Posted on 04/08/2012 6:19:43 PM PDT by Colofornian
There were some interesting comments from the poll yesterday. I wont say that our poll is representative of Mormons in general, but I do agree with the results. As of the time I wrote this, 75% of people who responded to our poll say that Mormons have sub-par Easter services. Why is that?
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday. SteveS noted that there were 0 references to Jesus entry into Jerusalem, no shout outs to Palm Sunday festivities celebrating Christ as Lord and Son of God. No hosannas shouted that day. Hardly any references at all to the upcoming Easter holy day.
Actually, I checked, and the word Easter was never mentioned.
Jared noted a 1994 talk from Dallin Oaks that In too many of our classes, in too many of our worship services, we are not teaching of Christ and testifying of Christ in the way we should.
So, I thought it would be interesting to see what Oaks spoke about in Conference. His talk was titled Sacrifice, and he does talk about the Atonement and sacrifice of Christ. But the word Easter is completely absent, as is Palm Sunday. Why? What is it about our leadership that seems to ignore Palm Sunday completely? And why was Easter (just one week away) never mentioned at General Conference? (I checked for the word Easter in every talk, and it was NEVER mentionedI checked the Womens meeting the week before and it wasnt mentioned there either.)
I wish Mormons celebrated, rather than simply observed, the Easter holiday. It would be nice to have more of a celebration of Easter; I really like Easter gets the short shrift for celebrations, but I think that Christmas celebrations in our church are lacking as well. Four years ago, I posted the question, Why dont Mormons celebrate Easter? It is my #2 post this month! I always receive a spike in hits for that post around Easter. If you do a Google search asking do Mormons celebrate Easter, my post comes up on the #8 position (In past years, it was as high as #2).
Is this one of those things we do to be a peculiar people? Jehovahs Witnesses dont celebrate Easter either. Are we trying to be more like them? No, because we love Easter Egg hunts, and candy. Why do we emphasize the wrong aspects of Easter?
Many of us read the Christmas story before Christmas. How many of you read the Easter story before Easter?
Go to wiki and look it up.
Yeah, I think its you that is confused. The fact is, I don’t even need to attend a church to be a christian. Your easter prerequisite is just stupid.
Sacrament prayers
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this water to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.
This is the prayer I heard at my Sacrament meeting. I would think this same prayer is used at other LDS meeting.
You may have attended meetings using an other prayer.
Technically, you are correct. However, anyone who claims to be a Christian but doesn't attend regular worship services and relish spending time with other Christians needs to carefully examine him or herself in light of God's Word. It is not some legalistic requirement but the proper response of the joyful heart of one who is truly saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's not that we have to attend but that we really want to attend because God has replaced our hearts of stone with a heart of flesh.
Obviously, I'm not God* but every person who I have heard make such a statement about being a Christian but not needing to attend church has provided lots of other reasons to question their profession.
* Since this is a Mormon thread, let me point that I will never become a god nor will any other human being.
(Please let me know of a specific FREEPER poster who’s religiously defending colored eggs & rabbits...especially in the religious section of the FR site)
I was referring to the Catholic Church, i thought such a Great scholar as you would be smart enough to figure that out for your self, well i will admit that i can be wrong.
I did not say anything about any freeper saying anything about colored eggs or any other thing about freepers. but we know that is what happens on this easter thing, and that is fine if that is what you want to do.
It appears to me that the passover was for the Jews as it was not the gentiles who came out of captivity, as for the rest of it you are not as far as i can see getting any information from the word of God but just blowing the same wind as the so called scholars before you did who has to live religion because that is all it was to them.
The early Church did not pratice and did not teach the pratice of Christmas, Easter, or Halloween and there is no mention of changing the Sabbath to Sunbbath or any thing like that.
Gee you sure have done a lot of reading but you should read the Bible at least once in a while so you will know the truth and the truth will set you Free.
As far as The all saints day you said your self it was started in 1048 during the holy roman empire (that was started by Constantine.) my words
Again you said that the passover was started in 180 so there is nothing Biblical about either one of them.
And by the way here is the comment from you to another freeper that i was commenting on.
