Parley P. Pratt, in his remarkable book Key to the Science of Theology, describes the influence of the Holy Ghost: "The gift of the Holy Ghost … quickens all the intellectual faculties, increases, enlarges, expands and purifies all the natural passions and affections; and adapts them, by the gift of wisdom, to their lawful use. It inspires, develops, cultivates and matures all the fine-toned sympathies, joys, tastes, kindred feelings, and affections of our nature. It inspires virtue, kindness, goodness, tenderness, gentleness, and charity. It develops beauty of person, form and features. It tends to health, vigor, animation, and social feeling. It invigorates all the faculties of the physical and intellectual man. It strengthens, and gives tone to the nerves. In short, it is, as it were, marrow to the bone, joy to the heart, light to the eyes, music to the ears, and life to the whole being. (Key to the Science of Theology, 9th ed. [1965], p. 101) To open ourselves more fully to this influence could only be a good thing, right?
The Road to Damascus
Though the book is titled "Acts of the Apostles," it focuses mainly on just two, Peter and Paul. Paul's sudden conversion on the road to Damascus takes center stage, and is actually recounted three times in Acts. Each account is somewhat different, causing critics to question the veracity of all three. In my own experience, I find that events shift over time, both in my own memory and in the way that I recount them. (For example, my husband has made the observation that the longer I am home from my mission, and the more times I repeat the stories about it, the harder it was!) The fact that there are three versions of Paul's vision gives me some insight into the several versions of the "first vision" that Joseph Smith recorded over the years. As he understood his experience better, his account of it shifted slightly. Rather than make me question the veracity of the original experience, the messiness of it's reconstruction seems more like what happens in real life. If it was a fictional story, it would never change.
Peter's Change of Heart
Missionary works no sooner begins than, right away, the conflict arises about what it means to be Christian. Since Jesus was a devout Jew and all of his original disciples were as well, it seems obvious that new converts would also have to be devout Jews in order to be Christians. That would mean, for adult males, submitting to circumcision, and adherence to all of the complicated requirements of orthodox Judaism. The resolution of this conundrum is one of the central themes of the book. In order to understand how big of a shift in perspective was required to welcome Gentiles into the fold, "as is," we need to understand how the Jews felt about the Gentiles in that day.
Jews were instructed by their Rabbis, not only to avoid Gentiles, but never to do anything to give them "pleasure or help." If you saw a Gentile mother in labor, you should not give her aid, nor feed her starving child, since that would bring another Gentile into the world. As one Talmudic tract stated, "The best of the Gentiles, kill; the best of the serpents, crush its head." One night in vision Peter sees a sheet filled with forbidden animals, and is told to eat them. Unthinkable! (An obvious equivalent would be a vision that commanded a faithful Mormon to smoke, drink and get high!) Yet when Peter is sent to the home of the Centurion Cornelius, the meaning of the vision comes clear: The Law of Moses was meant to prepare the Jews for Christ; He has come, and the law is fulfilled. So a compromise of sorts is reached, encouraging new converts to keep the most basic tenets of "kashruth," while excusing them from the more daunting requirement of circumcision. Whew.
Would we have had the courage that Peter had, to make a sea change in our thinking and follow God's will in a new direction? We talked about prejudice and how each of us must struggle to find the truth in the midst of our preconceived ideas. Throughout history Saints have been surprised by changes in what they perceived to be unchangeable doctrine. God decides what is unchangeable and what can be changed; we just have to hang on. We closed with that disciple of diversity, Dieter Uchtdorf, who reminds us that our most dangerous judgements are often reserved for those close to us, and instructs us simply to "Stop it!" So we ask ourselves, "Who am I judging, and how can I open my heart to be more accepting and loving of all God's children?" With that in mind, next week we take to the missionary trail with Paul.
