tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89929689657089733932024-03-08T13:27:07.117-08:00The Wonders of EternityWhat mysteries will God reveal to those that have eyes to see and ears to hear?....Yea, even the wonders of eternity shall they know".....
Doctrine and Covenants 76:8Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-81865970206731502182023-02-14T14:25:00.002-08:002023-02-14T14:25:56.315-08:00The King Follett Discourse-As Man Now is God Once Was<p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in 1830. In 1820 14-year-old Joseph Smith declared that in search of the truth about God, he prayed in a secluded grove. He testified in an article describing his experience in 1832 that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him in answer to that prayer. Since that day additional claims of visitations from angels, including one that showed him where an ancient record was stored and that he would translate. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Book of Mormon came forth as another testament of Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in 1830. For the next fourteen years until 1844, he revealed doctrines that had been lost to Christendom after the death of Jesus and his apostles. He was God's prophet to restore authority to act in God's name and reestablish the Savior's church in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">On April 7, 1844, a few months before he was murdered he spoke in conjunction with a conference of the Church and gave a sermon speaking about the nature of God and the destiny of man that became known as the King Follett discourse. This is a message delivered by the prophet Joseph Smith where he spoke at the request of a family of a member of the church named King Follett who had recently died in an accident.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">There are scholarly papers that treat this discourse with much depth and delve into how theology and understanding develop over time in the church. For my purposes here I am considering philosophical and theological implications compared to what had been taught in Mainstream or Evangelical Christianity for centuries. This essay is my own opinion and in no way represents the doctrinal position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In this sermon, new information that had not been taught previously in public was mentioned by the prophet. King Follett had been killed a month earlier in an accident and the prophet mentioned his name as he spoke about death and the dead.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Some of the prophet's sermons covered topics that had been spoken of in the 14-year-old church. The idea that God had been a human being and been through a similar mortal experience as what we are going through now was a new doctrine to most members.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Elder Lorenzo Snow explained the concept with a couplet he had already mentioned to the prophet. Joseph told him a was a revelation of his personal insight.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">"As man now is, God once was: As God now is man may be."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Traditional Christianity had a similar couplet "God became man, so that man could become God."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My purpose here is to consider how these ideas revealed by the prophet Joseph Smith compare to the concept of creation ex nihilo and the nature of a triune sovereign as taught by traditional Christian scholars. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The concept of God as being an exalted being by living as a mortal at one period in his eternal existence shocks biblical students and scholars. They have been led to believe that God is a solitary eternal being, having been always in existence but saving no souls other than its own.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Beliefs held by the majority of traditional Christianity speak of a triune, incorporeal, genderless God who has existed with no beginning and no end. This being or godly force is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present. These characteristics are often mentioned as omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. The hard fact of the traditional evangelical concept of God is that there is no father or son, except as metaphorical representations. The biblical references to their male identities are not pertinent to their actual mysterious lifestyle as an eternal triune genderless being. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">These extra-biblical philosophies describing God's power and nature are assumed to somehow encompass everything that there is, was, and will be. The "god being" the modern Christian Trinity represents is described as living outside of space and time as the creator of space and time. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This assumption by theological scholars is used to explain why God never did anything until 6000 years ago according to the written history starting in the Book of Genesis. One fact to note regarding time is that the Bible tells us that a day to God is 1000 years. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">According to Latter-day teachings, at the time of the creation of this earth, our Heavenly Father, had all power and knowledge. He had presided over the creation of worlds without numbers. His glory is beyond our capacity as mortals to comprehend. By the power of his spirit, eternal light, and truth, he is omnipresent and knows all things pertaining to the creation of worlds and the salvation of souls. He will forever create worlds and increase in glory as he brings souls into existence and offers them the opportunity for eternal increase patterned after his life. This is the gospel of "eternal lives". It is an eternal pattern of creation, salvation, and exaltation.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The traditional doctrines also hold to these powers and godly attributes of an omnipotent and omniscient being, however, God, ie the Trinity just appeared from nowhere and for no apparent reason to create the world 6000 years ago according to the way we measure time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> From this, we get the reference to the 6 days of creation and a day of rest on the 7th. What they do not consider is that God did not enter into a state of eternal rest on the 7th day. It was just one day. The Bible scholars of Christendom assume that creation is a "one and done" type of event and all of creation is finalized with some heavenly existence with God as he reigns over a never increasing body of static individuals.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-90809730050018748512022-09-11T07:59:00.038-07:002023-02-14T14:30:35.034-08:00God is Not Dead- Was He Just Sleeping?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The morality of the sixties and seventies inspired a generation of disdain for the morals of previous generations. Or so it seems. History documents to some degree the moral shortcomings of all ages. We can, however, see the trends of modern culture and weigh their effects. Somewhere in the mix, the slogan "God is Dead" came about. It was as if people could do whatever they wanted and somehow there were no negative consequences, at least not right away. And that is what these trendsetters wanted others to think as well. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Christian apologists have battled backed through the ages with countermeasures, and in recent decades with slogans of their own. One we've heard in modern times is that "God is not Dead". The scholarly thinkers, and Biblical apologists, keep busy creating a palatable narrative that would help keep the contradictions found in classical theology from becoming subjects of discussion among believers. Their principal approach is to remind believers that they cannot comprehend God. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">For centuries the clergies of Catholicism and Protestants have fought back against agnosticism and atheism. However, even their own foundational doctrines indicate a belief in a God that was sleeping until the time of the book of Genesis. The emergence of the Book of Genesis is about 6000 years ago. Just what was God doing before that? Biblical scholars say we shouldn't ask questions they can't answer.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Agnosticism runs a broad gamut of disdain for religious principles and prevailing theological assumptions. It is based on opinions of observations from individuals who with some good reasoning are critical of the contradictions, and the conclusions of the so-called mainstream theological experts and their study of the Bible. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">There are no real truth-based facts to atheism, only skepticism regarding the existing narratives of biblical philosophers and theologians. Atheism is opinion based and speculates that science has the answers, and demonstrates that the ancient dogmas of creedal Christianity don't align with observations. The contradictions between reality and an all-knowing and all-powerful being have, however, been done away with through modern revelation, and the calling of prophets in these the latter-days. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The doctrines formulated by clergy after the death of Jesus and his apostles are by and large theoretical conclusions based on speculation using biblical statements. They lost the pure teachings of Jesus and changed the church. Just as an observation starts as a scientific theory, the early philosophers and clergy without the authority of God and its enlightening revelations, developed ideas that are merely the imaginations of men speculating about what the scriptures say and mean. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Biblical theologians and scholars may be qualified in the halls of academia at some level of credibility, but they don't speak for God, and they don't speak the truth when they theorize. The preaching by modern clerics may well be sincere, and many principles of truth are encapsulated in their messages, but they fall short of the full glory of God. We have powerful images of deep space, and the self-evident truth of an endless cosmos, and yet these scholarly preachers put God in a box based on their limited understanding of the Bible. They claim this planet is the extent of God's dominion and saving grace. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">For example. When you peel back the layers of teachings that dominate the mainstream Christian world, you find powers and characteristics ascribed to God that are merely fabrications of what the scholarly theologians think God should be like. That is, incorporeal, genderless, and triune in some incomprehensible manner, and does not resemble humans at all. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Most if not all Christians do claim God is all-powerful. What does this mean? If you take the ultimate sense as some teach, then God knew and knows who will be in heaven and hell before the process of creation was ever started. What then is the purpose of creation and life? We also see the contradiction of an all-powerful being that knew the outcome of creation would result in evil and suffering, and yet proceeded with the process anyway. It is as if all humans are merely pawns in some grand scheme or experiment.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">What you find in modern biblical theology is a God that did nothing for all of eternity past, meaning before the book of Genesis. It is as if God is the "Big Bang" beginning 6000 years ago. The funny part is some Christian apologists point to the big bang as being the initiation of God's power. In spite of the infinite cosmos, however, only one planet emerges on which God associates with creatures and "saves" them with a modality of salvation that had here-to-fore never been attempted.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Prior to this, God had done nothing if one accepts the precept claimed by biblical purists that the Bible is the only word of God. It is as if God had been sleeping for all of eternity past and woke up one day and decided it was a good opportunity to try his hand at something new. Creating a world and humans and seeing what would happen.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Such were and are the prevailing notions of the modern sectarian Christian world. It wasn't until 1820 that these illusory dogmas and errant conclusions were exposed for what they were, the errors and philosophies of men mingled with scriptural references. The contradictions mentioned above have now been resolved and we know the true nature of God, who is our Father in heaven, a glorified male being, who has all knowledge and power to extend an opportunity to his literal spiritual offspring. God is not a mysterious genderless being.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">My understanding of theology, eternal truths, and the purpose of life is based on the experience of a young man in 1820. If a person has attended a Christian church of any denomination, they have likely heard of Joseph Smith. The question is, what have they heard? It is quite likely a negative narrative based on speculation and half-truths and a multitude of defamatory soundbites.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The young Joseph was seeking answers to questions like many of us do. One was which religious affiliation he should follow, and likely deeper questions of life's purpose. He went to a grove of trees near his home to find answers by attempting to directly approach God. The result was a vision and visitation by God, the Father, and Jesus Christ. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Unfortunately, his story and claims have been skewed by many as his narrative did not fit well with the biblical apologists and the prevailing doctrines of mainstream Christendom. Joseph Smith taught that God labored for six days and rested for one. The rest of Christendom seems to think that he fell asleep again. Latter-day Saints know God returned to work on and started another cycle of creation and revelation. God's work is one eternal round. It never ends.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">In spite of the criticisms and opposition to his message, it has spread throughout the world. It reached me as a young man in 1973. I did as Joseph Smith did, I prayed to God for answers. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and teaches confirms the biblical truths of salvation and the promises of Jesus Christ. I attest to the effects, joy, and happiness of knowing that God is our Father, and Jesus Christ is our Savior in every sense of those terms. The truth is, God has never been asleep. He operates on his time frame, and final preparations are being carried out in these the "last days".</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">What came of Joseph's experience were revelations regarding the eternal and never-ending nature of the works of God. The eternal agency of man, and laws of perfect justice and mercy. It is a restoration of all things pertaining to the destiny of the earth and the establishment of God's authority to act in the name of the Lord. We learn that we are literally God's spiritual offspring, created in the image of God, male and female, and we are here to fulfill an important part of our eternal destiny. It did not begin at birth, nor does it end at death. It will bring us back to the presence of God to live as exalted beings if we will follow its precepts with faith in Jesus Christ.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">The kingdom of God is again going forth the prepare the world for the second coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by living prophets and apostles called by Jesus as were his apostles of old. He himself stands at the head of the Church. It is His Church, and in it, the doctrines and means of salvation are taught and carried out as he directs them.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-27145423055456354432022-07-12T20:15:00.006-07:002022-07-15T06:25:09.854-07:00God, The Godhead, Heavenly Parents and Eternal Families<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">After almost 50 years as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I am still amazed at the depth and simplicity of the doctrines of the Church. The Church is not a new religion, it is a reestablishment of the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1830 the Church was organized, new scripture was introduced with the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon and the gospel was preached under the guidance of apostolic authority. This is a restoration of the work of Jesus Christ in the earth.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is a restoration of God’s authority to prophet servants in the earth. Men and women that were chosen before they were born. (Jeremiah 1:15). They were chosen to to stand as “watchmen on the tower” and organize the kingdom among all the people of the earth. With this authority and direct connection with the God of Heaven, we now have greater understanding than ever before of the wonders of eternity and the mysteries of an endless cosmos. God has given us increased knowledge regarding the order of heaven and the nature of family relationships in eternity. Heaven is about eternal parenthood and the nurturing power in family units. (Ephesians 3:15)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Abrahamic covenant established in the Old Testament tells us that Abraham’s seed or posterity would be as numerous as the sands of the sea shores or the stars in the heavens. In other words, endless. God desires to extend these same promises and blessings to us as descendants of Abraham. Modern day covenant Israel is entitled to these blessings if they will make and keep the covenants of the eternal Gospel. Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet of this, the dispensation that will prepare the earth for the second coming of the Savior. His calling was to gather Latter-day Israel and establish the Church and Kingdom of God on the earth in order for these preparations to take place.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">I won’t elaborate on the many aspects of these events in this message. I would like to explain as I understand them some of the things we have learned about the nature of God, godliness, the Godhead and Godhood. I will explain the nature of the Godhead and purpose and reason that God created us in the image of God, male and female.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will mention traditional theological ideas and concepts regarding the nature of God as taught in modern Christendom so that the similarities and differences of what the prophet Joseph Smith revealed might be well understood.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tradition has taught for about two millennia that the nature of God is an unknowable mystery and always will be. This narrative was established in early centuries by some of the early clerics after the death of Jesus and his apostles. Modern biblical theologians teach that God will not communicate with us again in this life and the that the Bible is the complete revelation. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">The narrative established by early Christian philosophers is that for no apparent reason, the only all-powerful, all-knowing spiritual force in existence acted on a singular basis to perform a one-time act of creation. That is this earth, and it is the only one that this mysterious God will ever create. The motive postulated by classical theologians is that love of necessity is the motive for (Its) actions. I say Its, because the trinitarian concept of deity is a genderless, incorporeal power. It has no form or physical presence other than to project itself as two beings that are metaphorical representations of a father and son. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">The explanation put forth by biblical apologists is that the trinitarian Godhead is not really a familial relationship, but a symbolic representation of family terms in order for humans to somehow begin to relate to what God is doing for us. The literal nature of God is unknowable according to modern Christian theologians. The Bible does, however, clearly designate and refer to them as a God the Father, and his Son which would make them male beings. Modern biblical professors do not agree with the literal descriptions of the Bible prophets or the proclaimed Son of God himself. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">The narrative and teachings about God in mainstream Christianity do not actually come from the Bible. They come from early philosopher theologians, monks, and clerics as they formulated opinions. In the 16th century the Protestant Reformation disavowed the authority of the Catholic Church. The thing to note is that the reformation did not reform those conclusions and opinions, they just denounced Catholic church and added their own opinions to the teachings that came from what they claimed was an errant foundation. ( We might ask how truth flowed through an errant organization.?) </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">The average modern Christian believer seems, however, to prefer to believe that the personages mentioned in the Bible are actually real people capable of a relationship with us. The established doctrinal teachings of protestantism and Catholicism claim that we humans are merely creatures and have no real eternal value or relationship with deity since our souls are created into existence in a random fashion out of nothing. In other words, our spiritual nature did not exist before our mortal birth according to classical theology.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is much more that could be covered regarding traditional ideas about God and Its relationship to man, but that is not the purpose of this essay. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Latter-day Saint theology is revealed theology. It comes directly from God to his prophets. It is not opinions or based on study of the Bible that results in a new conclusion of what God is trying to say or do</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Who is God according to Latter-day Saints?</b></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">God the Father is not a single parent. He is the actual father of our spirits. There is no fatherhood without motherhood. Our existence declares the order of creation we witness in the earth. One of the important understandings of the restoration is that we have a Heavenly Mother. The love of God for us is inseparably connected to the fact we are their literal children. We are the result of our Heavenly Parents love for each other. It is a deep and abiding love and we are connected to them forever. We have their spiritual DNA. They are eternal parents and we are created in their image, male and female. It is their desire to nurture us in the ways of eternal glory and exaltation. This is the fullness of eternal life. We were begotten spiritually by them before we were born on the earth. We have been nurtured at their side for some eons of eternity.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have come to earth to temporarily inhabit a fallen mortal body which by and through the atonement and grace of Jesus Christ will be resurrected to a perfect and glorified state in a future day. Our spirits are formed from spiritual matter, and some eternal component of intelligence, the full nature of which has not been revealed. It is sufficient to know that we are not created out of nothing and that God created the earth because HE does love us and wants us to become like Him and our Eternal Mother.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">The creation of man and woman in the Garden of Eden wasn’t God acting to create for the first time but was based on an eternal pattern of creation. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">As we define God and the divine nature and order that is described in that definition, we see the principle center of love and creation as our Heavenly Parents. We also know that there is an eternal Godhead presided over by God our Father, that includes his Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. Jesus is the spirit son of our Heavenly Parents. He is a literal Son. Following the divine plan of salvation and exaltation, Jesus was also chosen and foreordained to be the only Begotten Son of God in the flesh to receive the power of the Father and therefore be our Savior and Redeemer. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have learned something about the love of God and their desire to share with us, to empower us through the grace of our Savior the divine nature of the eternal union of male and female souls. As I mentioned, the Abrahamic blessings speak of an infinite posterity. There is no limit to the expansion of the family throughout an infinite heavenly cosmos. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Such a glorious opportunity is only available because of the power and priesthood that are found in the eternal gospel of God to which we are to inherit as joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. This opportunity that we speak of is called exaltation. It means that we as eternal beings can have the capacity to increase forever if we honor here on earth as husband and wife, marital and gospel covenants that center on the divine powers of procreation shared by men and women. This is a divine stewardship we are given in this probationary mortal life that we call our second estate, the first of which was with our Heavenly Parents. There we chose to participate in the opportunity and now we have the opportunity and accountability to demonstrate our willingness to honor it and seek to align our will with God’s. