{"id":65550,"date":"2018-09-23T13:38:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T19:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=65550"},"modified":"2018-09-23T19:00:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T01:00:39","slug":"big-questions-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/09\/big-questions-b.html","title":{"rendered":"Big Questions (B)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mexico<\/a>
Evening at the Mexico City Mexico Temple \u00a0 \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In my previous post \u2014 creatively titled \u201cBig Questions (A)\u201d<\/a> \u2014 I responded to a reader\u2019s concerns about the Church\u2019s numbers being small and about the fact that even its numbered members too often have a hard time holding on. \u00a0I continue my reply to him in this post. \u00a0Here\u2019s a continuation of his comment to me:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If we truly all passed the first estate with flying colors by following Christ\u2019s plan why has this earth been such a hell hole for the majority of God\u2019s children? Why did they have to suffer the sins of their fathers who caused the church to be taken from the earth 6 different times? It certainly wasn\u2019t those spirits in heavens waiting to come down fault that their forbearers were wicked was it? The Plan of Salvation just seems so inefficient and selective. Why could\u2019t God have helped just a little bit more? Isnt the Celestial kingdom going to be quite a lonely place? What think ye??<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that, on earth, the Plan of Salvation is in one sense \u201cselective.\u201d \u00a0As I pointed out in my prior response, that seems to be baked into the system. \u00a0The scriptures not only acknowledge it but predict it. \u00a0Whether it\u2019s \u201cinefficient,\u201d though, is a distinct matter. \u00a0Our ability to determine its efficiency or inefficiency depends on how well we understand the intention behind it. \u00a0Efficient at doing . . . what<\/em>, exactly? \u00a0And on that question, although we understand what the end game is, what the Father\u2019s ultimate goal is \u2014 \u201cFor behold, this is my\u00a0work\u00a0and my\u00a0glory\u2014to bring to pass the\u00a0immortality\u00a0and\u00a0eternal\u00a0life\u00a0of man\u201d (Moses 1:39); God \u201cwill have\u00a0all\u00a0men to be\u00a0saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth\u201d (1 Timothy 2:4) \u2014 I\u2019m reasonably confident that we have a very weak grasp of the intervening steps in the process.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For my\u00a0thoughts\u00a0are<\/span>\u00a0not\u00a0your\u00a0thoughts, neither\u00a0are<\/span>\u00a0your\u00a0ways my\u00a0ways, saith the\u00a0Lord<\/span>. \u00a0For\u00a0as<\/span>\u00a0the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my\u00a0ways higher\u00a0than your ways, and my\u00a0thoughts\u00a0than your thoughts.<\/strong> \u00a0(Isaiah 55:8-9)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As to whether the Celestial Kingdom is going to be a lonely place, I rather doubt it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one thing, there are all those many millions of children who have died, and who continue to die, before the age of accountability. \u00a0They\u2019re apparently bound for the Celestial Kingdom. \u00a0For another, I\u2019m something of a quasi-universalist. \u00a0(A topic for another day, that. \u00a0And maybe not on my blog. \u00a0We\u2019ll see. \u00a0To me, it\u2019s a sacred and sensitive subject.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it seems to me that wickedness is what gets people into the Terrestrial Kingdom and the Telestial Kingdom. \u00a0And indifference to truth is a species of wickedness. \u00a0But those who sincerely seek to do right and to find and live by the truth will, I think, be fine in the long run. \u00a0And those, in my still rather sunny view of humanity, is a pretty big group. \u00a0Merely failing to accept a disputed proposition that one maybe didn\u2019t even have the chance to fairly hear, or to hear at all, isn\u2019t going to cost one the opportunity to return to the presence of one\u2019s Father.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This whole question is one of the reasons I so love the gospel and the doctrines of the Restoration. \u00a0I love the concept of salvation for the dead. \u00a0I love temples. \u00a0I do not fear for the future of the hundreds and hundreds of millions who have died without knowing the truth. \u00a0(See, by the way, the solemn event described in this article, almost forgotten today but remembered by God: \u201c100 years ago, US fought its deadliest battle in France.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0The news of the gospel is good beyond fathoming.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, a note on another comment from this reader:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why are there millions of Muslims marching to Mecca every year who are just as sold on their religion as the average LDS? Most of them will never convert in this life or maybe the next. BOM says \u201cwe will rise with same spirit as we had in this life.\u201d Why did\u2019t God cause Mohammad to be killed off in his early days before he could lead so many souls astray? After all God told Nephi \u201cit was better for one man to perish than for a whole Nation to dwindle in unbelief.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(First: I note the use of the verb marching<\/em>. \u00a0It suggests militancy. \u00a0But the hajj<\/em> pilgrimage isn\u2019t militant or militaristic. \u00a0It\u2019s devotional. \u00a0We should be careful not to use inflammatory and misleading language in such cases; there\u2019s already too much heat and too little light in some contemporary Western conversations about Islam.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what the percentage will be, in the next life, of Muslim converts to the gospel. \u00a0I have no idea whether it will be higher than the conversion rate among deceased Catholics or Buddhists or Sikhs or Shintoists, or lower, or the same.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As to why why God didn\u2019t kill Muhammad off \u201cin his early days before he could lead so many souls astray,\u201d I don\u2019t share your premise. \u00a0I\u2019m quite comfortable, to the contrary, with accepting Muhammad as divinely inspired. \u00a0I agree with President Spencer W. Kimball and his counselors<\/a> that Muhammad \u201creceived a portion of God\u2019s light\u201d and that \u201cmoral truths were given to [him] by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.\u201d \u00a0I simply cannot see any plausible way of viewing Muhammad\u2019s effect on seventh-century pagan Arabia as \u201cleading souls astray\u201d and causing the jahili<\/em> Arabs to \u201cdwindle in unbelief.\u201d \u00a0Quite the opposite, in fact.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If God didn\u2019t kill genuinely evil men like Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot or Mao off, why on earth should he have intervened to kill Muhammad<\/em>? \u00a0I don\u2019t regard Muhammad as evil.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m confident that devout Muslims who sincerely tried to live up to the moral ideals of their faith and who sincerely sought God will be entirely okay, and much more than merely okay, in the eternities.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 In my previous post \u2014 creatively titled \u201cBig Questions (A)\u201d \u2014 I responded to a reader\u2019s concerns about the Church\u2019s numbers being small and about the fact that even its numbered members too often have a hard time holding on. \u00a0I continue my reply to him in this post. \u00a0Here\u2019s a continuation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2433,1809,2430,2442,2445],"class_list":["post-65550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-growth","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-missionary-work","tag-plan-of-salvation","tag-salvation-of-the-unevangelized"],"yoast_head":"\nBig Questions (B)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    In my previous post -- creatively titled "Big Questions 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