Posted on 10/22/2010 2:42:31 AM PDT by Gamecock
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In shopping around for a Cub Scout program for their two sons, ages 6 and 8, Jeremy and Jodi Stokes decided on the one at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, N.C.
The Stokeses, also of Matthews, weren't members of the evangelical megachurch, but they had many friends who were. And unlike the Cub Scout pack at their own church, which doesn't have a program for 6-year-old Tiger Scouts, Christ Covenant's was big enough to accommodate both of their boys.
The couple even signed up to be Scout leaders when they discovered the church needed adult help. And when the Scouting officials at Christ Covenant found out Jeremy Stokes was an Eagle Scout, they were thrilled.
So why did Christ Covenant reject the Stokeses' application to be Scout leaders?
Because they're Mormons. And, therefore, not real Christians, church officials told the couple.
"I can't believe they had the audacity to say, 'You can't be leaders, but we want your boys,' " Jodi Stokes said. "Are you kidding me?"
The Rev. Gabe Sylvia, Christ Covenant's staff liaison to the Scouting program, confirmed the Stokeses' account. He called them to apologize but defends the church's decision.
"When it became clear that they were Mormons, they could not become leaders in our pack. Mormonism is not consistent with historical Christianity," he said.
That view — that Mormons, whose church is formally titled the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are not Christians — is shared by other Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches, as well.
"It was so offensive," said Jodi Stokes, who was raised Catholic, then became a Mormon. "I have a picture of Jesus in my living room."
Members of the Salt Lake City-based church believe salvation is possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But significant theological differences separate Mormons from most Christian churches.
The LDS church treats as holy scripture the Book of Mormon, which isn't recognized by other churches, but which it believes was divinely revealed to Joseph Smith in the 1820s.
Mormons also disavow belief in the core Christian doctrine of the Trinity — that the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one — instead believing the three to be individuals united in a single purpose.
Mormons believe the original Christian church vanished 100 years after Jesus' death and resurrection. The authentic church, they believe, was restored by Smith.
Our scraggly melons were USELESS this year!
Too much at the start; not enough at the end.
Watermelons, pumpkins and cantalopes: oh MY!
The size of giant - uh - softballs!
Easy!
By unanimous vote!
(Oh...
It also helps to know where the skeletons are.)
A beauty all their own!
(Like GOATS!)
That's EASY; hateful bigot!
Compartmentalise!
--MormonDuqe(You'll go NUTS! trying to hold it ALL in you head at once!)
One god (who used to be a man) one vote!
While I hold the Bible as scripture, I don’t believe that all of God’s revelations are found in the Bible.
One of our Articles of Faith states, “We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God”.
God the Father Almighty, Creator of all there is or ever shall be was not a mere mortal on some past planet living such a good life that He was exalted to gain godhood through appointment by some god council. That is blasphemy in that it demotes God to a lesser status than He has stated He IS in His Word:
The Book of Mormon author, the false prophet Joseph Smith, defining whom the god of mormonism is:
“I will go back to the beginning, before the world was, to show what kind of a being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth; for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why he interferes with the affairs of man. God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret. (Joseph Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p. 3, 1844)
“I learned a testimony concerning Abraham, and he reasoned concerning the Gods of heaven. '...Intelligences exist one above another, so that there is no end to them.' If Abraham reasoned thus--If Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a Father, you may suppose that He had a Father also. Where was there ever a son without a father? And where was there ever a father without first being a son? Whenever did a tree or anything spring into existence without a progenitor? And everything comes in this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in the likeness of that which is heavenly. Hence if Jesus had a Father, can we not believe that He had a Father also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it. I want you to pay particular attention to what I am saying. Jesus said that the Father wrought precisely in the same way as His Father had done before Him. As the Father had done before? He laid down His life, and took it up the same as His Father had done before. (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 373)
The Book of Mormon author taught that the Grace of God in Christ could be counted for a Mormon 'after all that they could do to be worthy of the Grace'. The Bible clearly teaches that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The Bible teaches that we are indwelt by His Holy Spirit from the moment we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead.
The Book of Mormon author, the false prophet Joseph Smith, taught that without Mormon baptism, no soul can have eternal life with God.
