Divine Companion: Teaching by the Spirit

Church News: (LDS) ^ | July 4, 2009 | Shaun D. Stahl

[Colofornian]

"My assignment tonight is to address the very broad subject of the role of the Holy Ghost in missionary work, with special emphasis on 'teaching by the Spirit,' " said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve, speaking to nearly 600 missionaries in the Provo Missionary Training Center, and another 100 mission presidents and their wives attending the 2009 New Mission Presidents Seminar, June 26.

Nearly 600 missionaries at the Provo MTC assemble to hear Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who welcomed them to the "work of angels."

"I have entitled these remarks 'The Divine Companionship,' " he said.

"My point tonight is to stress that the Spirit must be with you and you must teach by it when you teach because that is the way the lesson ceases to be your lesson and becomes His, becomes under the power of the Spirit a vehicle for lifting your investigators out of the temporal world.

"We are charged with the responsibility of getting people out of their ruts and routines, out of their problems and their pain, out of their earthly little arguments and ignorance and sins, and take them to the Gods — to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost — ultimately we are to take them toward their own Godhood. In short, we are to take them to the divine. And the Holy Ghost is the connecting link which the Godhead has agreed to give us here in mortality for that heavenly connection. …

[Colofornian]

From the article: "We are charged with the responsibility of getting people out of their ruts and routines, out of their problems and their pain, out of their earthly little arguments and ignorance and sins, and take them to the Gods — to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost — ultimately we are to take them toward their own Godhood.

Well, there ya go...4th graph into this story, one of the dozen highest ranking leaders in the Mormon Church, telling their hundreds of new Lds rookie missionaries that the main thrust of the Mormon "gospel" is to get people "out of their earthly little arguments and ignorance and sins, and take them to the Gods" -- and then pile on to that number of "gods" -- "...ultimately we are to take them toward their own Godhood."

Now, once upon a time, in Lds President Hinckley's era, that push toward "godhood" was a bit more "hushed" -- not out front. But here ya have the Mormon "gospel" in a nutshell:
1. We believe in multiple gods
2. You, too, can join the ranks of these gods galore...
3. ...provided you yield your puny little earthly arguments and focus on the "celestial" worlds above

[greyfoxx39]

From the article: ""Once we have found these people, once we know our investigators, then we can find out what they believe and what they enjoy and what they hope for, as well as what they fear and anything they are struggling over. Then we must take them by the hand and lead them with 'that portion that shall be meted unto every man' as the scriptures say" (Doctrine and Covenants 84:85).

Find out what they believe and fear, play on those fears, catch them in a weak moment and feed them the "milk" of mormon belief. Nice!

It's helpful to see this acknowledged for a change.

[Elsie]

Divine Companion: Teaching by the Spirit

I can see nothing wrong with the TITLE.

However... ahem... when one gets TAUGHT that the Holy Spirit is the one that AGREES with Church Teachings and ANY other is the BAD spirit - doesn't that kinda illustrate bad circular logic?