Posted on 06/19/2002 1:06:26 PM PDT by marshmallow
Edited on 05/25/2004 2:46:37 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
A Navy officer from Denmark, Ia., was barred from a Mormon temple in Nauvoo, Ill., on Monday because of his behavior during a previous visit.
Rocky Hulse first toured the new temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on May 21. At the end of the tour, he said, he asked a temple official where the cross was located in the church.
(Excerpt) Read more at dmregister.com ...
Don't bother trying to explain it to them, you're wasting your time. Just follow the Savior's example and show your real faith through your good works.
I do think it funny that some people think there's some sort of appropriate trade-off involved here.
It's like the Frank and Ernest cartoon I saw years ago. "Frank" and "Ernest" are in heaven as angels, standing on a cloud. "Frank" is looking over the edge of the cloud, grinning like a coot. "Ernest" says "Do you mean you lived a live of exemplary behavior, fraught with deeds of kindness and compassion toward your fellow man, just so you could eventually come up here and DROP THINGS ON PEOPLE?!?!"
And didn't the Savior say "by their fruits ye shall know them"? Are you completely oblivious to the marvelous "fruits" borne by the tree that the Prophet Joseph Smith planted? Or are you one of these that Isaiah foresaw, who invariably see evil for good, and good for evil?
You might want to adjust your preconceptions. They're extremely inaccurate.
Yes.
... and HE is one part of the TRINITY?
No, because we believe the "Trinity" is an erroneous construct from the Middle Ages. However, we believe that Jesus Christ is Jehovah of the Old Testament, and that He is one member of the GODHEAD, which includes God the Father, Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit.
If so, that would make them Christian.
In the end, labels mean nothing except as they inform us, or pander to our ignorance. In the end God Himself judges, and the judgements of man are irrelevant.
But in the end, people will believe what they wish. My only advice is to stick to building up your own faith, but that doesn't happen through tearing down the faith of others.
And given all that is going on with conventional Christianity lately, I say "thank God for that."
And we "gentiles" are the ones under attack for perceived intolerance. Since you brought it up, please let me know what your problems are with conventional Christianity.
If your problems lie with certain Catholic bishops currently destroying their church to save their hides, I couldn't agree more with you. Then again, I'm neither Catholic or Protestant, just Christian.
Sorry, but that's poppycock. Of course we believe that the Grace of Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation.
But we don't pick and choose which scriptures we follow, as many sects of Christianity seem to do. We don't ignore the admonition of Christ, to keep His commandments.
We realize, though, that no matter how hard we try to do this, we're going to come up short, every time. And it is the grace of our Saviour Jesus Christ that makes up the deficit.
My own analogy is that of "tithing," which we Saints also observe to pay. Everything we have is the Lord's but He asks only that we pay 10% of our "increase" as tithing. We are NOT expected to give all we have, but He knows we can give SOMETHING, and thus His commandment that we pay 10%.
FWIW, the analogy is imperfect; I doubt that we can even keep 10% of the commandments, but the point is that we show a "good faith effort," trusting in the end that, after all we can do--which is the purpose of the Judgement, in fact--we are saved by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent." -- (Book of Mormon) Mosiah 3:17.
Funny. That's exactly how I view most of the Christian sects of the world. Most Baptists, for example, know next to nothing about the doctrines of their own church.
A friend of mine, a Latter-Day Saint who used to be Baptist, became disenchanted with the Baptists faith when his studies revealed how much their "faith and message" had changed over the past 150 years. He left off studying for the ministry shortly after that, and some time later converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Mormons have an "endowment" ceremony where Protestant ministers are mocked..naw they do not like us much:>)
In other words, only faith saves, but a true faith will naturally be shown by works. The more I ruminated upon this saying, the more I liked it.
The word "Christian" is found only three times in the Bible, twice in derogatory usage and once neutral (Felix's statement to Paul "Almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian.")
"Christian" was a term given to the "cult" that followed Jesus Christ by enemies of the faith.
However, scores of times the disciples of Christ are called "Saints" among themselves. It is the name they had for themselves.
So in a narrow sense, you're right. We're not "Christians," we're Saints, which is the correct term for those who believe in the true Christ.
Further, although we have deep respect for all religious faiths, we firmly believe that all other sects purporting to be Christian have only a portion of the truth, and are the result of apostasy over a millenium and a half ago.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a restoration of the ORIGINAL gospel, to correct the grievous errors that crept in over the centuries, and which resulted in the great variety of beliefs among the so-called "Christian" sects.
And you might want to dismiss that as irrelevant. Upon which I recommend you go to the RELIGION forum on FR, and take note of the HUGE number of threads arguing doctrine among the various sects: Protestant against RC and RC against Eastern Orthodox, etc., ad nauseum.
There are over 700 different Christian sects on earth. Not all can be correct.
But one Church is the true and living Church of Jesus Christ. It is the one that bears His name, with the further distinction that it is the Church established in the LATTER days (as opposed to ancient times where it also existed).
Oh, and in the Middle Ages, Jews killed Christian babies and used their blood for their matzoh, didn't you know?
Actually, that's not quite correct. All our temples are typically open to the public for a period just after their construction, a so-called "Open House."
Afterward, they are dedicated and then are open only to members of the Church in good standing. This is true for Nauvoo as well as all the others that have been constructed.
She didn't speak to me for about three weeks.
You singlehandedly destroyed all their efforts, demanding that the LDS church is not Christian while impugning every Christian denomination. The leaders of your faith are probably quite unhappy with your efforts.
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