The Book of Mormon author, the false prophet Joseph Smith, taught that ALL--not some, not most, but ALL--of Christianity was in apostasy until he, Joseph Smith came along and restored the real deal using a divination peepstone, thus Joseph Smith called God a liar since God promised His Spirit would abide with men faithing in Jesus until He returns to sweep the rot away and start a new Heaven and new Earth.
The Book of Mormon author's successor, the false prophet Bringham Young, proclaimed that no one would enter in to God without passing the approval of Joseph Smith, yet Jesus stated flatly that no man cometh unto the Father but by Him.
We could extend this list of factual contradiction between Christianity/the Bible and the false prophet and his Book of Mormon, but I will prepare to shake the dust from my feet if you cannot comprehend that your religion is founded by a false prophet, authoring a fictional text which contradicts the Bible and is therefore NOT FROM GOD.
Normandy, God is not so feckless that He will contradict Himself, and He is so Gracious that He came in the flesh to reconcile you and me to Himself in a way that you can not accomplish and cannot earn, and which is founded and sustained on HIS PROMISES, not on all that you can do.
Perhaps one of your feckless apologists for mormonism will come along now and tell readers that what I have stated has been refuted 'many times'. But know this, Normandy, God is not mocked, and when a religion demeans Whom He IS in order to run a scam religion to look like Christianity without having Jesus as the Grace of God the ONLY MEANS to salvation by faith alone, the adherents to such false religion are in danger of Hell fire. Get your fire insurance while you can. Those in your chosen religion aree schewing the need for that insurance and depending upon all that they can do in order to earn the Grace. GOD has made it clear to those who have ears to hear that ONLY by faith in His Grace are men saved and that not of works lest any man should boast. MOrmonism is a lie founded by a liar. This is flatly factual because God does not contradict Himself, and Momronism is rife with contradictions to what God has taught through His Word.
Great pics Binger!
“I know that we can receive knowledge and truth directly from the Source of all truth if we seek it with all our hearts. That’s why I’m a Mormon.”
Yet, you demonstrated through previous posts that you do
not even have a way to verify if the message you are getting
is from God or a demon.
That’s why you are a mormon.
“You know I have always been curious, how is one elected a “prophet”?”
Clearly, it isn’t the Biblical way...
So I will answer your question of how it happens in mormonland:
1. Businessmen who comprise the “leadership” of the cult gather behind closed doors.
2. They testify to each other that Ol’ Joseph Smith is indeed a prophet.
3. They perform non-Biblical ceremonies to communicate with departed spirits.
4. They lobby each other to be chosen as profit - oops, prophet, offering various deals and promises.
5. They each get 1 vote.
6. If they make donations that are above average, they get two votes.
7. Votes are cast.
8. Votes are tallied in the presence of all leaders.
9. Leadership collectively throws all their magic underwear into a burning fireplace.
10. Outside SLC, mormon faithful see gray smoke and rejoice that a new prophet has been chosen.
I suspect I’m not far off ...
That or they pulled a name out of a hat.
Why buck tradition?
Were there other prophets in the Old Testament who had twelve Apostles? ... If not, think of the arrogance in assuming the look-a-like Apostles with their one and only ...
OOOOOOOOO gorgeous...
PM
1. Businessmen who comprise the “leadership” of the cult gather behind closed doors.
At a highly polished mahogany table (onloy the best and most expensive will do for the mormon god’s “men” and with plenty of coffee ...
2. They testify to each other that Ol’ Joseph Smith is indeed a prophet.
They laugh about how that salespitch is still working to sell their version of Joey Smith’s snake oil...
3. They perform non-Biblical ceremonies to communicate with departed spirits.
They play with a Ouija Board
4. They lobby each other to be chosen as profit - oops, prophet, offering various deals and promises.
Whoever’s turn it is gets to sit at the head of the table as godfather until he croaks...
5. They each get 1 vote.
All the ballots have just one name...nothing communistic about mormolnism...
6. If they make donations that are above average, they get two votes.
That was already takken into account one guy won that already...
7. Votes are cast.
Isnt it a bit unAmerican to just have one name on the ballot ??? Oh yeah its not a republic...its a theocratic dictatorship...never mind...
8. Votes are tallied in the presence of all leaders.
Why bother when they know who already “won”...errr is going to win ???
9. Leadership collectively throws all their magic underwear into a burning fireplace.
I knew there had to be a puff of black smoke somewhere in the process...
