was taken quite literally, and there are numerous lurid and gruesome depictions of such a punishment in both art and literature.^*

Even those who reject the idea of a literal burning in hell may still view God as a stern, harsh, judgmental deity. They see God as hovering over us, but with a critical eye, scrutinizing our every action, looking for the tiniest infraction of the rules.

Here is one novelist’s depiction of how one of her characters viewed God. Though fictional, the description accurately portrays the feelings of some people.

He would shroud God in [dark] clouds and terrible lightnings and make of Him, not a loving Father, merciful and full of lovingkindness, but a Judge armed with terror and vengeance, seeking out the smallest sin or error in order to punish it most cruelly, and delighting not in His children but regarding them as an oppressive king regards his people, suspecting them of crimes and rebellions, and preparing for them the most hideous flagellations and death.⁴

Such a perception of God could easily lead a person to conclude that adversity, tribulation, or natural catastrophes are the direct result of God’s punishment for man’s wickedness. Even personal tragedy is viewed as the penalty for some infraction of the law.

A Grandfather in Heaven

On the other hand, some people think of God in quite the opposite manner. They picture Him to be so filled with love, kindness, and mercy that there is nothing to fear at all in our relationship with Him. Nephi, the son of Lehi, prophesied that such attitudes would be prevalent in our day:

There shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us. And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. (2 Nephi 28:7–8)

This view reflects a perception of God as a benign, mellow, generously tolerant, forever long-suffering and forgiving Deity. Much like overindulgent parents who spoil their children and rarely hold them accountable for their actions, they perceive God as too loving, too merciful, and too nice to really punish a person for being bad. Well, yes, He may be annoyed when we misbehave, but after a sharp rap or two on the wrist, He will take us into His arms and assure us that everything is okay.

C. S. Lewis, the great defender of Christianity, saw this as a prevalent attitude among some Christians:

What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, “What does it matter so long as they are contented?” We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, “liked to see young people enjoying themselves”, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.”⁵

The problem with this perception—or rather, this misperception—is that when life is good and all is in peace and harmony, our feelings about God sustain us adequately. But continual peace, comfort, harmony, and joy are not the natural conditions of this life, as we have discussed. Thus when things go wrong, people who view God more like a grandfather in heaven, can be completely knocked from their moorings. Suddenly life contradicts their warm and fuzzy picture of the divine nature. “This isn’t fun,” they cry. “I thought God loved me. Doesn’t He know how very unpleasant all this is for me?”

This view runs completely contrary to their perception that God is like a divine Santa Claus or some “cosmic errand boy”⁶ who stands around anxiously awaiting orders from us. They think God’s whole purpose is to keep us happy: doing our chores and cleaning up our messes after us. When we no longer need Him, then He should just go away and not bother us again until we call.

If God does not conform to that expectation, they grow petulant and annoyed. “If He isn’t careful,” they warn, “we’ll punish Him by withholding our acceptance of Him. We’ll stop praying to Him, and that will show Him.”

To Summarize

The great paradox of life—joy and sorrow, happiness and pain—is all part of the testing, proving, refining process that God has designed for us. How we deal with that paradox, how we cope with the opposition that life naturally provides, will be greatly influenced by our perception of God. Indeed, it could be said that the very core of the testing process of mortality is to see whether we accept God or reject Him, whether we follow Him or turn away, to see how we feel about Him when the tribulum begins grinding over our heads, driving out any expectations we might have had that we were going to “have a nice day.”

We have discussed perceptions of God that may leave us floundering when life comes rolling over us. Let us now discuss the “correct” idea of God that will give us the strength we need to construct our lives on the bedrock.

Notes

Epigraph. Marion G. Romney, in Conference Report, April 1959, 9.

^1. Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 38; emphasis in original.

^2. Erin Eldridge, Born That Way? A True Story of Overcoming Same-Sex Attraction with Insights for Friends, Families, and Leaders (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1994), 14.

^3. “The Journey in Healing,” Ensign, September 1997, 21.

^4. Taylor Caldwell, Great Lion of God (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008), 91.

^5. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 31.

^6. It is hard to determine who first coined this title. Examples of its use can be found on the Internet by searching the phrase “cosmic errand boy.”

^* The Book of Mormon makes it clear that the fire is a metaphorical or symbolic description of the eternal torment experienced by those who reject God in mortality (e.g., see 2 Nephi 9:16, 19, 26; 28:23; Jacob 6:10; Mosiah 3:27; Alma 12:17).