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How to testify
Lds Church News ^ | Sept. 19, 2009

Posted on 09/20/2009 2:46:15 PM PDT by Colofornian

SNIP

Sharing testimonies is an important part of the Latter-day Saint experience. We bear testimonies in many settings — in the home with family and among friends and associates or in missionary experiences. In Church, one Sunday is set aside every month for the bearing of testimonies during sacrament meetings.

SNIP

In his address at the October 2004 general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve...said that his experience throughout the Church leads him to worry that too many members' testimonies linger on "I am thankful," and "I love," and too few are able to say with humble but sincere clarity, "I know." As a result, he noted, meetings sometimes lack the testimony-rich, spiritual underpinnings that stir the soul and have meaningful, positive impact on the lives of all those who hear them.

He...counseled, "We need to replace stories, travelogues and lectures with pure testimonies. Those who are entrusted to speak and teach in our meetings need to do so with doctrinal power that will be both heard and felt, lifting the spirits and edifying our people."

SNIP

As we listen to general conference this October, we will hear many bear pure testimony. Numerous times over the years, we have heard President Thomas S. Monson, first as an apostle and now as president of the Church, bear such testimony. May we, as Primary children sing, be inclined to "follow the prophet" in our endeavor to nurture, strengthen and share our testimonies that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was the prophet who was raised up to restore the fullness of the everlasting gospel...

(Excerpt) Read more at ldschurchnews.com ...


TOPICS: Other Christian; Theology
KEYWORDS: antimormonthread; josephsmith; lds; mormon; testimony
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To: Tennessee Nana
I might but I dont want to...
You either KNOW that the God of the Bible loves you...
Or you dont know...


Hey, I got something for you...
101 posted on 09/20/2009 8:02:17 PM PDT by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: DelphiUser
Actually, he Did, He Saw God the Father and the son, at the same time. That takes the grand daddy of all creeds, The Nicene Creed to the Mat and does not let it up.

If I read your post right, you think that "at the same time" somehow contradicts the Nicene Creed and the understanding of the Trinity?

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.


102 posted on 09/20/2009 8:05:25 PM PDT by Alex Murphy (...We never faced anything like this...we only fought humans.)
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To: DelphiUser

You keep it...

Wouldnt want to take your only lifeline to your mormon gods...


103 posted on 09/20/2009 8:07:42 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: Colofornian

Why did you think I needed pinged to this? Am I on your Mormon-bashing pinglist? If so, please remove me.


104 posted on 09/20/2009 9:01:44 PM PDT by TChris (There is no freedom without the possibility of failure.)
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To: Alex Murphy
If I read your post right, you think that "at the same time" somehow contradicts the Nicene Creed and the understanding of the Trinity?
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The bolded section would preclude God the Father and Jesus Christ being in the same place side by side because they are the same substance. The two ideas of God and Christ appearing in two separate bodies and the Nicene creed are incompatible. I have had this very conversation with priests of many religions, and trust me everyone ends up not wanting Jesus to be God's son, but God the father himself. Oneness through out the Bible is not a oneness of substance. The Nicene creed makes that jump, for no Biblical reason. The Greek influence on the beliefs of the church was that nothing corporeal can be all powerful or eternal and thus they created a mystery, something that cannot be comprehended, or understood and told people that was the beauty of it.

I am truly sorry, but the Trinity is a lie. A well meaning, earnestly believed lie. A lie that was told long ago by people long dead, but a lie nonetheless.
105 posted on 09/20/2009 9:24:06 PM PDT by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: Tennessee Nana
You keep it...

Wouldnt want to take your only lifeline to your mormon gods...


Mormons don't believe in Get out of Hell free cards.
106 posted on 09/20/2009 9:25:29 PM PDT by DelphiUser ("You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think")
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To: Alex Murphy

Isn’t it amazing that they are so lacking in confidence in the overall body of works (bom, pogp, d&c) that they find it necessary to start brainwashing small children to “follow the prophet..”

I find it repulsive, and telling. Personally, I would never place so much of my trust in the word of a single man - especially one so obviously falsely representing himself as a prophet.

G_d condemns those who “cause these little ones to stumble”.

