A Faith Beyond: Understanding the Gospel's Least-Understood Principle (Part 7)

Holy Envy

I encountered two examples of counter-cultural faith this week.  One involved a group of Amish workers and the other an Orthodox Jew.

It may surprise you to know that ― even though I give religion a hard time (only the parts I find hypocritical) ― I am impressed by devout people.

You'll find me to be the staunchest advocate for the Eleventh Article of Faith on the block.

So the Amish: I watched a rerun of Treehouse Masters on cable TV (Season 1 Episode 4).  It showed a group of Amish young men helping to build a treehouse in Ohio.

Now, I don't know about you, but if not using electricity in 2024 doesn’t qualify you as a "peculiar people", I don’t know what does!  (If the power went out at my house, and if my phone battery died, you'd see me throw up my arms and give up the ghost.)

It takes strong convictions to buck cultural norms.

Second Example:
 
Yesterday I read the experience of Nate Oman (a member of the Church), who entered into a contract with an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi in Philadelphia.

What was interesting about his story was the fact that, because Nate is considered a Gentile, the Rabbi had to follow a complicated process to consummate the transaction (to make it "halakha").

The parties had to seal their deal using ― wait for it ― the law in Leviticus.  Now that's old school!
 
Something Nate wrote about religious traditions 'spoke' to me.  He said:
 
"There is a temptation for both believers and critics to imagine 'faithfulness' in fundamentalist terms ― [as if] there were some pristine original template for living the faithful life, and "real" religion consisted of unbending adherence to its strictures.
 
"Such fundamentalism, however, is an illusion. The ‘pristine template’ never actually existed; it is always a past constructed after the fact (with the troublesome bits excised from memory).
 
"More importantly, fidelity is always dynamic, a matter of managing allegiance to an evolving tradition that is continually both resisting and accommodating the world.
 
"Even those who purport to be following a fundamentalist path are doing this. The question for a believer is how does one adapt a tradition while accepting its authority and maintaining fidelity to it."

(Nate Oman, "Next Year in Philadelphia", Thoughts from a Tamed Cynic, edited for punctuation and clarity.)

Question: 

You may have noticed that both of these examples of counter-cultural faith involve traditions that hearken back to an earlier time, trying to preserve and honor what was.

But let's flip it around:  What would a counter-cultural faith look like if we faced forward, toward an unknown future, at a world that has not yet been?

Faith in Zion

Sometimes I wonder if Zion has eluded us because we're stuck in the past.  I mean, it's good to learn from the past, of course, but should we let the past dominate our present?

We do NOT honor God by having faith in our forefathers; we honor God by having faith in our Father.

Our knowledge of the past is incomplete; the record is fragmentary.  All we know about it (since we were not alive) is subject to interpretation and re-interpretation.

Does that sound like a solid foundation to you?  No?  Because reliance upon a historical narrative is the very definition of a "sandy" foundation (3 Nephi 18:13).

I see danger in hitching our faith so tightly to what has been that we become blind to what may be.

For if there's one thing I've learned (remember, I graduated from college as a history major), it's that the past is a sea of shifting sand, easily manipulated, molded and reshaped by current perceptions and self-driven agendas.

But God is not a creature of the past.  He resides equally in the future:

   I am Alpha and Omega,
   the beginning and the ending,
   saith the Lord,
   which is, and which was,
   and which is to come,
   the Almighty.

(Revelation 1:8)

If we took a composite of the past, present, and future ― and wadded them up into One ― we'd get YHWH (transliterated in the Bible as "I AM").

The name of Jehovah is curiously temporal (or maybe I should say, atemporal).  It denotes, above all else, the fact He is timeless.

(I would point out, by the way, that you and I are also self-existing timeless beings, or "gnolaum") (Abraham 3:18).

And THIS was the divine attribute that Jehovah chose to emphasize when He introduced Himself to Moses, saying:

   I AM
   THAT
   I AM.

(Exodus 3:14)

I point this out to say, Faith is a creature of THAT I AM (as opposed to what was).

A Living Faith

You see, many of us think "having faith" means believing and behaving and dressing like our ancestors.  We model our lives after them.

