What do LDS believe regarding the necessity of suffering?

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Accepted answer

I'll try to address your main two questions and a few comments on your four points, but there is plenty of material to address your concerns.

So my question is, what is the purpose of suffering? Why would an all-loving (omnibenevolent) Heavenly Father subject us to unnecessary torture (in many cases)?

I highly recommend What is the Purpose of Suffering. A very condensed from scripture says (D&C 122:5,7)

5 If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;

7 ... and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.emphasis added

And quoting the article:

What seems to be a tragedy (and a cause for suffering) may from an eternal perspective be a blessing and a cause for rejoicing. Sufferings have the potential of blessing man. They may strengthen us for future tasks. They can make us sensitive to the pains of others and more willing to sacrifice for others. (Christ suggests that one must lose his life to find it.) They may help us appreciate Christ’s atonement; they may help to purge our imperfections and to purify us.

Another article that also addresses this issue is What the Scriptures Say About Suffering

The unnecessary point in your question is unknown. God is omniscient, there is a reason something is happening, we just don't always know why because we are mortal and not omniscient.

  1. It is possible to reach the highest levels of Salvation/Exaltation without going through mortal life and all the suffering it entails.

A few quick points:

  • mortal life is the time from birth until physical death.1 Even infants/children have attained mortal life.
  • When we lived with our Heavenly Father, He explained a plan for our progression. We could become like Him, an exalted being. The plan required that we be separated from Him and come to earth.2 So no it is not possible to reach exaltation without going through mortal life.

  • Personal observation as a father, childbirth is not a pain-free experience for the child. I bring this up to point out that everyone suffers some, even if it is before the age of accountability.

    1. God can know our hearts and our purity without testing us in mortality (otherwise he could not know that those who die before the age of accountability are worthy of exaltation)

Man has agency3 and as we accepted His plan of salvation (we are here on earth) it is my understanding that we understood the need to know for ourselves what we would do in mortality.

  1. The test (and growth) in mortality is therefore unnecessary, which means that mortal life is unnecessary.

See comments, you can't jump from #2 to this.

  1. If mortal life is unnecessary than so is all of the suffering in the world.

Suffering while unpleasant, in the grand scheme of things, does not last long in terms of eternity. D&C 121:7-8

7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

1 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/mortal-mortality

2 https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-47-exaltation?lang=eng

3 https://www.lds.org/topics/agency?lang=eng

Other references:

  • All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, by Neil A Maxwell

Upvote:0

You are very right. And that is why little children will NOT be exalted in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom. Bruce is flat wrong. that is an absurd assumption. Joseph Smith taught the truth on the matter :

It was on 18 May 1843 that William Clayton, Joseph’s personal secretary and Recorder of Revelations, asked him “whether children who die in infancy will grow.”Joseph answered, “No, we shall receive them precisely in the same state as they died i.e. no larger. They will have as much intelligence as we shall but shall always remain separate and single. They will have no increase."

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