Most people have only the capacity and ability to discern truth that is within their current level of progression. Some who are humble can receive truth that is a little greater than what they know. If somebody teaches them something much higher there is the risk of the message being rejected because it falls too far outside of traditions that are held onto more tightly than the hearer wishes to search for truth. In other words, the comforts of their traditions have a stronger pull than their desire to consider something outside of what they previously had considered before.
This is why the Savior taught the people in parables so as to not outright condemn them because of their lack of ability to receive truth presented in a straight forward manner.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3, selected)
There are consequences for not receiving light and truth when it is presented to you, however teaching in parables allowed Christ to have the greatest potential impact for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, while at the same time having the least amount of condemnation for those who didn’t. There is a law regarding teaching of others eternal truths from heaven and this was taught by Alma:
9 . . . It is given unto many to know the mysteries of God; nevertheless they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him.
10 And therefore, he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full. (Alma 12)
Some traditions that we inherit from our parents, culture, church, society etc. are good and can lead us to not harden our hearts and thus facilitate us going on to receive the greater portion of God’s Word which is truth. Lamentably most of our inherited religious traditions do the opposite and cause us to harden our hearts against the truth.
How do we know which traditions we are giving more heed to in our lives? It is simple: What are the fruits of living your traditions? Do you commune with God? Do you walk with Him? Is He teaching you His mysteries. Do you receive revelation on a regular basis? Does He command you to walk in ways that are different and higher than those around you? Do you speak with the tongue of Angels? Are you kind and loving towards others who could never benefit you? Do you forgive those who offend even if they never will ask for it? Do you receive answers to whatsoever thing you ask for in faith? I will let Moroni give his definitions:
35 . . . Has the day of miracles ceased?
36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?
37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.
38 For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made. (Moroni 7)
True religious traditions if fully lived will allow one to progress to the point of having these experiences; the caveat being that false traditions that might impede these things need also to be done away. There are only 2 ways possible to limit our progression to God.
1) Not seeking light and truth
2) Not living up to the light and truth you possess
Likewise seeking light and truth and living it to the fullest will eventually lead to only one one gate and path. That path is the WAY and the gate is Christ.
Religious traditions can limit us by fostering complacency, minimizing the need to seek for more truth and by placing barriers as to where and by whom truth can come. Joseph Smith referred to this as placing stakes or limits around God. We must be aware of this and take great care that this doesn’t happen in our lives.
Here is a key that can be used to help us discern the religious traditions we possess. If our traditions would have caused us to reject the Savior and His teachings in His day in favor of religious orthodoxy or following the religious leaders themselves instead of Messiah, then we may know as clear as day from night that the tradition is false and can be limiting us in our day from coming unto Christ.
5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. (Mark 7)
The Jews at the time of Christ had fossilized traditions that were not of God but simply the precepts of men. When their Messiah walked amongst them and taught them, their hearts were too hardened by these false traditions to recognize the Light and Life of the world who was in their midst.
These same obstacles to receiving truth are just as prevalent and ingrained in our day amongst all religions and sects. What traditions of men do we falsely ascribe to God today? It’s an interesting question to ponder but be prepared to have your world shaken if you take this question all the way out to its logical conclusion.
Moroni teaches us that by the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the truth of all things (See Moroni 10:3). Many people equate the Holy Ghost with a soothing feeling and conformation that what they already believe is true. The Holy Ghost is a revelator and when one experiences revelation then things can and will be revealed that are hidden and which we didn’t know before. Revealed truth isn’t always something that causes us to “feel good” but as revealed truths are pondered in our mind, they will be confirmed eventually as peace to our hearts.
Even things revealed by the Holy Ghost are limited by the degree of progression we had obtained when the revelation was given. God can bring greater resolution to any principle insomuch as we are prepared to receive it and live it. He is not in the business of condemning us, for the Lord only does that which is of the most benefit to the world and this applies to us individually as well. So we should always be ready to learn more and not let what we currently know limit us to the further light and knowledge the Lord is willing to send to us.
All truth received by man in this life is at best an incomplete picture compared to how God understands the same concept or compared to a “knowledge of things as they [really] are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (see D&C 93). This is because God’s ways are so much higher than ours and He is limited in what he can reveal based on our heed and diligence to the light and truth previously given. Fossilizing a tradition around incomplete truth is what all religions in the world today do and have done since the beginning of time. This gives the enemy of our souls a great advantage over the sons of Adam. It gives Lucifer a tool to blind us and deceive us through our erroneous religious traditions all the while we think we are doing our God’s will. Yes that means YOUR religion as well as MINE. We certainly are not immune from this as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It would be better to make pursuit of truth our religion, that way whatever is true can always be incorporated into it. The cannon of this religion would not only open but would be endless.
