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Posted on 02/11/2011 4:20:12 PM PST by Paragon Defender
Elder Gary J. Coleman
Of the Seventy
Gary J. Coleman, "“Mom, Are We Christians?”", Ensign, May 2007, 92–94
I am a devout Christian who is exceedingly fortunate to have greater knowledge of the true “doctrine of Christ” since my conversion to the restored Church.
Christianity celebrates the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God the Eternal Father. Christian churches with great variations of doctrine dot the land the world over. When 14-year-old Cortnee, a daughter of a mission president, entered a new high school as a freshman, she was asked by classmates if she was a Christian. They scoffed at her response that she was a Mormon, a common reference to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Upon arriving home she asked her mother, “Mom, are we Christians?”
Growing up in my family, we lived as devout members of another Christian faith. I was baptized a member of that church shortly after my birth. Our family went to church each week. For many years my brothers and I assisted the pastors who conducted our Sunday services. I was taught the importance of family prayer as our family prayed together each day. I thought that someday I would enter the full-time ministry in my church. There was no question in our minds that we could define ourselves as devout Christians.
When I was a university student, however, I became acquainted with the members and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Christian faith centered on the Savior. I began to learn about the doctrine of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days. I learned truths that I had not known before that changed my life and how I viewed the gospel. After much studying, prayer, and faith, I chose to embrace beautiful restored truths found only in this Church.
The first restored truth that I learned was the nature of the Godhead. The true Christian doctrine that the Godhead consists of three separate beings was known in biblical times. God bore witness of Jesus, His Only Begotten Son, on several occasions. He spoke at Jesus’s baptism: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 1 Jesus Himself testified of God, His Father, when He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” 2 After Jesus’s death and Resurrection, we learn that Stephen, “he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” 3 What a dramatic testimony of the Godhead from that disciple of Christ.
The knowledge of God and His physical separateness from His Son and the Holy Ghost was lost after the death of Christ and His Apostles. Confusion and false doctrines about the Godhead were fashioned out of the Nicene Creed and Constantinople councils, where men declared that instead of three separate beings, the Godhead was three persons in one God, or the Trinity. Just as Christian Protestant reformers struggled with these creeds of men, I did as well. The teachings about the Trinity that I learned in my youth were incomprehensible to me.
However, when I was introduced to the glorious truths of the First Vision experienced by the Prophet Joseph Smith, it was a stunning awakening for me to finally understand the truth about the nature of God the Eternal Father and His Only Begotten Son. Joseph declared: “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” 4 This heavenly vision restored the wondrous yet plain and precious knowledge of God and His Son to the earth again, dispelling at once the teachings I had learned about the Trinity.
I know that heaven-sent revelations have replaced the gross errors of man-made doctrines concerning the Godhead. I know that God is our Heavenly Father. His Son, Jesus Christ, is my Savior. The Holy Ghost testifies of the Father and the Son. I express my profound gratitude to God for introducing the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ to mankind in these last days. The Savior lives; He has been seen; He has spoken; He directs the work of His Church through apostles and prophets today. What magnificent truths He has taught as the Good Shepherd who continues to look after His sheep.
The second restored truth I learned as an investigator of this Church was the reality of additional scripture and revelation. The prophet Isaiah saw in vision a book that he proclaimed was part of “a marvellous work and a wonder.” 5 I testify that the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ is that book. It is a sacred record written by prophets of God to persuade all people to come unto Christ, and it helps to reveal the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness. The Book of Mormon tells of prophets and other faithful members of the Church who took upon themselves the name of Christ, even before the Savior’s birth. 6 This book tells of the resurrected Christ teaching men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the world to come. What could be more Christian than seeking to take His name upon ourselves and follow His counsel to become like Him?
President Gordon B. Hinckley has said, “I cannot understand why the Christian world does not accept this book.” 7 I first read the Book of Mormon at the age of 21. I then asked God if it was true. The truth of it was manifested unto me by the comforting power of the Holy Ghost. 8 I know that the Book of Mormon is a second testament of Jesus Christ. I join my testimony with the prophets of this sacred book to declare that “we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ.” 9 I am deeply grateful for every word that He has spoken and for every word He continues to speak as He quenches our thirst with living water.
Another restored truth of the gospel I became acquainted with was the restoration of priesthood authority, or the power to act in God’s name. Former prophets and apostles, such as Elijah, Moses, John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John, have been sent by God and Christ in our day to restore the holy priesthood of God. Every priesthood holder in this Church can trace his priesthood authority directly to Jesus Christ. Men now possess the keys to establish the Church so that we can come unto Christ and partake of His eternal ordinances of salvation. 10 I testify that this is the Church of Jesus Christ—the only church authorized with true priesthood authority to exercise the keys of salvation through sacred ordinances.
