Posted on 09/01/2011 8:12:06 AM PDT by greyfoxx39
Good point!
Yeah; if you spin it just right!
No; arrogant.
In conclusion let us summarize this grand key, these “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, for our salvation depends on them.
1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.
3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4. The prophet will never lead the church astray.
5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus Saith the Lord,” to give us scripture.
7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.
9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The prophet may advise on civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency—the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The prophet and the presidency—the living prophet and the First Presidency—follow them and be blessed—reject them and suffer.
I testify that these fourteen fundamentals in following the living prophet are true. If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord then let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain—how close do our lives harmonize with the Lord’s anointed—the living Prophet—President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency.
Ezra Taft Benson
(Address given Tuesday, February 26, 1980 at Brigham Young University)
A wedding is a sacred sacrament.
Not quite...
~ Wilford Woodruff, 4th LDS President
Jesus had several brothers. His brother James was one of his 12 and there is mention of many women (wives) that traveled with them during His ministry on earth.
Are you claiming that these women were Jesus' wives? If so bzzzzzt wrong answer bucko. Shows a gross lack of knowledge of first century jewish culture and religion, as well a just simply rebuked by Jesus himself.
One of the most glorious principles of the gospel is the eternal marriage covenant. (Lds "prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, Vol. 4, Deseret Book Co. 1963/1979, p. 143)
Let me get this straight.
This Lds "prophet" -- in a book published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns Deseret Book Co., says that this proclamation of the eternal marriage covenant is "one of the most glorious principles of the gospel" -- albeit the Mormonized, cannibalized "gospel."
Isn't this the so-called "restored" gospel given to Joseph Smith thru the finding of gold plates & then "translated" by him into the Book of Mormon?
Surely, if this concept of eternal marriage be "one of the most glorious principles of the gospel", we can find this principle highlighted front & center in the Book of Mormon. Right?
After all, The Book of Mormon is the supposed "fulness" of the everlasting gospel, is it not per Mormons? Can't we find when we turn to D&C 20, that "the Book of Mormon; which contains a fallen people, and the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles and to the Jews also" (Lds "scripture" Doctrine & Covenants 20:8-9)
Doesn't D&C 42:12 say that "the elders priests and teachers of this church shall teach the principles of my gospel, which are in the Bible and Book of Mormon, in the which is the fulness of the gospel"???
[What's an "in the which" anyhow as a "revelation" from the Mormon god?]
So in the "full-gospel" Book of Mormon, which proclaims the "fulness" thereof of the Mormonized "gospel," surely one of the "most glorious principles" of that "gospel" is taught all over -- or at least highlighted -- in the Book of Mormon.
Right?
Please say right, oh C-one?
(I don't want to have to take out my scissors & clip away D&C 20:8-9 & 42:12 as being irrelevant & false)
So, right? Right?
Sorry.
Wrong.
Nary a mention of eternal marriage in the BoM.
Oops, Joey. (I guess you goofed...and took all the gullibles with you)
UH. "'Fulness' of the gospel?"
(Never ye mind)
Bottom line, ye single Mormon men: Hey, if eternal marriage is not part of the "fulness of the gospel," then it's a "take it or leave it" option for you. Don't let Mormon clamp-hard, constipation-laden G.A. "heavies" force your hand. Show your free agency. Tell 'em to lay off.
Visit the Salt Lake City Cemetery, and you’ll see headstone after headstone engraved with the Salt Lake temple, with an occasional depiction of some other LDS temple here and there. Unlike crosses adorning Catholic headstones or the Star of David on Jewish headstones, the LDS temple is not a symbol, a refined visual token of belief or belonging: instead, it’s a literal representation—announcing where the people in these graves were married.
It is impossible to understand the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints without understanding the role of marriage in the religion. Marriage is not merely a good idea in Mormonism, a source of companionship or a stable environment for raising happy children. Founder Joseph Smith did not agree with Paul’s advice in I Corinthians 7, that celibacy is superior to marriage, but that “it is better to marry than to burn.” Instead, Smith established a religion in which heterosexual marriage is not just a sacrament but a commandment, an absolutely necessary prerequisite for salvation and exaltation.
An 1843 “revelation” known as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants announces a form of marriage that is “a new and everlasting covenant,” one that allows couples to be married not merely until “death do us part” but for “time and all eternity,” provided the marriage is “sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed.” In such a marriage, the couple “shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths” (D&C 132:19).
