Not Stuck on the Specifics

This week I went to Salt Lake and saw the movie Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration on Temple Square. As a young boy Joseph felt a lot of confusion as to which of the many Christian sects in his community he should join. They all preached Christ, but each said that their faith was right and the others were corrupt (Joseph Smith—History 1:9). At one point in the movie Joseph is listening to a sermon in which the preacher basically says, if you unite yourself with a corrupt church you can expect nothing but misery and unhappiness for eternity—so choose wisely. That would certainly make anyone feel a bit of pressure to find the truth!

Joseph decides to turn to an earnest study of the Bible in hopes of finding the answer to his question, that is, which church he should join. He soon finds, however, that he cannot simply turn to the Bible to decide which sect is most doctrinally sound because, "the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (JS—H 1:12). However, Joseph does not abandon the Bible after this discovery, but keeps it has his most vital resource. In the end he finds his answer in James 1:5, which teaches us that if we have questions we can ask God, and since He loves us He will answer. Later in the movie he shows Emma this same verse and asks her to find out for herself whether the message of the Restoration is true.

Josephs experience with reading the New Testament reminded me of a discussion we had in class a couple weeks ago. As Latter-day Saints we believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly (Article of Faith 8). Over the centuries some of the details and specifics have been lost from the text of our New Testament, and various impurities have crept in. We can see this in the varying accounts of the authors of the four Gospels. However, the underlying message and the general principles are still true. We shouldn't get hung up on interpretations of specific scriptures, just as Joseph didn't stop reading just because the teachers of religion had such different ideas about the same verses of scripture. Rather, we should look for the underlying truths that we can apply in our lives. Knowing whether there were one or two angels at the tomb will not influence our eternal salvation, but loving our neighbors, serving our fellow men, and losing our lives in following Jesus' example will.