I just barely know the meaning of paganism and when the Churches pratice or teaches something that the early Church did not teach i just use the word pagan as a by word, religion would have the same meaning.
You indicated that all of the days of the week was named after a pagan God, well was it that way or did they just name the pagan gods to fit the names of the days of the week?
I don,t know who in the world would have gone to all of that trouble because i do not read all of the pagan crap myself as i just don,t care about religion.
1(A Psalm of Asaph.) God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.8Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
The four cups used wine the fruit of the vine including, most importantly, the third cup which represents the cup of redemption.
...where does the Bible say anything about NOT celebrating with colored eggs and rab(b)its?
Rev 11:10
And those who dwell on the earth {will} rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
The word "elohim" which is translated here as "gods" was used of human judges in Exodus (21:6 and 22:8,9). If you read Psalm 82 with idea of human judges the whole passage makes perfect sense. Your interpretation makes no contextual sense. Particularly, when combined with other explicit texts where God says there are no other gods. ("Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me." Isaiah 43:10 or "Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none." Isaiah 44:8).
Sorry. Should be “notice in”, not “notice is”. I saw that just as I hit post.
Book of Life is Judaism 101...you might google it. As I’ve said, your comparative religions knowledge is very limited...it might behoove you to learn a little bit about the bazillion other religions of the world.
I think this is an easter thread.
It is an easter thread but more specifically it is a mormon bashing thread expressly bashing mormons for not celebrating easter vigorously enough. I find such a thread pathetic given that there are numerous other christian religions which do not celebrate easter at all. Worse than patheic...I find it despicable that an ardent easter practitioner would choose easter sunday to NOT rejoice in the celebration of easter, but instead use his/her self proclaimed self righteous superiority to bash someone else’s style of easter celebration. Such people are not righteous or pious and are not christian. In short hey disgust me. Unfortunately for me, such people are likely to become increasing disgusting the closer romney gets to winning. I would advise these people to take a good long hard look at their own christianity before denouncing others as un-christian. Especially on easter sunday. You people may think you are ONLY insulting mormons with this and, that it is OK to do so because of your hatred for romney, but you are sadly mistaken. You are insulting many other kinds of christianity with your stupidity and you are making fools of yourselves in the process.
Sounds pretty hypocritical of you to utter condemnation and state the OP is not a Christian....
If you don’t like others critiquing certain beliefs and actions then you shouldn’t critique others yourself.
Judge much?
Turtlepower is absolutely right about the hypocrisy. It is evident to everyone else other than you I guessing.
Sorry but I guess we forgot that Easter is the day that we all stand around and sing "Kumbaya." Maybe next Easter, FR can make you the religion forum moderator to keep us all in line.
Sorry, svcw, every sacrament prayer in every ward is the same. If you listened to those prayers alone you would have heard His name praised and reverenced.
“Oh God, the Eternal Father, we ask Thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all of those who partake of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the body of thy Son, that they may witness unto Thee, oh God the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember Him, and keep His commandments which He has given them, that they may always have His spirit to be with them, Amen.”
The prayer for the water is very similar. So either you were not listening to those prayers, have forgotten about them, or you yourself were not attending LDS wards because those prayers are offered, both of them in every sacrement meeting, every week in every LDS ward and branch.
Those are the correct prayers and they are said in every sacrement meeting with those exact words all over the world each Sunday in all wards and branches of the church.
Really? You trust everything you read on wiki?
Thanks Jeff, but your experiences are not mine. My experiences are the norm and yours apparently aren’t typical.
Typical and the norm in your world, svcw, but not typical or the norm for millions of LDS and investigators of the church who attend those meetings each week.
As I said, those prayers are the reason we call them sacrement meetings and they are said each week, using the same wording in scores of languages and in over ten thousand ward and branch buildings each week.
I urge anyone who wonders or who wants to verify this to simply attend one Sacrement meeting of a Church Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a meeting house of your choosing anywhere in the world. Look them up in the phone book or online, and you need not attend the whole meeting, the sacrement is offered within 20 minutes or so of the start of the meeting.
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.