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No, Godzilla, we do not teach that the only atonement is a resurrected body.

Jeff - the passage from GP states that - it goes no farther. You NT citation is cherry picked in that the context is that only believers are made alive.

As I said, regarding the church growth, it continues to grow. It is not decreasing.

It grows, latest studies indicate by BIC, not so much converts. As I pointed out, mormons are leaving the church recently in droves worse than ever seen. Considering the reluctance to remove people off the roster, maintaining names until they are impossibly old, etc, it is easy to inflate the numbers. In a Feb 2012 The Christian Post article, mormonism trails a number of other churches with a weak 1.42% growth. Factor in your own GA's admission that retention rates of 25% yields an even lower growth rate. SLC Trib reports shrinking missions and difficulties gaining converts.

If one would look at the table you posted all is not well in zion. Here is the last couple of decades

Growth has dropped from 4.45% down to 1.93% in 2010 and as I noted before, 2011 growth decreased further to 1.42% In fact, since at least 2006, many other denominations have been growing faster than mormonism.

Add that to the recognized ACTIVE rate of less than 50% - well, so much for the lds growth being a sign of God's blessing.

The growth of the Church is pretty constant now at about 300,000 per year.

Only over stated by 100,000 Jeff, look at your own chart. You've not been at or above 300K since 1999, and the trend is downward, not steady.

If you look back over the years at the baptimsal records of the Church for children whose families are members being baptised into the church, plus those who are baptised as a result of the missionary effort of the church, you find the following:

Mormon social science website reinforces my points - with only a 20-50% retention rate, that continues to drop. Further from the same site, a study actually shows a net decrease in people exiting versus those baptized

http://www.mormonsocialscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/US-LDS-Membership-Balance-Sheet_0.xls

Your charts and figures don't show these realities Jeff. There is little doubt in that you GA's statements on the mass exodus from mormonism is making serious inroads into polytheistic mormonism. I leave you with the word from YOUR leadership -

Church historian Elder Marlin K. Jensen attended a Q&A set up by Phil Barlow at Utah State University. He was asked the following question.
"Has the church seen the effects of Google on membership? It seems like the people who I talk to about church history are people who find out and leave quickly. Is the church aware of that problem? What about the people who are already leaving in droves?"

Say what you will...I indicated in my post that the growth rate has slowed and concede that...the larger you get, the more apt that is to happen. In addition, I have also conceded that there are those leaving the church...always have been and that occurs in all denominations. If it is higher now, so be it, let’s see what happens over the next ten years.

But, despite all of that, the church itself continues to grow, trying to say that a slowing in growth rate means it isn’t growing is like liberal speak...”We’ll cut the budget by cutting the rate we continue to spend,” that’s nt a cut at all. And this is not a decrease in growth at all, that happens when there are less members year to year, which has not happened to my knowledge since 1857...though some years have been close.

And Colo, read the Church web site, it makes clear what the “Standard Works” are, right now, right here. They do not include the Journal of Discourses and officially, they never have. That’s just the truth.

There;’s no apologizing involved...doesn;t need to be when you state facts.

Do people gain good information about doctrine from them? Yes, of course. They are volumnous. I have a set myself which I read and use for reference quite often...there are a lot of very good things in there.

But, are there are also some very clear and difinite opinions in there that are not considered doctrine by the Church? Yes, of course, you have shown quite a few.

But the fact renmains, they are not the “Standard Works,” and not considered “scripture” by the Church.

You guys have a good day, I figured that last post might turn over some kind of ant hill and bring a lot of things out of the woodwork. Forgive me.

But do read the evangelic’s words I linked to above in my last post, when he spoke in the Tabernacle, it was actually a very good talk and was, IMHO, the right way to initiate dialog, understanding, and a way to move forward so we can all work together to defend our nation and its foundation...that is, if you’re interested in doing that with fellow citizens from my faith in any way.

Gotta go, have a great weekend.