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now when we speak of God, we may be referencing one of may things. We can speak of our Eternal Father as God, or our heavenly Father and Mother together as God. Jesus is God. He and the Holy Ghost as members of the Godhead are rightly called God. Jesus was the creator of the earth with delegated power and authority from the Father. He was and is Jehovah, the God of Israel. We might also speak of all those exalted through the principles and truths of the eternal Gospel as God. Though they be many, or one, or even an infinite number of exalted persons, we are still one with God as none is separated from the vine of truth that is Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father and the endless family from which we all proceed. There is no beginning and there is no end. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just we are exalted by obedience to eternal principles, so to our Heavenly Parents were exalted and are part of an eternal family. The basic principle is that the family never ends. We will often hear the term that God has no beginning and no end. So it is with the family. The family is God and God is the family. This mystery of no beginning would be the same if there were only one being or infinite beings. There is only one truth and we see clearly designated in creation that the family is of God and from the eternal source of His existence. There is no person that does not pertain to a family of exalted and glorious parents. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">The good and evil in which we find presented to us is not something God invents or creates. These states of the spirit and soul are co-eternal principles associated with the intelligence from which God forms the spirits of his children. We don’t know much about the infinite sources of intelligence and matter as very little has been revealed to us at this point. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is sufficient to know that we are not created out of nothing. If this were not the case then God would in fact be the creator and perpetrator of evil in the world and humans would be mere puppets. By his power he separates the righteous and the wicked and extends dominions and powers to the righteous. The reason God can’t just destroy the wicked and stop them from existing is because all individuals are eternal beings. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">What we do know is that evil is always overcome through God’s eternal priesthood power. There is no dominion by evil. The righteousness of God will always prevail. The dominions of the righteous will extend the love of God for all of eternity in realms of Celestial Glory and familial order. Those not willing to make and keep the necessary covenants in mortality will not receive the blessings associated with those covenants in eternity.</span></span></p>Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-33572246175660175712020-11-20T02:25:00.036-08:002022-04-09T19:03:47.580-07:00The Ideal Family and a Gospel Centered Home<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Is there such a thing as an ideal family? Yes, the family of God is the ideal family. What was the home environment in "God's house"? What is the purpose of our earthly families. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Why did God ordain marriage and family as a foundation for creating and nurturing life in our mortal environment? Don't we call God our Eternal Father?</span></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Did God have a "gospel" in mind for his family before the earth was created? Yes, we know the gospel of Jesus Christ was to send Jesus to the earth to save God's children? See Ephesians 3:15) How did the fact that we are part of God's family become lost to the Christian community following the Savior's death?</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It is a matter of history that the nature of God became a mystery after the death of Jesus Christ. Rather than God being a Father to his Son, the existence of divine order in the heavens became known as a mystical force. Holy beings became an incorporeal essence, a non-created presence in the universe outside of time and space. The </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Trinity was not a teaching of Old or New Testament prophets or apostles but of councils of men following their deaths. T</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">he existence of this mysterious power became the means of forming beings to fill the roles of Creator, Savior and Testator in early centuries following the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This foundational teachings of a mystical God underwent some doctrinal amendments by the reformers in the 16th century which have persisted to the present day in biblical based Christian seminaries. Were these precepts really the foundational teaching of Jesus and his apostles regarding the fatherhood of God? History demonstrates that these teachings are the works of clergy and philosophers that had no real authority from God.</span></div><div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Jesus referred to himself as the "Son" of God and to </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">God as "his Father in Heaven". Are these metaphorical declarations, or actual relationships?</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We see fundamental aspects of God's nature in his creations. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While stating that man is the image-bearer of God, modern theologians ignore the simple biblical declarations that men and women are created in the image of God. An image is something we behold with our eyes. It involves sight. Jesus was the image and likeness of God, the express image of the Father. They are both male beings, not a mysterious invisible force.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">With this idea in mind, consider why has God given us the opportunity to create life and have families of our own.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br />What characteristics would an ideal family have? How did love come to be a key attribute of God and how are our Heavenly Parents manifesting their perfect love for us. Looking at marriage as a central component and a stable foundation for a man and a woman that love each other to bring new life into the world? Love begins as a covenant commitment to each other and a desire to seek each other's interests. Their mutual commitment is to cleave to one another. This is patterned after God's love. Marriage and fidelity are commanded by God to be associated with human creation by safeguarding intimacy as part of a sacred covenant?</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Real love is a developmental process. It requires commitments of time and emotional energy. It will bring a couple to want to solidify their commitment by covenant, long-held as marriage in the "presence" of witnesses and God. Without this foundation as the authority to join together in creation, the world and its societies place themselves in the precarious position of destabilizing activities. Without trust and commitment, people undermine the commitments and discipline required to enjoy the most uplifting relationships, those of having children and nurturing them in such a way that leads to a lasting peace in the world. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Mainstream theologians claim the order of heaven is presided over by a triune genderless being. Latter-day Saints know that fatherhood and motherhood are divine stations ordained by God because he is the ultimate example of fatherhood and such a title can only be held with motherhood as a companion principle.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When God placed the first man and woman on the earth he wasn't inventing a new concept or pattern. He didn't make the two genders different as a temporary experiment and it wasn't a curiosity factor. He didn't tell them to "multiply and fill the earth" as a new commandment he had just invented. All aspects of our human relationships came from heavenly concepts including marriage, children and the declaration of men and women to be one flesh.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Latter-day Saint theology teaches that our individual spirits are the literal offspring of our Eternal Father and Eternal Mother. Their love is the center and power of creations. Men are created the image of the Father. Fatherhood is dependent on motherhood. The idea and doctrine of "Eternal Parents" consisting of the Father and a Mother are unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church is the only Christian organization with a doctrinal understanding that our family relationships including marriage can be eternal for those willing to make such a commitment.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Bible doesn't teach much and modern clergy doesn't tend to speculate much about the nature of heaven and hell except to say that they exist. Nor, does it speak much about our spiritual beginning other than to say it is as mystical as God is. Scholarly efforts of theologians have debated and discussed biblical ideas and have arrived at many conclusions, many of them contradictory. Modern day Christian theologians and clergy educate themselves based on the musings and conclusions of monks and philosophers.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">One basic conclusion is that heaven is as good as it gets and hell is as bad as it gets. The traditional creedal derived doctrines state that there are no families as we know them in heaven and therefore earthly marriages must end at death. The traditional concept of heaven is filled with men and women with no capacity to progress beyond predetermined barriers set by God.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">These conclusions come from not understanding why family relationships are part of God's plan. Catholic and Protestant scholars have claimed to be spokesmen for God. Do they have any such authority? Their good intentions and access to the Bible doesn't constitute authority to act for God in teaching true doctrines. Latter-day Saints understand through modern revelation that our family relationships can be eternal. The bonds of love we form here can continue into eternity.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The foundation of the Church Jesus established on the earth wasn't from a book. Yes, there was the Old Testament scriptures, but, the foundation was the apostles he called and He was the "chief cornerstone". The authority Jesus held as the Son of God was delegated to men on the earth to lead after he was gone. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Modern Christian apologists have concluded that God no longer needs or calls prophets with apostolic authority to guide the church. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">One key conclusion that demonstrates they do not understand why God's creation revolves around the family is that men and women are mere creatures. Such teachings imply that we were created by some random dictate that took place only some 6000 years ago. They teach that Adam and Eve were the first act of human creation ever performed in all of eternity. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">While alive and even after his resurrection, Jesus taught and guided those apostles in their special calling. He appeared to them after his resurrection and continued to teach them. We don't know the full extent of any additional appearances to them. We do know that he promised another comforter would come, a testator and teacher called the Holy Ghost. Eventually, however, the apostles were killed and the authority they held was lost temporarily from the earth. After that time many of the pure doctrines pertaining to the family were replaced by mystical powers of an unknowable force.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Where in the modern world do we find the foundational pattern of Jesus's church? It is in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Apostles and prophets have again been called to lead and guide those souls willing to covenant with God to do his work. What is His work? It is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life" of his children, his spirit offspring, and this requires a resurrected physical body. This can only happen through the power of our Savior's infinite atonement. This requires and a voluntary "fall" into mortality. This is why we are here. Mortality with its travails is an essential part of God's plan for our eternal happiness.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Prophetic authority and its companion gifts of revelation and communication with heaven are again on the earth. God is revealing the lost truths and mysteries of eternal principles. Fatherhood and Motherhood are not strange ideas nor are they new. They are the most obvious pro-creative elements of life.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our efforts to form families and to create ideal circumstances can be guided by the Holy Ghost. As we seek its influence and strive to live by making choices congruent with eternal principles revealed in the scriptures and God's prophets, we build our lives on a foundation of God's gospel. This will bring happiness and peace, and an eternal glory attainable only through the love of God and the mercy afforded to us by the atonement of Jesus Christ. </span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></div>Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-62620732858975387832020-06-02T08:34:00.026-07:002021-08-23T10:24:20.916-07:00The Divine Union, Created in the Image of God, Male and Female<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">I have been married 42 years at this writing and have made many observations based on personal experience. I have also regularly studied scholarly works, the opinions, and the teachings of living prophets as well as the theological conclusions of mainstream Christianity. </font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Each of us as individuals and those that are married has uniqueness in our relationships, and yet generally speaking our commonalities are much greater than our individual situations. We do see many patterns in creation. Are they eternal or temporary?</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">As we look at the narrative in Genesis some questions come up. Many Christian scholars, philosophers, and apologists conclude that that man (and woman) being created in the image of God has nothing to do with how we look. Yet, they say a man is the "image bearer" of God in their effort to maintain scriptural continuity.</font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">The reason the concept of an incorporeal, and therefore genderless triune deity exists, stems from the acceptance of ancient creeds formulated by debates in politically orchestrated theological councils. Other philosophical conclusions also worked their way into the concept of God's nature. Information about these historical councils of the early Catholic church is easy to learn about from documents on the internet. </font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">The doctrines of these theologians have questionable authority from God. The church founded by the Savior with apostolic authority had ceased to exist after the apostles were killed. The remaining bishops carried on becoming politicized at the time of Constantine. The creeds backed by the political authority of the church at the time became the foundational beliefs and teachings in Christianity and remained so as the church developed without divine direction or revelation.</font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Many things changed in Christianity with the Protestant reformation. The doctrines of an invisible, mysterious and incomprehensible God did not change, however.</font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">The word image is to suggests the concept of vision and seeing. The Genesis narrative clearly demonstrates that Adam was in the image of God, in the same manner, that Adam's son was in his image. In Genesis 5 we see it mentioned that Adam was created in the image and likeness of God and the same language is used to describe the way his son Seth was created in the image and likeness of Adam.</font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">After creating Adam, what caused God to say that it was not good for man to be alone? Was this a moment of enlightenment, an epiphany, or an eternal truth God held sacred even before descending to Eden in order to create the man? Had God done this before or not?</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Where does the wonder and concept of womanhood originate? Is it eternal or something new 6000 years ago? Are the divine attributes of life creation and nurturing of souls eternal. Do we see a pattern in the union of man and woman? How is this idea of two founded in eternal truth?</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Why does God's plan have an obvious component of creating souls that experience mortality and living in a fallen physical world? If our existence as mortals is not God's will, then whose is it? The creedal theologians decreed that God was not like man. Humans are mere creations of sovereign incorporeal power, a genderless universal force that consists of three beings referred to by male pronouns in the scriptures.</font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Why did such a force create men and women and give them the opportunity to join together in love or lust with the ability to create life in their own image? The biblical account establishes marriage as a pattern. God instituted the concept. It obviously came from a heavenly perspective as did the sexual union.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Christian scholars, philosophers, and apologists have described God as a genderless, celibate triune force or power and as the only self-existent being. This mainstream doctrinal theological foundation contradicts the essential nature of the pattern of creation. With biblical quotes and philosophical conclusions, the concept of motherhood and womanhood were removed by celibate monks or corrupt clergy.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Every person on the earth has a mother. This is an undeniable fact. There are no exceptions. Even Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born of a mortal woman. The connection of a mother to a child never ends even when disrupted by death. There is a connection. Each person has a father. These two facets of our existence complement each other as essential to the creation of new life. And yet the dogmas of classical Christian theology declare that men and women no longer share their love in the eternities. This falsehood also comes from uninspired conclusions by early theologians and carried into modern Christendom.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Was marriage and the creation of family a new thing, a random transitory spur-of-the-moment institution developed in the Garden of Eden, or is it patterned after the order of heaven and given to mankind to achieve happiness?</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">When it comes to our physical creation it requires a father and a mother. The science is well understood. Whether this happens naturally from a relationship, or under the scrutiny of scientific manipulations, the seeds of creation are carried separately in human beings, male and female, and most other creatures of the earth. </font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Womanhood is eternal and its powers were not a new creation or invention starting in the Garden of Eden. God's love, eternal love is manifest in the power of motherhood.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">To be created in the image of God is an ideology that has not escaped the fascination of theologians and self-help gurus. It is a powerful concept used to attempt to instill in their listeners and congregations that divine power and the potential to progress exists within them. They just don't understand how powerful is really is.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">If a man is created in the image of the eternal Father, in whose image is the woman? Is the nature of God really incorporeal and without gender? Philosophical and theological conclusions have given God the attributes of an Omni-god shrouding him in genie-like mysticism.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Eternity and the cosmos are infinite, and yet a finite body of knowledge, principles, and powers exist that pertain to it. This constitutes the fullness of all truth. The body of extant knowledge that pertains to the never-ending realms of time and space dictates everything that happens. God is bound inextricably to eternal immutable truth and laws. There is no new truth. It never changes and yet change occurs inside its bounds on a continuous basis.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Simple observations are often overlooked or ignored. There is no creation without a mother. The creation of life cannot occur without a mother and father. The symbolic ideology of these terms is used to describe relationships in traditional Christian teachings.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">When classical mainstream biblical professors use the term father it is figurative or metaphorical, not literal. Scholars and professors of traditional theology use these familial terms as metaphors. They claim they are necessary because mankind is unable to relate to something as powerful as God is. Why would a being with perfect love and all power not be capable of providing the means to understand who he is?</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">What is real power? It is the existence of processes of creation that pertain to real eternal beings existing in the natural universe. Why have the philosophers imagined a single mystical being that can only be identified using metaphors? Isn't the nature of God manifest in creation itself? If there is a being identified as a father of all creation, there must also be a mother who is a co-creator. Fatherhood does not exist without motherhood unless you change the actual definitions.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">God the Father is a being of truth, He comprehends all things. He is omniscient and omnipotent and perfect in every characteristic, but he did not invent the truth. He is not a single parent. To be God is to be a rational, natural eternally existing being that exists inside of all truth, not outside of it. Our eternal parents are God. The Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is God. They are supernatural because they are natural, not unnatural beings. Their unions exist after a divine eternal order.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">The motive for the creation of life by our Eternal Father and Mother comes from their love for one another. They have the power to produce offspring the image of which is the literal image of God, male and female. We are their literal spirit children. Their power is not some form of magic. We don't know how they as exalted beings of light and truth share their respective powers to bring about the spirits and souls of their children. They give their children life, mobility, and agency which is the power to choose their direction in eternity, even to become as they are.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">The doctrinal misunderstandings of philosopher theologians have produced a God of limited capacity, one that creates by some magical force and yet cannot liberate its creatures to an exalted state. In other words, the traditional Trinity cannot create after its own kind. </font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">The teachers and professors of Christian doctrine consider mankind to be mere creatures that God fabricated mysteriously from nothing. These beings have inborn limitations that God cannot remove. This concept of salvation developed by the doctrines and philosophies of men provides for a limited atonement as well. The God of traditional creedal Christianity does not have the power to offer increase and perfection to its creations.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Faith in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, provided a way so that we, his fellow brothers and sisters can be lifted to a state of godliness. When resurrected with perfected bodies, capable of eternal creation, men and women can achieve their highest potential as sons and daughters of our Eternal Parents. Nothing we accomplish or do is outside of their power and grace. We are created in their image to have eternal increase and participate with them in a fullness of joy. </font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><font face="helvetica" size="4"><br /></font></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="helvetica" size="4">Those that love God and covenant to follow Christ can through his grace inherit all that the Father and the Mother have, and live in the dynamic celestial realm. Husbands and wives sealed together in eternal covenants have the potential to live in a state of perfect love, where creation, salvation, and happiness never end.