The Latter-day Saints can also be potentially limited in their progression because the members many times limit themselves to the light that comes from their leaders, especially those whom they consider to have the spirit of prophecy, seership and revelation. Since these leaders are mortals in the flesh and subject to the same limitations of their potentially false traditions based on incomplete truth; then this means trusting in their arm will limit our progression at best to what these leaders have attained but probably many steps lower. It is prudent and wise to receive light and truth and discard error no matter the source and to trust in the Light of Christ for truth. If any leader teaches according to the spirit of truth then all will be edified but it is the truth that they teach and live that should be followed, not the person per se. If someone is a conduit to teach truth then blessed are they but they need not be idolized and fawned over; you follow others in the flesh at your own potential spiritual peril. Your path and ascension to God should not be based on the blessings or limitations of others. It should be based on the Spirit and Light of Christ as Moroni beautifully taught:
16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.
18 And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged.
19 Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.
25 Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ.
26 And after that he came men also were saved by faith in his name; and by faith, they become the sons of God. (Moroni 7, selected)
The only person we can safely follow is Christ for He is the embodiment of truth and light or in other words everything he did and taught was in accordance with His Fathers will. As he learned more, he reconciled His life to it and was obedient and onward he progressed as the witness of John teaches us:
12 And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;
13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness. (D&C 93)
We are called upon to likewise climb the same mountain of truth line by line, precept by precept, grace for grace, here a little, there a little. The key is to always live your life according to what you know and in this way you will always be given more.
Following truth while not trusting in the arm of flesh is completely compatible with the practice of sustaining our leaders. There is only 1 man on the earth that can give the doctrines and precepts for the Church I belong to, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is sustained by the membership of the Church as a prophet, seer and revelator. He is the President of the Church and his decisions are binding upon the Church regardless if the decisions are based on the word of the Lord to him; or his best wisdom along with the counsel of his brethren of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; or based on tradition, or just simply the precepts of this man. Either way it is binding upon the Church however members of the Church have the responsibility to discern which of these it is. Here is a recent example to show the importance of this concept:
A few years ago the Church came up with a policy that children of same sex couples were to be denied baptism until they were 18 years of age. The president of the Church at the time was Thomas Monson who was apparently suffering from dementia and other health related challenges. Russell Nelson intimated to a group of church members in Hawaii shortly thereafter that this decision was revelation from the Lord thus pinning the responsibility on this church policy on God. Within 3 Years the policy was rescinded under the leadership of Russell Nelson. So either this decision to withhold baptism to a willing recipient based on the “sins of Fathers” was the Lord’s will for a few years or this was just a precept of men that was reversed. It absolutely matters because it is folly to attribute every rule and precept of the Church to God himself. Many people have a hard time believing in the “Church Handbook God” but it is much closer to reality to realize that the policies and practices of the Church come from many sources, including the revealed word of the Lord; and the traditions of the Fathers; and the precepts of men, some of which may not be in complete agreement with the Lord’s will. It is our duty to discern the difference so that we don’t let the limitations and traditions of those in the flesh to derail our faith in Christ and the truths that come from Him.
The 25th verse of Moroni 7 teaches us how God has ordained for mankind to have faith in that which is true. He uses “the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God.” This is very interesting. In D&C 1:38 we have the Lord stating:
What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.
So here is another key in the discerning of our traditions. The voice of the servants of the Lord (I would add when speaking truth and moved upon by the Holy Spirit) is the same as His voice. Talk about speaking truth to power! Based on the patterns in all of scripture it is readily apparent that His servants can come from anywhere. They can come as a root out of dry ground, they can come from outside our religious traditions, they can come without any apparent beauty or authority or bonafides or without any earthly people sustaining them. If your religious tradition doesn’t allow for this then maybe its time to rethink that particular tradition and see how it came into your paradigm. Most likely it came from the arm of the flesh and not from God. This doesn’t mean you need to leave your religion, but rather like a careful gardner digging out weeds or a shipman scraping barnacles off the hull of his ship, false traditions and beliefs serve no benefit and on the contrary, can severely limit our progression to God. Just as a gardner doesn’t neglect their garden when weeding and the shipman doesn’t destroy his boat by scraping barnacles off; neither do we need to leave our religion just because we find some weeds or barnacles. These things are inevitable in our fallen telestial world. There may come a time however where what the Lord reveals to you is so incompatible with many of your dogmatized religious traditions and creeds that you need to find something more compatible with the word of the Lord to you. I say this in a very broad sense to all religions in general, from the plethora of non-Christian ones to the 30,000 + different Christian sects.
Now here is the invitation I make to any who will hear my voice. I humbly invite you to get on your knees and search diligently in the light of Christ and ask God the Eternal Father in the name of His Son which traditions that YOU hold onto that need to be abandoned. I will continue to do the same. I promise that He will answer and teach you and replace those traditions with something more true which will help draw you closer to Him.