What if...

 By treating sacred scripture as a logical, linear text, we cut ourselves off from the experience the texts were meant to create. 

The result?

Religion becomes theory instead of transformation, knowledge becomes intellect instead of vision, and the path to God is lost.

All because we read a mystical text like scripture, like a logic puzzle as if it is primarily a history or a story, but it is not merely a historical story or even an argument—it is supposed to be an initiation into direct experience with the unchanging God.

For the entire history of this earth, mankind has taken sacred knowledge meant to awaken the soul and turned it into a dry religion meant only to stimulate the intellect by “studying” sacred knowledge in exchange for direct experience.

What if the scriptures are not meant to be intellectual but initiatory, designed to lead people beyond rational thought and into direct experience of God? By distorting the teachings, modern religion(organized and not) cuts itself off from its own mystical roots, leading to groups of people built on illusions rather than wisdom. 

What if Lehi and Nephi, Jacob and Enos were initiates in a deep mystical tradition?

What if their teachings were meant to be lived and experienced, not merely read and discussed?

What if our modern, western, rational approach strips away the more mystical aspects of the gospel, leaving only cold logic divorced from direct knowing?

And as a result we live in a world that is almost entirely intellectual, prioritizing discussion and analysis over experience, leading to a culture that trusts external information and dismisses inner knowledge.

"Be still and know that I am God."

Have we rejected stillness as a path to the knowledge of God?

“Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was afire, but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire came a still, small voice.”

Instead of embracing inner stillness as a means to wisdom, we love argument, discussion and debate. 

We are addicted to constant movement- intellectual, technological, and societal-without ever stopping to see what is truly real. Our modern civilization is built upon distractions, external noise and the inability to be still for longer than a moment or two.

We live in a reality where everything is physically separate, more or less, from every other thing. Because this is our lived experience, many of the more mystical scriptures that admonish us to be one with God are confusing.  We become obsessed with our “separateness”, our division rather than wholeness or oneness. Almost all modern systems operate on division rather than unity.

Science separates mind from matter, philosophy separates reason from intuition, society separates individuals from each other and nature.

As a result, we live in a fractured and mechanical world rather than the living, breathing cosmos where God dwells. 

The gospel message–what God is offering-is deeply sacred, it is rooted in mystical experience, initiations and direct connection with God. When we strip that away from the gospel, or ignore it, we lose the true purpose of the gospel: transformation and awakening. And instead, we settle for a dry, intellectual pursuit rather than the living water God offers us. 

Because of our disconnection to God, the world has become disenchanted. We rationalize what was once divine. We dismiss mystical and direct contact with sacred things as superstition. And thus we build a prison for ourselves.  The truth is meant to set us free.  But we take that truth and create illusions around it, trapping people in concepts, words and endless debates instead of the direct experience with God it was meant to initiate.

  

As a result we live in a world where people think about truth but rarely experience it.

Because of this painful reality, many people are endlessly searching….for something. We look to “the Eastern traditions”, plant medicines, magical ideas, different religions and philosophies, ancient myths and cultures, rituals and the latest “prophet”, we’re pretty much willing to try just about anything and everything, except the one thing God requires it seems.

There is probably nothing overtly wrong with any of these ideas in and of themselves, the biggest problem lies in the nature of humans to “borrow” spiritual techniques but refusing to do the deep spiritual work to integrate them. We want the results but not the discipline and so we look to all kinds of other lineages hoping they have the “magic key”. Ultimately we want to embark on a “self-help” program for the natural man. We want to clean him up and make him presentable, so we can hold onto him a little. But the scriptures are clear, it is a tradeoff: the natural man for the spirit of God. It’s either or, not and.

We must transcend the illusions of this world, the illusions of our fears, and find God. We must be transformed into a new creature in Christ, not a cleaned up version of our old self. A NEW creature that is like Jesus Christ. 

What if we don’t need to borrow or recreate or reconstruct–what if we simply need to enter the void and let something emerge, something that has been there all along waiting in the silence, something that may have been lost to us but is not dead, something that is not learned, but revealed.

What if, like the prodigal son, after we have wandered near and far, searched through many ideas and beliefs, listened to many teachers-some real and some not, spent our inheritance on many things like crystals and incense, books and classes—what if we come back to the beginning, to what has been there all along waiting patiently? (BTW, this list is coming from my own experience!)

We do not need a new technique, we need to recover our ability to see!

What if we come back to the Book of Mormon? What if we start with the Covenant of Christ?  What if the Covenant of Christ is even more plain and precious? What if it holds us to a higher standard, because its message is unmistakable? What if it holds the “secret” that we’ve been searching for far and wide? What if it tells us exactly what we must do? What if it was brought forth for a people who will all know God and have no poor among them because it shows them exactly how to arrive at that state of being?

What if we have been given a pearl of great price that can lead us into experiencing God?

The way forward is not found through learning and studying about God, it is found through experiencing God. Experiencing God does not come from someone else’s ritual or lineage or vision. Experiencing God can only come in the quiet moments, in the places no one else sees, when you dare to step into the unknown and exercise faith.

The Covenant of Christ holds all to a higher standard. Of all the scripture God has given the world the Book of Mormon is most complete, it has the most power to open the heavens. And now with the Covenant of Christ, that path and power has become unmistakably clear. Where much is given, much is required. We won’t get to plead ignorance. The gate is strait and narrow and few there be that find it, even when it is laid out clearly and unmistakably before them. 

What if we read the Covenant of Christ like God is speaking directly to us, telling us exactly what we must do?