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.)
Put another way, when a poster comes onto an RF thread with nothing to contribute but contempt for other Freepers, personally, flamewars are the only possible result.
Therefore, if you cannot or will not comply with the no ad hominem requirement - or if you have no point to make concerning the issues (theology, philosophy, history, etc.) - then leave the thread.
Friday, November 16, 2012 9:10:25 AM · 336 of 342
Godzilla to chris37
Don’t be so petty as to mistake courtesy for concern.
In your case that isn’t difficult
Friday, November 16, 2012 6:39:38 AM · 328 of 342
Elsie to chris37
And I never said I could control you, but I can call you out on Mormon bashing.
So; you admit not being ABLE to control us and to not WANTING to control us, but merely want others to know that we are BASHING the poor MORMONs; an activity that is patently OBVIOUS to anyone actually IN one of these threads.
You are NOT contributing anything that isn’t already known.
You are merely making noise; much like a guy running along side a float in a parade, yelling to the bystanders to “Look at THIS float!”
Friday, November 16, 2012 6:34:57 AM · 327 of 342
Elsie to chris37; metmom
and illogic, too.
Friday, November 16, 2012 6:33:04 AM · 325 of 342
Elsie to chris37
And yes, my heart is with Jesus, and no I’m not going to join your religion or any other religion, and it doesn’t matter if you criticize me as a result.
Then you’ll be just like Candace in the chariot; needing SOMEone to come along and explain things to you.
Friday, November 16, 2012 6:16:47 AM · 317 of 342
Elsie to chris37
Jesus was neither zealous nor was he obsessed.
Poor Chris; shown to be wrong in front of the class.
Better put some ice on it.
Friday, November 16, 2012 6:15:01 AM · 316 of 342
Elsie to chris37
I’m not going to burn in Hell because I am not of your religion.
That THAT; JESUS!
You big control freak!!!
I see, Mr. Moderator. Thank you for the information.
THX 1138 (place marker)
It is interesting how these people attack us (and are even proud of attacking US), rather than attacking what we post.
They never seem to have issues with the content of what we post, just that we post it.
They resort to ad hominum attacks because they can’t deny the sources or facts of WHAT we post.
And they all think that attacking us will make us stop. We all have thick skin - its a requirement.
For something to be "making it personal" on the Religion Forum, it must be speaking of another Freeper, personally. Condemnations of dieties, beliefs, religious authorities, groups of believers are all allowed on "open" RF threads.
Forms of "making it personal" include: attributing motives to another Freeper personally, reading another poster's mind, making the thread "about" him or yourself.
That said, all warnings apply to everyone in the sidebar on the RF.
For instance, if an RF poster attributes motive to you it does not authorize you to attribute motive to him in reply.
I am sorry that you believe that is was not the author of scripture, God Himself, who is more than capable of taking care of His people and preserving His word. No arms were twisted. The Holy Spirit convicts the heart, not any man.
- - - - - -
Bingo. Many people either don’t know history or don’t care about the truth. The Council of Nicea was called in order to combat heresies that contradicted the Bible - not to create unbiblical doctrines but to rather official confirm the doctrine as scripture and create a unifying statement of faith to prevent wolves in sheep’s clothing from leading Christians astray. Much like the Flying Inmans do here.
Noted, thank you
You also have less people in your denomination.
Congratulations!
Serious question.
On many occasions on this thread you make a statement when it is repeated, you disagree with it - ok, I get that is a technique and a good one.
The question I have, and yea I would love an answer, when you say ‘denomination’, what do you actually mean.
I do not belong to a denomination, and I know several people of FR who do not either.
So, you may mean something different than what comes to my mind, so please can you explain what you mean by ‘denomination’.
Thanks.
Well, one wrong doesn’t make a right either. I really don’t understand why you allow these anti-Mormon threads to go on on this website, you are allowing one religion to bash another religion, but I guess it’s ok because the Bible commands them to do it...
But you know what? It’s offensive. And it makes the people on the attack look incredibly small. In fact from my perspective what goes on here harms Christianinty as a whole, but that is just my opinion on the matter.
Anyhow, Religion Moderator, I do appreciate your reasonable responses. I know you have a particulary tough job moderating this section, So I’ll not make it any tougher for you. I’ve said what I have to say, so I’ll walk away now.
Good day to you and thanks kindly.
Chris:
I agree. I stay off of the threads because I would lose it.
I din’t know why the owner allows the persistent attacks. I see a few do this to catholicism but not to the same degree. Even Islam doesn’t get this level of attack with constant threads.
I know that if you persistently attacked some other Christian groups, you’d be banned.
You also have less people in your denomination.
- - - - -
First, um...no we don’t. We outnumber them.
Second, the Mormons lie about their numbers. The actual numbers of ‘activity’ is only about 5 million and shrinking every day not 14 million like they claim.
And you still didn’t address the actual content of the article.
What I mean by that is Christanity.
Whether or not I used the word correctly, I don’t know, but that is what I mean by that statement. I personally cannot conisder joining a religion when people in that religion behave in such ways. Then I am told that in not joining I am rejecting Christ, damnign my soul and various other complete nonsense.
As I stated to the Moderator, what goes on in these threads hurts Christanity, at least from my persepctive. I’m sure that others do not agree with that assessment, but in my life, it’s my opinion that holds the most weight.
Anyhow, svcw, that’s all I have to say for this round, if you need or want further clarification, then please send a mail, I said I would leave the thread now, so that’s what I am going to do.
Ok, it’s an answer thanks
The Antiochans would be surprised at that!
And you KNOW this how?
So you DO read my stuff; when you HAVE to!
Tinkling brass...
Why; That's an EASY one!
To draw out NON-religious people to defend a religion; thereby making themselves look REALLY logically challenged!
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