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Cadence wrote:
The obvious answer is the church is not as true or important as we are told.It would be hypocrisy on the part of god to make it so important, yet it’s reach and desire to join be an obstacle to that.
Another perspective is that is bound to be very unpopular is that God’s purpose for humanity is a tiered destiny, with different levels of privilege. While God has no respecter of persons, he is also putting his children through a process where they themselves are presented with options and can decide for themselves if living in a certain tier to have certain privileges is worth the sacrifice personally for them or not. And this sacrifice that is required can come in varying forms, but all occurring naturally in life, God not being the author of all of them, but allowing them all to persist. One form can be the values that we find in conflict. For example, post-Church-members and members sometimes on the way out report that they encounter a value conflict between a belief in individual integrity and belief in integrity of covenants. In other words, is the sacrifice required for an integrity of keeping covenants at all costs worth sacrificing a perceived value of individual integrity according to modern sensibilities and definitions of that integrity? So, therefore, with those two competing values in mind, some will come down on one side, and some on the other. On the one side, some may choose to leave covenants entered into behind in order to place a higher value on one kind of integrity. While some on the other side will place a higher value on an integrity of covenants entered into, and are willing to sort of not place as high a value on the other definition of integrity. The inevitable result sometimes is pain on either side of the choice. According to a believing model, those choosing to keep covenants and who stay on that road till death will merit being in one tier, while those that chose the other choice may find themselves in another tier. This is a difficult and painful issue, but perhaps one that a God that puts his children through actual heart-wrenching choices is willing to put them through, so that they might be tested to the limit to see on which side they will find themselves, for loyalty to one definition over another. Those that do not believe in the believing model of tiers of privilege in the afterlife will place less value on the necessity of sticking with those covenants. And he allows the circumstances that lead to this conundrum to happen naturally, according to that model.
Why? Because for a believing model, integrity and loyalty and faithfulness to that which you have sworn to uphold is a value that is prized more for some reason in that model, and is rewarded in that model. And the privileges awarded in the afterlife for loyalty and faithfulness to those values is tied to that.
Since the beehive is a symbol of the restorationist religion, then one can ask, does a person value becoming a queen bee or a worker bee? Which value will the person align themselves with that is tied to the type of station in the afterlife that they value? Or, do they value a kind or definition of integrity that will inevitably cause them to be a worker bee in eternity, if it happens to be that this tier system in eternity is the reality? This type of choice may have real consequences. And it is a “choose ye this day” type of thing to determine if one cares enough for a promised reward, or if one feels strongly about one’s definition of integrity enough to possibly put that promised reward in jeopardy. Otherwise, it would seem, there is no true test of loyalty to become what one truly desires to become. Is it fair? That’s something that I don’t want to be the judge of. However, being fundamentally a believer, I have chosen the integrity of covenants personally, over whatever other type of integrity there may validly be.
