Posted on 11/14/2012 10:44:44 PM PST by reaganaut
Members of the LDS Church are familiar with the charge that Mormonism isn't a Christian faith. They hear it often enough, but they really don't understand why people think that. "We are Christians," Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley insisted. "We have the name of Jesus Christ right in the name of our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We follow Christ. We worship Him. We love Him. He is the center of all we do"("Inspirational Thoughts," Liahona, June 1999, 3; 2 Nephi 25:24-29).
In the summer of 2005 we asked Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois to take a quiz we called "Guess Who?" The quiz consisted of 15 relatively recent statements made by LDS leaders; we asked the participants to see if they could determine who their Church leaders were talking about. We invite you to take the same quiz. The answers will be at the end; see if you can do this without scrolling down for the answers.
His teachings "are the foundation of our faith. Everything we have is a lengthened shadow of [him]."
"I pray we may learn from his example, that we might incorporate into our lives the great principles which he so beautifully taught; that we ourselves might emulate him;..."
"I honor and revere [his] name... I delight to hear it; I love it. I love his doctrine... I am his witness."
"He died for those he loved. He reigns in the realms above."
"The more I learn of him, the more I love and revere him."
"I look to him. I love him. I seek to follow him."
"He not only gave us joy, happiness and opportunity here, but also a great hope in the life to come."
"Today, this Sabbath day, in many thousands of congregations, perhaps as many as twenty-one thousand, in many areas of the earth, our people have sung or will sing the praises of [him]."
"Of noble seed, of heavenly birth, he came to bless the sons of earth."
He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."
"Church members are interested in learning more about [him] because they love him and they love the gospel he brought forth."
"How great indeed is our debt to him. ...Great is his glory,... We stand in reverence before him... Let us not forget him. Let not his memory be forgotten in the celebration of Christmas."
"...and he shall stand in due time on the earth, in the flesh, and fulfill that to which he is appointed."
"The light, provided to the world by [him], illuminates the confusion, clarifies the principles of the gospel, and helps lead men and women to their own eternal reward, if they will but endure to the end."
The "work that has been carried out by President Young and his brethren [of the Twelve] has been in accordance with the plans, and designs, and Spirit, and instructions of [him]."
How did you do?
If you thought these statements were about Jesus—the One Mormons claim to worship and adore, the One they say is the center of all they do—you are incorrect. In each statement above, the speaker was talking about Joseph Smith.
Quotes with References
His teachings "are the foundation of our faith. Everything we have is a lengthened shadow of [him]." (15th President Gordon B. Hinckley, Church News, 3/19/2005, p.3.)
"I pray we may learn from his example, that we might incorporate into our lives the great principles which he so beautifully taught; that we ourselves might emulate him;..." (Thomas Monson (First Presidency), Ensign, 6/1994, p.7.)
"I honor and revere [his] name... I delight to hear it; I love it. I love his doctrine... I am his witness." (2nd President Brigham Young, quoted in Ensign, 1/1996, p.7.)
"He died for those he loved. He reigns in the realms above." (3rd President John Taylor, Hymns #296, "The Seer, Joseph, The Seer." While this hymn was written in the 18th century, it is still in use as evidenced by its performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the 175th Semi-Annual General Conference of the LDS Church in October, 2005.)
"The more I learn of him, the more I love and revere him." (Apostle Joseph B. Wirthlin, Church News, 2/19/2005, p.5.)
"I look to him. I love him. I seek to follow him." (15th Gordon B. Hinckley, Church News, 12/13/2003, p.3.)
"He not only gave us joy, happiness and opportunity here, but also a great hope in the life to come." (Apostle L. Tom Perry, Church News, 7/3/1993, p.4.)
"Today, this Sabbath day, in many thousands of congregations, perhaps as many as twenty-one thousand, in many areas of the earth, our people have sung or will sing the praises of [him]." (15th President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, 9/1994, p.62.)
"Of noble seed, of heavenly birth, he came to bless the sons of earth." (John Taylor, Hymns #296, "The Seer, Joseph, The Seer.")
He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." (BYU Professor Robert Millet, Ensign, 9/1994, p.19.)
"Church members are interested in learning more about [him] because they love him and they love the gospel he brought forth." (LDS Church Historian Glen M. Leonard, Church News, 12/6/1997, p.4.)
