The Powerful, Virtuous Cycle of the Doctrine of Christ | Dale G. Renlund | April 2024 

I needed these insights so much! Thank you, my friend. I took a screenshot of your words so I won’t forget❤

Way to go, Grant. I'm proud of you! Don't stop trying. Keep on spreading the good advice.

Hello, this is a great point. I grew up in the church my whole life. To answer your question, yes. Growing up I was taught the difference between sins and mistakes. In some cases they are closely related, but I see what you’re saying and I agree. I definitely had church leaders (bishops, youth group leaders, Sunday school teachers, etc.) use the words “sin” and “mistake” interchangeably, but was always taught from the scriptures the true difference in the words. So you will hear church members conflate the two words, but the doctrine we are taught and read in the scriptures makes it clear enough so that I never got the two confused. So I just write it off as a “Mormon cultural saying”. There are a lot of sayings that Mormons use that don’t necessarily convey the true doctrine based in scripture. I hope this helps! I’m a little scatter brained so I don’t know how well I got my point across.

Hi J.E.! Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tend to see salvation as a done deal, and don't tend to fret too much over their sins, and thus down-play them a lot as mere mistakes and don't necessarily take them too seriously because they know how willing God is to forgive them - if they repent sincerely. This seems to be a cultural thing in our church, and is both a good thing and bad thing. It's good because we have so much confidence in Christ's willingness to forgive us, and bad because we often don't assign to our sins the gravity they deserve. Being of a generally naughty disposition, I've learned the hard way that Christ eventually tires of our foolishness, and will take longer over time to forgive us of our sins/mistakes. Yes, the leaders of our church are constantly concerned about our faithfulness to Christ (or our lack thereof), and work tirelessly to keep us on the strait and narrow path. It's certainly best to be faithful to Christ, and to avoid upsetting Him. I hope your journey to Christ is going well!

Hi, I believe that sin is a type of mistake, or a moral mistake, or moral misjudgement. You could physically or mentally misjudge, which is also a type of mistake. Sin is a mistake, but if you make a mistake it isn't necessarily a sin. If you make a non moral mistake, you aren't sinning, so God doesn't hold you accountable for these. The way things are phrased can sometimes be confusing. God bless you for wanting to seek for truth and wisdom! You will find that the Book of Mormon goes hand and hand with the Bible, and I know that both are true, and have helped me to know the doctrine of Jesus Christ better.