Doctrinal Essays

Doctrine. It's not exactly a word that catches most people's attention. Its probably never been a viral topic on YouTube, Facebook, or any other social media outlet - it's not likely ever to be so. That's okay with me, most things that catch most people's attention don't appeal to me anyway. But it's an important subject. It's one thing that has true potential for bringing about real and lasting change in our lives. I can't think of anything more deserving of the attention of all of God's children, regardless of race or religion. When I think of true doctrine, I can't help but think of food analogies for its importance. There are all kinds of food, but only one kind of nutrition. We can eat garbage and call it food - and truthfully, garbage in the form of most of the things people eat can keep us alive, but that doesn't mean it's nutritious. When nutritionists get right down to the heart of nutrition they are talking about vita...

In my profession as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) scientist, much of my time is spent in the observation of locations and events, and their spatial relationships, trends, and patterns. Understanding these conditions always paints a clearer picture and leads to truer understanding of the big picture. This 'nerdy' type of analysis has extended into my personal spiritual life. I have observed the inevitable trend of spiritual location and movement in my own life, and in the spiritual lives of others. Understanding these patterns, relationships, and more importantly, the causes of spiritual movement can aid in the goal of a spiritually constant life, and ultimate confident reunion with God. Position is an intrinsic component of movement. Two positions become manifest when movement occurs; the position before, and the position following the movement. The second position is always higher or lower, ahead or behind, or better or worse than the first position - never the...

The phrase 'spiritual movement' includes a number of components that are dynamically related. Movement can occur by choice, or involuntarily. It can transpire in positive and uplifting directions or in negative and spiritually diminishing ways. And the source of the moving power can be manifest outwardly or inwardly. Alma's mission to reclaim the apostate Zoramites illustrates many of these movements and their relationships. When preaching among the Zoramites, Alma discovered the poor and cast out condition among a certain group of the Zoramites, who had experienced the involuntary spiritual movement. He described their movement as those who were "brought to a lowliness of heart" (Alma 32:12), and also used the term compelled. He then said: "And now, as I said unto you, that because ye were compelled to be humble ye were blessed, do ye not suppose that they are more blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word?" (Alma 32:14). "Yea,...

As I look back along life's path through a casual lens I observe the occasional change in my own attitudes and behaviors. Some changes have been for the better, and some for the worse. Some have lead me closer to God, others have lead away from him. But as I examine those pivotal moments of change through a magnifying glass, I observe that they were always brought about by my own choice and were always accompanied by a subtle shifting of my heart. As I magnify my lens one more time and began to analyze this shifting of my heart, what I found there has changed the way I think, live, and behave.  The observation and explanation for change is based on the words  resist  and  yield.  These dichotomous words (or their synonyms) appear frequently in the scriptures and have a unique and powerful relationship. They function much like a magnet, where negative will never attract negative, nor positive to positive, but positive and negati...