</font></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-54397237079197070732020-04-27T07:02:00.029-07:002022-03-15T04:57:20.380-07:00Adam and Eve: The World's First Christians<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Some time ago I became interested in the similarities and differences as to how the modern Christian faith is taught and what I understood as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I started reading online the information provided by biblical professors churches and clergy on their websites and youtube channels. I also started to participate in discussion forums on Facebook, Youtube and others to learn from conversations about Christian and biblical theology.</span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The discussions I have followed and the reading has been interesting and informative. One topic in particular that distinguishes Latter-day Saint theology from the theology of traditional or mainstream Christianity is how we, Latter-day Saints, understand the Fall of Adam and Eve and the eternal nature of the doctrine of Christ. Latter-day Saints believe that Adam and Eve and all the prophets of God that followed them believed that Jesus Christ would be their Savior. Errors and among some of the earliest Christian thinkers after Christ died and apostolic authority was lost were perpetuated and truths about the nature of God and the purposes of creation were lost from the teachings of Christendom for almost 2000 years.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Many times I had a discussion with biblical students as they declared with total conviction that they believe that partaking of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was a serious mistake, even a rebellion. </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Christian theologians and philosophers have speculated that Adam and Eve were meant to live in the paradisiacal setting in the Garden of Eden forever. This conclusion, however, has many shortcomings besides making the sacrifice of Jesus Christ a back up plan.</span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">There seems to be that most Christians believe that Jesus was the Lamb of God, slain from before the foundation of the world? The Bible teaches this but what does this mean? </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">If love was the reason this sacrifice was planned and implemented according to God's foreknowledge, at what point in time or eternity did the souls of every human being come into consideration for salvation or for that matter damnation?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">There are two basic theological considerations as to what God intended to truly be a heaven of glorious nature. One is living forever in the Garden of Eden as naive innocent immortal beings and not undergo the Fall. This would entail living with Satan and him tempting Adam and Eve for all of eternity. There would be no children as the narrative indicates they were naked and unaware of the nature of their bodies.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The other is the heaven spoken of by Jesus Christ for those that have fallen and been redeemed by His atonement. This is a place described as having many mansions? The bodies of Adam and Eve in the Garden were corruptible as evidenced by their fall. The resurrected bodies promised by Christ would be incorruptible and glorious.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">If Jesus Christ is the most important part of God's plan how have biblical scholars concluded that the Garden of Eden was God's initial plan for the happiness of mankind? Why is it a common conclusion among Christian theologians that the Fall was a serious mistake? Because they fail to see the eternal nature of Christianity. Mainstream theology sees the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a temporary solution to the problem of the Fall.</span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Traditional teachings view our current state of living as a punishment or curse. On the other hand, LDS see that the earth was "cursed for our sake"? </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">There is obviously a conflict in reasoning if one believes Eden was intended as an eternal residence for only two people. </span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">Was it really God's intent that they forgo the risks, the suffering, and death pertaining to mortality and remain static innocent souls living with the devil? </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">How can a place be paradise if Satan is an eternal resident?</span></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">If Jesus was foreordained from before the foundation of the world to be our Savior, wouldn't it stand to reason that Adam and Eve were also foreordained to fall and would therefore become the world's first people to be taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">God's intent for creation surely was to bless all of his children, not just Adam and Eve. Many people seem to think the Garden narrative is about two people behaving badly. It isn't. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">From modern revelation in the Pearl of Great Price in the book of Moses we read.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">Moses</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="color: black; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">57 </span><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57a" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a</sup>repent</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57b" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">b</sup>unclean thing</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> can dwell there, or </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57c" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">c</sup>dwell</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> in his </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57d" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">d</sup>presence</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">; for, in the language of Adam, </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57e" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">e</sup>Man</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57f" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">f</sup>Son of Man</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">, even </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57g" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">g</sup>Jesus Christ</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">, a righteous </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note57h" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">h</sup>Judge</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">, who shall come in the meridian of time.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">59 </span><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59a" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a</sup>spirit</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">, which I have made, and so became of </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59b" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">b</sup>dust</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> a living soul, even so ye must be </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59c" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">c</sup>born again</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> into the kingdom of heaven, of </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59d" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">d</sup>water</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59e" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">e</sup>enjoy</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> the </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59f" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">f</sup>words</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> of </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59g" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">g</sup>eternal life</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"> in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note59h" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">h</sup>glory</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">;</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; text-align: left;">This narrative ends with Adam's baptisim.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Here are a few examples where we see the powerful witness of the Book of Mormon as a testament of Jesus Christ. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><p class="verse" data-aid="128356671" id="p10" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jacob 4</span></p><p class="verse" data-aid="128356671" id="p10" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4 </span>For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note4a" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a</sup>knew</a> of Christ, and we had a hope of his <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note4b" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">b</sup>glory</a> many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note4c" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">c</sup>prophets</a> which were before us.</p><p class="verse" data-aid="128356671" id="p10" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="font-size: 0.9em; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Jacob 7</span></p><p class="verse" data-aid="128356671" id="p10" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">10 </span>And I said unto him: Believest thou the scriptures? And he said, Yea.</p><p class="verse active-item" data-aid="128359482" id="p15" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">11 </span>And I said unto him: Then ye do not understand them; for they truly testify of Christ. Behold, I say unto you that none of the <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note11a" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a</sup>prophets</a> have written, nor <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note11b" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">b</sup>prophesied</a>, save they have spoken concerning this Christ.</p><p class="verse active-item" data-aid="128359482" id="p15" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">2 Nephi 9</p><p class="verse active-item" data-aid="128359482" id="p15" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">6 </span>For as <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note6a" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a</sup>death</a> hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note6b" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">b</sup>plan</a> of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note6c" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">c</sup>resurrection</a>, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note6d" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">d</sup>fall</a>; and the fall came by reason of <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note6e" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">e</sup>transgression</a>; and because man became fallen they were <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note6f" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">f</sup>cut off</a> from the <a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note6g" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Italic", Palatino-Italic, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">g</sup>presence</a> of the Lord.</p><p class="verse active-item" data-aid="128359482" id="p15" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">From Latter-day revelation and scripture we learn that Satan was a prominent influencer in the pre-mortal life and sought to eliminate the risk and suffering of mortality. He claimed he could save all souls without risk by taking away our agency. He sought the glory of the Father and to eliminate the need for the sacrifice, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ. He sought to make himself a savior contrary to the principles of heaven. </span></span></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Because of his rebellion, a war in heaven was fought and he was cast out with a significant one-third of the hosts of heaven at the time. Now see him operate with a certain vengeance to destroy the family of Adam and Eve, even the family of God. Would Eden really be a paradise with the devil coming and going as he pleased? </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">While suffering comes about because of the influence of Lucifer's pride and ambition, certain bounds are drawn around his abilities to tempt and destroy. God obviously used his prideful character to incline Eve to the tree and the knowledge it offered to make her like God. God confirmed the truth that Satan told her when he said "behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. From that point on life become a test to see if we will choose good over evil. With this knowledge, Adam and Eve's eyes were opened to the power of procreation and the human family.</span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The scriptures are clear, there is only one-way eternal salvation with God's work and glory to bring exaltation to his children, and that is through the atonement of Jesus Christ. This requires creation, mortality, the risks of freedom with accountability, and death. Our life here with all of its uncertainties is clearly God's will or we would not be here. </span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The fall had to occur according to principles of free will and agency. This is why Satan was allowed in the Garden. It was given to Adam and Eve to choose according to their own free will to undergo certain consequences (death and sin) and not to have them forced upon them. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."</span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">It is not possible to have free will without alternative choices. In Adam's case, it was to stay in the Garden and live or to eat the fruit and die. In other words, there must be opposition in all things.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Some Christian philosophers did realize that the fall was necessary. C. S. Lewis said, “Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity would have been, more glorious than any unfallen race now is.”</span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The Fall was a necessary step to bring about more glorious possibilities than could have ever existed in the Garden of Eden. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">If Adam and Eve had never left the Garden, they would have been without posterity and would have remained in a state of spiritual stagnation or neutrality. Only the Fall put them into a spiritual position of being dependent on Jesus Christ and this made possible their progress as well as for the rest of humankind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">What glory was Satan seeking for himself that caused to be cast out of heaven? He sought to eliminate the risk and suffering of mortality and to somehow save us without the sacrifice, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ. He sought to make himself a savior of some kind contrary to the principles of heaven and to have glory for himself. </span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The scriptures teach clearly that there is only one-way eternal salvation is granted, and that is through Jesus Christ. This requires creation, freedom, life, and death.</span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">If God intended for Adam and Eve to remain in the Garden, why was Satan allowed to go there and to tempt them? </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Surely God had a purpose for allowing Satan there temporarily. It was given to Adam and Eve to choose according to their own free will to undergo certain consequences and not to have them forced upon them. </span><br />
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Classical Christian theologians do not understand the purpose of the fall. They, therefore, miss the full understanding of the purpose of the atonement of Jesus Christ. How have these scholars and philosophers missed the point, that without knowledge of good and evil providing the opposition, it is impossible to have free will? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">It wasn't until Joseph Smith introduced the Book of Mormon and its clear teachings that the importance of the doctrine of the fall, and opposition in all things was taught to be a necessary part of God's plan for exalting his children. The plan of the Father for his children depended completely on</span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> his perfect Son to atoning for their sins and overcoming death.</span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The Fall was a necessary step to bring about more glorious possibilities than could have ever existed in the Garden of Eden. That is the message of the Book of Mormon regarding the fall is in direct opposition to the vast majority of Christian beliefs at Joseph Smith’s time.</span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Two key points of doctrine that are missing in the Bible but taught in the Book of Mormon are that Adam and Eve “would have had no children” in the Garden of Eden (2 Nephi 2: 23). and the other corrects the misunderstanding that Adam and Eve lived in a state of unparalleled bliss while in the Garden. The Book of Mormon clarifies that they actually lived "in a state of innocence", meaning that they had limited knowledge, having no joy, for they knew no misery” (2 Nephi 2: 23).</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Mainstream Christian scholars and believers also miss the fact that Adam and Eve's bodies in the Garden, though immortal at the time, were corruptible. They could and did die with those bodies. The incorruptible and glorious bodies necessary for exaltation only come through the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. “But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy”</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> (2 Nephi 2: 22–25).</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I have witnessed the love of God that sent his Son Jesus Christ as His Only Begotten Son in the flesh to overcome all of the effects of the fall. Sin and death have been overcome. We can know and feel their love through the power of the Holy Ghost.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Adam and Eve were the world's first Christians. They were the first to accept Jesus Christ and be spiritually begotten and adopted children of Christ. They gave us all the opportunity to seek the power and mercy of our Redeemer if we will choose it. Such is the testimony of all the prophets that have lived, both before, and after the Savior's mortal life.</span></span></div>
Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-67711979037401417602020-04-05T10:08:00.045-07:002022-03-15T04:45:00.113-07:00Spiritually Defining Moments <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>By Charlie Brown</span><br />
<span><br /></span><span>Generally it isn't an easy thing to do, that is having a conversation about sacred experiences. We live in a skeptical secular world. Our spiritual experiences may not even be a welcome subject to discuss outside of our church fellowship.</span><span> This post is to write down something of my spiritual journey, and the moments that caused me to seek understanding about life, eternity, and have brought me to my present place in life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When I was young, our family attended various Protestant churches, mostly the Methodist and Congregationalist. One of my grandfathers and his son, my uncle were pastors in the Assembly of God church. From these experiences, I gained a basic interest in God, but never felt any desire to know much more beyond Sunday School and the sermons. Sunday church meetings may not the most eagerly anticipated event of our week but we went regularly. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When I was eight years old, a month before I turned 9, my mother died in an automobile crash. We lived in a rural area near Grandview, Idaho. My dad, mother, and two brothers went into town about 10 miles away to do the weekly shopping. I don't remember the reason, but I asked to stay home to play with some friends that day and to not go. Her death caused me to wonder about the existence of God and many other truths about life.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">One of our neighbors came across the accident and picked up my two brothers who had suffered some lacerations but were not taken in an ambulance as our parents were. I saw them arriving and when I got to their home, they sent me to get clean clothes for my brothers. When I got to our house and walked in the door, for a reason I cannot explain, my first inclination was to kneel and pray. Before this I had never prayed on my own where I felt a desire to petition God. I simply asked Him to bless my family. I was unaware of my mothers passing or the condition of my dad.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>I had no idea how to seek the truth, but I had a longing that would not go away to know who God was, and why we are here on earth. I wanted </span><span>to know about life after death. I had heard that there was a heaven from church attendance, but that was the extent of any knowledge about life after death.</span><br />
<span><br /></span><span>After this I began to pray often, mostly in my mind as I sought to express my thoughts to God. I had listened to the prayers of pastors and ministers and we had a few of the rote prayers we had been taught, but never really imagined what it was like to try and communicate with God. I just wanted more information, and answers to questions didn't seem to be available to me.</span><br />
<span><br /></span><span>As time passed I continued to ask God to bless my family. I wanted to know God and wondered if that was possible. I wasn't familiar with Paul on the road to Damascus or Moses in the burning bush or any of the biblical encounters with God.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>At the beginning of the seventh grade we moved to Boise, ID. We had been living in housing at Strike Dam near Grandview. I met some Latter-day Saints but never considered them to be any different than Methodists or any other denomination. </span><span>My brothers and I had many of the normal challenges of being adolescents. My dad remarried, divorced, and married again and life went on.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>When I was 16, I started attending </span><span>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints </span><span>to play basketball with my friends. As I attended church I picked up on some of their beliefs and teachings, but never considered that I needed to belong to a church or to their church to please God. I liked to ski on most Sundays and felt the mountain was as good of a place for God as any other.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I continued to pray during my teenage years and express my concerns and ask for guidance. One particular evening when I was 17, after praying and contemplating some of the questions in my mind, I went out with a friend. We began to discuss some of the beliefs of the Church about the health code and the eternal nature of the family. As we did so my thoughts were stirred in a way I had never experienced.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I experienced what I can only describe as pure light and knowledge pouring into my mind, and it continued for weeks. The thoughts and understandings that I gained enlightened me with such clarity I could not deny what was happening.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">
<span><br /></span><span>I was given a simple yet clear vision of what I should do with my life for the next few years. The spirit confirmed to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the teachings I had learned about were true. For weeks the thoughts and impressions stayed in my mind with an intensity that would not subside. I felt the love of God for me and it instilled in me a desire to learn about Jesus Christ and to follow him.</span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>Many questions were answered as I visited with the missionaries. I learned that family relationships can be eternal and that the plan of salvation centers on the family and the atonement of Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost confirmed the truth of those answers to me. I was baptized two weeks later. I learned that God can answer the prayers of sincere seekers of truth. I read the Book of Mormon and received a witness that it is the word of God.</span><br />
