Posted on 12/27/2013 8:33:08 PM PST by Colofornian
...For eight years, I had been a professor at Brigham Young University...
I looked down on Christians...They had part of the gospel, but I had the fullness of it. I kept the laws and ordinances of Mormonism.
Three weeks before the end of his two-year mission, Micah called to tell us he was being sent home early—a horrific disgrace in Mormon culture. He had been reading the New Testament. There he encountered a different Jesus than the one I was taught about in Mormonism—a God of grace, not of works, so that no one can boast...
To a roomful of missionaries at his parting testimony, Micah had professed faith in Jesus alone and not the Mormon Church. He told them he had found a deep and genuine faith—one that didn't include Mormonism. It did not go over well. Church leaders told us that Micah had the spirit of the Devil in him, sent him home, and subsequently, back in Utah, invited us to bring him before the high council...
Micah pleaded, "Mom and Dad, please read the New Testament." We commenced. As I read, I became increasingly consumed by reading about the God of grace. I barely ate or slept. It's all I wanted to do.
...In John's gospel, I read, "These are the very scriptures that testify of me yet you refuse to come to me to have life." Salvation did not require the Mormon Church, only Jesus...
...on a chilly October evening in 2006, Michael and I settled in with Katie in our basement to watch the movie Luther. My heart pounded as I learned of the reformer's struggle against the Catholic Church. I seemed to be facing a similar struggle: Did I believe the Mormon system of obedience to laws and ordinances would secure my forgiveness?
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
A) they are not the most conservative demographic - that is a myth the perpetuate not reality.
B) saving souls is more important than politics and Mormons lead people to Hell.
C) I used to be a devout Mormon and was saved a little over 20 years ago.
Amen! Exmo’s are vocal because we have seen the truth and want to warn others.
//since they were the first Church in 1300 years to re-establish God’s relationship with Jesus Christ to Biblical Primacy over the various tortured Creeds (Nicene,Apostles,Athenasian).//
Do your research Tepid, no they weren’t. They weren’t even the first ‘restoration’ church.
The rest of your comment is a strawman proving you do not understand how Christians actually view the Trinity.
Well said
Are you forgetting that the Catholic Church REFUSED to correct the many long running abuses and false doctrines Luther and other Reformers tried to resolve? Are you forgetting that it was the Catholic Church that excommunicated Luther? "Who knows what would have happened?", you ask? There would have been no need for a Reformation? Perhaps - but don't for a minute think that God wasn't working through it to preserve the faith once delivered unto the saints - NOT the one the Catholic Church had perverted.
You are aware, aren’t you, that the Bible came from the Catholic Church and that before Luther, everyone was a Catholic?
We are aware that FRoman Catholics like to play a switcheroo and use the generic word "catholic" - which meant UNIVERSAL or 'on the whole' - and try to imply that the Apostles and other Scripture writers were all "Catholics", but we know that trick. We also know that the believers in Christ were called Christians and that it wasn't until the second century that anyone even started using the generic term catholic. So, no, the Bible did NOT come from the Catholic Church nor was "everyone" a Catholic. Plenty of myths to sort out. The ex-Mormons should be glad that they only have a few hundred years to think on. Imagine a religious organization that has had a few thousand years, has held temporal power over kings and kingdoms and the $billions to show for it, the resources to squelch dissenters along with their documentation and can command absolute fealty under threat of eternal damnation. JS could have only dreamed of THAT kind of power!
Although I am Catholic, I don’t believe salvation comes from any church, but through your prayers, the way you live your life, and most of all, through your heart.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
“You wrote: salvation is through a hierarchical church. So, salvation has nothing to do with Jesus? Is it your contention that the hierarchical church is more important than Jesus? What say you about Jesus and the sufficiency of his blood - do you need more than that? “
No, it is by and through Jesus we are saved. HOWEVER, He didn’t leave us orphans, ascending to heaven and throwing down an intact New Testament shouting “Good luck, y’all.”
Matthew 16:18-19 carefully consider he is handing to Peter the power to loose and bind. And after the resurrection, he asks Simon Peter 3 times “do you love me?” Peter replies in the affirmative. — Essentially he is being forgiven by Jesus for denying him 3 times. He is told to “feed my lambs, tend my sheep.” Peter is the head guy. Acts 1 shows this, after the ascension they all gather, and Peter is the leader. And does your church follow the teaching in John 6 that they are to consecrate bread and wine which becomes the actual body and blood of Christ? If your church doesn’t follow that, they don’t have the fullness of the faith. You are missing out. You are like Judas — who turned away from Christ because of that teaching. The end of John 6 records as much.
I recall the story about the secretary to Pope John Paul II, who ran into the papal office all agog.
“Holy Father I have amazing news that’s both good and bad.”
The pope, having had a long day of audiences with a string of boring dignitaries, responded “Quick give me the good news.”
“God is on the telephone and wishes to speak with you!”
“What, then could the bad news possibly be?”
“He’s calling from Salt Lake City.”
Yeah; that IS a claim of Mormonism - FULLNESS.
That religious organization has a big statue in Temple Square that proclaims it; in cast metal upon stone...
And yet not a single Mormon visiting these threads can show us just WHERE in the BoM this supposed 'fullness' can be found; right Boys and Girls???
Now we know where JS came up with the idea!
But the Book states it a bit differently...
Acts 4:12
"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
...no matter what some FR poster says: Mormons correctly recognize that salvation is through a hierarchical church. This is plainly scriptural.
What IS it with you Catholics??
You'd MUCH rather attack PROTESTants that at least have 95% of your doctrine; than cultic MORMONs which have 5% of it?
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
It's an old trick - steering the subject AWAY from MORMON ism and it's heresy and highjacking the thread into yet another infinite C vs P thread.
Don't fall for it.
HMMMmmm...
I think I've read that; somewhere....
Can't you understand plain English?
Mormonism is a demonic heresy.
If you want to ONLY discuss POLITICS; then stay AWAY from the RELIGION area of FR!
I'd like to give a WEDGIE to every Mormon who spouts their heresy; claiming that THEY are the only TRUE Christians.
Why don't you complain to THEM that THEY are the wedge drivers; with, what is the claim now - 75,000 'missionaries'? - out pounding on doors 10/6/365???
Sounds like YOU are just the man to point out just where, in the Book of MORMON, the FULLNESS can be found!
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