Posted on 03/04/2020 7:44:23 AM PST by Gamecock
All cults and manmade religions are based in “works righteousness.” Their adherents believe they have to do something to earn their way to heaven—pray five times a day, lie on beds of nails, do good works, fast, repeat certain prayers, etc. They do this because they are ignorant of God’s standard of righteousness. This is why they need the Law of God to show them that the leap they are trying to make is infinitely wider than the Grand Canyon. However, before you take them through the Law, help them see that they are indeed trusting in “works” for salvation.
Let’s say there are a couple of cult members at my door. I warmly ask for their names, and then say, “I have a knife in my back. I am dying and have only three minutes to live. What do I need to do to enter heaven/paradise/the kingdom of God?” They look concerned. One says, “A lot.” I ask, “What do you mean ‘a lot’? I have only two minutes to live. Help me.” They will normally say they cannot help someone who has just a couple of minutes to live, because their salvation is based on gaining knowledge and doing “good works.” The fact that they must do things to be saved reveals that they are trusting in their “self-righteousness.”
When I then ask if they think they are “good” people, they almost always say they are, and that is the root cause of their deception. While they know they are sinners, they believe their sin is not so bad that they cannot earn their own way out of it and “merit” heaven. So they must be taken through the Law and made to understand that they are criminals in the sight of a holy Judge, and are guilty of countless crimes. They must be taken through the Law and made to understand that they are criminals in the sight of a holy Judge, and are guilty of countless crimes. They must understand that God is perfect and holy, that He considers lust to be adultery and hatred to be murder, and He will see to it that absolute justice is done. That means adulterers, murderers, liars, and thieves will be damned forever. Once they recognize that, they will understand that their “good” works are not good at all, but are in reality a detestable attempt to bribe the Judge of the universe. Hopefully they will trust in His mercy alone to save them.
That is how the thief on the cross was saved—through mercy alone. He didn’t go anywhere or do anything to save himself. He couldn’t, because he was nailed to the cross. He had no other avenue but to humbly turn to Jesus and say, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). In doing so, he acknowledged Jesus as Lord, and believed that He would rise from the dead (Rom. 10:9).
That is all that any who are involved in “works righteousness” religions need to do to be saved. They are condemned by the Law. They cannot go anywhere or do anything. All they can do is turn to Jesus and trust in Him alone for their salvation. We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; “it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8,9). So plant that seed in the hearts of those who think they can be saved by their own works, then pray that God causes it to grow and produce fruit.
Oh?
Is not John 3:18 found in your Quad??
He that believeth on him is not condemned:
but he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Sounds interesting.
Got chapter and verse on this?
So; it's better to be an arrogant; uh - whatever; person who thinks they have a LOT more 'knowledge' and are even waiting for more?
"Ya don't wanna burn up in a fire do ya? Sign here, we got an escape clause."
Interesting!
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 don’t 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 devil—all 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 come—and it is not far distant, either—when 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)
Hear here!
I don't believe in any of the doomsday religions for the same reason I don't believe that I'll find the Emerald City at the end of the Yellow Brick Road.
I don’t believe in your Mormon religion either so there’s no point in sending me a dozen quotes trying to convert me to Mormonism.
Do you believe that you are a spirit, a soul, and a body, or in other terms a spirit, a behavior mechanism, and a body?
At the risk of sounding cynical (and understanding that God can do all things), it is very difficult to witness to a cult member. Their mind is steeped in darkness with an adversion to any truth one might share. At least that has been my experience. Unlike the Bereans who examined the scriptures daily (Acts 17:11), cult members tend to be follow their own devices. They are like Simon the magician from Acts 8 who pushed his own version of the gospel. Paul told the Galatins they were “bewitched” by false teaching and was extremely critical of them. John says not to even let them into your house (2 John 1:10).
While it is important to always share the gospel when given the opportunity, one should never underestimate how dark and sinister cult members truly are. They may sound very nice, but they always have an objective in mind and that is to make you twice the son of hell as they are (Matt 23:15).
I have, or seem to have, a body and I can think. To believe more than that is to assume facts not in evidence.
I don't believe in any of the doomsday religions for the same reason I don't believe that I'll find the Emerald City at the end of the Yellow Brick Road.
Which means that you will be sadly mistaken when you realize that one of them was true.
Moreover, your criticism was not to false warnings, but to using the "threat of violence" as a motive, which is a rejection of negative consequences for failing to heed warnings, placing you in the same boat as those who dismissed the warnings dropped on Nagasaki.
Elsie is a Mormon???
And we also should not leave out the manner of truth-loving heart and esteem of Scripture as the supreme standard which was behind the examination of the scriptures in order to validate what the apostles preached.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11)
If you have empirical data to support your claims that can be tested by experiment please share.
“eternal damnation.
Or, as some would say, eternal punishment.”
The meaning of words matter.
Damnation is to have progression stopped.
Unless the punishment is to have your progression stopped, you can progress while being punished.
Ok, so where do you say Jesus was for the three days between His physical death and before He was resurrected and rejoined God the Father?
Wrong. God made the meaning of judgment manifest, versus “hope and change,” using death, and such examples as the Flood, and Sodom...
That is, as people so often do, we misinterpret scripture when it goes against our world view. We all do it to dome degree, though I hope that as I am aware of that I’m always looking for examples of it in my own belief system so I can root them out.
I used to believe in ECT...
Well, my point is that people ascribe overly detailed attributes to the word “punishment”. On its own, it doesn’t describe the death penalty, sitting in the corner with a dunce cap, or anything else. It needs to be established what the punishment actually is.
Same with damnation. Too many people ascribe meaning to it that is not really there.
Changing religion does nothing as no religion saves.
Only a person saves and that is Jesus Christ. And all you have to do is ask Him to save you and He will.
But since He knows the heart, He can see is someone is genuine about it or just a fraud.
When you are genuinely saved, your life will show it, and that doesn’t necessarily means *becoming religious*. It means becoming more like Jesus every day.
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