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<span>Two years later I went on a mission and taught the doctrines of salvation and the restoration of the gospel to others in Argentina. I had good success and formed many amazing relationships that endure to this day.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>A year or so after I came home, I met and married a young woman, and we have been married 42 years at this writing. In the last 4 decades we have been blessed, and many of our deepest and fondest desires have come to pass from our family relationships and the gospel covenants. In our families is where love is centered and relationships can be strengthened in meaningful ways. </span><br />
<span><span style="-en-paragraph: true;"><br /></span></span><span><span style="-en-paragraph: true;">After joining the church I encountered various negative and erroneous information about the church from different critics and sources. I studied these claims and continue to do so. I discovered that many narratives existed which were spread around the Christian communities with false information about the church. From the earliest days of the Church, Joseph Smith was mocked and slandered by the critics of his day. Many of those same arguments that are not supported by true and factual information have be circulated in Christian communities for almost two centuries. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The impressions of feeling God's love and giving me direction are as clear in my mind today as when they happened. In the last 47 years the nature of this foundational witness and experience has been confirmed many times. The good fruits of my decision have been abundantly manifest in my life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span style="-en-paragraph: true;">The revelation to me of the love of God gave me knowledge that Heavenly Father desires all of his children to know truth. I have </span>learned about the Savior’s sacrifice for our sins, his infinite atonement, and how it has extended grace, mercy, and repentance to us. He is our Savior and Redeemer. I came to know that death is not to be feared because of the power of his resurrection, and that family relationships do not end at death.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have witnessed the truth of sacred texts given to enlighten us and strengthen our faith in Christ. These include the Book of Mormon and revelations given to teach eternal truths along with the Bible. I know we can hear the voice of the Savior when we study the scriptures we have been given. </span></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>I have seen that God speaks to his authorized servants who are present day prophets of God. Their counsel has been demonstrated to me to be inspired again and again in my life. The heavens are open again and have been so for two centuries now since Joseph Smith declared his testimony of the appearance of the Father and Son to him. The church of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ are being restored.</span><br />
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<span>These are the latter days spoken of by biblical prophets. We are preparing the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ however soon or late it is. The light and power of God's spirit have testified to me that Jesus Christ lives. The Holy Ghost has been a constant source of guidance as I have navigated the uncertainties of life. Keeping the covenants that he has given us has brought me peace and happiness that is real and lasting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">I know our prayers can be answered if we are willing to seek and ask God. We are children of God. There is an eternal plan of salvation that we can know about and understand. We can gain sufficient knowledge to have faith in their love and their works of salvation that bring peace and happiness now and eternal life to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">#HearHim #JesusChrist #GeneralConference </span></div>
Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-1098205783574497592020-03-25T06:09:00.003-07:002021-03-24T18:57:07.679-07:00Moral Agency, Free Will, Evil and Suffering<div class="p1">
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>Perhaps one of the most apparent facts of life is that we make choices and decisions. This opportunity to act is often referred to as free will. Most people don't seem to think twice about their apparent freedom or how it came to be other than being born and alive to take part in a society someplace in the world.</span><br />
<span><br /></span><span>One primary question debated by Christian apologists and agnostics is if God is all good and loving why does he allow for evil and suffering? Atheists claim that this fact alone is contradictory enough to disavow traditional Bible theologian's claims of a loving God. </span><br />
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<span>This discussion also has some companion considerations: Why do bad things happen to good people and why would God create someone knowing in advance they would go to hell? </span><br />
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<span> </span><span>Some truth-seekers and atheists are interested in discussing the nature of our "free will". The debate about the validity of religious theology and the existence of God from various points of contention is never-ending.</span><br />
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<span>A common understanding of most theologians is that there is a source of love greater than all others that also possesses all knowledge as well as all power that there is to cause things to happen.</span><br />
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<span>If love and holiness are eternal and uncreated, then evil must be eternal also, otherwise, it would not exist. If it is not eternal then it would have been invented or created by the holy God at the time he created mankind.</span><br />
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<span>There are at least two aspects of developed theological consideration when debating the nature of God and the free will associated with mankind's existence. I will look at are the theological teachings of traditional biblical scholars and philosophers compared to the teachings of latter-day prophets in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.</span><br />
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<span>The apparent contradictions of God's love, foreknowledge, and power regarding the imperfections of this mortal life do not exist in the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This one example of understanding substantially demonstrates the validity the revelations that were given to the prophet Joseph Smith.</span><br />
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<span>As Latter-day Saints, we teach that we lived with God before we were born. This is referred to as the pre-mortal life. A time when we lived with God. Our spirit is the literal offspring of divine parentage. The plan of salvation, earth life, and mortality was explained to us before we were born. This video will give you some background knowledge of our beliefs. </span><span><span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9iYqKk00Bc">Click here to see a video explaining the Plan of Salvation.</a></span><br />
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<span>Ancient Christian philosophers conceptualized God as </span><span>solitary, genderless, incorporeal and self-exiting divine triune being. The essence of the classical Trinity is to be eternally envisioned in a state of perfect love among its three entities or personalities. The concept of all power it possesses is that of absolute creation, also known as creation ex-nihilo or creation out of nothing.</span><br />
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<span>In accordance with the biblical book of Genesis, about 6000 years ago the Trinity changed. This earth was populated with two beings, which had never existed. The objective of their creation was for God to share its love with a new kind of creature, human beings. </span><br />
<span><br />Latter-day Saints believe and teach that God is not a solitary being but that a divine eternal family order exists in the heavens. God the Father is a glorified male being. Eternal covenant relationships among divine beings form the basis of love that leads to creation. We see something of this order manifest in the creation of men and women in the image of God, with their union in marriage as the ideal focal point of creation that brings new life to exist and to be nurtured.</span><br />
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<span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space">What does it mean to say that God has all power? Is God a person or just something that we cannot comprehend comprising the essence of truth? From the biblical record, we are taught that God is a person and a male being. A quick perusal of doctrinal dissertations by modern Christian theologians and apologists, however, shows that traditional creeds indicate that "God", the Trinity, has neither form, corporeality or gender.</span></span><br />
<span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"><br /></span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space">Two basic ideas of eternity speak of God having all power. One says that God has all power over an infinite supply of chaotic self-existing materials. The other claims he has the power to think into existence whatever it desires at will in a moment or act of absolute creation. To summarize these descriptions, Latter-day Saints, see God as a literal father, a natural parent yet supernatural being. The second looks at God as a metaphorical parent, an unnatural and supernatural being.</span></span><br />
<span><br />The teachings of traditional Biblical scholars imply that we as human beings are temporary creations, only metaphorically in God's image. We begin to exist only at our birth and therefore we are not eternal beings. They teach that humans are mere creatures with no prior existence. Because of this, any "free will" that we have by which we choose and act is a process of our creation. It is imputed to us as a byproduct of our creation. This means that our will is not our own but actually proceeds from the creator. </span><br />
<span><br />According to classical theology, humans are essentially pawns of creation, animated organic robot-like creatures. The concept of free will is what they say gives humans the power to choose and to disobey God or not. </span><br />
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<span>Classical theists teach that an informed choice by the first two created beings resulted in the rest of humanity being forced into evil and sin, which results in pain and suffering that they did not agree to. This contradiction is done away in Latter-day Saint theology because we teach that we lived with God before we were born and agreed to the conditions of mortality.</span><br />
<span><br />Ironically traditional Christian apologists use the idea that we have free will as the rational that God is not responsible for the evil and suffering that exists. It is not, however, possible to exculpate the creator if prior to our creation the only self-existing power was God itself. (God is referred to as it because the Trinity is nondescript as an actual being)</span><br />
<span><br />Latter-day Saints, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe that our spirit and spiritual nature are eternal. The central component of our soul, our intelligence, a spark of our eternal potential as an individual, as such it is uncreated and self-existing. In this way we have a will that exists inseparably with us. It is absolutely "our" will, in that it was not created or imputed to us by creation. It became part of our spiritual birth as premortal sons and daughters of God giving us power to act according to our will.</span><br />
<span><br />The power imputed to God by ancient philosophers and early Christian church fathers to fabricate from nothingness is known as creation ex-nihilo or absolute creation. From this viewpoint, God is not working with any materials or limits on his abilities, and yet from this state of perfect nothingness, he fabricates only imperfect beings. </span><br />
<span><br />The traditional creeds imply that when a human being is born into existence God arbitrarily assigns intelligence to animate the being and gives it free will at the same time.</span><br />
<span><br />According to the narrative of traditional theologians, the billions of created beings are introduced to pain and suffering by no choice of their own. Only Adam and Eve had the choice to live in Eden forever in innocence and paradise. Their choice to leave the Garden of Eden, to fall that is, was made on the basis of knowing the consequence of what they were doing. The rest of us are essentially forced into our existence by a random coincidence born to a life of suffering ending in death by the will of God.</span><br />
<span><br />The main question of Eden becomes-Why did God place the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden if he wanted them to be there forever? Why did God allow Satan to tempt them? Could they procreate before they partook of the fruit?</span><br />
<span><br />What we can observe is a difference between the speculation of scholar theologians and revelation to prophets of God in these understandings. Classical biblical theists have put the blame of sin, suffering, and evil on Adam and Eve for as long as they have been studying the situation.</span><br />
<span><br />To answer the reason for evil, apologists state the obvious. Mankind seems to make its own choices and the suffering of innocents must be for some purpose and some greater good. They can't, however, identify what that purpose or greater good is, but, simply state that such must be the case for God to be good and that greater good is an unknowable mystery. Latter-day Saints teach that this mystery has been revealed.</span><br />
<span><br />Based on the conclusion of ancient philosophers, mainstream Christian apologists have taught the concept of free will. They claim that because of this apparent freedom, mankind by their choices has brought suffering on themselves, not God.</span><br />
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<span>The doctrinal foundation of Latter-day Saints is based on an eternal principle called agency. Our individual eternal intelligence means we can be moral agents and constitutes an </span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space">innate freewill as a part of our personhood. It is not connected to God so far as creation goes. </span><br />
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<span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space">The creations that God brings into existence, this planet and our mortal bodies give us the opportunity to exercise our agency. Agency is a gift and opportunity to exercise our free will and live by faith. Because of agency, we can choose to follow God and obey the precepts he gives us to find eternal happiness.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>The traditional Christian scholar/apologist argues that God is not responsible for evil and suffering because men and women as creature creations have free will. This somehow “frees” God from being responsible for the sins and evil choices of mankind.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> This is a contradictory ideology because according to them God is the first cause of all creation. A being created out of nothing at their birth from abstract materials cannot possess free will.</span></span><br />
<span><br />If this were the case, then humans are nothing more than pawns with an arbitrary will and other characteristics given to them at birth.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>This determines their personality and tendencies to act a certain way.<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Their will in effect emanates from an act of God.</span><br />
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<span>If man’s will is an extension of God’s creative powers, then man cannot have his own independent will. Evil and suffering would, therefore, exist because of the actions of the “first cause” or God, by creating the humans and not from the humans themselves. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span><br />If human intelligence and the soul it pertains to is eternal and is a component of a spirit being then there does exist the opportunity for mankind to exercise its own will as an independent agent.</span><br />
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<span>Some element of our personality is eternal, it isn’t a result of God arbitrarily imposing his force to animate a being that previously did not exist.</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><span>Without a pre-mortal existence or intelligence, we are mere pawns forced into an existence of suffering and evil and do not have free will that can be called our own.</span><br />
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<span>Earth was created to implement the plan of love and salvation. It is the plan of moral agency, giving us the freedom that can lead to exaltation and eternal lives. Jesus Christ was foreordained to make it possible and we were there to witness it and are here now to experience it.</span><span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-76221333779977203202019-08-29T10:19:00.014-07:002021-08-01T14:33:32.794-07:00Who Was Joseph Smith and Why the Opposition to his Message?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Was Joseph Smith a true prophet of God, a genius conman or possibly a boy who made some lucky guesses to establish a church that would grow to be found throughout the world. The falsehoods of his detractors are not supported by the facts of history. </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">From his personal history we read this verse.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="verse-number" face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", "Palatino Bold", Palatino-Bold, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal;">25 </span><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: normal;">So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note25a" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a</sup>Personages</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: normal;">, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note25b" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">b</sup>hated</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"> and </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note25c" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">c</sup>persecuted</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"> for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note25d" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">d</sup>falsely</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"> for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not </span><a class="study-note-ref" href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/#note25e" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal;"><sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">e</sup>deny</a><span face="Palatino, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, "Pahoran ldsLat", "Noto Sans Myanmar", NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif" style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: normal;"> it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.</span></span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Palatino-Roman, Pahoran, Pahoran ldsLat, Noto Sans Myanmar, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, NotoSerifTamil, serif"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not many people in the course of modern Christian history have come along claiming to be a prophet of God. Some prominent religious leaders in the last few centuries have claimed some prophetic gifts but not prophetic authority. Even the leaders of the Protestant reformation didn't make assertions that they were prophets or to have special authority to act for God. Yet, we as LDS hold the idea that they were aware that the Catholic church in their day had been corrupted.</span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1820 Joesph Smith declared that he had a vision and that subsequently a series of events took place. He was visited by resurrected beings acting as angels from God. His claims started from the time he was 14-years old. His revelation did not follow traditional doctrines. The rest of Christendom did not believe that God had a physical form. His testimony shows that the heavens are again opened contrary to the idea of sola scripture promoted by the Protestant reformation leaders.</span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.8; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">No religious leader, Catholic, Protestant or otherwise claimed such visitations and acted on them in such a way to initiate a world wide church. In fact, their claims are and were quite the opposite, that the heavens were closed and that God does not speak to mankind on the earth. It is not wrong to infer that they were right. God had not spoken to them. Although some claimed to be, they have not been authorized servants like the prophets of old were to reveal his truths.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For some 2000 years after his death, Jesus ministered to the earth by the power of his spirit, the light of Christ. The teachings of Jesus, the ancient prophets and his apostles were gathered together into a Bible controlled by the clergy for centuries. The honest in heart, the true believers still felt the light and lived with a hope of salvation without understanding what that might be. The true church and its authority to administer the ordinances of the gospel was taken from the earth with the death of the apostles. Those faithful believers would await the day of the restoration of the fullness of the Gospel when all mankind on earth and beyond the veil of death would again hear the Savior's voice as the time for the Second Coming of Christ would approach.</span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Joseph Smith was a seeker of spiritual direction and knowledge. He testified that in answer to his prayers seeking truth and understanding, God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and subsequently other angelic messengers visited him and conferred knowledge and authority upon him. To this day his testimony stands that he received a divine call to organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is no question that it holds a unique position in modern Christianity. Here is a short video explaining the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJnN2FkgD-g" target="_blank">restoration of the Gospel and Church</a>. I will only highlight some of the allegations of critics that have opposed Joseph Smith's story when he was alive and those that have continued to speak out against it over the two centuries since he first declared to be God's prophet of the Restoration.</span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">One prophecy among many has clearly been fulfilled regarding Joseph Smith's calling as a prophet. Coming from an obscure frontier boy in the 1820s he said an angel of God declared, "my name should be had for good and evil, among all nations, kindreds, and tongues; or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">This prophecy has been and continues to be fulfilled. Was this prophetic or was he a lucky guesser in making such a statement. If he guessed, how did he go about constructing such a scenario to take place throughout the world for almost 200 years that it would come to pass? No critic can tell us how he did it other than he is a "false prophet" or genius conman. Their allegations are unfounded, unprovable and highly unreliable.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If what Joseph Smith taught, and his testimony was or is so unbelievable, why do his detractors need to fight against it? Why don't they just let it go or why doesn't it just stop growing? The reason they don't is that it is the truth and there is an enemy of truth that has put a spirit of opposition and anger that is very observable in Joseph's detractors. The atmosphere and bias of apostasy are evident in their many declarations and books. He also declared in prophetic scripture through the Book of Mormon that many with the Bible would deny the need for any further testaments of the Savior. That was and is the sad state of affairs with many that claim Christ as their Savior.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Thousands of early converts and millions more joined the church without ever meeting him and so it continues for 190 or so years as a hoax of some kind? The early and current day missionaries find success because the Book of Mormon and the message of the restored Gospel attest to a living and actively involved Jesus Christ. Even initially skeptical minds when able to read the Book of Mormon with some openness have discovered that it could not have been written by an uneducated frontier youth. None of the detractor's allegations have demonstrated anything other than what Joseph said. He translated it by a divine means.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A 14-year-old boy announced to the world that he has a vision. He claims to translate an ancient record calling it additional scripture about Jesus Christ. He starts a church years later and it endures and extends to almost all parts of the earth over a 190-year period. Thanks to the internet, everywhere the church is, there is mention of Joseph Smith’s name in and out of the church for good and for evil.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The critic's stories are actually harder to believe than Joseph's testimony is. They allege that he is a fraud. How does a 14-year-old boy conceive and perpetuate a 190-year fraud? Or, conceive a scheme so diabolical that would allow most of its adherents to find a great measure of happiness in their lives? No Christian evangelist or preacher has done what he did. How he could conceive a system of the leadership of volunteer bishops to lead the congregations supposedly under a state of constant deception? The allegations of fraud or deception are ridiculous, to say the least.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">His declarations calling his movement a restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is easily believable because Biblical Christianity is a fractured divided house with no unity to speak of. In his asking of God which church he should join, he was told to not join any of them. None of them had the authority to act for God. A restoration of truth, the church, and the gospel was and is clearly in order.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I have observed firsthand that the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by this prophet blesses lives. His teachings strengthen family relationships by demonstrating how important they are in the here and now and in the eternities. We now understand with greater clarity our relationship to God and Christ because of his role as a prophet, seer, and revelator.</span></span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-48390461117525188202019-08-02T07:05:00.000-07:002019-09-04T10:28:35.909-07:00Science and Religion<div style="-en-clipboard: true;">
