charity wrote:Our view, of course, is that the atonement provides for us what we can't provide for ourselves. But that we are required to do all we can. It is by grace we are saved AFTER all we can do. Proving ourselves worthy is that "all we can do."
That is most certainly not LDS doctrine. We are saved by grace, after all we can do. And what we can do is virtually nothing. In fact, the Book of Mormon reminds us of our "nothingness." The way you describe it, people work their butts off to prove themselves worthy, and then the Atonement makes up the difference, as if it's the cherry on top of a sundae we made with our own hands.
Imagine a situation where two people get baptized the same day. The one guy spends the rest of his life in the church, fulfilling his callings, serving in leadership positions, serving a mission, getting married in the temple, and doing everything to the best of his ability.
The other person is killed in a car accident on the way home from the baptism. No mission, no temple marriage, no callings. But that person has just as much a right to exaltation as the other guy. So it wasn't works with the Atonement making up the difference. It was the Atonement that saved them both.
For better or worse, I would still like to believe in God and Jesus, and this idea of proving one's self worthy of heaven has always been foreign to me.