My Articles of Faith

I was thinking the other day about what my standards of faith are, or how I look at and evaluate others’ faith (something I try not to do, since it always involves speculation and unfair judgments) as a clue to what I value. This is not an exhaustive list, but serves as some sort of guidance to what presently strike me as my own ‘articles of faith’.  

 

A billiard ball because, why not? offsetjournal.com

1.     God is Love and love will always overcome fear. (1 John 4:8, 18)

2.     “The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.” Erich Fromm

3.     “It’s natural to have questions — the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding,” Uchtdorf

4.     Truth should be embraced whatever its source. All Truth comes from God and truth is what makes us free. (John 8:32)

5.     God is the Divine Masculine (Heavenly Father) and Divine Feminine (Heavenly Mother). Both pieces necessary to complete God.

6.     God speaks to all of us, if we are willing to listen. This revelation can serve to enlighten our minds and better our lives.

7.     Scripture is an account of God inspiring the minds of people throughout history and what they learned. Scripture encompasses much more than the ‘canon,’ including everything that teaches Truth- be that literature, poetry, film, art, music, nature, etc.

8.     Questions may be our Answers. Life is like a game of Jeopardy. We are given all these things that don’t seem to make sense and we need to ask the right questions to make sense of them. Finding questions is the goal. Not finding answers to those questions. “That Detective, is the right question.”- I, Robot

9.     The fundamentals of the Gospel include: Faith (extending to the triad of Faith-Hope-Charity), Repentance (we all make mistakes), Baptism (a reminder of the need to immerse ourselves in the Gospel), Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost (the constant process of seeking and following, not just the ordinance) and Enduring to the End (As Rocky reminded us, “Ain’t nothin’ over till it’s over”).

10. Life did not begin with birth, nor will it end with death.

11.  Knowledge and belief have different powers and insights. A declaration of belief is not less than a declaration of knowledge, nor a declaration of knowledge less than that of belief.

12. Christ is our Savior, brother and friend. He atoned for our sins and prepared the way for us to return to our Heavenly Home.

13. It is not for us to judge, but to love.