In 1842 Joseph Smith, the first prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wrote down 13 of the religion’s fundamental beliefs. Number 12 and 13 on the list say this:
“We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.”
AND
“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 hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
In other words, we believe in being good citizens and good people.
We believe in government, and we believe we should abide by the laws of the government we’re subject to inasmuch as those laws are just. For example, we have missionaries throughout the world, but we never send missionaries to a country without that country’s legal permission. And some countries have laws that restrict what missionaries are allowed to do. For example, a couple years ago Russia banned Christian missionaries from publically proselytizing. So, our missionaries don’t proselyte there.
We try to be good and do good. And if there’s anything good out there, even if it’s not part of the Church, we want it. And we also want to offer the world what measure of good we have.
If there’s one thing that I am 100 percent sure of as a believer in this faith, it’s that no matter the criticisms, this organization is a powerful force for good in the world, and it’s not just with the goal of getting people baptized. It’s about following Christ’s command to love our neighbor.
And of course, we’re not the only church out there doing good. Our church often teams up with other churches to help people out and serve the community. Wherever good is being done, whether it’s done by a Christian, an Atheist, a Muslim, a Buddhist, the Spirit of God is there. Thank you for your example and for the good you do.
Many of our Articles of Faith show how the Latter-day Saints are different from other religions, but I think this last one could just as easily fit the mold of any faith. At the end of the day, we’re all just normal people trying to be the best people we can be, the best way we know how. That’s what our faith asks from us, and I have no doubt that’s what your faith asks from you. We’re very far from perfect at it, but we give it our best shot. It’s a journey we’re all on together.
So if you want to check out what good my faith has to offer you, subscribe to the channel, and share some goodness in the comments. This is the last episode about our Articles of Faith. We made it through all of them. Anybody that watches them should come to a fairly solid understanding of basic Latter-day Saint beliefs, at least from an intellectual standpoint. From here on out we get to dive a little deeper into our faith, I’m excited about it; hopefully, you are too. We’ll see you then.
Learning More:
Latter-day Saints in Africa participate in the 6th annual all-Africa Helping Hands projects
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, if they are observant in their faith, lead squeaky-clean lives. They don’t drink or smoke, are chaste, don’t swear, and try to treat everyone else kindly. It’s our mantra and we hope you notice and see it’s because of our belief in Christ and our desire to follow Him. We try to be good citizens wherever we are. Here are some links to follow so you can see us in action:
- Latter-day Saints have charity projects all over the world.
- When disaster strikes, Mormons are often the first to arrive and the last to leave.
- We help poorer members get an education.
- Instead of turning away our missionaries, ask them to take out the garbage.
- At Christmastime, you can buy a goat from one of our vending machines.
- Our welfare program is the envy of many world governments.
- We believe in education.
- We actually have fun but we’re nice about it.