10. Outside SLC, mormon faithful see gray smoke and rejoice that a new prophet has been chosen.
Oh its gray smoke ??? Why those little devils...they broke out the cigars...
And the LAST thing that GOD revealed was that BLACKS are no longer to be prejudiced against?
Some Non Defenders Non Defend by claiming what we say has been covered over & over @ links they provide...
These Non Defenders claim these are Non issues...
...and that all you need to do is click, pop in a word in the search, click again and voila!
...”needles of wisdom” just pour forth from your computer screen...
Some Non Defenders claim one such haystack link worth investigatin' is fairlds.org...
...So when you take up this defective deflective challenge...
...and put in a phrase like “Adam-God” [re: Brigham Young's teaching that the first man, Adam, was God] in the search box of that Web site, the second entry that pops up from that search is Church doctrine/Repudiated concepts/Adam-God [This is FAIR's WIKI format attempt to address some things]
Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links both "address" and "answer" these claims...
...yet when you check under the hood of this lemon, you get varied Lds apologists' opinion about Brigham's "Adam is God" teaching...
...like: Brigham was wrong [Joseph Smith said the very “first principle” of the Mormon gospel was to know the character of God, (King Follet funeral sermon), yet Brigham couldn't get a kindergarten identity issue down in not being able to distinguish Adam from God?]
Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links reinforce for us such attractive snapshots of Brigham Young, such as Lds apologist Van Hale's concession that Brigham was ”mistaken” about who Adam was and that Adam, after all, was a ”complex doctrinal subject.”
Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links love to cite Lds “apostle” letters from almost 30 years ago, letters which concede THAT BRIGHAM YOUNG, CONTRADICTED BRIGHAM YOUNG, AND THE ISSUE BECOMES ONE OF WHICH BRIGHAM YOUNG WE WILL BELIEVE. [Lds "apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, 1981 letter cited on link above]
Therefore, instead of Non Defenders just telling you outright that Lds “apostles” concede that...
Brigham Young taught falsely who God was...
But didn't always identify Adam as God...
Therefore, Brigham Young was theologically schizophrenic...
And that Brigham Young was 100% untrustworthy, because we don't know (still) which Brigham Young to believe?
...he makes you click twice, type in a word, and read an entire Mormon FAIR Wiki entry!!!
Some Non Defenders claim such entries at their links don't all agree what Mormon apologists should do about Brigham's out-of-tune “glitches” … as if you – the spiritual inquirer – just warm up and tingle all inside whenever you hear admissions from “the faithful” that their flock front man “glitches” on basic Genesis quizzes like, “Who was Adam?” But, not wanting to psychoanalyze Brigham Young as spiritually schizophrenic, what's a Mormon apologist to do?
Well, that narrows down the conclusions left for the average Mormon apologist, if you follow the links provided by some Non Defenders.
Why, if Brigham wasn't schizophrenic, what then?
Final “options?”...
The summations below precede the bracketed {actual quotations found @ one of Non Defender's links -- FAIR's WIKI entry on Adam-God being "repudiated"}
#1 Brigham was PR-challenged {“A final explanation is that Brigham Young believed and taught Adam-God...but he...didn't live long enough to 'develop' the teaching [read: spin] into something that could be reconciled with LDS scripture...”}
#2 Brigham inspired a LOT of Mormon agnostic followers about who God was: {”We don't know...In this view, we simply don't know what Brigham Young meant...”}
#3 Brigham's plain English was non-interpretable minus either a decoder ring, or dark hat, or the Joe Smith special urim and thummim {"We simply don't know what Brigham Young meant."...why that could only mean they don't know plain English!!!}
#4 Brigham's “revelation receptor” was “glitch” prone – comparable to the Ford Pinto of a later era {”An anomaly is a glitch.... A classic example of an anomaly in the LDS tradition is the so-called "Adam-God theory." -- BYU professor Stephen Robinson}
#5 Brigham inspired in the average Mormon apologist this “confessional credo”: “How do we Mormons deal with these questions? We don't. We abandon them...like we abandon you the inquirer...like we abandon the questions on FR.” {”So how do Latter-day Saints deal with the phenomenon? WE DON'T; WE SIMPLY SET IT ASIDE.” – BYU professor Stephen Robinson}
Such “gems of wisdom” await you all...all at the multiple click of a mouse!
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