I have made clear to my (lds) wife that our child(ren) will not be indoctrinated with such bovine excrement, nor sing songs such as that, or the well known “hymn” about the phony and nonexistent planet, ‘Kolob’.

Even at that, as soon as our child(ren) is/are old enough to comprehend, I will be teaching in earnest about what a twisted pervert, profligate, liar, cheat, and practitioner of forbidden occultic arts Joey-boy was, and that if the tree trunk be rotten, it can yield no fruit of worth or nourishment.

A.A.C.


107 posted on 09/20/2009 11:08:41 PM PDT by AmericanArchConservative (Armour on, Lances high, Swords out, Bows drawn, Shields front ... Eagles UP!)
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To: greyfoxx39; Colofornian; Utah Binger; Elsie; Godzilla; Monkey Face

Any/all of the testimony contained in the bom which is not lifted wholesale from the Bible and without change or alteration - is more phony than the Nauvoo “bank notes” once issued by Joey-boy and his bunch of lying grifters.

Jesus Christ has naught to do with the bom or any of the fruadulently concocted doctrines thereof - except reaching out to save sinners in spite of such heresies...

- like for example the one which teaches that Jesus and Lucifer were “spirit brothers”, or the one also mentioned in “Elder” M. Russell Ballard’s book about the eating of the fruit which precipitated the “Fall from Grace” to original sin in the Garden of Eden - being not sin but rather a “wise choice” ...

There have been ordained, Christ-seeking G_d-fearing, and honourable men in my family lineage since at least as far back as the mid 1500s in England - across many denominations over the centuries, and I refuse to accept the blather of a fork-tongued liar like Joseph Smith who says that they were part of any alleged “Apostasy”.

Joe Smith’s breeches were not the only thing about him full of crap..

Wise choice, my left butt cheek! It was wrongful and introduced sin into mankind - nothing less than that, and no amount of revision or neo Arianism mingled with gnosticism and egyptian mysticism can “reinterpret” that.

I cannot imagine myself as anything but happy and fulfilled in a world where the bom did not exist...like the simple majority of true Christians in the world - who have been on this earth continuously testifying to the love of their saviour since the time of Christ’s ministry, I do not regard the bom as anything other than a work of fiction so poorly written and full of contradictions that it has needed more “updating” (not even accounting for grammatical errata and colloquial variances) since 1830, than real scripture ever has, or will.

My testimony is this: Joseph Smith was a liar of constancy and (ill) consequence.

Joseph Smith’s lies, profligacies, and thundering boasts brought down not the honour of martyrdom, but the curses of the Most High of Israel around his head.

He had the temerity to create the shadowy group known as the “Danites” to exact judgment/revenge upon those who opposed/displeased him.

May he (continue to) burn in Hell, right beside “Bring’em” Young, and others like them in authority, who pretended that polygamy - including documented marriages to underage girls, and flings their own wives did not willingly assent to - was a right “divinely” granted to them - the so-called “Law of Abraham” - which was NEVER a law.

They had the audacity to lie about this before publicizing the “revelation” that gave them divine imprimatur, and the dishonesty to defy the authorities (long after signing a contract with the gov’t to stop the practice) by officially solemnizing such unions by virtue of having church representatives at the ceremonies.

I testify that Joseph Smith was a huckster of the utmost capability, a perpetual liar, on whose word I would not rely to know the colour of the sky on a sunny summer day...and that his hubris knew few boundaries. I testify that the organization he founded, “the mormon church” aka “latter day saints”, may include good and kind people who desire to know and serve the real Christ, but that the Christ represented and taught in official church doctrine is in no manner to be regarded the same as the “Only begotten Son of G_d, One in Being with the Father, Through Him all things were made, for us men and for our salvation, he came down from Heaven...by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, For our sake He suffered, died and was buried. On the third day, He rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father...He will come again in Glory to judge the living and the dead and His Kingdom will have no end...”

My first testimony for Christ is to the truth and completeness of Scripture, as represented in the Old and New Testaments, (I accept the Canonical stature of the books of the Apocrypha, because there are no internal contradictions between them and the remainder of all the “books”...) and to the Word which was made Flesh and dwelt among us - through whom we beheld the Glory of the Father, full of grace and peace.

