A Rational Theology, as Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day SaintsWidtsoe, John Andreas
Religion
A Rational Theology, as Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Widtsoe, John Andreas
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Theology
**To Love God.** What does it mean, to love God with one's heart and
soul and mind? Certainly, a love of the heart and the soul and the
mind can not be given to a Being who is not known nor understood. Such
love is more than a blind obedience. In such a love there must be a
rational understanding of God's nature and of his place in the
universe and of his relation to men. There must be in such a fulness
of love an acceptance of God's superior knowledge, of his intelligent
Plan for man and of his supreme and final authority. Such a love can
not well be forgotten or survive, unless God is part of a universe,
the orderly outlines of which can be fathomed by the human mind, That
such knowledge may be possessed by man, and that a real unfeigned love
for God may be developed, has been taught in the preceding pages.
Neither can God be fully loved unless he is obeyed; and the first
command is simple, "Multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it."
**To Love a Neighbor as Oneself.** To love oneself--that is easy.
Instinctively, from the first day, we have reached out for our own
greater good. Every personal philosophy makes the man the center. To
love our neighbor equally well--"that's the rub." His will is not our
will; his ways, not our ways. Yet, only by the progress of all, can
each gain the greatest advancement. The fundamental conceptions of a
universe filled with eternal matter and forces, and a host of
individual intelligent beings, make it clear that only by complete
harmony of all intelligent beings can the interests of each be served,
in the work of subjugating, by intelligent conquest, the forces of
universal nature.
To love one's neighbor, then, a man must first know fully his own
origin and destiny and possible powers; then he may soon learn the
need of loving his fellowman, if his love for himself shall grow
great. This commandment is not inferior to the first.
**The Triumph of Man.** The eternal, conscious, willing being, having
become an earthly man, stands before the law of the earth. If he
strives, all the days of his life, to bring into perfect accord, the
God who rules, his earthly brother and himself, he will at length win
the victory in the battle of his life. Out of such a life will come,
among other gifts, controlled personal desires, subjection to law, a
recognition of the great power of man, and the harmonious adjustment
of contending forces to the completion of the Great Plan which governs
man's earth-life. Whether living or dead, such a person has triumphed,
and the journey from the dim beginning has not been in vain. To such
souls comes the reward of the unspeakable joy of a perfect
understanding of the meaning of life, and the living peace that
passeth understanding--through which appears the vital future, ever
vigorously progressing towards an increasing, virile goal.
Have you tried the virtue of the law of the earth? If you have not,
try it now, for it is good.
APPENDIX.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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