If you wish to hand wave a specific answer our Lord gave to a specific question, you may.
There are a few things maybe you can clarify for me Elsie, or maybe one of the others here. There has been a wonderful debate here on this thread about a host of issues. There have been many great points made. The question is this, how do you know what you claim is truth?
You bring up scriptures to make your case only to have other scriptures brought up by others that refute your case. Which side is correct? You, b/c you say so? B/C others say so? You claim to know the will of the Lord, but so did the Pharisees, so do the Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics, Lutherans, etc.... So, who’s right? How can you tell?
The best way I know of is to simply ask the author of all this, the Lord. He has repeatedly asked us through the scriptures to do just that. “Ask & ye shall recieve”, “Knock & it shall be opened to you”. Nowhere in the scriptures does the Lord renounce his admonition for us to call upon him for answers. He never has indicated that it was time for us to go it alone, the heavens were closed, not to bother him anymore b/c we had all we needed. Now man has said that but not the Lord! The Nicean creed upon wich you pin many of your beliefs, was brought about by a bunch of men who argued for days & came up w/ what they believed was truth. The creed was not however a unanimous decision. They never claimed to have direct revelation form the Lord as the prophets of old had received.
In fact one of the troubling points for you SHOULD be that much of what is found in the Nicean creed is NOWHERE to be found in the bible! So, these guys claimed no revelation, didn’t all agree, & completely relied upon their own intellect to come up w/ something that has become a TRADITION for centuries. Is that really the foundation of your belief? Relying on them? Why not ask the Lord as he’s asked us to do?
Seems rather simple, but is one of the most powerful messages of the LDS faith. Why fight that? Now if you tell me that you’ve taken the issue before the Lord as he instructed us to do, & you received an answer from him that your faith is the way, I can respect that. But if you’re just relying on what your vast intellect tells you or what a bunch of men came up w/ centuries ago who openly claimed NO divinity to what they came up w/ & certainly no biblical backing to much of what was ultimately decided upon, then all I can do is wish you the best of luck & hope that some day you’ll find there’s a better way & a SURE answer.
I understand why C.C. & a couple others fight. They’re akin to the Zoramites or the Nephite disenters, so I understand where they’re coming from & what motivates them. For the rest of you, perhaps a sincere look for the truth rather than a win at all costs regardless of truth approach might be worth exploring. Are the “Mormons” right? Maybe, maybe not. The only one you can completely count on, who has all truth, is the Lord. Ask sincerely through prayer, & ye shall indeed receive! The bible says so & I believe the bible to be the word of God.