Source From Here to Eternity: Of Mormons and Celestial Marriage
If you look @ post #30, I cite the Tanner's Changing World of Mormonism (pp. 231-234), which mentions that...
* Joseph Smith was given wives post-humously -- up to at least 229 more wives up thru 1881...
* "Moreover, a great many distinguished women in history, including several Catholic saints, were also sealed to Joseph Smith in Utah. I saw these astonishing lists in the Latter-day Saint Genealogical Archives in Salt Lake City in 1944." (Tanner, p. 232) * The dead Bring'em young & "alive" too had such Post-humous "marriages" to Brigham Young (p. 233): 53 such additional "wives" to the 150 Brigham had sealed to him women (p. 231)
* Lds First President Heber C Kimball prophesied that he would have thousands of wives (p. 234):
* 300 women were sealed for eternity to the Lds "apostle" Pratt brothers (from whom Mitt Romney is descended) (p. 234):
According to Stanley S. Ivins, the Endowment House Records reveal that on November 22, 1870, Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt had himself sealed to 101 dead women. On November 29, 1870, he was sealed to 109 dead women. The same day (November 29, 1870) 91 dead women were sealed to his brother, Parley P. Pratt, who had died in 1857.
(There must have been a doorbuster Christmas "sale" going on re: available women that Thanksgiving week in 1870!)
Post-humous "marriages" to the Lds "prophet" Wilford Woodruff, the guy that supposedly cracked down on plural marriages! (Tanner, p. 234)
Mr. Ivins found that the St. George Temple records show that Wilford Woodruff—who later became the fourth president of the church—was sealed to 189 dead women in a period of slightly over two years (January 29, 1879 to March 14, 1881).
Who might hold the record per the Tanners? (p. 234)
Moses Franklin Farnsworth was sealed to 345 dead women in a two-year period. At one time we thought that Mr. Farnsworth held the record for the largest number of dead women sealed to him. New evidence, however, has forced us to revise that conclusion. On April 5, 1894, the Apostle Abraham Cannon recorded the following in his diary: THURSDAY, APRIL 5th, 1894.... I met with the Quorum and Presidency in the temple.... President Woodruff then spoke ... "In searching out my genealogy I found about four hundred of my femal[e] kindred who were never married. I asked Pres. Young what I should do with them. He said for me to have them sealed to me unless there were more that [than?] 999 of them.
On Halloween 57 years ago, eventual Lds "prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith was answering questions @ a Ensign Stake Conference. The question was: What does a young woman or a young man do who marrieds outside of the temple of the Lord.
Joseph Fielding Smith gave an elongated answer; the initial sentence was rather telling: "Unless young people who marry outside the temple speedily repent, they cut themselves off from exaltation in the celestial kingdom." (Answers to Gospel Questions, Vol. 4, p. 196, Deseret Book Co. 1963/1979)
ALL: First of all, allow me to unpack the Mormonese vocabulary in how they define "Exaltation":
(a) Living with God the Father forever; if you don't get exaltation, you are shut out of His presence FOREVER!
(b) The highest degree of glory and the ONLY ONE Mormons say where families get to stay together forever;
(c) You become a god and share glory, worship, adoration, etc. as a god competing with the other Mormon gods.
Secondly, Joseph Fielding Smith's response raises a # of interesting questions:
(a)When Mormons are told to "repent," how are they to do that? Well another "prophet," Spencer W. Kimball, wrote the book, The Miracle of Forgiveness. He states in that book that the only true repentance is to never commit that sin again. If you re-commit the same sin, then, he says, you never repented to begin with.
Well, given Joseph Fielding Smith's stern admonition to "repent" for marrying outside the temple, isn't the only way to show true repentance is to never marry outside the temple again? Hmmm...
(b) Sandwiched between Smith's stern admonition in 1954 -- which was published in 1963 by the Lds church & republished again in 1979 -- was this curious note of vicarious grace for those who haven't been married in the temple...published in 1958 and again in 1979:
There are thousands of members of the Church in foreign lands who have married...deprived of the privilege of being 'sealed' for time and all eternity. Many of these have passed away, and their blessings are given them vicariously. (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, vol. 2, p. 37, Deseret Book Co., 1958/1979)
Well, hey, Lds "prophets": If you can just hand out sealings for eternity willy-nilly vicariously, who cares if any Mormons get married in temples?
Who cares if they even get married? Can't the Mormon "prophets" simply "assign" wives to men vicariously after they die?