"How great indeed is our debt to him. ...Great is his glory,... We stand in reverence before him... Let us not forget him. Let not his memory be forgotten in the celebration of Christmas." (15th President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, 12/1997, p.2.)
"...and he shall stand in due time on the earth, in the flesh, and fulfill that to which he is appointed." (Church News, 7/19/1994, p.5.)
"The light, provided to the world by [him], illuminates the confusion, clarifies the principles of the gospel, and helps lead men and women to their own eternal reward, if they will but endure to the end." (Church News, 12/13/1997, p.16.)
The "work that has been carried out by President Young and his brethren [of the Twelve] has been in accordance with the plans, and designs, and Spirit, and instructions of [him]." (George A. Smith (First Presidency), quoted in Church News, 12/20/1997, p.7.)
I came back because you posted to me. Same with every other post except the first one.
I can tolerate almost anyone.
But I will not tolerate almost anyTHING.
And I will not tolerate lies that result in someone going to hell. Jesus certainly didn’t. As His follower, I can’t.
Why is it OK for you to speak out against organized religion and yet it’s not OK for someone else to speak out against Mormonism when they know, through first hand experience, the evils of and in it?
Mormonism does to its women just what that lady you knew went through. Is that REALLY OK with you that we should back off on warning people about that?
OK, so what brought you to this thread in the first place?
I'm not trying to have a go at you, but I wanted to know what it is that you don't like about these threads that you felt that you needed to comment on?
I can’t answer that. This is a religion thread.
Becoming a Christian is not practicing a religion.
You can practice all the religion you want and still not be a Christian.
You can be a Christian and NEVER PRACTICE RELIGION. You don't even need to darken the door of a church ever, because Christianity is not about RELIGION.
It's about a relationship. It's about forgiveness and freedom, not servitude and bondage.
There seems to be a serious misunderstanding on your part of what true Christianity and a relationship with Christ is all about.
Hey, CB.... You raise a good point.
I wonder what chris's feelings are on the Mormon missionaries out there pounding the pavement and pounding on doors across America, trying to make converts to THEIR religion. I mean for someone who hates religion so much, why be a selective religion hater and hate only Christianity?
I have been wondering for a person who hates religion so deeply why he spends so much time and effort talking about it.
Why not just ignore the religion forum all together.
Really I can not stand egg custard, so I stay away from it - just saying.
chris37 stated quite clearly in post #17, he will not be a Christian.
He has made his free will choice.
I did NOT need to know that......
#173
Looks like it.
And still continuing.....
I haven’t posted to you, please have the courtesy not to post to me.
My thoughts exactly. We are exhorted to stand up to false prophets and teaching. That exhortation must not be in whatever books others use to define the faith they espouse.
ahhh, A public forum in the religion forum........and you don’t want to be posted to, apparently.
It might surprise you to know this, metmom, but I do not hate Christianity, and I also do not hate Mormonism.
The only religion that I hate, and that is a strong word and I will use it here, is Islam. The reason I hate it is because that belief system, and by extension those people who believe it, have declared themselves to be my mortal enemy and have further taken action to prove that they mean it.
I do not like what you and others in these threads are doing in terms of bashing Mormons, and yes it upsets me, but hate is not an emotion that I feel towards either religion. At the same time, I also do not wish to join or practice either.
As far as Mormons on their missions that they do, it isn’t something that I approve of, and I do not talk to them when they come. I also hold no ill will toward them. I would advise them to keep their belief system to their churches and congregations and let those who would join them actually come to them of their own free will.
No, I don’t exclude myself. I am a lot of things, but dishonest is not one of them. Yes, I am crazy in certain ways too. Honestly how can one not be crazy in at least some small ways living in this world?
And I know of the shortcut method, I appreciate the advice on that, but if the operator of the website thinks that all who come here should see all forums, then it seems that i will see all forums until such setting is changed.
I’d rather be empty than full of hate.
However I am not empty as you describe, but neither am I a zealot.
You seem obsessed with Mormonism.
I’m so very glad that I am not you.
No, svcw, if the owner wants this forum seen, then I shall see it.
Rofl, could you ask a dumber question?
Then for the first time He was relationally separated from His Father (He asked why He had "forsaken Him")...and took on ALL of the sins of the world historically -- past, present, & future. That included taking on the justice -- the wrath of the Father for all those sins. All as He endured the physical pain of the cross.
I'd say The Divine One would have to be pretty "obsessed" with us to go to that extreme on our behalf. Wouldn't you?
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