{"id":42161,"date":"2021-10-22T08:08:23","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T13:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.timesandseasons.org\/?p=42161"},"modified":"2021-10-22T08:08:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T13:08:23","slug":"all-these-things-shall-give-thee-experience-and-shall-be-for-thy-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2021\/10\/all-these-things-shall-give-thee-experience-and-shall-be-for-thy-good\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAll these things shall\u00a0give thee experience and shall be for thy good\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a long time, I underestimated the depth of the trauma experienced by the Latter-day Saints in Missouri and the impact that it had on their psyche.\u00a0 I think I started to grasp it more when I was researching for an essay about Latter-day Saints and their relationship with the US Government (which was an earlier version of the \u201cThe constitution of this Land\u201d<\/a> post I put up on this site in September). \u00a0What they endured was horrific and that left deep scars on the Latter-day Saints.\u00a0 In the midst of all of this, however, Joseph Smith began to write general epistles to the Church, portions of which were later incorporated into the Doctrine and Covenants as Sections 121, 122, and 123.\u00a0 Within those epistles, he began to explain a theology of suffering that grappled with what they had endured.<\/p>\n

The fallout of the 1838 Missouri-Mormon War was terrible (trigger warning that this section of the post may be distressing).\u00a0 Parley P. Pratt famously recalled how while Church leaders were in prison:<\/p>\n

We had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards \u2026 as they recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc., which they had committed among the \u2018Mormons<\/em>\u2019 while at Far West and vicinity. They even boasted of defiling by force wives, daughters and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women and children.[1]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rape, murder, and pillaging were among the horrors endured by the Latter-day Saints, while the perpetrators enjoyed bragging about what they had done.\u00a0 In one example of these war crimes that received coverage a few years ago, it was suggested that Eliza R. Snow was brutally gang-raped by eight Missourians and attributed infertility to that event.\u00a0 It is likely the reason for why she wrote about Missouri with an uncharacteristic level of fury, calling Missourians on one occasion \u201chordes from nether shades let loose\u2014 \/ Men without hearts\u2014just made for Satan\u2019s use!\u201d[2]<\/a> \u00a0Joseph Smith would also write about the war with fury and indignation, referring (for example) to the horrible conditions of his imprisonment as being \u201cin this hell surrounded with demonds\u00a0if not those who are damned, they are those who shall\u00a0be damned,\u201d[3]<\/a> that the deeds of the enemies of the Saints \u201care enough to make hell itself\u00a0shudder and to stand aghast and pale,\u201d[4]<\/a> and led Smith to pray for God to \u201clet thine anger be kindle against our enemi[e]s\u00a0and in the fury of thine hart with thy sword\u00a0avenge us of our rongs.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, in these conditions, Joseph Smith wrote words of comfort that the Lord spoke to him.\u00a0 He wrote that \u201cthe\u00a0voice of inspiration steals along and whispers my\u00a0son pease be unto thy soul thine advirsity and thy\u00a0afflictions shall be but a small moment\u00a0and then\u00a0if thou indure it well God shall exalts<\/span>\u00a0the[e] on\u00a0high.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 While the Lord promised to deliver vengeance upon the enemies of the Saints, the statements to the Saints that follow are interesting.\u00a0 Joseph Smith wrote that \u201cGod?> hath said that he\u00a0would have a tried people that he would purge them\u00a0as gold\u00a0now we think that this time he has chosen his own crusible wherein we have been tryed.”\u00a0 The experiences in Missouri were a crucible to purify the people of God, and as a result of this trial, they would be forged as a purer people and their sacrifice would stand as \u201ca sign to this generation all together sufficient to leave\u00a0them without excuse.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 In a second epistle from Liberty Jail (the one that D&C 122 and 123 are excerpts from), Joseph Smith added that the Lord told him that all that Smith had endured: \u201cshall\u00a0give thee experiance and shall be for thy good.\u00a0The son of\u00a0man hath desended below them all art thou greater\u00a0than he?\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 This last statement is a sobering response to the horrors that the Saints had experienced.<\/p>\n

It may not be a comfort to hear that suffering gives experience while suffering, but it helps to make sense of life in a broader context.\u00a0 As Richard Lyman Bushman explained it: \u201cExperience instructed.\u00a0 Life was not just a place to shed one\u2019s sins but a place to deepen comprehension by descending below them all.\u00a0 The Missouri tribulations were a training ground.\u201d\u00a0 He added that: \u201cIn an earlier revelation, Joseph wrote that humans grew from grace to grace like Christ.\u00a0 Here growth into a fulness comes from suffering.\u00a0 Those who would be like Christ must suffer like Christ.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 Suffering is part of the Plan of Salvation for its effects in growth and development.<\/p>\n