Didn't that happen already with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, the Lds "apostle" Pratt brothers, Wilford Woodruff? (see my previous post)
Can anyone find this supposed "proof" that Pratt claims? That both "god" and "jesus" were married on earth and are currently married and practicing polygamy in heaven?
Come on J, you posited an opinion, folks offered rejoinders. Are you gonna come out and play or just drive by posting heresy?
Women, you had better obey your husband or he could keep you out of heaven!
LDS Apostle Erastus Snow preached the following on Sunday, Oct. 4, 1857:
" Do the women, when they pray, remember their husbands?... Do you uphold your husband before God as your lord? "What!—my husband to be my lord?" I ask, Can you get into the celestial kingdom without him? Have any of you been there? You will remember that you never got into the celestial kingdom [during the temple ceremony] without the aid of your husband. If you did, it was because your husband was away, and some one had to act proxy for him. No woman will get into the celestial kingdom, except her husband receives her, if she is worthy to have a husband; and if not, somebody will receive her as a servant. “(Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 291)
Without that "ordinance", nope, no way, it ain't gonna happen.
Uhm, wait a minute, I'm not so sure now because now there's this….
”But what of the many mature members of the Church who are not married? Through no failing of their own, they deal with the trials of life alone. Be we all reminded that, in the Lord’s own way and time, no blessings will be withheld from His faithful Saints. The Lord will judge and reward each individual according to heartfelt desire as well as deed.
Ahhh, ok, now that that's settled.
Aw man, wait, there’s another way;
After both of you die, and your errant spouse gets necrobaptized, your “mormon relatives” [if you have any] can seal you to him by “proxy”. Then your errant spouse will have “the chance” in the period between death and resurrection to accept or reject the ordinances. [Hmm, so if I’m in the spirit prison and a spirit missionary comes down and says, “hey, we baptized you, endowed you and sealed you to your wife. Do you accept or reject?” What do you think I’m going to do?]
Either way, if you've been faithful, you will have been sealed and will be able to receive the lowest degree of celestial glory. Huh? So now we have “degrees of glory” within the celestial kingdom. What are the three degrees of glory in the celestial kingdom? Oh my. My head is starting to hurt from trying to keep all of this straight. I thought the “straight and narrow” was just that.
But here’s something that I find quite conflicting.
All children sealed to parents in the holy temples will inherit the celestial kingdom regardless to their degree of compliance with the principles of the gospel. As reported by Elder Orson F. Whitney—
“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared-and he never taught more comforting doctrine-that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God” (Elder Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, April 1929, Third Day Morning Meeting, p.110).
Really? A child born to endowed, sealed parents, regardless of their degree of compliance with the principles of the gospel is GUARANTEED the celestial kingdom. Just wow! How "convenient" is that?
There is no surety in mormonism as it relates to personal exaltation. Keyword there is "personal". In mormonism, it's about working things for PERSONAL glory, not God's glory. You are working to ensure your “personal” exaltation, which is supposed to bring glory to God, but I don’t see how that works if what you’re doing is essentially “banking” ordinances and works to get the balance sheet in your favor.
If you don't join, but are otherwise a good Christian or person, who did good but did not accept Mormonism, terrestrial kingdom for you. Many members of the mormon church, who were not as dedicated as they could have been, will also go the terrestial.
The rest of us [sons of perdition, apostates, evil doers, etc.] we get the telestial or, as in my case, OUTER DARKNESS!
But you know what the Bible says about all of this?
Simply this; Mark 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
Matthew 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in HEAVEN.
So all of those “requirements” the mormons want you to meet in order to attain the celestial kingdom and to be able to dwell with God are superfluous. God has already said you will not be married in heaven.
Seriously, did Constantine and the evil ne’er do wells of the Council of Nicea remove all of that confusing mormon stuff and replace it with something so simple to trick us? That’s what the mormons claim and want us to believe.
I will certainly honor that request.
Do the LDS believe that Jesus had brothers? I tried to google it but all that came up was the bizarre satan is a brother to Jesus thing.
Freegards
Absolutely. When Jesus was crucified the temple curtain was torn from the top to the bottom to open the temple to all - no more secret ceremonies, no more secret events, no more secrets - period. lds abounds in secrecy.
They'll tell you that it's "sacred".
See? That's why they perform temple rituals behind closed doors, denying non-member family members from even attending "sealings" (aka mormon weddings).
Right, sign me up./s
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.