Posted on 08/11/2017 10:41:52 PM PDT by boatbums
Summary
The Council of Nicea is often misrepresented by cults and other religious movements. The actual concern of the council was clearly and unambiguously the relationship between the Father and the Son. Is Christ a creature, or true God? The council said He was true God. Yet, the opponents of the deity of Christ did not simply give up after the councils decision. In fact, they almost succeeded in overturning the Nicene affirmation of Christs deity. But faithful Christians like Athanasius continued to defend the truth, and in the end, truth triumphed over error.
The conversation intensified quickly. You cant really trust the Bible, my Latter-day Saints acquaintance said, because you really dont know what books belong in it. You see, a bunch of men got together and decided the canon of Scripture at the Council of Nicea, picking some books, rejecting others. A few others were listening in on the conversation at the South Gate of the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. It was the LDS General Conference, and I again heard the Council of Nicea presented as that point in history where something went wrong, where some group of unnamed, faceless men decided for me what I was supposed to believe. I quickly corrected him about Nicea nothing was decided, or even said, about the canon of Scripture at that council.1
I was reminded how often the phrase the Council of Nicea is used as an accusation by those who reject the Christian faith. New Agers often allege that the council removed the teaching of reincarnation from the Bible.2 And of course, Jehovahs Witnesses and critics of the deity of Christ likewise point to that council as the beginning of the Trinity or the first time the deity of Christ was asserted as orthodox teaching. Others see it as the beginning of the union of church and state in light of the participation of the Roman Emperor, Constantine. Some even say it was the beginning of the Roman Catholic church.
I agree fully with this!
I've found that it is not too hard to teach folks what is in the Bible; but it's REALLY hard to UNTEACH them what ain't!
Elsie, if you want to see 'hate' perhaps I should point out all the errors, inconsistencies, hateful rhetoric, etc etc etc of Mormonism. Because someone points out errors in anything that's near and dear to someone you're accused of being hateful. Wow.
Where on Earth did you get THIS crazy idea???
"One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved, in which the priest himself is the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, whose body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine; the bread (changed) into His body by the divine power of transubstantiation, and the wine into the blood, so that to accomplish the mystery of unity we ourselves receive from His (nature) what He Himself received from ours."
--Pope Innocent III and Lateran Council IV (A.D. 1215)
(Guess where Joe Smith got HIS ideas from!)
Brigham Young, October 9, 1859
Intelligence, Etc.
Remarks by President BRIGHAM YOUNG, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 9, 1859.
Reported by G. D. Watt
Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p.282-91
They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work.He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon.He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood.As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.Who has made this so?Have I?Have this people?Have the world?No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it.If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph.If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass.Can you pass without his inspection?No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times.In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet.They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent?They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they?
God is my right hand man.[8]
(Joseph Smith, in a letter to James Arlington Bennett on November 13, 1843, History of the Church, (Deseret Book, 1975), vol. 6, p. 78.)
"God made Aaron to be the mouth piece for the children of Israel, and He will make me be god to you in His stead, and the Elders to be mouth for me; and if you dont like it, you must lump it."
Joseph Smith at the LDS Conference on April 8, 1844, History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 319-320.
"God is in the still small voice. In all these affidavits, indictments, it is all of the devilall corruption. Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter- day Saints never ran away from me yet."
Joseph Smith, Sunday, May 26, 1844 History of the Church, vol. 6, pp. 408-9.
"We will become gods and have jurisdiction over worlds, and these worlds will be peopled by our own offspring. We will have an endless eternity for this.
Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.2, p.48
As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.
Lorenzo Snow, Mormon Prophet and president
"The day will comeand it is not far distant, eitherwhen the name of the Prophet Joseph Smith will be coupled with the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God, as his representative, as his agent whom he chose, ordained and set apart to lay anew the foundations of the Church of God in the world, which is indeed the Church of Jesus Christ, possessing all the powers of the gospel, all the rites and privileges, the authority of the Holy Priesthood, and every principle necessary to fit and qualify both the living and the dead to inherit eternal life, and to attain to exaltation in the kingdom of God."[5]
Joseph F. Smith, sixth president of the LDS Church, Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. [1939], p. 134; as quoted in Joseph Smith: Restorer of Truth, Ensign, (Dec. 2003): p. 17.
Thus those who gain eternal life receive exaltation. . . They are gods.
(LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pg. 237).
(Gordon B. Hinckley, the fifteenth president of the LDS Church, Ensign article entitled Joseph Smith: Restorer of Truth, December 2003)
My brothers and sisters, in this bicentennial year of his birth, I should like to speak of our beloved Prophet Joseph Smith. . . . In the 135th section of the Doctrine and Covenants we read the words of John Taylor concerning the Prophet Joseph: Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. [D&C 135: 3]
(Thomas S. Monson, counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley, the semi-annual LDS Conference in Salt Lake City, 2005)
Well; since you brought it up...
There is much to recommend the 1979 LDS Edition of the King James Bible as one of the literary masterpieces of our day. Most important, as Elder Packer observed in 1982, this Bible project (in conjunction with the 1981 triple combination) will be regarded in the perspective of history, as the crowning achievement in the administration of President Spencer W. Kimball. Continuing, Elder Packer taught:
With passing years, these scriptures will produce successive generations of faithful Christians who know the Lord Jesus Christ and are disposed to obey His will.
The older generation has been raised without them, but there is another generation growing up. The revelations will be opened to them as to no other in the history of the world. Into their hands now are places the sticks of Joseph and Judah. They will develop a gospel scholarship beyond that which their forbearers could achieve. They will have the testimony that Jesus in the Christ and be competent to proclaim Him and to defend Him. [37]
One of his profound strengths of the new LDS Edition of the Bible is the marvelous light which is shed by the addition of JST changes either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the book. This factor aloneover six hundred JST alterations within our presently accepted and recommended Bibleshould do much toward removing fears or hesitation toward Joseph Smiths translation of the Bible.
[37] Boyd K. Packer, in Conference Report, October 1982, 75.
Well; since you brought it up...
I guess a SAMPLE of the changes are in order about now.
Enough of these oblique references to them!
Color coding explanation:
Added stuff... Changed stuff... Rearranged stuff... Removed stuff...
*(UNDERLINED stuff is the DISTRACTING reference on every tenth word or so that infuses LDS 'scripture' online.)
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HMMMmmm...
Mark 15:42-43
Now it was already evening. Since it was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath), Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent Council member who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus.
Mark 16:1-3
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus body.
Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?
HMMMmmm...
I thought the old COVENANT was binding on the Chosen People.
The things I learn on FR!
Espanol as well.
You'd make a poor Catholic!
It seemed to work for the Bereans.
They wuz more noble!
“I fear your great learning has driven you...
Islam sure does!
While we publicans have...
...spent many years hearing from the smug, know-it-all, biblical experts with a whole LOTSA training, who have supreme confidence in their own book larnin'.
and Mormonism!
Where'd all these CATHOLICS and LEGALIZERS come from?
Gee; thanks!!
Now that is has devolved into something that Trump will soon tweet about!
...DEFINITELY Trump's fault!
No.
Yup.
Look up QUAD images and you can see that some editions have Old Testament and New Testament instead of Holy Bible.
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