President Brigham Young made similar observations while discussing the fallen condition of humankind.\u00a0 He once said that: \u201cI would praise God in the highest for his great wisdom and condescension in\u00a0suffering the children of men to fall into the very sin into which they had fallen, for he did it that\u00a0they, like Jesus, might descend below all things and then press forward and rise above all.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 As he explained on another occasion: \u201cDarkness and sin were permitted to come on this earth. Man partook of the forbidden fruit in accordance with a plan devised from eternity, that mankind might be brought in contact with the principles and powers of darkness, that they might know the bitter and the sweet, the good and the evil, and be able to discern between light and darkness, to enable them to receive light continually.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 To become like Christ, we must suffer like Christ, learning to discern between light and darkness as we act and are acted upon and see the results of those actions.<\/p>\n

That being said, this doesn\u2019t imply that God is a sadist who enjoys witnessing our suffering.\u00a0 In the vision of Enoch, found in Joseph Smith\u2019s Old Testament Revision, we read that: \u201cthe heavens wept\u201d for seeing that \u201cthe powers of Satan were\u00a0upon all the face of the Earth.\u201d\u00a0 When Enoch asked \u201chow is it that thou canst weep Seeing Thou art holy & from all eternity to all eternity,\u201d the Lord responded that: \u201cthese thy Brethren,\u00a0they are the workmanship of mine own hands\u201d and He \u201cgave unto\u00a0them their <intelligence>\u201d and \u201cagency.\u201d\u00a0 And although He \u201cgave commandment, that they should\u00a0love\u00a0me<\/span>\u00a0one another, & that they should\u00a0Choose me<\/span>\u00a0their Father<\/span>\u00a0<?serve me their God?>,\u201d they did not choose to obey that commandment and \u201cthey are without affection, & they hate their own\u00a0blood. \u2026 Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep.\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 God is pained and weeps for the suffering of humankind but maintains our agency nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Why does He maintain that agency, even though it leads to suffering?\u00a0 Francine R. Bennion, who served on the general boards of the Young Women and Relief Society in the 1970s and 1980s, offered some exploration of why God allows suffering to exist.\u00a0 She looked to the War in Heaven, noting that Lucifer proposed a plan where \u201cno one would be hurt or afraid. He would allow only whatever experience and identity he chose for us, and if we met pleasure, pain, or success.\u201d\u00a0 Strikingly, she pointed out that if we expect that God would hold our immediate happiness as the highest goal and He obliged and intervened to prevent suffering at all times, then \u201cLucifer\u2019s intended universe is exactly the universe many now attribute to God, or want from him.\u201d\u00a0 In the universe that God shaped, however, \u201cLaw in God\u2019s universe is a matter of processes or relationships that are knowable and predictable, not whimsical or inconsistent. Such law is inherent in all matters. Agency in such a universe is not only the capacity for moral choice, but more largely, the capacity for real thought, action, and invention, with inherent consequences for oneself and others.\u201d[13]<\/a>\u00a0 Regularity of law, and resultant suffering, allow for true choice in our lives.<\/p>\n

Bennion went on to explain what the implications of these observations are for making sense of our sufferings:<\/p>\n

We suffer because we were willing to pay the cost of\u00a0being<\/em>\u00a0and of being here with others in their ignorance and inexperience as well as our own. We suffer because we are willing to pay the costs of living with laws of nature, which operate quite consistently whether or not we understand them or can manage them. We suffer because, like Christ in the desert, we apparently did not say we would come only if God would change all our stones to bread in time of hunger. We were willing to\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0hunger. Like Christ in the desert, we did not ask God to let us try falling or being bruised only on condition that he catch us before we touch ground and save us from real hurt.\u00a0We were willing to\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0hurt. Like Christ, we did not agree to come only if God would make everyone bow to us and respect us, or admire us and understand us. Like Christ, we came to be ourselves, addressing and creating reality. We are finding out who we are and who we can become regardless of immediate environment or circumstances. \u2026<\/p>\n

If we are to become more like God, we must experience and understand the reality of physical law. \u2026 God functions according to laws that we are experiencing and trying to learn here. We have many scriptures indicating that our God is a God of law, and we are coming in contact with the same kind of laws he understands.\u00a0Laws are real for him, and the same laws are real for us. \u2026<\/p>\n

Nobody is manipulating every human decision that would affect every human experience. If God did, we would have the kind of existence now that Lucifer offered permanently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, she felt that: \u201cI think suffering \u2026 is an indication that God does not want us to be simply obedient children playing forever under his hand, but wants us able to become more like himself. \u2026 We have to be able, as he is able, to meet what comes of others\u2019 agency, and of living in a lawful universe that allows creation of a habitable planet only when it allows also the difficulties that come in natural operations of such a planet.\u201d[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

Suffering can be seen to be the consequence of orderly law and agency.\u00a0 God does not control the actions of everyone and thus is not the direct cause of their choices.\u00a0 He may nudge and guide people through the Light of Christ and the Holy Spirit since, as Mormon noted, God \u201cinviteth and enticeth to do\u00a0good\u00a0continually\u201d,[15]<\/a> but He does not take direct control and only rarely intervenes.\u00a0 The implication of this is that God isn\u2019t directly responsible for everything we suffer, particularly when that suffering is the result of choices that someone (ourselves or others) made.\u00a0 We can\u2019t always ask \u201cwhat does God want me to learn from this?\u201d or \u201cwhy did God do this to me?\u201d and assume that He planned out and executed the whole experience just for us.<\/p>\n