My second Testimony is that I accept Jesus Christ as the Only begotten Son of G_d, and the only Giver of Salvation - into my heart and soul

- Yea, that my sins are forgiven me, His grace is restored unto me, and I am born again, a new creature in Him - and there is nothing I can or may do to earn or improve upon that salvation.

It is a gift of G_d, and the Word says “The gifts and callings of G_d are without repentance...”

I have more I may testify about, but these first two portions are all which are necessary to lead another person to understanding of their own inherently sinful, unacceptable-to-G_d sinful human nature, and to a saving knowledge of the only provision - G_d’s Son and Heir, Jesus Christ.

Like Paul - if all else fails - I lay aside all pretenses and vanities, throw up my hands and claim I “know nothing more than Christ, and Him Crucified...”

Not “Christ, and Him praying in Gethsemane” - Christ and Him Crucified...for only there did He raise his precious, Sacred Head and declare, “It is finished/perfected.”

My Redeemer Lives.

A.A.C.


108 posted on 09/21/2009 12:06:04 AM PDT by AmericanArchConservative (Armour on, Lances high, Swords out, Bows drawn, Shields front ... Eagles UP!)
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To: Colofornian
In his address at the October 2004 general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve...said that his experience throughout the Church leads him to worry that too many members' testimonies linger on "I am thankful," and "I love," and too few are able to say with humble but sincere clarity, "I know."

Sounds much like a couple of ladies on FR.

109 posted on 09/21/2009 4:09:40 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: DelphiUser
This testimony has been posted on my page here for years.

Then why do you feel like you have to DO so many other things to make your salvation ASSURED?

110 posted on 09/21/2009 4:11:08 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Monkey Face
Religion is my choice or not. No one has the right to tell me what to believe.

AMEN!

 
 
 
 John 6:27-29
 27.  Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."
 28.  Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
 29.  Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

111 posted on 09/21/2009 4:14:46 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Monkey Face
Are you telling me that even though the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is, INDEED another testament of Jesus Christ; that the "Mormons" who are INDEED members of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, you still believe we are NOT CHRISTian???

I've heard it said recently...


Are you telling me that even though the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is believed by the "FUNDAMENTALIST Mormons" who are INDEED members of the FUNDAMENTALIST Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints, STILL are not ALLOWED to be called MORMON by the snooty folks from SLC who claim the RIGHT and AUTHORITY to say who is and who AIN'T a MORMON!

(At LEAST the Flds folks happen to actually FOLLOW Mormon 'scripture' found in D&C 132!)

112 posted on 09/21/2009 4:18:54 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Monkey Face
 
How can you say Mormons are not "Christian" if you haven't prayerfully studied the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
 
I can say that certain Mormons are not "Christian" because they prayerfully IGNORED the WORDS written in the BIBLE ans well as the Book of MORMON:
 
 
Smith, Young, Taylor, Pratt, Snow, Kimball, Woodruff ...

 
 
 

 1 Timothy 3:2-3
 2.  Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
 3.  not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
 
 
1 Timothy 3:12
   A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well.
 
 
 Titus 1:6
   An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.




 
BEHOLD!!!!  The Restorative Power  of the Book of Mormon!!
 



 
THE BOOK OF JACOB
THE BROTHER OF NEPHI
CHAPTER 2
 
  24 Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.
  25 Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph.
  26 Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.
  27 Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none;
  28 For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.
  29 Wherefore, this people shall keep my commandments, saith the Lord of Hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes.
  30 For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.
  31 For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem, yea, and in all the lands of my people, because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands.
  32 And I will not suffer, saith the Lord of Hosts, that the cries of the fair daughters of this people, which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem, shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of Hosts.
 
 

113 posted on 09/21/2009 4:22:32 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Colofornian
Is that why an angel, Moroni, stands atop Lds facilities?

Speaking of this - just WHAT do MORMONS put along the roadside to comemorate loved ones death on the highway?

It sure isn't a CROSS!

114 posted on 09/21/2009 4:24:07 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Monkey Face
 
Sounds like an opinion to me.

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/1/17#17

  17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me 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!
  18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
  19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”
  20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother,
“I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.”
 
