The Devil is God’s Ape

Beautiful!

Discovering that your desires and will and body are all misaligned is a fundamental part of the human experience. Discovering and then becoming who you really are is essential to the plan.

The perversion of it is seizing on one desire, real or manufactured, and making that “who you really are.”

The plan is to bring all those misaligned things, body and soul, into harmony.

The perversion is to discard everything else about you in devotion to some monomaniacal personal or social plan.

I think much of the trans-issue, is that people genuinely have no idea what is means to be man or women. Until we are married and parents, we are not getting the full experience of either. And not showing the world what that looks like either.

A conversation from last night had me thinking a couple hours ago about all the billions of serviceable-but-flawed family relationships we strive to document and seal by the priesthood in God’s temples.

This, exactly this, is what I needed to read today. I’ve been very discouraged lately because neither of my closest friends seems to understand that their thinking has been distorted by the prevailing cultural sentiments of the day – and honestly, I’m afraid of losing them, but it’s happening anyway.

But the more I study and the more I ponder, the more I become convinced that there is real Truth – and that Truth is a Person, not an abstract Platonic ideal. Also, that Person has promised us perfection, in the sense of wholeness, and sometimes that hurts, and it’s always a messy process, but He’ll be there through all of it, and in the end, we *will* be whole, and His.

I will remind the reader, that Sauron was not the first to create a ring. I was and my ring was the earth itself.

The purpose of Sauron’s ring was to Rule the world. The purpose of mine, was to Destroy the world.

Thus, these misalignments, as you called them, are not incidental. I have done this since the beginning.

But why complain? At least you don’t look like an Orc.

@EC: Re: Truth is a Person.

Title: Who Is Truth: Reframing Our Questions for a Richer Faith

$3 Kindle, $9 paperback. By Jeffrey L Thayne,

https://www.amazon.com/Who-Truth-Reframing-Questions-Richer/dp/1733738339/

Description.
Nearly two thousand years ago, Christ’s followers asked, “How can we know the way?” Christ’s reply was simple and profound: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). What happens when we think of truth as a living, breathing person instead of as a set of abstract ideas? We wrote this book for Latter-day Saints who wish to re-examine their faith in a way that strengthens their faith in the Restoration of the Gospel. Many of our questions may not have answers because they start with the wrong premises. When we reframe our questions with God as our ultimate goal, rather than a set of abstract doctrines or ideas, they are easier to answer using the scriptures and more likely to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ.

@ Books,
Yeah, I actually read that back when it was just a series of blog posts (but will likely get a copy), and I was kind of thinking of it when I wrote what I did. It was an excellent start to the framework I’ve been putting together over the last four/five years in an attempt to understand where our culture went wrong, and what I can do not to participate in the decline.

A year or so ago, I got the strongest impression that I should study philosophy. I’m still not sure I understand exactly why, but it was a very clear prompting, so I’ve been trying to follow it. The exercise has been eye-opening, to say the least.

EC – I would love to know what you have learned, since in general, I have not been impressed with philosophers.

Zen: Epictetus. His two works are in the public domain. He was a proto-Christian.

One or hoth are free in audio form at https://librivox.org/

@ Zen,
In general, I’ve learned that they’re human and thus have their flaws and peculiar preoccupations – but also that the further back you go, the better framework they had for living life meaningfully. I think it’s probably because they lived shorter, more dangerous lives from the Greco-Roman era up to the 18th century.

Sure, philosophy has its flaws, but in its original sense philosophy was a search for Truth and meaning through reason, while religion was a search for Truth through worship.

The further forward one goes, the less philosophy becomes a search for Truth – but Hugh Nibley and Truman Madsen found value in philosophy in the older sense, and used its principles in their work. If it’s good enough for an apostle . . .

Certainly, those who have studied philosophy and rhetoric seem better able to reason clearly, which is a skill sadly lacking in our day and age. I’m still figuring out why, exactly, I ought to be studying philosophy, but that might be part of it.

To add to Books’s recommendation, look for ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’ by Boethius, a Roman Christian in the age of falling Rome who was falsely accused and sentenced to death. A most interesting work. Also Dante’s Divine Comedy, which I’ve been following along with 100 Days of Dante, which you can find here: https://100daysofdante.com/the-9-levels-of-hell/
Dante’s first canto has fascinating parallels with Lehi’s vision.