Thank you so much for your clarifications.
To samurai: Is Colofornian accurate here? I had forgotten that you might interpret the word “create” to mean “organize”, and not in these sense of calling all of the universe out of nothing.
Do you believe in an eternal universe, then?
Do you believe in an eternal universe, then?
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Be careful with this. To most LDS ‘eternal’ does not really mean eternal.
As an LDS, I would have responded with a ‘yes’ but known that to the LDS ‘eternal’ is just a ‘really long time’ which SEEMS like an eternity to us because we are so finite.
They would say God is Eternal without issue, because TO US they are ‘eternal’ but they are not eternal as Christians define it - without beginning or end. This is another issue of LDS redefining words and also how they can reconcile the Bible verses (and BOM - Moroni 8:18) of God being Eternal along with the LDS teaching that God was once a man who progressed to Godhood and is still progressing, and Jesus being a created being.
Hope this helps.
Careful, the word "eternal" means something different to LDS too.