Why I Choose to be an Active Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
I believe it’s led by living prophets of God.
A prophet of God is a messenger of God and has the responsibility to teach truth and help everyone live according to God’s commandments.
God has always spoken to His people through prophets. The Ten Commandments and The Law of Moses were given through Moses to the Israelites. Prophets continued to lead the Israelites for hundreds of years afterward.
When Jesus Christ lived on the Earth, he called prophets and apostles to lead and guide His disciple in His church. After Christ returned to heaven after His death, those apostles continued to lead and teach the members of Christ’s church until they were hunted down and killed. After their death, I believe there were many things that Christ and His apostles taught that were forgotten, confused with worldly ideologies and lost.
In the 1800s, a boy named Joseph Smith was searching to learn more about God, particularly how he could be saved. This search led him to pray to God in a grove of trees, where he was visited by God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. They called him to be a prophet, and as part of that calling, they revealed to him those important truths that had been lost, and directed him to reorganize the church that Christ had established.
I believe that since Joseph Smith, God has called succeeding prophets to lead and direct this church, and it is through them that God declares His word to us His children.
I believe this life is the time to prepare to meet God, and to live with Him again.
The Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson once taught 3 truths that put our life on Earth into perspective. 1) We are all going to die someday 2) Because of Jesus Christ we will all be resurrected and become immortal 3) We will all stand before God to be judged
I believe that God lives the laws he has given to us, and that those that make it to heaven will continue to live the laws they lived here in Earth.
President Nelson said that during this life, we choose which of God’s laws we are willing to follow, and that will be what God uses to determine which level of glory we will receive after this life.
As another leader of the Church of Jesus Christ put it, “We are not earning heaven, we are learning heaven.” We are preparing to live the laws we will need to live by to live with God by living those same laws now.
I believe the Book of Mormon is an ancient record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas.
When I was serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ, I had many times when I was reading, praying or teaching about the Book of Mormon where I also felt the Holy Ghost confirming and testifying to me that the Book of Mormon was true.
I also believe God prepared the Book of Mormon for our day, God instructed His prophets among the ancient inhabitants to include the stories and records that would be most helpful to us in the challenges we will face.
I believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ contains the answers that everyone is looking for.
There has been great division in the world lately. I believe most people are searching to understand how to improve society, but there are many groups that very strongly disagree on what that improved society looks like as well as how to get there.
I believe that deep down, and whether they realize it or not, they are searching for the answers that Jesus Christ taught while he personally ministered on the earth, and what He currently teaches through his living prophets.