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Your question is an excellent one. Since you say that you have read the Book of Mormon, I am a little surprised at your question, but these things
do take some study. I agree with you totally that it is by grace we are saved. None of us "earn" our way to Heaven. It is only through Christ that we
are saved. Notice that the Book of Mormon, 2
Nephi 10:24, says, " . . . and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved."
You'll also notice in 2 Nephi 25:43 that it says, "For we labor diligently to write to persuade our children and also our brethren to
believe in Christ and to be reconciled to God, for we know that it is by grace we are saved after all we can do."
What you have missed in your study of the Bible is the Savior's
directives concerning the necessity of what we must do in order to inherit salvation and eternal life with Him. For example, look at James 2:14-20, which
says, "What doth it profit my brethren, though a man say
he hath faith and have not works. Can faith save him? If a brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him, 'Depart
in peace' and 'Be ye warmed and filled;' notwithstanding, ye give them not those things which are needful to the body. What doth it profit? Is it even so
faith if it hath not works is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say thou hast faith and I have works. Shew me thy faith without thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest there
is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble, but wilt thou know, Oh, vain man, that faith without works is dead."
You have quoted Paul from Ephesians 2:8-9, which says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith and then not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of
works lest any man should boast," which would appear to contradict the directive we received from James. Not at all, because, as Nephi said, "It is
by grace . . . after all we can do," meaning that no matter what we could do by ourselves, it would be insufficient for us to save ourselves. Only our
Lord and Savior can do that. It is his
atoning sacrifice and eternal gift that takes over after we have done all of the righteousness possible. Nothing we can do is good enough standing alone.
His grace is sufficient to fix all of the rest of it.
Nevertheless, he has commanded us to "do all that we can do." For instance, see Matthew 25:33-40, which says, "And the king shall answer and say unto
them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
For space in this email, I have not quoted the entire scripture but you can see beginning in the 33rd verse that the Lord listed several things that we
should do to bless the lives of others such as giving to the poor, tending to the sick and needy, visiting those in prison, feeding those who are hungry,
etc. and our unwillingness to do those things is as if we were unwilling to do those things to Him.
Notice Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which
is in Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils and thy name have
done many wonderful works?' And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity." It is not enough to know the
Lord's will. But it is sufficient to do his will. It is not enough to have saved us when we do it, but it is still required of us and when we have done
it, he will, by his grace, take care of all the rest.
If all of the above were not true, why would the scriptures be replete with His commandments to live righteously, and "do" all of the wonderful things that
we are called upon to do?
You are mistaken to believe that I, and the millions of other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have somehow been mysteriously
"duped" when you think that we have made the choice to not
drink or smoke as a way to earn points to please the Lord. Like you, we believe that we do these things for the Lord because we love him and we have taken
upon ourselves his name.
I think you have to reevaluate your judgments because I don't think you completely understand what we believe nor why we believe it. The
suggestion that I would give you from here is since you have read a little from the Book of Mormon, it is probably time for you to seriously study the Book
of Mormon, and if you will do so with a sincere heart, with real intent, having a desire to know whether there is truth there, the Lord will bless you by
the power of the Holy Ghost to know whether or not it is true. After you have had a chance to do that, I would
appreciate very much knowing what you think.
Sincerely,
Donny Osmond
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