The limited scope of mankind's technology and lack of vision into eternity does not allow us to gather all truth in a lifetime or many lifetimes. Currently, we only have a recorded history of the earth that covers some 6,000 to 10,000 years. The fossil record gives insight but uses theories, conjecture, and speculation as to how it all developed. Scientists and religionists both debate within their respective spheres for and against each other. What is a valid source of revelation with which one can confirm eternal truth? It is a challenge of mortality and the debate will go on.<br />
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We can see things in the cosmos things that were never before seen until the invention of powerful space-based telescopes. We live in an expanding universe. Will our capacity to understand it shrink as fast as we gain insight? Much of what governs the laws of physics is discernible but not viewable. We understand much of the earth, our bodies and minds and yet we know very little, certainly not all there is to know. Will mortals perfect science and create immortality? The claim of religion is that it has already been done. Revelations from God and the order of heaven are the basis for religious understanding but creation is carried out on a very scientific basis, there is no magic involved. God is the greatest scientist of all.</div>
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Brigham Young made many comments about the relationship of truth to our methods of discovery and more especially how the Church's doctrines encompass truth as we discover it.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Truth and science</span></div>
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“…our religion will not clash with or contradict the facts of science in any particular. You may take geology, for instance, and it is a true science; not that I would say for a moment that all the conclusions and deductions of its professors are true, but its leading principles are; they are facts-they are eternal, and to assert that the Lord made this earth out of nothing is preposterous and impossible. God never made something out of nothing; it is not in the economy or law by which the worlds were, are, or will exist. There is an eternity before us, and it is full of matter; and if we but understand enough of the Lord and his ways, we would say that he took of this matter and organized this earth from it. How long it has been organized it is not for me to say, and I do not care anything about it. As for the Bible account of the creation we may say that the Lord gave it to Moses, or rather Moses obtained the history and traditions of the fathers, and from these picked out what he considered necessary, and that account has been handed down from age to age, and we have got it, no matter whether it is correct or not, and whether the Lord found the earth empty and void, whether he made it out of nothing or out of the rude elements; or whether he made it in six days or in as many millions of years, is and will remain a matter of speculation in the minds of men unless he give revelation on the subject. If we understood the process of creation there would be no mystery about it, it would be all reasonable and plain, for there is no mystery except to the ignorant.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 14, pg. 116, 14 May 1871) </div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">One system</span></div>
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“Such a plan incorporates every system of true doctrine on the earth, whether it be ecclesiastical, moral, philosophical, or civil; it incorporates all good laws that have been made from the days of Adam until now; it swallows up the laws of nations, for it exceeds them all in knowledge and purity, it circumscribes the doctrines of the day, and takes from the right and the left, and brings all truth together in <span style="-en-paragraph: true;">one system, and </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">If you can find a truth…we claim it</span>
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<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">“I want to say to my friends that we believe in all good. If you can find a truth in heaven, earth or hell, it belongs to our doctrine. We believe it; it is ours; we claim it.” (</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true;"> 2)</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">There is no truth but what belongs to the Gospel</span></div>
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<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">“Mormonism,” so-called, embraces every principle pertaining to life and salvation, for time and eternity. No matter who has it. If the infidel has got truth it belongs to “Mormonism.” The truth and sound doctrine possessed by the sectarian world, and they have a great deal, all belong to this Church. As for their morality, many of them are, morally, just as good as we are. All that is good, lovely, and praiseworthy belongs to this Church and Kingdom. “Mormonism” includes all truth. There is no truth but what belongs to the Gospel. It is life, eternal life; it is bliss; it is the fulness of all things in the gods and in the eternities of the gods.” (</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true;"> 3)</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">It is our duty to gather every item of truth and reject every error</span></div>
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<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">It is our duty and calling, as ministers of the same salvation and Gospel, to gather every item of truth and reject every error. Whether a truth be found with professed infidels, or with</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true;"> the Universalists, or the Church of Rome, or the Methodists, the Church of England, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Quakers, the Shakers, or any other of the various and numerous different sects and parties, all of whom have more or less truth, it is the business of the Elders of this Church (Jesus, their Elder Brother, being at their head) to gather up all the truths in the world pertaining to life and salvation, to the Gospel we preach, … to the sciences, and to philosophy, wherever it may be found in every nation, kindred, tongue, and people and bring it to Zion.” (</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true;"> 248)</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Receive the truth, let it come from whom it may</span></div>
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<span style="-en-paragraph: true;">“Be willing to receive the truth, let it come from whom it may; no difference, not a particle. Just as soon receive the Gospel from Joseph Smith as from Peter, who lived in the days of Jesus. Receive it from one man as soon as another. If God has called an individual and sent him to preach the Gospel that is enough for me to know; it is no matter who it is, all I want is to know the truth.” (</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span><span style="-en-paragraph: true;"> 11)</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Mormonism embraces everything</span></div>
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“In a word, if “Mormonism” is not my life, I do not know that I have any. I do not understand anything else, for it embraces everything that comes within the range of the understanding of man. If it does not circumscribe every thing that is in heaven and on earth, it is not what it purports to be.” (<span style="font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 2)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">The gospel embraces all</span></div>
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“[The gospel] embraces all morality, all virtue, all light, all intelligence, all greatness, and all goodness. It introduces a system of laws and<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "droid serif" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">ordinances.” (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "droid serif" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; line-height: 23px;">DBY,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "droid serif" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"> 3)</span>aves the chaff to be scattered hither and thither.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 3–4)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">The faith encircles all</span></div>
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“All knowledge and wisdom and every good that the heart of man can desire is within the circuit and circle of the faith we have embraced.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 446)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Every fact is embraced</span></div>
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“It embraces every fact there is in the heavens and in the heaven of heavens—every fact there is upon the surface of the earth, in the bowels of the earth, and in the starry heavens; in fine, it embraces all truth there is in all the eternities of the Gods.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 448)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">God has revealed all the truth that is now in the world</span></div>
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“Our religion measures, weighs, and circumscribes all the wisdom in the world—all that God has ever revealed to man. God has revealed all the truth that is now in the possession of the world, whether it be scientific or religious. The whole world are under obligation to him for what they know and enjoy; they are indebted to him for it all, and I acknowledge him in all things.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 2)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">One true system</span></div>
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“It comprehends all true science known by man, angels, and the gods. There is one true system and science of life; all else tends to death. That system emanates from the Fountain of life.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 2)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Truth will abide</span></div>
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“Truth will abide when error passes away. Life will remain when they who have rejected the words of eternal life are swallowed up in death. I like the truth because it is true, because it is lovely and delightful, because it is so glorious in its nature, and so worthy the admiration, faith and consideration of all intelligent beings in heaven or on the earth.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 9)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Truth is calculated to sustain itself</span></div>
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“I delight in this, because truth is calculated to sustain itself; it is based upon eternal facts and will endure, while all else will, sooner or later, perish.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 11)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Know light from the darkness</span></div>
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“Every individual that lives according to the laws that the Lord has given to his people, and has received the blessings that he has in store for the faithful, should be able to know the things of God from the things which are not of God, the light from the darkness, that which comes from heaven and that which comes from somewhere else. This is the satisfaction and the consolation that the Latter-day Saints enjoy by living their religion; this is the knowledge which every one who thus lives possesses.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 35)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Easy to live by the truth</span></div>
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“How easy it is to live by the truth. Did you ever think of it, my friends? Did you ever think of it, my brethren and sisters? In every circumstance of life, no matter whether among the humble or lofty, truth is always the surest guide and the easiest to square our lives by.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 11)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Our religion is simply the truth</span></div>
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“Our religion is simply the truth. It is all said in this one expression—it embraces all truth, wherever found, in all the works of God and man that are visible or invisible to mortal eye.” (<span style="-en-paragraph: true; font-style: italic;">DBY,</span> 2)</div>
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My quoting of Brigham Young's comments were compiled on this Blog "One Climbs".</div>
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<a href="http://oneclimbs.com/2010/10/10/brigham-young-on-truth/?fbclid=IwAR3Ketqo3inmM1WmxO1kM7NYO82WPo39KbaECLhiqSeALlgguAaqg4w8ans" style="-en-clipboard: true; font-family: arial; font-size: 13px;">http://oneclimbs.com/2010/10/10/brigham-young-on-truth/?fbclid=IwAR3Ketqo3inmM1WmxO1kM7NYO82WPo39KbaECLhiqSeALlgguAaqg4w8ans</a></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-85747068557774840372019-07-16T08:40:00.001-07:002020-04-05T06:05:42.936-07:00Contrasting Philosophies<div style="-en-clipboard: true;">
Two Basic Philosophies contrast each other Modern World
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The secular side of our society with the scientific method seeks to demonstrate that mankind ascended from some kind of slime or cell and therefore that amorality is a perfectly acceptable philosophy for worldly culture. The philosophy of scientism, the idea that what science turns up is the sum of what there is doesn’t necessarily come from scientists, however. It comes from amoral activists seeking to promote their philosophies.
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What we get from science is the vastness of what we don’t know and these activists don’t care to acknowledge that their lack of knowledge might have some effect on the ideals it takes to have a cohesive and peaceful society. They basically promote the ideology that there is no God unless science can prove it and that will never happen because they ignore the evidence.
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The theistic side believes that we descended from the Gods or a God. The first seeks through its philosophy to eliminate the godly perspective and power even though science demonstrates in many ways the existence of divine processes in the body and the cosmos. Agnosticism is based on a systematic denial of purpose. By closing the mind to values of societal importance it provides no substantive foundation for long term happiness. It deals with values but not the intrinsic nature or purpose of the soul.
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Values only have meaning to them in equations that have no existential meaning. Science alone deals with quantities, not qualities. While relying on strict integrity in the methodology of investigation, no revelation of purpose for the integrity of the individual will ever result. Medical science has demonstrated quite sufficiently that certain habits and substances lead to disease and early death. This does not stop large numbers of people from doing them or corporations from pursuing a profit by providing them. Science cannot provide a person with a path to happiness or lasting joy that transcends its capabilities.
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With a few hundred years of science, some modern thinkers act as if the 6000 years of written history can be ignored because it started with a narrative of the Gods. With their knowledge of science, short and small as it is, they seek to solve the existence of an infinite cosmos and the dilemma of death, which has already been done by beings far superior to them and revealed to prophet messengers to relay them to us in case we really want to know. They can be confirmed by a communicator much more powerful than any technology we are presently acquainted with. It is called the Holy Ghost. </div>
Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-67110222088032713632019-07-13T12:06:00.002-07:002020-04-18T05:50:27.323-07:00The Book of Mormon-Some Parables of Comparison<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; color: #454545; font-family: ".AppleSystemUIFont"; font-size: 19.1px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;">For nearly two hundred years, The Book of Mormon has been studied, analyzed, criticized, and scrutinized by educated religious scholars, common folks and everyone in between. </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;"><span style="font-size: 19.08pt;"><a href="http://www.lightplanet.com/response/nomaam.htm" target="_blank">Hugh Nibley, a Latter-day Saint educator </a>published the following parable many years ago to demonstrate the responses by some of those that have examined the book and Joseph Smith's claims.</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;"> “A young man once long ago claimed he had found a large diamond in his field as he was plowing. He put the stone on display to the public free of charge, and everyone took sides. A psychologist showed, by citing some famous case studies, that the young man was suffering from a well-known form of delusion. A historian showed that other men have also claimed to have found diamonds in fields and have been deceived. A geologist proved that there were no diamonds in the area but only quartz. . . . When asked to inspect the stone itself, the geologist declined with a weary, tolerant smile, and a kindly shake of the head. . . . </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;">A sociologist showed that only three out of 177 florists’ assistants in four major cities believed the stone was genuine. A clergyman wrote a book to show that it was not the young man but someone else who had found the stone. “Finally an indignant jeweler . . . pointed out that since the stone was still available for examination, the answer to the question of whether it was a diamond or not had absolutely nothing to do with who found it, or whether the finder was honest or sane, or who believed him, or whether he would know a diamond from a brick . . . but was to be answered simply and solely by putting the stone to certain well-known tests for diamonds. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;">Experts on diamonds were called in. Some of them declared it genuine. The others made nervous jokes about it and declared that they could not very well jeopardize their dignity and reputations by appearing to take the thing too seriously. To hide the bad impression thus made, someone came out with the theory that the stone was really a synthetic diamond, very skillfully made, but a fake just the same. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;">The objection to this is that the production of a good synthetic diamond [in that day and age] would have been an even more remarkable feat than the finding of a real one.” To suggest that Joseph Smith, a farm boy with little formal education, produced a synthetic work of God in 1829 that has baffled the brightest of critics for almost two centuries would be a more remarkable conclusion than the simple fact that he obtained golden plates from an angel of God and translated them by the gift and power of God. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;">Just as there is a certain test to determine the validity of a diamond, there is a certain test to determine the truthfulness of a divine work, and that test is to study it and then sincerely pray and ask God if it is true (see Moroni 10: 4–5). Any other test or approach will fall short of the mark. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: .sfui-regular;"><span style="font-size: 25.44px;">Quoting the Book of Mormon</span></span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;">Moroni 10:4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;">5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: .sfui-regular;"><span style="font-size: 25.44px;">For forty-five years I have witnessed the effects of having read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost manifest to me that it is the word of God. Joseph Smith was called of God to bring it forth and to establish a restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. I invite you to read it and to ask God if it is a true witness of his son, Jesus Christ.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfui-regular"; font-size: 19.08pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/goog_377253903"><br /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 25.44px;"><a href="https://youtu.be/CkKblIMfmjI" target="_blank">Jeffrey Holland Testifies of the Book of Mormon</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng" target="_blank">Moroni Chapter 10</a></span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-57419415707966984742019-07-05T11:28:00.010-07:002021-06-22T07:17:47.953-07:00The First Vision-Truth from the Grove-The Heavens are Opened<span style="font-size: large;">As a young man my search for truth was a consistent desire to know something about the purpose of life and whether or not there was actually a God. What I sought was not given to me in an instant. Being able to look back and connect some of the experiences that shaped my understanding, it was a process of about 8 years. </span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">I don't know all of the reasons some of us seek understanding as to the purpose of life, but it seems certain events may tend to cause us to look both inward and upward. These events may often be deemed as negative in nature, not because God wants to punish us, but because they happen in the course of normal living. I am speaking of illness, accidents, injuries, and death that interrupt, or disrupt our day to day activities and relationships. </span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">To observe that the world exists and that we exist on some basis of eternal principles is a fundamental step in seeking truth. Is there a God that created us or not? If so then what demonstrates the nature of this being or beings? What did they or He have in mind. Who is authorized to speak for God? Can we identify actual eternal unchangeable principles and truth? Can we communicate directly with God, and if so, how do we do so? How do we find out the truth about these things?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I found answers in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There I learned about principles that make sense of the questions about the purpose of life and our eternal destiny as individuals and families. These teachings open our minds to the concept of an eternal glorious family of God to which we belong. God has once again called prophets to lead his church give us knowledge that had been lost.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Most people that have learned anything about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have heard of Joseph Smith. He was about 14-years old in 1820. He tells his experience of seeking to know his standing before God and how he could find out if one of the many churches in his area was the right or true one. The result of his searching and asking God resulted in what is known to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as the "First Vision". There are significant truths that are gained from his experience that apply to each one of us. <a href="https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-vision-accounts-synthesis?lang=eng" target="_blank">Link to Joseph Smiths narrative of his vision.