Posted on 04/15/2010 8:56:50 AM PDT by T Minus Four
Think of the Salt Lake Temple as a designer bottle holding a one-of-a-kind fragrance.
Think of the gardens and buildings of Temple Square as bubble wrap around that container.
Think of the City Creek Center to the south, the Church Plaza to the east, the Conference Center to the north, and the Family History Library and Church History Museum to the west as a firm, sturdy box around all of it.
When something merits that much protection, you have to figure rough bumps and bounces are coming down the road.
I get a feeling the LDS Church sees turbulence ahead -- nasty weather -- and it is making preparations.
It's not about being defensive and keeping things out.
It's about being protective and keeping precious things safe.
When the chilly winds blow, forest creatures gather all that's life-sustaining about them.
Horses in the fields cluster together to stand against the hail.
I feel the LDS Church battening down the hatches for bad weather.
The Tabernacle Choir, which was performing musical versions of Robert Frost poetry and other secular works, now releases CDs filled with songs of faith, assurance and the need to rely on the Divine.
I feel protection is the point behind the long row of sentries -- those Mormon temples -- that stand along the Wasatch -- the new Brigham City temple, new Payson temple, the new remade Ogden temple and all the others.
I feel protect precious things is the point of the new mission statements of LDS businesses, the point for books that are picked for publication and the lessons selected for manuals.
Part of the world would divide and conquer.
The church would gather and protect.
Something uneasy this way comes. Not a vilent clash as in Jerusalem -- where cultures fight openly. We won't be seeing stone throwers in the streets of Salt Lake City.
The battle here won't be about territory.
It will be about choices -- about the advent of a bolder, more self-indulgent popular culture.
The church can see the writing on the wall -- often literally.
And graffiti on the temple will never do.
It's time -- as the old hymn has it -- to "safely gather in, ere the winter storms begin."
The plan is not to force people away.
The plan is to keep what's on the inside safe from harm.
And if that means putting up ramparts and watchtowers, so be it.
Even heaven, if you believe the stories, is a gated community -- not to keep people away, but to safeguard the gentle hearts of those who dwell there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com Jerry Earl Johnston chronicles his take on the Mormon experience in his column “New Harmony,” which appears on MormonTimes.com on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Thats right resty - NO other 'god' is in existance. Please not "neither shall there be after me". Bible proves eternal progression to be a lie, fancy that.
Thats right resty - NO other 'god' is in existance. Please not "neither shall there be after me". Bible proves eternal progression to be a lie, fancy that.
Please explain - how did Jesus become a god without following the eternal principles, before becoming a man to perform all the ordinances and laws required for godhood, without being married in a temple or participating in any of the temple ordinances and without a body. This is something that even heavenly father could not attain.
Proven false many times over
Mormon Jesus spirit brother of satan
Christian Jesus is the eternal God the Son, creator of all, including satan
Mormon Jesus cannot cleans of all sin
Christian Jesus cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness.
****
I contradict nothing for there was a great famine of the word
Amos 8:
11 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
Yet the Spirit of the Holy Ghost was always on earth to witness.
Acts 3
19 ¶ Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
The restoration has taken place
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
the Jesus that the LDS believen is the Same Jesus in the Bible.
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Not according to Hinckley...
Not the same Jesus
“There are those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints do not believe in the traditional Christ.
No, I don’t. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak.”
– LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley (LDS Church News, June 20, 1998)
“It is true that many of the Christian churches worship a different Jesus Christ than is worshipped by the Mormons.” – LDS publication, Ensign Magazine, May 1977, p. 26
Ah, as I predicted, you are unable to see how your posts are rife with dup[licity and contradiction. ... You have anice day, Resty. Give your Intertnet posting feeders a rest today.
The issue is that there are movements that in trying to promote what are perceived to be biblical beliefs (or their own) end up doing the opposite. It is a matter of focus and how one sees or uses the Bible. In the case of groups like the LDS they are very adept at parsing out the section or sections they need whilst ignoring even the simplest of passages that may contradict their aims.
The Bible is a whole entity, a living breathing historic and spiritual record of the relationship between the one true God and his children and the creation they live in. One cannot ignore parts of it without in turn essentially dismissing the whole, the entirety of the message.
Let me give you are real live exercise on how this works, and we can use the passages you cite and say that they seem to indicate that Christ and God the father as the LDS call him are two distinct personages, “separate gods” if you will.
First lets give you three bible verse to use, to place beside your passages for perspective and clarity.
Isaiah 43:10-11 (King James Version)
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
John 1:1 (King James Version)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14 (King James Version)
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Now take these verses that are very clear and specific and read the ones you posted that while clear in what they say about the given situation are not specifically saying there is only one God or two or three or a dozen. When and if you do that and you do it openly and honestly, you are left with two choices. Either there is only one all powerful uncreated and every creating God whose mysteries are far beyond our meager abilities to understand, who can be anything and everything he desires or God lies and deceives his creation with his own words .
Something that will be helpful and it is in the John passage I quoted. The Word (God) became flesh and dwelt among us. Understand one of the core principle of the Trinity, once of the concepts that has made the triune nature of God both obvious and the most widely shared of all Christian concepts, one that is supported by 2000 years of scholarship, is that Jesus was both fully man and fully god. That is amazing. It means that in order to understand us, his creation, he went and became one of us, felt like one of us, bled like one of us. He looked outside himself and viewed things as we did. Most importantly he even made it so that for his time on earth he had the same relationship with him we do, he looked up as we did and prayed as we prayed.
The beauty of an all powerful and everlasting God is that he can make such a gift possible.
Speaking of ACID...
Did you ever figger out what JS so ACIDLY proclaimed was UNTRUE about PRESBYTERIANism?
16* For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Bible proves God does not have a tangible body of flesh and bone. Jesus - not heavenly father or the council of gods in Kolob - created all there is - including satan, angels. Refutes mormon doctrine doesn't it.
Poor Hinckley also asserted that Jesus was fooled and that caused Him to end up on the Cross! It was Hinckley’s Mormon way of absolving himself of being duped by a forger, with the Salamander letters. The mormon jesus is feckless, a dupe, but yet they asseert this feckless jesus is essential for their progression into the heavenlies. Ah the mystery of ungodliness.
JS was either a LIAR or he was DECEIVED by DEMONS.
Then just who is this 'father' Personage?
resty - you need to READ you bible passages before embarrassing yourself by posting them - nothing in them contradicted what was previously posted.
Joseph asked a question and received an answer and only related the answer he received from the Lord.
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A mystery question...
2 Timothy 4:3
... but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions...
Again it was Joseph Smith a boy of 14 in a humble prayer seeking answers to his question of which church he should join and the Lord told Joseph Smith to join none.
“I was answered that I must join none of them,for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in His sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.’”
Misrepresenting what smith said tries to hide the bar completely. JS tossed the acid
He got a bucket on da Kubota!
Hi Godzilla,
It’s clear to me from what has been revealed that Christ was the Only Begotten Son of God from the beginning. He is the creator of all things — so certainly divine. However his work not completed until he had lived on earth, carried out the great atoning sacrifice and been resurrected.
I’m not going to speculate here on things that have not been revealed. There are lots of unknowns. I’m just grateful for what God has revealed.
Best regards,
Normandy
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