That's part of the problem right there. An LDS member will say "I believe in Christ" where the anti-LDS poster will say "You don't believe in Christ you just believe in someone with the same name". That is an attack on the LDS faith diminishing the importance of Jesus Christ in our religion.
It along the same lines as claiming that the LDS Church believes Jesus Christ is only a prophet and not divine. Yes I have seen this statement here at FR and it is false. Also an attack on the LDS faith again diminishing the importance of Jesus Christ in our religion.
If I say "the LDS Church believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God", then a someone else says "My church believes Jesus Christ IS God incarnate" that is absolutely fine with me. Shows the differences between the two religions. Neither is directly attacking the others religion and only talking about their own religions beliefs.
From there an honest civil discourse can happen between the two and hash out what each believes and each can honestly learn something about the other faith, and maybe even strengthen each others testimonies about their respective faiths.
On the other hand if I say "the LDS Church believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" and someone chimes in with the anti-mormon talking points of "the mormons believe that God and Mary had sex!" that neither is honest (that is not at all LDS doctrine nor common belief), nor does it do anything to teach others about their own faith. It is simply an attack on the LDS beliefs for the select purpose of trying to make the LDS church look bad regardless of the statement's accuracy.
I say what I believe, not other people. Even the current President of the LDS Church does not say what I believe. If he says something I have questions about I think, pray, read the scriptures (and I go to the Bible first, then the BoM, followed by the PogP, then finally D&C), pray again, then make my own decision based on promptings of the Spirit. We as LDS members have been counciled to do this thing quite often on everything and not just follow our leaders on blind faith.
Yes there are many things I disagree with the leaders of the church on, most but not all of them are matters of policy and not doctrine. None of them are considered absolute "you have to believe this or you can't be LDS" doctrine. Then there are also things that I just don't know the absolute answer to, nor do I really care to because it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. The supposed location of the Garden of Eden is an example, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Nope not at all.
In fact the Prophet of the Church Ezra Taft Benson said in his speech entitled:
First: The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
Second: The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.
Third: The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
Fourth: The prophet will never lead the Church astray.
Fifth: The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
Sixth: The prophet does not have to say "Thus saith the Lord" to give us scripture.
Seventh: The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
Eighth: The prophet is not limited by men's reasoning.
Ninth: The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
Tenth: The prophet may be involved in civic matters.
Eleventh: The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
Twelfth: The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
Thirteenth: The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency--the highest quorum in the Church.
Fourteenth: The prophet and the presidency--the living prophet and the First Presidency--follow them and be blessed; reject them and suffer.
Thank you for your well thought out and I believe Cogent comments.
HMMMmmm...
Brigham Young speaks from the grave: (http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/sermons_talks_interviews/jofdvol7p282_291smithholdskeystoheaven.htm)
How many times have I been asked, "Do you believe that such a man as John Wesley will be damned?" I could answer the question either way, for they do not know what it is to be saved or damned. John Wesley is in the spirit-world. He did not receive the ordinances of the everlasting Gospel in the flesh, and consequently is not prepared to hold the keys of the kingdom and be a minister of the great work of God in the last dispensation, but is dependent upon others to attain a celestial glory. Has he gone to hell? No. When the spirit leaves the body, it goes into the spirit-world, where the spirits of men are classified according to their own wills or pleasure, as men are here, only they are in a more pure and refined state of existence. Do you suppose that John Wesley is lifting up his eyes in hell, being in torment? No; he is talking to those who heard and would not believe him when he was on the earth. He may be asking them whether they do not now see the justice of a reformation from the Church of England mode of religion—whether they do not now see that that Church had gone astray from the true religion, and that he was right. Yes; and they, no doubt, see it as John Wesley does, and are willing to worship God according to the best knowledge they have. As death left him, so judgment will find him, trying to worship God in the best manner he was acquainted with. John Wesley and his true followers will receive a glory far surpassing what they ever thought or dreamed of while under the influence of their greatest inspirations, and they will be saved. Are they also damned? Yes, because they have not attained the victory over the enemy of all righteousness. It is the holy Priesthood of God that gives man the victory in this world, and he begins to reign over the power of the enemy here. The keys of the kingdom of the Son of God outreach and circumscribe the power of the Enemy.
Much has been said about the power of the Latter-day Saints. Is it the people called Latter-day Saints that have this power, or is it the Priesthood? It is the Priesthood; and if they live according to that Priesthood, they can commence their work here and gain many victories,
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and be prepared to receive glory, immortality, and eternal life, that when they go into the spirit-world, their work will far surpass that of any other man or being that has not been blessed with the keys of the Priesthood here.
Joseph Smith holds the keys of this last dispensation, and is now engaged behind the vail in the great work of the last days. I can tell our beloved brother Christians who have slain the Prophets and butchered and otherwise caused the death of thousands of Latter-day Saints, the priests who have thanked God in their prayers and thanksgiving from the pulpit that we have been plundered, driven, and slain, and the deacons under the pulpit, and their brethren and sisters in their closets, who have thanked God, thinking that the Latter-day Saints were wasted away, something that no doubt will mortify them—something that, to say the least, is a matter of deep regret to them—namely, that no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are—I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent. He holds the keys of that kingdom for the last dispensation—the keys to rule in the spirit-world; and he rules there triumphantly, for he gained full power and a glorious victory over the power of Satan while he was yet in the flesh, and was a martyr to his religion and to the name of Christ, which gives him a most perfect victory in the spirit-world. He reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. Many will exclaim—"Oh, that is very disagreeable! It is preposterous! We cannot bear the thought!" But it is true.
I will now tell you something that ought to comfort every man and woman on the face of the earth. Joseph Smith, junior, will again be on this earth dictating plans and calling forth his brethren to be baptized for the very characters who wish this was not so, in order to bring them into a kingdom to enjoy, perhaps, the presence of angels or the spirits of good men, if they cannot endure the presence of the Father and the Son; and he will never cease his operations, under the directions of the Son of God, until the last ones of the children of men are saved that can be, from Adam till now.
Should not this thought comfort all people? They will, by-and-by, be a thousand times more thankful for such a man as Joseph Smith, junior, than it is possible for them to be for any earthly good whatever. It is his mission to see that all the children of men in this last dispensation are saved, that can be, through the redemption. You will be thankful, every one of you, that Joseph Smith, junior, was ordained to this great calling before the worlds were. I told you that the doctrine of election and reprobation is a true doctrine. It was decreed. in the counsels of eternity, long before the foundations of the earth were laid, that he should be the man, in the last dispensation of this world, to bring forth the word of God to the people, and receive the fulness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of God. The Lord had his eye upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father's father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch, and, from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the
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birth of that man. He was foreordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation, as much so as Pharaoh was foreordained to be a wicked man, or as was Jesus to be the Saviour of the world because he was the oldest son in the family.
(You may IGNORE the above; because it is NOT 'official LDS organizational Scripture; but mere JD ramblings.)
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