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The experience he describes cannot logically be ignored even though his critics will try and say that it was all made up as a lie or some type of con. Joseph's message and testimony of God have filled much of the earth in spite of the false narratives developed and disseminated by his critics. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">One of the angelic messengers that visited him in the process of teaching him about his life's mission prophesied that his name would be known for good and for evil throughout the world. This was some 170 years before the internet came about. The claims of the critics from his day have lingered and multiplied as apologists from the sectarian groups of Christian thinkers thought his story would disrupt their foundational grasp on their biblical authority. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">When I first learned about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was not very informed about what other Christian churches taught about God or how they were formed. I didn't realize that they did not believe in eternally existing true principles by which God existed and action. I was told by pastors that God, the Trinity in this case, could do whatever it wanted to do, that it essentially made up truth as it went along.<br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Joseph did not go into the grove of trees seeking to create a story or looking for a vision or to start a new church. He did not make a published record of his account until more than a decade after it happened, and did so in response to the criticisms that resulted from his verbal telling of these events in his life. This wasn't the day and age of instantaneous communication nor was there a reason to make a written account of the event at the time it happened. The time did arrive, however, and it was necessary to share the message with others and it was published to the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Since he first declared to have conversed with God and other heavenly messengers he has essentially been on trial, even though he has been dead for about 170 years. Even though his testimony has been refuted by various critics and false narratives, these efforts have not stopped the work he initiated as a result of that "First Vision". </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The critical narratives that have been fabricated over time from historical events have not ever provided or met a credible burden of proof capable of withstanding critical evaluations. Most arguments against Joseph Smith are spurious allegations based on conjecture. They would not stand as evidence in a court of law. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Josephs testimony has simply been that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him not to join any of the churches of his day. The Book of Mormon is also an important aspect of his witness. No other religious leader in the Christian tradition has produce a record, calling it scripture. This book came forth as a divine means and as a witness of his calling, it is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is a divine record, translated by the gift and power of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">His message has always been to instill in people a desire to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to proclaim his eternal gospel in preparation for his second coming. His testimony of Jesus Christ and God the Father stand as a witness of his message and calling as a prophet. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Without the testimony of Joseph Smith, we would not have a prophetic witness of God's involvement with modern society. Bible scholars and philosophers have developed and established Christian in debates and and scholarly efforts. In all of their endeavors they claim that God is silent and they are somehow his spokesmen. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The fact that Joseph's antagonists depend so heavily on fallacies demonstrates the weakness of their arguments. Comparing these false narratives to the truth demonstrates the symptomatic bias that drives these negative narratives. The typical pattern used by deceptive apologists takes historical facts, often out of context, spins a narrative with conjecture and then disseminates the misinformation through the multitude of online channels and congregational meetings in churches. Those uninformed individuals that hear these messages in an uncontested setting take what they hear as truth and also share it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What do we learn from Joseph Smith's "First Vision"? The first truth is that God is an actual person and has a glorified physical body. We are quite literally created in the image of God. We look like him. This one simple teaching went and still goes against the doctrines of sectarian creeds of the trinitarian teachers in mainstream Christianity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Modern and ancient Bible scholars and philosopher-theologians have taught that God is incorporeal, meaning there is no physical being, that it is therefore a genderless being. Any reference to God being a male or a father or parent are all symbolic references. Any reference to mankind being created in the image of God is also symbolic because they teach that God in reality has no image because he is invisible. God's existence is as an eternal force of an unknown nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From Joseph's experience, doctrinal truths have been revealed that God exists in the family unit. This is the pattern of eternal creation. Creation is not a random one time occurrence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A divine and eternal Godhead that we are familiar with in the Bible consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. They are three separate and distinct physical individuals. The Father and Son have glorified bodies of eternal spiritual flesh and bone. The Holy Ghost is a spirit being not yet embodied with the same physical body.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">All creation takes place under the divine plan and direction of the Father. He delegated many aspects of the creation of this world and worlds without end to Jehovah, his firstborn Son in the spirit from the pre-mortal time where we too were begotten spirit children of God. His redemptive role as Jesus Christ transcends time and space, and he is the Creator of worlds and the Savior of souls without end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Each member of the Godhead has the title of God. Together we can and do refer to them as an eternal God. They are united in purpose to bring salvation to all of us. Their voice can be heard speaking as individuals for themselves or for each other. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The traditional concept of God being an incorporeal and genderless Trinity rests on a foundational idea that this world is the first and only created on which souls might be saved. No humans existed prior to the existence of the Garden of Eden which places creation in the last 7000 years or so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We learn from continuing revelation to the prophet that Our Eternal Father is the father of our spirit. Fatherhood and manhood are features of godhood in a state of exaltation as it is known. The eternal nature of the family rests on His fatherhood is not independent of womanhood and motherhood. We learn that genders are an eternal unchangeable part of who we are. God is the head of the family in heaven and on earth. Men are created spiritually and physically in his image, and women are in the image of our eternal mother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Womanhood and manhood are eternal. It was not a random observation by God in the Garden that it was not good for the man to be alone. The existence of a woman was not something new that was solving a previously unknown problem. With the knowledge that the union and marriage of man and woman comes from heaven, Latter-day Saints teach that marriage is ordained by God. Its purpose is to unite a man and woman as an eternal companionship, with the potential to become endowed with powers of eternal increase. Such was the promise to Abraham.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our Father in Heaven is all knowing and all-powerful and perfect in every virtue of character and love. He is a possessor of all powers that exist that produce a righteous existence. In other words, he is not a mystical possessor of powers that philosophers think he would possess in order to be God. He governs in an infinite kingdom based on eternal truths, not magic. He knows and comprehends all things. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">God is the creator of endless worlds, souls, and salvation. The spirits of these souls are us, the spirit children of our eternal Father. As such we are eternal beings, the intelligence of each one of us is co-eternal and uncreated. As such our individual worth is incalculable.<br /><br /><b>The Methodology for Saving Souls</b>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Through the prophet Joseph Smith we learn that salvation and more importantly exaltation is an eternally ongoing process. We also learn that people that have lived on the earth without full opportunities to know the truth will have such opportunities.<br /><br />What is the eternal Christianity of the Restored Gospel? We lived with God before we are born on this earth to our mortal parents. We are part of his eternal family. He chose his most righteous and also firstborn son in our pre-mortal family to be a Redeemer and Savior to us. He was known as Jehovah and was born as the Son of God on the earth and the only begotten of the Father in the flesh. He became Jesus Christ. As a member of the Godhead, Jesus was always the plan for mankind’s salvation. He would be a voluntary sacrifice for sin and overcome death by the power of his resurrection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This plan is based on eternal laws of agency, justice, mercy and the perfect love of God. The creation of earth and mortality was and is a necessary step for the eternal growth and happiness of his children. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Mortality would be introduced by a choice, not by force. The Eden setting was designed for this purpose. “The man has become as one of us” was the declaration by the Gods after the fall. Adam and Eve became this world's first Christians. It was a forward step not backward.<br /><br />How does one know the truth? God can and does reveal the truth and answers the prayers of those willing to study and ask. Of this, I have personal experience. To say otherwise would be to say that he leaves the knowledge of eternal things to chance. Only one church with divine authority existed when the Savior was on the earth. Men changed it. It has been restored to the earth with the fullness of God’s authority.<br /><br />The Book of Mormon is another testament of the Savior. Its pages contain doctrine that confirms the truth of the Bible and gives clarity to it. If one wants to know the truth then they must read it and study it. Divine messengers have visited the earth to restore authority and ordinances and covenants that are eternal in nature and assure us of God’s interest in our well being.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Holy Ghost will testify with confirming power that these things are true and that living prophets guide the church. We can all have a direct channel of communication with God. I have felt it, observed the effects and know that it is real and true. Happiness, understanding of life’s purpose and eternal perspective have been the result.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The struggles and challenges of life are more confidently met when we understand why we are here and that Jesus Christ is involved in our lives. It is an eternal plan, not a temporary plan that brought us to this mortal experience, and the requisite personal growth through faith and obedience that we need. It will bless us now and continue into eternity to bless our eternal souls if we will embrace it.</span></div>
</div></div>Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-39015164542610015772019-06-30T16:41:00.001-07:002019-07-15T11:34:52.153-07:00The Science of God<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Looking at the wonders of creation and our existence, it would seem to me that God is a natural being and more likely highly skilled in scientific understanding with trillions of years experience with no need to resort to magic to accomplish his purposes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes when humans don't understand how something works they might refer to it as magic. If it has an effect on us and we aren't sure why it may be called magical. Really though haven't some just resorted to a default explanation of a phenomenon even though they most likely believe that magic isn't real?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Is the creation of life a miracle or just another thing that happens all too often? Isn't it a miracle if it is you? Really we all are miracles of existence and yet this particular science of creation we understand quite well. How is it that our body can heal wounds? How is it that we create children that look like us yet are so distinct that there is no other like them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Was it magic or science when Jesus performed his miracles for witnesses that did not understand them? Is it a miracle or science w</span><span style="font-size: large;">hen a surgeon performs an operation on a person that years ago would have died?</span><span style="font-size: large;"> If that person is you it will surely seem like a miracle. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Science is part of God's all-knowing capacity. Truth is revealed through it and it allows us to discover the wonders of creation ourselves? True religion is faith in things that exist but that we can't see. By both the scientific method and the spirit of God together we are able to have a more full experience. Without both, either one can take on the whims of individuals and their philosophical musings. We really shouldn't trust individuals with some small level of education advance though they may think it is. Their discoveries often make them think they are wiser than they are.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">We observe the truth in action every day. We have discovered it in chemistry, psychology, astronomy, oceanography, medicine and other sciences. There are consistent laws of physics on which we make determinations for building things and making them work. It is called engineering. Even so, much of science is theory yet to be proven.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">We have discovered technologies that have allowed us to travel further, faster and more safely. We communicate at the speed of light. Why wouldn't we be able to travel at the speed of light someday? We see farther into the universe than ever before and down to subatomic particles, and yet the greatest of our advances in science are less than 100 years old. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">None of these advances, however, is new, except for us. They have always existed.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> If t</span><span style="font-size: large;">hey had not always existed as a part of eternal truth they could not have been discovered now. </span><span style="font-size: large;">T</span><span style="font-size: large;">hey have just been discovered for the first time on this planet. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Can you imagine what the state of our scientific discovery would be had it been around for 10,000 years? It is less than 200 years old. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">These understandings have all been achieved by faith. Someone believed that they could discover a principle and took action to do it. Faith is the principle of action in all rational beings. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Our scientific advances shouldn't discourage our faith in God. God is, after all, a rational being. The problem isn't God, it is men without authority that have created an irrational deity of mysterious proportions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Because truths are natural and we see them every day are they to be discounted as not being something of eternal truth and therefore a witness to the nature of deity? </span><span style="font-size: large;">Are they not a manifestation of the workings of God? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Would God use the methods of quantum physics and on a level perhaps of which we are familiar and also not familiar? Would he not be a master of all the sciences, known and unknown to us? Is evolution some part of the creative process? Contrary to some religious scholars, God was not in a hurry when creating the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">As an organizer of worlds, he would be a climatologist and a master of the elements and cosmology. There is no knowledge that he does not know or possess yet he is not the creator of knowledge or truth. All truth exists independent in the natural arena for all existence and creation. At most observations, He doesn't seem to use magic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Science looks into the vast cosmos with telescopes and crawls to the bottom of the ocean in submarines. Doctors dissect and operate on the human body with increasingly greater precision. From the knowledge gained over centuries of discovery, we do know much about these things. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Even with advancing, technology scientists disagree over the theories established in their various communities as they speculate about their next discovery. The medical profession is still considered practice as many diseases continue to elude healing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The recorded history of man is only some 6000 years. Why isn't it something substantial like 100,000 years old or a million years old rather than a mere vestige of time that wouldn't even register on the scale of eternity? The reason is that man's current state of existence is to lead us to a higher purpose and we have only been here for a short time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Science can document the history of creation with some accuracy to show that the elements are ancient. While demonstrated existence in current forms is said to be in the billions are they not in fact ageless? Here we are in the midst of eternity with a history so short it isn't even a blink of the eye in the eternal scheme.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">How much wisdom can be acquired with a minuscule viewpoint of one planet in one solar system that is realistically the only observable study done so far? There is still much speculation. Even atheists believe in eternal things. They just don't believe in eternal people. The factor of death is a stumbling block to them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Scientists seek to discover and prove all things natural. Our individual and collective existence here on earth is an obvious fact of nature.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">As Latter-Day Saints, our prophets have told us that the elements have no creation or beginning. They can only be organized to form creations. There are eternal elemental materials that form the basis of all creation and existence. Even the building blocks of what we would term as "spirit" are actual elements or substance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Orthodox theologians for centuries thought and taught that God made everything out of nothing by some fantastic magical power. Science has demonstrated most convincingly that matter cannot be destroyed. Why would it need to be created? Evidently to satisfy the philosophical notion of a religious creed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Powerful telescopes demonstrate with clarity that we exist in some remote position in a sea of never-ending galaxies. Our solar system is in an infinite cosmos full of similar creations and yet we have not seen other beings yet a certain order exists.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Latter-day scripture records this conversation between Moses and God in the Pearl of Great Price, Moses chapter one. Referring to the inhabitants of the earth and its existence.</span><br />
<div class="verse" data-aid="128449629" id="p32" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212225; font-family: Palatino, PahoranldsLat-Roman, "Pahoran ldsLat", Pahoran, Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="verse-number" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: , , "palatino bold" , "palatino" , "notosansmyanmar" , "saysetthaldslao" , serif; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="verse" data-aid="128449629" id="p32" style="--height: 57.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212225; font-family: Palatino, PahoranldsLat-Roman, "Pahoran ldsLat", Pahoran, Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/moses/1?lang=eng" target="_blank"><span class="verse-number" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: , , "palatino bold" , "palatino" , "notosansmyanmar" , "saysetthaldslao" , serif; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"32 </span>And by the <sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #177c9c; font-family: PahoranldsLat-Italic, Palatino-Italic, "Palatino Italic", Palatino, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a</sup><span style="color: #177c9c; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">word</span></span> of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of <sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #177c9c; font-family: PahoranldsLat-Italic, Palatino-Italic, "Palatino Italic", Palatino, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">b</sup><span style="color: #177c9c; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">grace</span></span> and truth.</a></div>
