NOM

My dad is all in TBM, with a little crazy. He has always believed in the spiritual gifts mentioned in the scriptures like tongues, healings, etc. He hates it when people cop out of blessings of healing not working with "it was God's will". He thinks God will heal people if they have the faith and do it right. We were having a religious discussion the other day about priesthood and whatnot. We were talking past each other, but neither side took offense. He asked me why I thought blessings don't work more. I told him that it was because they don't work in general, they will never work regardless of faith outside of a placebo effect.

He looked at me funny then said, "No, it's because we don't have the faith!"

I appreciate his willingness to take the question head on, though I don't agree with his conclusion...

The first law I live my life by is "What you focus on grows" so that is positive or negative which is why blessings can work when people believe they will. It's not because of priesthood power instead the law of attraction which governs what happens in our lives.

Even if your dad could recall all the blessings he'd given and had stats on and which of them provided a miraculous outcome vs those that did not, it really wouldn't matter because he's already got his mental gymnastics in place to deal with it. There was always that shred of faith there with me to hope it would work or provide a benefit, but that hope was always pretty small. Those of us that see through the made up magic really can't argue with those that don't because there's always a scapegoat:
- person who received the blessing didn't have the faith or gift to be healed
- the outcome is always God's will
- person giving the blessing didn't have faith or the gift to heal
- if it turned out positive or improved it was a miracle, if it was negative or no change it was God's will and a test or trial

It's interesting that in JS' day they had that magical world view of sprits, divining rods, perhaps even psychotropic elixirs that invoked those visions. It seems like there were so many more instances of the miracles in the early days and in the Bible. Now that modern science and stats can throw back the curtain and show us the man made BS, it's harder to hide the facts. Thus the current COB is watering it down and dummying it down to help the TBMs find the miraculous in the mundane and ordinary. Pretty sad to have that mental burden of the priesthood power of God on earth that has zero power. Glad I don't carry that burden anymore.