Posted on 09/20/2009 2:46:15 PM PDT by Colofornian
SNIP
Sharing testimonies is an important part of the Latter-day Saint experience. We bear testimonies in many settings — in the home with family and among friends and associates or in missionary experiences. In Church, one Sunday is set aside every month for the bearing of testimonies during sacrament meetings.
SNIP
In his address at the October 2004 general conference, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve...said that his experience throughout the Church leads him to worry that too many members' testimonies linger on "I am thankful," and "I love," and too few are able to say with humble but sincere clarity, "I know." As a result, he noted, meetings sometimes lack the testimony-rich, spiritual underpinnings that stir the soul and have meaningful, positive impact on the lives of all those who hear them.
He...counseled, "We need to replace stories, travelogues and lectures with pure testimonies. Those who are entrusted to speak and teach in our meetings need to do so with doctrinal power that will be both heard and felt, lifting the spirits and edifying our people."
SNIP
As we listen to general conference this October, we will hear many bear pure testimony. Numerous times over the years, we have heard President Thomas S. Monson, first as an apostle and now as president of the Church, bear such testimony. May we, as Primary children sing, be inclined to "follow the prophet" in our endeavor to nurture, strengthen and share our testimonies that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was the prophet who was raised up to restore the fullness of the everlasting gospel...
(Excerpt) Read more at ldschurchnews.com ...
You surely have!!! D&C 132
And just WHY does the SLC branch of MORMONism REJECT GOD's Word??
Wake up and smell the brimstone!!
EmBARassing?
No...
...because he is so darn DELIGHTSOME!
And those early LDS leaders...
...did THEY pray and 'ask GOD' if HE really meant what HE said about that ONE WIFE thing?
You is STILL jus' a lion ANTI!!
--MormonDube(not afraid to say it!)
Ask the LORD; who gave THESE verse to us:
A direct answer to a direct question.
Oh??
HOW??
THEY are the one's who are following Scripture (D&C 132) - NOT the SLC branch of MORMONism.
Keep trying.
Perhaps SOMEone will take up your gauntlet and try and defend past (and present)sins committed by Christians.
(It does tend to draw the discussion away from MORMONism's problems though...)
(Oh sure. Lds publishings only get distributed in Lds meeting houses & general conferences...then everybody has to turn back these "top-secret" docs before they exit the facilities...or they won't be let out.)
Out of curiosity, do the Presbyterians believe in modern day revelation? No then not to worry, they won't be prophesying. (Don't get mad, it's just logic.)
DU, you still don't seemingly comprehend the Living Revelation.
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me... (John 5:39)
So, do Presbyterians believe in modern day revelation?
Well, yes or no, DU, is Jesus Himself the Living Revelation -- the Living Word? (I'd hope we'd both agree, "yes")
Well, yes or no, DU, is Jesus alive? (I think we'd both agree, "yes")
Based on John 5:39, does revelation stop at the Written Word? (I think we'd both agree, "no")
And finally, what say ye of Hebrews 1:1-2? Based on this passage, what was God's former way of revelation? (I think we'd both agree "prophets" and the "written word"...I mean, you don't have trouble interpreting the words "past" and "but" in Hebrews 1:1-2, do you?)
Heb. 1:1-2: In the PAST God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, BUT in THESE LAST DAYS HE HAS SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
As you can see from Hebrews 1, Lds have to rely upon a solo intermediary...Smith, Young...and even then, most of what they say that doesn't get canonized gets eventually ignored by Mormons, anyway. Christians have the real revelational deal--Jesus Himself. Jesus is the Living Word; the Living Revelation; both God embodied in the Incarnation, and still the Living Head of the Body of Christ.
Also, as such, Jesus the Living Revelation isn't limited to speak through His Body to one prophet based in Salt Lake City or three First Presidents based in Salt Lake City or 70 general authorites based in Salt Lake City. Jesus' mouth is operative WORLDWIDE through His body; Jesus' hands in broadcasting & publishing is operative WORLDWIDE!
If you think this is mere fluff, the apostle Paul didn't think so: Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness (Col. 1:24-25)
I mean what? You don't think most of what the apostle Paul communicated was reduced to NT epistles, do you? {(We know that wasn't the case in Ephesus: For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (Acts 20:27)}
And I think you & I would agree that God didn't expend all He has to say through the Prophets and apostles of Biblical times. He's simply has chosen a better conduit: His Son; His Holy Spirit.
I mean you don't think that the Holy Spirit is quiet as a mouse, do you? And if you think we Evangelicals believe that the Holy Ghost is quiet, then you have embraced a caricature about us:
Even His Word promises such communication: But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1 John 2:27)
Wow! You Lds folks can't even establish consistency, let alone maintain it.
Why is it "news" to us 2000 years later that Jesus had "exact[ly]" 12 apostles?
Let's see. There were a dozen. Judas died (11). Matthias replaced him (back up to 12). The resurrected Jesus appeared to Saul (converted Paul made 13).
Now if the Mormon myth is true...that the resurrected Jesus appeared in the Americas. Then he added another 12 "to be exact", right? Wouldn't that make 25?
But we see, Mormons like yourself don't even believe your own Book of Mormon rhetoric. In fact, your church leaders don't, either. There's no Quorum of the 24 or 25...only a Quorum of the 12. Plus, we see no set-apart Quorum in Central or South America & another in the Middle East. North America monopolizes all of them.
None were ever identified by the title "President, Prophet and Seer" either.
Nor were any called "General Authority"
Nor was the term "stakes" ever used by Jesus, the Apostles or any one else in the bible.
placemarker
ditto
LOL.
Which one of these 531 posts are expected to bring people closer to God?
This thread is supposed to be about “testifying” to other humans, to help them understand God, and you are all tying yourselves up in the details of religions!
ROFLOL.
I’m sorry for laughing.
When I see a thread called “How to Testify”, I click on it hoping to find some examples of “Testimony’. I like to lurk on threads where it is offered.
Looking for testimony on this thread, and instead hearing you all fight, is either frustrating or funny. I had to pick funny.
WWJD?
Why iz everybuddy always pinging on me?
That, indeed, is the question.
531 posts try to answer it.
Since the 'testifying' was first posted from a MORMONism point of veiw about WWJD; it is only natural that Christianity sees the 'How To Testify' in quite an altogether different manner - thus 531 posts (so far).
#525 gives a clue to WWJD in response to WWPA and WWGW.
Trying to keep you at the keyboard so that you’ll miss Gray’s Anatomy.
Cuz you LIKE this stuff!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.