A faith crises, or “Trail of your faith” as the Book of Mormon puts it, is a normal and imperative part of the natural progression of faith. It’s my hope that the ideas explained in this section will help people through faith crises by understanding the natural progression of religious faith explained by prophets, in scripture, historic patterns and even secular religious minds like Carl Jung, CS Lewis and James Fowler. And that by understanding where you are on that spectrum of progression, as well as where your particular ward or church or religion (particularly my fellow-LDS members), you will be able to give yourself and church the grace necessary to to push through inevitable trails of faith toward your personal redemption (from the general trails of life that inevitably accompany trails of faith).

This path of progression through various levels and stages of faith and focus is beautifully portrayed through the symbols of LDS temple rituals. (loosely based on ancient Egyptian, Israeli, Persian/Mithraism, Medieval orders/Templar societies & Masonic systems). This path begins with the archetypal ‘Fall’ of Adam & Eve as a symbol of Humanity into a selfish, carnal and sensual state — and ends with their redemption into unselfish, principled ‘Millennial’ Unity. A path we all tread, from darkness to light, from low to high, from fall to redemption, from depression to joy, from power to love, lion to lamb, from projective egoistic faith to universalism.

Our goal, Christian Universalism under the Heavenly Church is the concept that eventually most people will be reconciled to god. And faith universalization is the process of unifying one’s religion in a way that fits it harmoniously within the context of all selfless-oriented global beliefs and experiences. An ideology (held by the heavenly church) able to bring global harmony. Universalization stands in contrast to religious fundamentalism where a particular faith or political ideology completely disregards the truths and experiences of the greater world in lieu of pridefully holding their partial truths and selfish beliefs as superior to all others — often despite self evident truths to the contrary.

I believe firmly that Mormonism is the future of American Christianity, just as young, despised Christianity was the future of European religion in the first centuries after Christ. But I also believe Mormonism will progress as a faith considerably before it gets there. I believe it will continue to move toward universalism, and that its modern revelations pave a better scriptural foundation toward that end than any other Christian religion. Its my hope that the articles in this section will help readers see this point, and move us all toward a unity of the faith, ‘gathered in one’ in Christ. (see Eph 1:10, Eph 4:13, D&C 42:9, D&C 121:27–32, Jacob 5:62–75)