Cortnee asked, “Mom, are we Christians?” As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you are a Christian, and I am too. I am a devout Christian who is exceedingly fortunate to have greater knowledge of the true “doctrine of Christ” 11 since my conversion to the restored Church. These truths define this Church as having the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like other members of the Church, I now understand the true nature of the Godhead, I have access to additional scripture and revelation, and I can partake of the blessings of priesthood authority. Yes, Cortnee, we are Christians, and I testify of these truths in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
A: No.
No Dear, you’re not. You’re Mormon.
Because, it is blasphemy that's why.
Oh, yea GB Hinckley, if you are claiming to be Christians why are you asking the question "why the Christians"? That statement alone separates lds from Christianity, which of course it is.
mormonISM is not Christianity.
No...Jesus is Alpha and Omega, first and last, his word is too.
He does’nt need other scriptures/books that contradict this to “help” him.
No.
Also, thanks for the support provided to the Boy Scouts of America. Lots of chapters might have faded away if not for support from the LDS church.
Some Mormons undoubtedly become Christians, and evidently leave the Mormon sect they were members of behind.
Mormons are NOT Christians
Many years ago, when I was in high school, Mormons came to our class to present their case for Mormonism. Can you believe this was even allowed? It was the early 70s.
Anyway, there was a Q&A. One of my fellow classmates asked if the Mormons believe that black people have no soul. They said reluctantly that that was their belief.
That was it for me. Since that time I have found my True Savior, Jesus Christ.
No matter how much you push your new revelations, you are just another cult.
Nope
Mormons did not work against Prop 8 in a vacuum, they were the most vocal (PR oriented) and lds scouting has become a recruitment tool for lds membership. It is more about mormonISM than scouting.
First paragraph on the lds scouting website
Information provided on this website was developed in trying to strengthen Aaronic Priesthood-related activity programs for LDS young men in ward, stake, region, and the BSA scouting districts in the Taylorsville area of Salt Lake County, Utah and the Spanish Fork and Salem areas of Utah, County, Utah.
http://www.ldsscouting.org/aboutus/aboutus.html
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, institutional sponsors of the Boy Scouts of America. Under their agreement with the BSA, the LDS is the ONLY institutional sponsor that is permitted to run its Scouting programs differently than the Boy Scouts of America's program. The LDS program, among other things, incorporates the Aaronic Priesthood and appointment of both adult AND YOUTH leadership by church leadership.
There is little contact between LDS packs/troops and non-LDS packs/troops, or their leaders.
I'd respectfully suggest that few non-LDS Scouting units are kept from 'fading away' by the LDS church. Units that have the LDS church as the chartered organization have the LDS church; those that don't, don't.
During my years as Council Commissioner of one of the largest Boy Scout Councils in the U.S., one of the many issues that caused me difficulty was dealing with LDS units, primarily because of their lack of participation in District and Council activities, their primary loyalty to church leadership, and the fact that the LDS Scouting program followed geographic lines drawn by the church and not those drawn by the Boy Scouts of America. In many Troops, boys earned the rank of First Class having never been on a camping trip. How? It was a mystery to me.
The practical effect of LDS Scouting was to pressure, drag, or force young men to attain (I didn't say 'earn') or to be gifted the rank of Eagle Scout by the age of fourteen or younger, at a rate of two to four times or more than found in non-LDS units. In twenty years as a Scoutmaster, I'd say that out of every 50 fourteen-year-old Eagle Scouts, perhaps two actually had the leadership skills, knowledge, and maturity to have actually completed a meaningful Eagle Scout project. In the other cases, the project was either insignificant, or was the project of a parent or parents, or both.
Having served twice as a National Scout Jamboree Scoutmaster, and once as a World Scout Jamboree Scoutmaster, I've seen fourteen- and fifteen-year-old Eagle Scouts who couldn't tie a square knot, start a fire, or explain how to treat a person with shock - much less lead a patrol or troop of other boys.
At the 2001 National Scout Jamboree, much attention was given to a Utah Boy Scout who had earned every available merit badge.
The young man may have done so, but throughout Fort A.P. Hill, Scoutmasters just shook their heads. The LDS church's treatment of the Scout program has unfortunately given rise to Scout leaders differentiating between "Eagle Scouts" and "Mormon Eagle Scouts."
For those young men who actually earned the rank, it's a pity. For the large percentage that have justifiably given rise to that differentiation, they've been robbed of the benefits of Boy Scouting.
Say What??
James Brown "Godfather of Soul"
When I was part of the LDS church a few years back, we were taught that “the only true church is the LDS church”. Now it appears that the LDS church wants to be considered part of the Christian church—something that was shunned back then. Can you explain when and how this change came about?
Super question ... PD is making nary a sound. Seems when an LDS posting is not restricted, he has little to say in his defense. PD, it would seem, has become a hit and run apologist. LOL!
I don’t believe any Christian denomination has secret rituals where their members make the motion of slitting their throats in their commitment to keeping the rituals secret. Just saying...
I have a series of questions which I will ask PD on this forum. Hopefully he will answer them. I await his reply.
‘President Gordon B. Hinckley has said, “I cannot understand why the Christian world does not accept this book.” ‘ ???
Does that not say it all?
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