Monday, November 07, 2011

Things I've Always Wanted to Do--Week 8

Okay--this was a fun one. It took me more than a week--2 weeks, in fact, but that's pretty miraculous in and of itself. In the LDS church, we have something called Articles of Faith. They're basically 13 statements that describe what we believe. I've always wanted to memorize these and I have! I finished yesterday and I'm so proud of myself. It was really hard! Anyway, I can't really prove that I did it, except to type them out here. You'll have to believe me that I'm doing it by heart. ;o) Here they are:
1. We believe in God the Eternal Father, in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost.
2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression.
3. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4. We believe the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: 1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ 2. Repentance 3. Baptism by Immersion for the Remission of Sins and 4. Laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.
5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and to administer in the ordinances thereof.
6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists and so forth.
7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues and so forth.
8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9. We believe all God has revealed, all that He does now reveal and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent, that Christ will reign personally upon the earth and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisaical glory.
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all men the same privilege. Let them worship how, where or what they may.
12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law.
13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous and in doing good to all men. Indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul--we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things and we hope to endure all things. If anything is lovely, virtuous, and of good report and praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

It has been an amazing experience to memorize these. Of course I know what we, as a Church, believe. I try to live it and I taught it as a missionary. However, memorizing these has just really pressed them into my heart and I find myself thinking about it more often. Please do not use this as an opportunity to bash what I believe. I'm not posting these to impose them upon anyone, but simply to celebrate my accomplishment.

I'm moving onto Week 9 (I'm almost done!) and it is already proving to be very difficult, but I know I'll be so glad I did it! Hooray for accomplishing yet another TIAWTD!!

3 smart remarks:

Mary said...

Bien fait, ma petite.

mamaerica said...

I'm impressed and would love to chat more about this stuff (not to bash, but cuz I'm curious).....it's interesting to read it and gain a better understanding of my friends.

John B said...

Dang Mormons