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It was Heavenly Father’s plan to send His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins to save us. The Holy Ghost tells me it’s true.

Does the Holy Ghost also tell you that the fall of Adam was part of God's plan? That is what your Church of JC of LDS taught me....that it was a fall upward...

You believe Jesus Christ is Jehovah of the OT and God is Elohim that they are in fact two separate personages....but you never come out and say it plainly.

I'll ask you plainly, I hope you can answer plainly. Is the above sentence true regarding Jesus Christ and God?

It is soooo sad. This need to use the same language as Christians when in fact you mean something entirely different. The beliefs of Mormonism are always couched in a way that appears they have the same beliefs as Christians. In actuality they are very, very different at their very core and you know this Saundra, don't you?

I don’t believe a thing the President of the LDS Church tells me, on its own merits. Every word, every doctrine is subject to the veto of the Holy Ghost. If God tells me a doctrine is true, then I believe it, and I seek to understand why it is true. If God does not tell me, then I do not accept it as my own.[Tantiboh]

Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament. It was Heavenly Father’s plan to send His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins to save us. The Holy Ghost tells me it’s true. [SD]

OK. All the above sounds very "spiritual." But let me call to mind two scriptures: Jeremiah tells us that "the heart is deceitful above all things" (Jer 17:9). Proverbs adds that "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Prov. 14:12). There are times I have convinced myself that it was God the Holy Spirit confirming something when it was my own heart doin' the talkin'.

There are times when we need a more objective standard that merges both that which is objective coupled with the Holy Ghost, and that is the Bible. (The Holy Ghost is its very author (2 Peter 1:20-21).

I am glad that you say, Tanty, Every word, every doctrine is subject to the veto of the Holy Ghost for scripture says "Prove (test) all things; hold fast to that which is good (1 Th. 5:21).

The very "burning bosom" confirmation LDS have moved into the front burner of their spiritual life is based upon a partial truth: Look at Luke 24:32. We see there that the hearts of 2 disciples "burned" WHILE JESUS TALKED TO THEM AND WHILE HE OPENED THE SCRIPTURES TO THEM. What can we learn from that?

Notice that it was the Godhead's Second Person, Jesus Christ, who was dealing with them primarily--not the third Person (the Holy Ghost). Yet it WAS the Holy Ghost who inspired the objective standard that Jesus utilized--"the Scriptures." Jesus gave an exposition of the Scriptures. They were not convinced by the Holy Ghost apart from the Scriptures.

Finally, we must be "noble" Christians. We must be like the Bereans of Acts 17:11: "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11)

Listen: I think you (Tantiboh) mentioned on a previous post that you considered my "judgment" was at least worth considering. I thank you for that. But my judgment is worthless apart from the foundation from where it comes. Yes, the Holy Spirit guides me often in what to say; but the true nobility (or lack of it) lies in the spirit of every poster and lurker. Nobody is to take my posts at face value; they are to do what the Bereans did: search the scriptures to see if what is said is true.

Every revelation of God is to be judged by the former revelational standard. That is the Scripture given to us by Luke, who was a disciple with Jesus (Acts 17:11-12). We cannot veer from that without heading off the spiritual route marked out for us.

So, let's put this into practice:

Do your "inner testimonies" tell each of you that Joseph Smith saw the Father & Son in 1820?

Secondly does your "inner testimony" each tell you that Brigham Young was a true prophet?

Now we know Brigham said at one point: "I have never yet preached a sermon & sent it out to the children of men that they may not call Scripture" (JoD, vol. 13, p. 95)

So let's look at one of Brigham's sermons where he was very specifically discussing this first vision of Joseph's (he was not discussing any later heavenly visitations Joseph rec'd): "The Lord did not come with the armies of heaven,...But He did send His angel to this same obscure person, Joseph Smith jun., ...and informed him that he should not join any of the religious sects of the day, for they were all wrong;...(JoD, vol. 2, p. 171)

So? Well, if you "inner testimony" says that JS saw both the Father & the Son in 1820; and also that BY was a true prophet--but that BY indicates that JS only saw an angel & NOT the Father & Son in that first 1820 vision...then your inner testimony is contradictory. It would never pass muster in a court a law.

Do you really want to base your eternal future upon such shaky external testimonies as that from a 14 yo boy and upon a "prophet" who labeled every sermon was "Scripture."