<div class="verse" data-aid="128449631" id="p33" style="--height: 80.6875px; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212225; font-family: Palatino, PahoranldsLat-Roman, "Pahoran ldsLat", Pahoran, Palatino-Roman, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px 0px 0.65em; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/moses/1?lang=eng" target="_blank"><span class="verse-number" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: , , "palatino bold" , "palatino" , "notosansmyanmar" , "saysetthaldslao" , serif; font-size: 0.9em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">33 </span>And <sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #177c9c; font-family: PahoranldsLat-Italic, Palatino-Italic, "Palatino Italic", Palatino, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a</sup><span style="color: #177c9c; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">worlds</span></span> without number have I <sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #177c9c; font-family: PahoranldsLat-Italic, Palatino-Italic, "Palatino Italic", Palatino, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">b</sup><span style="color: #177c9c; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">created</span></span>; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the <sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #177c9c; font-family: PahoranldsLat-Italic, Palatino-Italic, "Palatino Italic", Palatino, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">c</sup><span style="color: #177c9c; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Son</span></span> I <sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #177c9c; font-family: PahoranldsLat-Italic, Palatino-Italic, "Palatino Italic", Palatino, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">d</sup><span style="color: #177c9c; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">created</span></span>them, which is mine <sup class="marker" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #177c9c; font-family: PahoranldsLat-Italic, Palatino-Italic, "Palatino Italic", Palatino, NotoSansMyanmar, SaysetthaldsLao, serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">e</sup><span style="color: #177c9c; font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Only Begotten</span></span>.</a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Why do some who call themselves educated think that we are the only beings in the cosmos to exist with intelligence? The reality of our major scientific and technological discovery and progress is that it is only a couple of hundred years old at most. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">What is the feasibility of the existence of others starting billions or trillions of years ago or even so long ago that it is said to have no beginning? With no lack of space, there is no need for creations to be discoverable by humans if divine beings have a higher purpose and choose to keep us separated for a time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Such a civilization, even a government that rules over galaxies and universes would certainly use all science that we can discover. Wouldn't all of their precepts be science in that naturally occurring truth that is the source of all existence throughout an infinite cosmos?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">What if the creators of this planet are eternal organizers and can reveal the truth at many levels. We may call something spiritual but even this would be the eventual scientific truth. Would there not be a natural explanation for all things? In what manner does God reveal the truth? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">When Moses performed his acts of seeming to control nature were they magic or science?</span> <span style="font-size: large;">Is God a natural being or an unnatural being? Zealous religionists have often confused the terms of unnatural and supernatural. Supernatural just means he operates at a higher natural level. All miracles are natural science to God. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">For millennia theologians shrouded God in mystery. They invented an unnatural being of a mysterious and singular nature. They wanted people to believe that God had magical powers, existing as the sole occupier of the term all powerful. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">At a time when science could barely see past the moon, religious precepts said God was the creator of a single planet and that he was the only one of his kind in existence. Of course, these are nonsensical doctrines in view of what we know now as we look into the infinite cosmos. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Christian scholars, apologists, and philosophers have created a narrative that fits their scholarly interpretations of Bible verses. They have made assumptions that are not true and taught them for thousands of years. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">For this and other reasons, there are many divisions in the theologies of orthodox Bible scholarship. Their doctrines have many contradictions and their theology and the teachings that revolve around it are inconsistent. They don't agree about such things as free will or the reason for the fall or the atonement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Magic is the term we often use to describe something that we don't understand. It could be sleight of hand or it could be knowledge of a principle that another doesn't understand. A fire would seem magical to someone that did not understand how chemicals and elements can combine to create heat and light.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Electricity or wifi, motors, and cars would baffle those that had not seen them and only knew more elementary means of transportation or communication. Show a smartphone working or a TV to someone that had only used a smoke signal to communicate over distance and he would call you a god.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Magic as in mysticism or unexplained phenomena seeks to connect mankind to some invisible force, of which no person knows, not even the mystic that proclaims it. A magical union that penetrates all beings that have mysteriously appeared in it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Science seeks to connect us to some comprehensible beginning that they think they can find by looking through microscopes and telescopes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The general mainstream Christian orthodoxy set its theology in creeds and scholarship. The adherents to Catholicism, Protestantism, and evangelicalism all take on an even more diverse state as each person creates their own religious experience of either participation or nonparticipation. Some settle into a halfway zone of religion and science since the theological concepts of a three-part deity are too nonsensical to realistically consider as truth in their minds.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">People may feel is okay to do their own thing because they prefer to believe that they aren't being manipulated by anything except their own wisdom, fantasies, and delusions. A person, indeed billions of people may be the source of their own philosophy and wander about in it, but they aren't the source of any form of truth or eternal salvation. Many contents themselves in a stagnant state of ignorance that appeals to the basic needs of this temporary fallen condition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Some element of truth may not yet be revealed by science or other means because God can reveal things the scientist cannot or has not. True theology will usually be ahead of science in revealing the truth. Science can only discover a truth when the technology exists to reveal it and God is the one that allows the discovery of technology. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">An informed theology would account for the vast infinite nature of the cosmos. As such it should not contain dogma that would limit God to existing as a single solitary being or one that creates things out of nothing. We can now see and comprehend that infinite resources already exist. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">If God has been around for billions or trillions of years indeed without beginning then he would certainly be familiar with the processes</span><span style="font-size: large;">. Why would the infinite resources of the universe need to be created as it were out of nothing? Such was the nature of theology where magic and mystery established the religious narrative controlled by a limited few in a corrupt priesthood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Such being or beings of great knowledge and power such as God would not be confined to a single planet or limited in their ability to execute their powers over universes without end. Is God an infinite creator after the pattern of the family, an organizer of the infinite resources and revealer of science or a celibate space traveler with magical powers that grew tired of being alone?</span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-89399885351359685452019-02-19T21:56:00.002-08:002020-03-29T12:11:35.671-07:00The Futile State of Contentious Living<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We live in a world of opposition. Such is the nature of the knowledge of good and evil. Without it there is no freedom, there is no choice. This is what gives us the chance to determine who we will be, what we will pursue and eventually become. Through forces more powerful than our own whims we will one day be held accountable for this freedom. What eternal destiny awaits us?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I sometimes think of extreme examples as I sit and ponder about the ridiculousness of the contentions that exist in the world. Somehow we need to become aware of the position in space that we occupy and our insignificance as occupants of planet earth. What situation can demonstrate the silliness of not trying to get along as human beings? Why have some opposed the importance of principles that create and nurture the life forces of our world?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Next time you go to the beach, try to imagine a ping pong ball in the ocean floating away from you with the current. Now suppose that it is inhabited by a colony of germs that started out as just two germs. The ball is now covered by billions of germs and yet they hardly cover its surface. Somehow it is protected from the harshness of its lonely existence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is hard to imagine this as the ocean would seem to sweep everything off of the ball. How fast we are traveling through space? The only thing that keeps us from getting sucked off is an atmospheric force field that keeps the vacuum of space from engulfing us as an invisible power pulls us along.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The rotation of the earth is about 1000 miles an hour at the equator. Our orbiting speed around the sun is 67,000 miles an hour. We are surrounded by a freezing vacuum. Isn’t this more hostile than the ocean? Yet here we are oblivious to our hopeless state and some thinking it is without divine cause or future salvation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The earth is infinitesimally smaller in the cosmos than a ping pong ball is to the ocean. If a ping pong ball is too small for your imagination, try a basketball.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Imagine that the germs manage to civilize themselves and create an economy and nations of varying strains of germs. They cultivate a system of governments and some even become wealthy as they populate their habitat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In considering this can we answer the question as to how rich is the richest germ on the ball? How famous is the most famous germ? How powerful is the most powerful politician? How tall is the tallest, how strong is the strongest, how beautiful is the most beautiful of all the germs?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The thing about these germs is that they don’t live for 100 years. They only live 100 seconds. Things progress very quickly. Then they die and fall off into an endless ocean.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Where do humans go when they die? Does the energy of our cosmic presence simply evaporate? Or is there another set of principles that takes over when we die?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Is there room in space where everyone could have their own planet or star or their own solar system as they exit this planet? How many galaxies with billions of stars have astronomers with their most powerful telescopes calculated to exist? Significantly more than the cumulative number of humans in 6000 years of existence and their view is extremely limited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The eternities are surely guarded by an entrance code, one the eliminates contention and hate. How this is done has been revealed. It is on the earth and available to those that would seek it. Those that are stuck in their ways may never find it because they refuse to look.</span></div>
Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-47482694507746837802018-08-18T20:37:00.000-07:002019-04-26T10:01:30.131-07:00The Path of Mortality: A Thorny Way or a Road to Paradise<div class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The obvious nature of our existence is that this creation in the infinite vastness of space favors our existence. This, our</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> habitation is sufficiently supplied so that nothing necessary to the survival of its occupants would ever lack except by the tyranny of evil or by our own foolish choices. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Mortals disagree over how this abundance of resources should be distributed or acquired. The self-evident law of the harvest clearly governs in spite of misguided man's attempted interference.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Our planet is barely a speck on the known map of the cosmos yet it is sufficiently large to obscure the nature of its placement. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">It is in and of itself a veil that dims the view into eternity and the infinite space around us.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> Those with vision, however, are offered a revelation if they will see it when the stars on a clear night sky come into view. Deeper dimension and understanding have been revealed by powerful telescopes and the view of an endless array of galaxies. If the briefness of mortality doesn't give way to contemplation that opens the mind to the wonder of the endlessness around us then what will?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"> Contemplative </span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">souls can discern the self-evident truths of eternity and endless space. Who can look past the veil of mortality and see that destiny of death awaits and only one truth can govern supreme over all things beyond it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> <span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Surrounded by vehicles, homes, and buildings of wood, metal, rubber, and glass we seek to control our environment and keep it constant. We seek to keep the hostile natural elements at bay. We travel about this sphere with seeming indifference to these elements except when they do overpower our engines and buildings and throw us into the chaos of its hostility.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />What mysteries have we yet to learn about ourselves, endless space, and the purpose of life? How do we contemplate the wonders of life and creation? When we do, what do we see? Some Scientists have concluded that the materials of creation are billions of years old and have substantially proven that it is so. The most likely scenario is that there is no beginning to the existence of elements, spirit or matter.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">As occupants of the earth, mankind has only been capable of writing its history for six thousand years or so. Some of our greatest technological advances have only been made in the last 100 years. Shouldn't this cause us to wonder why now and why so recent? </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Unreliable as the written history of the earth may as it is recorded, even more so the speculations of scholarly endeavors crafting narratives from the incomplete fossil records and other historical sources.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The history of the world most Christians contemplate begins with an event known as the fall. What happened when Adam and Eve fell from the paradise of Eden? Did they gain opportunities or lose out on eternal paradise? Biblical scholars not understanding God's plan have declared that the fall</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> was not what God intended to happen.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Our first parents, however, were placed in a setting that God designed for them. Its purpose was so they could discover the reasons for their existence. They were not intended to live as innocent bystanders in a static garden, constantly intruded upon by a demonic presence, but as active participants in a dynamic world of opposition, a choice God wanted them to make on their own. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span> <span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The earth was designed to be an environment of continuous learning both through individual and collective experience. By divine eternal law and design, the plan, which included the fall and redemption was formed and implemented. Adam fell that we might be and we are here that we might have joy.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Adam and Eve were exiled from the state of absolute dependence and innocence that limited their potential. Freedom of choice and their moral agency gave way to independence and knowledge, and this was according to God's will. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;">Some misguided philosophers and theologians concluded that their fall was not the intended path. Looking at the circumstances, however, how could mortality as we know it not be the path that God intended?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">We have followed them by the billions into the mortality of this earth and so begins the test of life for all of us, to see if we will choose good over evil. We like they create in our image and likeness in families, which is the image and likeness of God. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The beauty of the earth didn’t go away just because thorns began to grow in the earth. Do people think that God loves his children any less because they are not in Eden? With agency and the capacity to build a meaningful life, paradise again comes into view through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the abundance of His creation. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Even in heartache, dismay and a seemingly endless opposition with infirmities and perils, even in spite of the tyranny through the ages, hope and faith need not dim. It may do so temporarily as we grow beyond our doubts, but renews again when we continue on the path revealed by God.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">In our homes and communities, through work and knowledge, we can build a paradise of our dreams by following the covenant path or a nightmare of negative consequences in opposition to it. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">As husbands and wives, we are led to the covenants and ordinances of holy places wherein the principles of godliness are manifest. Families can be sealed to each other in bonds of affection. When we are faithful these will never end, even though we or they step through the door of death. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">At some point in time and eternity, all people will have such an opportunity to love, to learn, and to know, and to choose to follow or not. No one, however, will be forced to live after the manner of godliness. </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The obedient will proceed to ongoing learning and eventually to exaltation and eternal lives. All who are born and die on earth and don’t follow the plan but don't deny the Savior will yet receive a resurrection, immortality and an eternal habitation, even a kingdom of glory. Such is the love of God for his children.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">We are here in this space, a place to act because of the love of our Heavenly Parents. We are their children. It is a family relationship. Theirs is a ministry of creation. This is where eternal bonds of affection are created and nurtured, even pure love, eternal love. This is the grand why of creation and the end purpose of the sacrifice they made</span>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">They are inviting us to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, back to their presence, and into a fellowship of family relationships beyond our comprehension except it be revealed to us through a real and unfeigned desire to know. The Holy Ghost is a real power that helps us understand spiritual truth. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">For this reason, the Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ have been restored to the earth and Temples are being built all over the world. Living prophets know and reveal the eternal truths of our existence and the purpose of life so that we can know our relationship to God and the eternal nature of our soul.</span></span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-35708860115807438392018-05-24T20:21:00.005-07:002021-08-22T11:53:26.935-07:00Why is there Evil, Suffering and Injustice in the World?<style type="text/css">
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<span class="s1">One question about life that philosophers, theologians and thinking people, in general, have considered in all ages, has to do with the existence of suffering, injustice, and evil. If the world was created by a kind and loving God why does such an apparent contradiction exist? <br />
<br />Some truth seekers want to know why suffering would be so ubiquitous in creation. Some people simply acknowledge the perplexity of it and move on. Christian scholars may quote some scriptures and give a philosophical reason but still don't really have a complete answer. They often claim it is simply a mystery, as even God is a mystery to them.<br />
<br />If good and evil did not exist, what would there be in order for choices to exist? Why did God place of tree in Eden, calling it the knowledge of good and evil? We would simply be pawns in a random existence with no evident purpose if we didn't of choices and some over arching laws of the universe did not govern the nature of good or evil. If faith allows us to not deny God due to some negative event in our life, then we usually seek some reasoning as to why we are here on earth to experience these trials.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"> What would life be without a spectrum or continuum of choices that are oppositional in nature, including death, disease, and injustice?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"> What if the evil, injustice, and suffering we are currently exposed to are only temporary and end at death? They are in fact temporary. Isn't death a relief to all those that endure them?<br />
<br />We have some 6000 years of written history that for some part coincides with biblical time frames? If the materials of the earth are millions or billions of years old, why don't we have 100,000 years of written human history or more? How is it that our intelligence only became sufficient to make a written record about the time of the Adam as recorded in Genesis?</span></div>
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<span class="s1"> Some philosophically minded people have concluded that earth life with its limited individual mortal life, generally 100 years or less for most of us, is a time to learn and to be tested by a higher intelligence. How is it that such a test could be necessary?<br />
<br />Do we not see that any penalties or rewards for good or bad behavior are delayed so that choices are not controlled by fear of punishment or joy of reward. The good people suffer and evil people seem to prosper. Individuals must make choices without coercive influence between two eternally existing and opposing paths according to their own desires or will. Those paths are good or evil.<br />
<br />Each choice comes with its own set of consequences associated with the laws that govern the existence of all truth and creation. In the end, each person will be judged according to their choices, their desires, and their circumstances. The system of perfect justice will be administered by a perfect judge, even the Savior himself. The rewards will be commensurate with faith and works, the penalties will have been paid by the Jesus Christ and all will be redeemed. How does such a system begin?<br />
<br /><b>The Fall of Adam and Eve</b><br />
<br />The Fall of Adam and Eve is an event that often gets discussed on a superficial level. Agnostics mock and make jokes about it. Orthodox Bible scholars, theologians, and philosophers heap the blame for suffering, sin, and evil on Adam and Eve for heeding the devil.<br />
<br />Modern theologians and philosophers inject the story with personal philosophies. With great zeal they throw Adam and Eve under the proverbial bus. They create a circle of the blame around Eve and the serpent. They don't bother to think that Adam had already resisted the temptation and obeyed God. They think <br />
<br />If a Bible reader interested in theology and doesn't understand what happened in Genesis, how are they to understand the rest of the Bible? What is the purpose of creation, both of planet and of people?<br />
<br />There are abundant essays and theological positions of mainstream Christian scholars all over the Internet that confirm what I am saying. I have included one example at the end of this post. <br />
<br />The mainstream scholars teach that God had never before created a world with people on it. They teach that his plan was for Adam and Eve to dwell in the Garden of Eden forever and that the fall was a negative event. It now required a new plan they say to deal with this falling out.<br />
<br />Why was the fall necessary and planned and not a sinful rebellion as the mainstream teachers say? Why did God create the circumstances for sin to occur, death to result and man to be cast out of the garden?<br />
<br />The obvious answer should be that if there hadn't been a fall there would be no need for a Christ. In fact, there wouldn't be any Christians at all or a Bible for that matter? I personally do not understand how this is not plain to any logical thinking Bible reading person.<br />
<br />Without the fall there would be no need for an atonement or payment for sin and therefore no suffering on the cross or in the Garden. We would not have the teachings of Jesus and his acts of healing if there had been no fall. There would have been no empty tomb. We would not have been born and there would have been no people to save. We could not be "born again."<br />
<br />Wouldn't the viewpoint that the fall was not God's original plan actually be the non-Christian perspective? Isn't this evidence that these erroneous conclusions of mainstream Christian scholars and philosophers are the philosophies of men? They don't want to accept the fact that a young man that called himself a prophet in upstate New York corrected this gross misunderstanding that had been established in mainstream doctrines for almost 2000 years.<br />
<br />Mainstream theologians would have Bible believers think that God created the very large world and infinite stars and planets, galaxies and solar systems only for two people to inhabit a small garden on this one small planet. How was this supposed to please God and to keep him company for all of eternity? This is the implication of mainstream classical Bible scholarship. It is especially nonsensical considering that Adam and Eve did not procreate until after fall. If they had the world would be overrun with immortals creating other immortals. </span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br /></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Interestingly God's plan of eternal love and salvation would require the creation of endless worlds. Agency, mortality and redemption and resurrection are eternal principles. To the point though, the death of mankind was tied to Adam and Eve's choice as was the knowledge necessary to know the goodness of human intimacy as authorized by God as well as its counterfeit relationships.<br /><br />We are here like we are because God wants us to be. This IS God's plan. Mortality is a stage of learning with all its hardships. It is part of who God is as a loving creator. The fall was necessary and is a part of God's eternal plan for the progress of his children. Exaltation can only be given according to the existence of Moral Agency as I mentioned before.<br />
