It's Elementary, My Dear Readers

Never wore this coat.
Or the hat.

Anyone who knows me knows I am enthusiastic about many things, but a couple of things in particular: Sherlock Holmes and all things relating to or similar to him, and accuracy, especially when it comes to grammar, spelling, and fact checking. In fact, you could say I'm a bit of a perfectionist and a fanatic in this second regard. Maybe even slightly OCD, but I'm not going to say more because I don't want to have to talk to another counselor.

Ahem.

I don't like it when people mis-quote things and take them to be the gospel truth. For instance, Sherlock Holmes never said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." Never. Never never never never never ever. And yet I will probably have to correct multitudes of people before I die because that sort of thing is essential to their salvation or something.

My point is: I keep hearing a particular phrase, most frequently applied when a person wants to come to church in jeans and a t-shirt, or when they don't want to have to change from their sinful ways. Mostly they don't want to be judged by others. It is, "Jesus said, 'Come as you are!'"

False Stereotypes

Did he? When? Where? Seriously, though. Someone please show me where in the King James Version of the Bible, God or Christ says, "Come as you are." I've looked with Sherlockian scrutiny in the Bible as well as the other standard works of the Church, and I cannot find it anywhere. I imagine you might be able to find it in some other translation of the Bible, but let's stick with the most doctrinally sound version. Not a single reference.

The problem with this, 'Come As You Are,' mentality is that it makes God contradictory. He is like a germaphobe Father, and we are his beloved children. Jesus Christ is the perfect older brother who never got a speck of dust on him at recess, while we managed to get ourselves into all sorts of dirt and mud. We simply can't 'come as we are' in this state because God can't stand the sight of all this filth on us, and we would feel dirty, gross, and uncomfortable to be anywhere near him.

That's more like it.

But the confusion is elementary to understand when we look at the source material. You see, Sherlock Holmes did say both, "Elementary," and, "My dear Watson," but in two separate stories. And Jesus Christ does repeatedly tells us to come unto him. Like John 14:6, Isaiah 55:3, or 2 Nephi 28:32. There's even a whole Topical Guide section on it.

Fortunately, Christ loves us and has given to us freely a cleansing agent called The Atonement. It will take some soaking, scrubbing, and sometimes repeated washing to get us clean, but we can get there. In Moroni 10:32, we're told to, "... come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God." Christ intends for us to come unto Him by becoming like Him.

I really don't care if you come to church in a t-shirt and jeans. Coming to church is a step towards denying yourself of all ungodliness. I will just celebrate that you are there. So please come: Come to church, come unto Christ, come join with us!

And by the way, Queen Marie Antoinette never said, "Then let them eat cake!"