{"id":2579,"date":"2011-07-03T14:51:43","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T21:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?p=2579"},"modified":"2011-07-03T14:51:43","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T21:51:43","slug":"is-the-church-really-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/03\/is-the-church-really-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the church really true?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today was Fast and Testimony Meeting, and of course among all the testimonies borne in our ward , there were many statements along the lines of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know the church is true,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know the Book of Mormon,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the like.<\/p>\n<p>It seems to me though that people making these statements do so thinking the statements mean something they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t or they are trying to convey a message that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually covered by such statements.<\/p>\n<p>When you look up the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153true\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the dictionary, the definitions you get back are such as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not false; real; accurate; authentic.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Consider the rewriting of the statement \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know the church is true\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with those definitions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I know the church is not false<\/li>\n<li>I know the church is real<\/li>\n<li>I know the church is accurate<\/li>\n<li>I know the church is authentic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>None of these statements are that meaningful. The church is not false. Whoop-de-doo. The church is real; every church is real. The church is accurate; accurate about what? The church is authentic; Christians around the world have authentic spiritual experiences.<\/p>\n<p>Why then use a statement that has no clear meaning and seems so empty? What are some alternative you might ask?<\/p>\n<p>How about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know the church is lead by authority and revelation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know the church has all the ordinances necessary for exaltation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know the church is personally led by the Saviour\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n<p>I believe if members of the Church sincerely pondered what the church means to them, they would find statements of affirmation that would actually resonate with others, and perhaps fast and testimony meetings wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem so empty and superficial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today was Fast and Testimony Meeting, and of course among all the testimonies borne in our ward , there were &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/03\/is-the-church-really-true\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Is the church really true?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is the church really true?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/03\/is-the-church-really-true\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the church really true?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today was Fast and Testimony Meeting, and of course among all the testimonies borne in our ward , there were &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/03\/is-the-church-really-true\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-07-03T21:51:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kim Siever\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kim Siever\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/03\/is-the-church-really-true\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/03\/is-the-church-really-true\/\",\"name\":\"Is the church really true?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-03T21:51:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-07-03T21:51:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2011\/07\/03\/is-the-church-really-true\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/\",\"name\":\"Our Thoughts\",\"description\":\"Thought-provoking commentary on life, politics, religion and social issues.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/99e996edc89affe5206808d3f65869d1\",\"name\":\"Kim Siever\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417c7b5f55d329bdd0f64ef4396831db?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/417c7b5f55d329bdd0f64ef4396831db?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kim Siever\"},\"description\":\"Queer Mormon poet with radical political views. 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