Unless you can SHOW us just what JS 'learned' to be untrue about PRESBYTERIANism of his day - you will have to conclude that the foundation of MORMONism is just an OPINION of Joseph Smith!

115 posted on 09/21/2009 4:26:43 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Monkey Face
But I prefer to forgive ignorance.

Ah...

Maybe this explains those early MORMON church leaders: they were IGNORANT of what the Bible and the BoM said about one wife.

116 posted on 09/21/2009 4:28:15 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Godzilla
Since the bom contains the fullness of the gospel, how come these items are not in it?

Uh....

--MormonDude(I sure THOUGHT they were in there! Does that mean I am IGNORANT?)

117 posted on 09/21/2009 4:29:18 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie
Notes on Arthur Conan Doyles's A Study in Scarlet
118 posted on 09/21/2009 4:35:22 AM PDT by John McDonnell (Try to hide my candle under a bushel, and it will burn through the bushel.)
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To: Utah Binger

Ouch!

That’ll leave a mark!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdHK_NHpAw4


119 posted on 09/21/2009 4:36:41 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Monkey Face
As I said, YOU are pathetic.

.

.

. Get a life, Dude.


 
 
 

MORMON
ATTITUDES OF SUPERIORITY
 

  1. I’m Superior; I have a special gift of the holy Ghost -- you don’t!
  2. I’m Superior; I have God’s true priesthood power -- you don’t!
  3. I’m Superior; I can go in God’s secret Temple -- you can’t!
  4. I’m Superior; I’ve been Endowed with special Gifts and Knowledge -- you’re just normal!
  5. I’m Superior; I’ll have my family with me in heaven -- you’ll be with strangers!
  6. I’m Superior; I’m becoming a God -- you aren’t!
  7. I’m Superior; My women know their place as servants of man and yours don’t.
  8. I’m Superior; YOUR creeds are wrong because they come from man - mine comes from God (you can find each one printed in our Scriptures).
  9. I’m Superior; I don’t HAVE a creed - I’ve got 13 Articles of Faith.
10. I'm Superior; I have 4 "Bibles"-- the standard works (5 if you count the JST) -- you've only got one: in as far as it is translated correctly.
11. I’m Superior; I can lie with impunity about such things as church membership, church growth, church doctrine, church history, church influence, etc. —                           -- You can’t.
12. I’m Superior; I am right (everybody knows) when I say 'evangelical' Christians are lunatics --                            -- You’re a hideous narrow-minded bigot, who is persecuting me by practicing discrimination by saying I'm not a Christian.
13. I'm Superior; I have a testimony about a prophet -- you don't.
14. I'm Superior; I have a Scripture-producing Amos 3:7 prophet -- you don't
15. I’m Superior; I have a Living Prophet who talks to god every day -- you have a dim-witted hireling of Satan who only talks to himself.
16. I'm Superior; I have my calling & election made sure -- you don't.
17. I’m Superior; I have magic underwear to protect me from the bogey man -- you don’t.
18. I’m Superior; I have secret clasps and grips to give the angel so I get admitted to the celestial kingdom -- you don’t ;so you can’t.
19. I'm Superior; I know secret handshake codes for afterlife entrances-- you don't.
20. I’m Superior; I will see Joseph Smith setting on the right hand of GOD, when I get to Mormon heaven, and he will recognize me and judge me favorably                              -- You’re on your own; when you get to wherever you’re going!
21. I’m Superior; I’m going to hie to Kolob -- you’re going to who knows where.
22. I’m Superior; I get to have a harem and act like a celestial stud for time and all eternity -- you don’t.
23. I’m Superior; I have sun stones, moon stones, sky stones, cloud stones, Saturn stones, and the evil eye of Osirus guarding my temple                            -- all you have is a stupid cross.
24. I’m Superior; My church has billions in assets stashed away -- yours has taken a stupid vow of poverty.
25. I'm Superior; Last - we have the power to keep a whole race out of our priesthood if we wanted to reinsert our 148-year legacy  (we ARE still keeping an entire GENDER at bay!)
 
Revision 46.1
Semi-Official creed of the EXclusive club of Freeper Flying Inmans.
All rights liable to be abused.



120 posted on 09/21/2009 4:39:11 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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