That being said, the revelations of Joseph Smith do make it clear that God can make good come of evil in our lives.\u00a0 As stated in the epistles from Liberty Jail, the Lord can make it so that suffering can \u201cgive thee experiance and shall be for thy good.\u201d[16]<\/a>\u00a0 Likewise, as stated in an 1833 revelation (now D&C 90), if we \u201csearch diligently pray always and\u00a0be believing,\u201d then \u201call things shall work together\u00a0for your good if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant where with ye have covenanted one with another.\u201d[17]<\/a>\u00a0 Or, as the apostle Paul put it long ago, \u201cWe know that all things work together for good\u00a0for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.\u201d[18]<\/a>\u00a0 While suffering in and of itself may not be good, God is able to make good things come of it for those who love Him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt<\/em>, https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/cache\/epub\/44896\/pg44896-images.html<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> See Peggy Fletcher Stack, \u201cShocking historical finding: Mormon icon Eliza R. Snow was gang-raped by Missouri ruffians,\u201d Salt Lake Tribune <\/em>17 March 2016, https:\/\/archive.sltrib.com\/article.php?id=3613791&itype=CMSID<\/a>. \u00a0See also Andrea R-M, \u201cEliza R. Snow as a Victim of Sexual Violence in the 1838 Missouri War\u2014the Author\u2019s Reflections on a Source,\u201d\u00a0 Juvenile Instructor<\/em> 7 March 2016, https:\/\/juvenileinstructor.org\/eliza-r-snow-as-a-victim-of-sexual-violence-in-the-1838-missouri-war-the-authors-reflections-on-a-source\/<\/a>. <\/strong>Accessed 10 October 2021.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> “Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839,” p. 2, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 19, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-the-church-and-edward-partridge-20-march-1839\/2<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> “Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, circa 22 March 1839,” p. 6, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 22, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-edward-partridge-and-the-church-circa-22-march-1839\/6<\/a><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> “Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839,” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 20, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-the-church-and-edward-partridge-20-march-1839\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> “Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839,” p. 8, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 20, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-the-church-and-edward-partridge-20-march-1839\/8<\/a><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> “Letter to the Church and Edward Partridge, 20 March 1839,” p. 10, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 20, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-the-church-and-edward-partridge-20-march-1839\/10<\/a><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> “Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, circa 22 March 1839,” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 20, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-edward-partridge-and-the-church-circa-22-march-1839\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling <\/em>(New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 380-381.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Discourses of Brigham Young<\/em>, p.103<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young<\/em> (SLC: LDS Church, 1997), 39.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> “Old Testament Revision 2,” p. 22, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 22, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/old-testament-revision-2\/27<\/a><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Francine R. Bennion, \u201cA Latter-day Saint Theology of Suffering,\u201d in At the Pulpit<\/em>, https:\/\/www.churchhistorianspress.org\/at-the-pulpit\/part-4\/chapter-43?lang=eng<\/a><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Francine R. Bennion, \u201cA Latter-day Saint Theology of Suffering,\u201d in At the Pulpit<\/em>, https:\/\/www.churchhistorianspress.org\/at-the-pulpit\/part-4\/chapter-43?lang=eng<\/a><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Moroni 7:12-13.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> “Letter to Edward Partridge and the Church, circa 22 March 1839,” p. 4, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 20, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/letter-to-edward-partridge-and-the-church-circa-22-march-1839\/4<\/a><\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> “Revelation, 8 March 1833 [D&C 90],” p. [2], The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed October 22, 2021, https:\/\/www.josephsmithpapers.org\/paper-summary\/revelation-8-march-1833-dc-90\/2<\/a><\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Romans 8:28, NRSV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a long time, I underestimated the depth of the trauma experienced by the Latter-day Saints in Missouri and the impact that it had on their psyche.\u00a0 I think I started to grasp it more when I was researching for an essay about Latter-day Saints and their relationship with the US Government (which was an earlier version of the \u201cThe constitution of this Land\u201d post I put up on this site in September). \u00a0What they endured was horrific and that left deep scars on the Latter-day Saints.\u00a0 In the midst of all of this, however, Joseph Smith began to write general epistles to the Church, portions of which were later incorporated into the Doctrine and Covenants as Sections 121, 122, and 123.\u00a0 Within those epistles, he began to explain a theology of suffering that grappled with what they had endured. The fallout of the 1838 Missouri-Mormon War was terrible (trigger warning that this section of the post may be distressing).\u00a0 Parley P. Pratt famously recalled how while Church leaders were in prison: We had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards \u2026 as they recounted to each other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2895,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-history","category-come-follow-me-currculum","category-general-doctrine"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42162,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42161\/revisions\/42162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}