But why?  Why do we think previous generations get to direct our faith when they failed to bring heaven to earth?  After all, we wouldn't take steering lessons from the captain of the Titanic.  So why would we continue to drive the Good Ship Zion toward the iceberg?

Using a historical narrative as the authoritative, "objective" standard for our faith is foolhardy because what we believe about the past is subjective.

We've seen how the Church's historical truth-claims need to be regularly reconstituted to withstand scrutiny.  I think the Church narrative our children will be taught (post-internet age) will look quite different than the traditional version we grew up with.

And that's okay.  We do not worship an historical God or Christ: our faith is in the Living 'I AM'.

Thus we see, our narratives are contingent; they are being recapitulated as we speak.  For each generation invariably reinterprets and wrestles with the historical record (which is something even religious professionals can't agree on).

And with our eternal lives at stake, do we really want to tie Faith down with the capricious cords of historiography?  So remember: the past is a memory, and has only the authority we grant it.  

Faith will forever transcend yesteryear; she looks beyond what has been towards what may yet be.

Faith vs. Fundamentalism

After saying all that, please don't misunderstand me: I love history.  I respect our elders and their sacrifices.  And most of all, I treasure the sacred records they left behind.

But I am realistic about their shortcomings.  I search the scriptures for truth, meaning, and enlightenment ― but not for literal historical accuracy.

In the LDS tradition we're told that many "plain and precious parts" (1 Nephi 13:29) were stripped from the scriptures.  But we should realize that this is actually a universal problem ― one that applies to history in general.

Just take the Deuteronomists, for example, to illustrate my point.  We see some of the mischief that a school of authors can cause by wreaking havoc with history due to their theological biases.

We are prone to do the same today.  The Last Charge Meeting is one example.  We revise and create narratives to justify our particular claims to authority; but is that wise?

Now, I bring this all up to make the point that Faith is not found in our history books but in our dream journals.  She swims among firmaments for which time is rendered mute; her wings stretch eternally toward worlds yet unborn, flying to heights our histories could never have imagined.

This is why, doctrinally-speaking, I am not a fan of fundamentalism.  Because fundamentalism is fundamentally one-sided.  Its focus is lopsided on Alpha and how things were.  Fundamentalists want to return to the old ways; Faith wants to ascend to the higher ways.

Faith views historical precedent as illustrative and educative ― but not controlling. 

Faith prefers to blaze new trails and enter into new covenants.  Hence, "the NEW and everlasting covenant."  She is 'everlasting' because she belongs to THAT I AM; she is 'new' because her shape is the substance of things not yet seen, flowing like water and time to places heretofore undiscovered.

Leap

I wrote this post so we would not be unsettled by the novelty of God's grace.

Do not be surprised when God's arm is revealed among the nations; for as earth-shattering as it was when the gospel went to the Gentiles, so too we shall see the Father's work accomplished in unexpected ways ere this cycle's end.

Unfortunately, on social media I see many Church members bunkering down.  Resistant to change (and polishing their muskets).

But listen, entrenchment will prevent us from going out and meeting Christ upon the field of faith.  The world is changing (as it always has), and I expect we will see it accelerate.  But look for God's hand in it.

Look for miracles among those we think undeserving; watch for blessings to be poured out in places we least expect.  For God is no respecter of persons or churches: only they who are meek and lowly of heart shall be acceptable to the Lord (Moroni 7:44).

Above all, hold fast to Christ THAT I AM with all four of your heart-chambers, waiting patiently upon the Lord to lead us to greener pasture.  Zion shall be a city of counter-cultural faith that resembles nothing we've yet seen:

   For since the beginning
   of the world
   have not men heard
   nor perceived by the ear,
   neither hath any eye seen,
   O God, besides thee,
   how great things
   thou hast prepared
   for him that waiteth
   for thee.

(D&C 133:45)

Dew From Heaven

​​Time is no great
preserver of truth:
it unspools an oily ink
upon the faceless deep
​
Where eternity bleeds
through each beginning
and obsidian days 
swallow newborn night

We huddle
behind curtained firmament
braiding promises impossibly
into reality

Where veil can be pierced
upon carnelian-churned tides
spreading God’s garment
we wait

At fourth watch
witnessing
dry land appear
this side of immortality

Seeped through
like dew before sunrise:
the power of choosing
the power of creation