<br />Why do classical theologians assume that being captive in a garden paradise, living in eternal ignorance and innocence with the devil forever bothering us could somehow be a preferred state of existence? The creation of the world and of mankind are key components of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In order for us to have eternal freedoms and infinite potential in glory much beyond any paradise, we could imagine we have to come to an earthly creation.<br />
<br />What is the reason that Christianity exists at all? Does it simply exist because there was an event that occurred called "The Fall"? Did the principles of Christianity exist before that event occurred? Not according to classical theologians and Bible scholars. Creedal Trinitarian doctrines teach that the Trinity made up the whole concept of biblical Christianity starting about 6000 years ago and then waited 4000 years to implement it.<br />
<br />They don't seem to recognize that it was God who set the stage for the fall to take place by giving Adam and Eve a choice and allowing Satan to be there to tempt them.<br />
<br />When Adam and Eve partook from the "tree of Knowledge", the Gods (plural) said that man had become like one of them, to know good and evil. The ground was cursed, but it was cursed for their sake, to bless them and teach them to work. It is especially important to notice that God did not say that man had become evil like the devil because of what they had done.<br />
<br />The commandment to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge no longer exists on this planet. It was there for one reason only and specific to them. It was God’s way of making the fall Adam's choice and not being forced upon him or Eve.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The lack of force by a deity is an essential element of moral agency.<br />
<br />This event was the means for implementing moral agency, not just for the salvation of God's children but for their exaltation. The opposition that we experience in life is necessary for us to have the agency to make choices and be accountable for them. It is in every sense of the word a testing period.<br />
<br />Eve did what God wanted her to do, that was to open the door to a greater more abundant life with the ongoing opportunity for creation and family life. Adam recognized this as well and followed Eve. According to trinitarian scholars, Adam and Eve should still be in the garden being tempted to eat from the one "bad tree".<br />
<br />If you don't believe our current state of existence is God's will then you are implying that existence of the rest of humanity is the result of Satan's influence and the rebellion of two people. Accordingly, the gospel would just be God fighting back or reacting with a plan B rather than being in charge or acting according to his plan A.<br />
<br />God's eternal plan required mortality, death and a resurrection to a glorified incorruptible body. Only Jesus Christ could provide this through his atonement and the power it would give to mankind.<br />
<br />Adam and Eve did not have access to the full measure of their potential until after the fall. The new body they and we receive after the resurrection will not be corruptible and will never die again under any circumstance.<br />
<br />The life they enjoyed in the Garden was a static, limited life with no growth or increase. They knew no real joy because they had no sorrow. The immortal body that Adam and Eve had in the Garden was obviously corruptible as death was able to come upon them.<br />
<br />Who then would doubt that God wanted the fall to happen or that Adam and Eve were this world's first Christians? God did reveal the full plan of salvation to them and they rejoiced in the hope of salvation through their Savior.<br />
<br />LDS believe that God created the world because he loved us first because we were and are his literal children. We lived with him in a pre-earth time period. Trinitarians believe that God created the earth, then man and then imputed a love to the creature that man was.<br />
<br />The idea that the fall was not a good thing or that it was a rebellious act is not congruent reasoning and such thinking makes Jesus a backup plan and a reaction to the fall. <br />
<br />Such reasoning puts Satan as the instigator of what can only be considered a plan B by God to deal with what mainstream scholars seem to think was an unintended consequence. Was the fall an intended consequence or not?<br />
<br />I am aware that Christian apologists teach that God knew Adam and Eve would fall, which he must if he is all knowing, however, the idea that the fall was a bad thing is still a contradictory position to redemption by Jesus Christ. Teaching that the fall was a mistake or a bad thing or a rebellion that wasn't planned is the anti-Christian position.<br />
<br />The fall and the atonement of Jesus Christ go together. Jesus was always the plan to save mankind and give us eternal life. He always was and is the main plan for our redemption. Trinitarian scholars cannot explain why the fall was necessary, Mormons can.<br />
<br />The fall hinges on the concept of moral agency and so does accepting Jesus as our Savior. Trinitarian scholars say that God gave man free will so he wouldn’t be a robot. Based on this statement, free will is still something that God gave to man.<br />
<br />These scholars say God is the "first cause" of all things and that if not he would not be sovereign over all things and if he is not sovereign then he cannot be all powerful. This isn't true, it is their philosophical conclusion.<br />
<br />If God is the first cause of all things including man’s will then he is also the cause of man's choices and sins. This is the logic of Christian scholar-theologians. They like to use the analogy of a robot. This is how their argument goes. A robot was created, it was given free will and now it is supposedly not a robot because it has a will and can choose to love or disobey God? This imputed will can now bring about the condemnation of the soul of the individual. Is this somehow a gift from God?<br />
<br />Biblical apologists in defense of God not being the cause of evil created the free will argument, yet they subscribe to the first cause argument and absolute sovereignty of God. These are incongruent positions with conflicting logic.<br />
<br />Actual free will can only exist if our intelligence is not created by God and exists eternal on its own. The doctrine of moral agency and the premortal existence of our spirit sets the foundation for free will and does away with the contradiction in the false first cause doctrines.<br />
<br />Our spirit is here in a mortal body as part of a learning process that God governs over with his powers of creation. It is God's will that we are here in a mortal state to learn to subject our will to his will.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This is a time of preparation for a glorious eternal life built on families relationships.<br />
<br />The Bible teaches that Satan was a liar from the beginning. He was and is the father of lies and fought against Christ. In the book of John, we understand that Jesus was with God in the beginning and he was God.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Bible doesn’t say God created Satan and gave him free will so he could become evil. Philosophers imputed this idea to cover the theological contradiction that a good and sovereign God would create a place where the existence of evil, injustice, and suffering could be so prevalent.<br />
<br />Evil is an inherent possibility and exists eternally along with the good, otherwise, God would be its creator. There would be no good if there were no evil and there would be no evil if there were no eternally existing laws through which God is sovereign. He cannot be holy by designating himself as holy. He is holy because he has overcome evil and upholds all eternal law.<br />
<br />Jesus was the only way to God, he did have to die and he agreed to do it before the world was ever created. Adam and Eve too were chosen before to be our first parents. This was the only way the Father could offer a glorious opportunity of exaltation to his children. It is offered to all those willing to follow Christ and make eternal covenants. It is based on eternal principles and laws. It requires that we be moral agents in a fallen world.<br />
<br />The mainstream philosopher-theologians claim that the Trinity made up the laws, thus forcing people to suffer on earth. It also made up the punishments and created a hell for those creatures that it created out of nothing.<br />
<br />The reason for creation was and is to let us have a learning experience. It requires that we have the means to be liberated from the negative consequences of our sins and death because of our mistakes. Jesus overcame death and sin so we could rise with him. Our earthly suffering and the injustice inflicted by evil people ends at death.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It is temporary in that respect.<br />
<br />When we accept Christ his mercy becomes available to us and we won’t have to suffer the full consequences our sins and we can become free beings in eternity. By living his gospel we also find joy in the journey of life, understanding our divine purpose for living, and the nature of our relationship to God.<br />
<br />The reason Jesus could satisfy the demands of eternal justice is that he lived a perfect life. He was not subject to the laws by which sin results because of his perfect obedience. This does not refer to the law of Moses but to eternal laws. All those that receive the gift of his atonement likewise attain that perfection in him.<br />
<br />Jesus was foreordained to be the Savior of the world. His Godhood allowed him to give up his life. It was not taken from him. The condition of his mercy is that is we that repent of our sins. Faith in him is what causes us to do this.<br />
<br />Prophets of God have been called again to preside over the Savior's church. They are the shepherds that lead the flock of Christ. They are chosen by him and have His authority and receive divine guidance for His Church. I invite you to learn more and to know that you are literally a child of God your Eternal Father.<br />
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-39259645556252258212018-04-05T14:28:00.001-07:002019-04-01T21:30:18.351-07:00Christ and the Latter-day Kingdom of God on the Earth<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I first learned of the Latter-Day Saints I assumed they were just like other churches I had attended and that denominations didn't matter. I had heard some negative things about the Church but wasn't too interested in verfying them.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My faith in God was established by my parents as we attended various Protestant churches, non-denominational, Congregational and Methodist. My understanding and faith in Jesus Christ came when I met some Latter-day Saints and learned what they believed.</span></span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-dc80a7a3-7fff-f478-c6b4-333ae3d1024b" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was baptized and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1973. Over these years I have studied the doctrines we teach and attended other churches and studied their doctrines to better understand them and debated with critics of the church about their cynicism. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I went from being close-minded and mocking to deciding to listen, study their teachings and attend church. There was nothing strange about the Church or its beliefs. They were more biblical and talked about Jesus Christ as much or more than so-called churches professing "biblical Christianity".</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is Latter-day Saint theology Christian or not? If so on what basis and if not on what basis? Is Joseph Smith a prophet or not? Is the Book of Mormon another testament of Jesus Christ or not?</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I find that a simple doctrinal understanding taught in the Book of Mormon demonstrates how classical trinitarian theologians teach the misguided philosophies of men. The Restored Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ make the stronger case for Christ than so-called evangelical Christians do.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Fall of Adam and Eve</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How has traditional Christian philosophy explained one of the better-known stories in the Bible? The Book of Mormon gives doctrinal clarity to it and demonstrates Joseph Smith's calling as a witness for Jesus Christ that the traditional understandings developed by orthodox Christian doctrines have misunderstood.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Fall of Adam, as it is called often gets discussed on a superficial level. Agnostics mock and make jokes about it. Orthodox Bible scholars, theologians, and philosophers heap the blame for suffering and evil on Adam and Eve for heeding the devil.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If a person claims to read the Bible or be interested in theology and doesn't understand what happened in Genesis, how are they to understand the rest of the Bible?</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The essays and theological positions of mainstream Christian scholars are available to read on the internet. I have included one example at the end of this essay.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Many if not most theological scholars agree that Adam and Eve did something that God told them not to do. Sin and death were the results of their choice. What then are the differences in how this event in Genesis is understood</span>?</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trinitarian or mainstream scholars teach that God had never before created a world with people on it. They teach that his plan was for Adam and Eve to dwell in the Garden of Eden forever and that the fall was a negative event.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If the fall was negative and not intended to happen then why did God establish the circumstances and means for the fall to happen? Why have sin, and death enter the world and for the man and woman to be cast out of the garden in due time?</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many of the considerations of philosophers and theologians are speculative declarations with no meaningful insight at all. They would have Bible believers think that God created the very large world and infinite stars and planets only for two people to inhabit a small garden to keep him company for all of eternity. This is the implication of mainstream classical Bible scholarship.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Adam and Eve were innocent before the fall and did not procreate until after. This is evident in their innocence of not being aware that they were naked and the fact that they did not have children before the fall. After the fall the pronouncement of childbearing was placed upon Mother Eve.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why was the fall necessary and planned and not a sinful rebellion?</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The obvious answer should be that if there hadn't been a fall there wouldn't be a Christ. In fact, there wouldn't be any Christians at all or a Bible for that matter? I personally do not understand how this is not plain to any logical thinking, Bible reading person.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Without the fall there would be no need for an atonement by Jesus Christ or payment for sin and therefore no suffering on the cross or in the Garden. We would not have Jesus's teachings and acts of healing if there had been no fall. There would have been no empty tomb. We would not have been born and there would have been no people to save.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wouldn't the viewpoint that the fall was a bad thing, or that it was not God's plan actually be the non-Christian perspective? I see a certain irony in the erroneous conclusions of mainstream Christian scholars and philosophers. They don't want to accept the fact that a young boy in upstate New York corrected this gross misunderstanding that had been established by them for millennia.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We are here like we are because God wants us to be. Mortality as a stage of learning with all its hardships is part of who God is. The fall was necessary and is a part of God's eternal plan for the progress of his children.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The world was created and so was mankind to implement the gospel of Jesus Christ so that we could have eternal freedoms. Why do some assume that being captive in a garden paradise, living in eternal ignorance and innocence with the devil forever bothering us would be a preferred state of existence?</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because orthodox professors of theology are interpreting scripture from a philosophical viewpoint using their own wisdom they miss the essential concept that the fall was necessary for God's plan of salvation to take effect. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is the reason that Christianity exists at all? Does it simply exist because there was an event that occurred called "The Fall"? Did the principles of Christianity exist before that event occurred? Not according to mainstream Christian theologians and Bible scholars. Creedal Trinitarian doctrines teach that the Trinity made up the whole concept of biblical Christianity starting about 6000 years ago and then waited 4000 years to do something about it.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who caused the fall, Satan or God? Trinitarians would have you believe that Satan was responsible. Yet it God who set the stage for the fall to take place by giving Adam and Eve a choice and allowing Satan to be there to tempt them.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When Adam and Eve partook from the "tree of Knowledge", the Gods (plural) said that man had become like one of them, to know good and evil. The ground was cursed, but it was cursed for their sake, to bless them and teach them to work. It is especially important to notice that God did not say that man had become evil like the devil because of what they had done.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The commandment to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge no longer exists on this planet. It was there for one reason only and specific to them. It was God’s way of making the fall Adam's choice and not being forced upon him or Eve. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This event was the means for implementing moral agency, not just for the salvation of God's children but for their exaltation. The opposition that we experience in life is necessary for us to have the agency to make choices and be accountable for them. It is in every sense of the word a testing period.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eve did what God wanted her to do, that was to open the door to a greater more abundant life with the ongoing opportunity for creation and family life. Adam recognized this as well and followed Eve. According to trinitarian scholars, Adam and Eve should still be in the garden being tempted to eat from the one "bad tree".</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you don't believe our current state of existence is God's will then you are implying that all of existence is the result of Satan's influence and the rebellion of two people and that God is just fighting back with a plan B since man rejected plan A.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God's eternal plan required mortality, death and a resurrection to a glorified incorruptible body. Only Jesus Christ could provide this through his atonement and the power it would give to mankind. Adam and Eve did not have access to the full measure of their potential until after the fall. The new body they and we receive after the resurrection will not be corruptible and will never die again under any circumstance.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The life they enjoyed in the Garden was a static, limited life with no growth or increase. They knew no real joy because they had no sorrow. The immortal body that Adam and Eve had in the Garden was obviously corruptible as death was able to come upon them.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who then would doubt that God wanted the fall to happen or that Adam and Eve were this world's first Christians? God did reveal the full plan of salvation to them and they rejoiced in the hope of salvation through their Savior.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">LDS believe that God created the world because he loved us first because we were his literal children. We lived with him in a pre-earth time period. Trinitarians believe that God created the earth, then man and then imputed a love to the creature that man was.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You, my friend, may have been told that the fall was not a good thing, that it was a rebellious act. This is not congruent reasoning and such thinking makes Jesus a backup plan and a reaction to the fall.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This reasoning puts Satan as the instigator of what can only be considered a plan B by God to deal with what mainstream scholars seem to think was an unintended consequence. Was the fall an intended consequence or not? Clearly, it could not have been.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am aware that Christian apologists teach that God knew they would fall, which he must if he is all knowing, however, the idea that the fall was a bad thing is still a contradictory position to redemption by Jesus Christ. Teaching that the fall was a mistake or a bad thing or a rebellion that wasn't planned is the anti-Christian position.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I believe and it seems obvious enough that the fall of Adam and the atonement of Jesus Christ go together. We believe that Jesus was always the plan to save mankind and give us eternal life. He always was and is the main plan for our redemption. Trinitarian scholars with their biblical debates cannot explain why the fall was necessary but the Book of Mormon does.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The fall hinges on the concept of moral agency and so does accepting Jesus as our Savior. Trinitarian scholars say that God gave man free will so he wouldn’t be a robot. Based on this statement, free will is still something that God gave to man.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These scholars say God is the "first cause" of all things and that if not he would not be sovereign over all things and if he is not sovereign then he cannot be all powerful. This isn't true, it is their philosophical conclusion.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If God is the first cause of man’s will then he is also the cause of man's choices and sins. This is the logic of Christian scholar-theologians. They like to use the analogy of a robot. This is how their argument goes. A robot was created, it was given free will and now it is supposedly not a robot because it has a will and can choose to love or disobey God? This imputed will can now bring about the condemnation of the soul of the individual. Is this somehow a gift from God?</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Biblical apologists in defense of God not being the cause of evil created the free will argument, yet they subscribe to the first cause argument and absolute sovereignty of God. These are incongruent positions with conflicting logic.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The doctrine of moral agency in LDS theology is different from free will and does away with these contradictions. We are eternal beings, with our own will. God did not create it. His intelligence</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our spirit is here in a mortal body as part of a learning process that God governs over with his powers of creation. It is God's will that we are here in a mortal state to learn to subject our will to his will. This is a time of preparation for a glorious eternal life with our families.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Latter-Day Saints believe that Jesus’ atonement was eternal and infinite and extends through all of creation. It was the only way to satisfy the demands of eternal justice. The church doesn't criticize any of the acts of faith of Christian believers but invites all to hear the message of the Living Christ.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Bible teaches that Satan was a liar from the beginning. He was and is the father of lies and fought against Christ. In the book of John, we understand that Jesus was with God in the beginning and he was God. It should give pause and cause one to ask why lies and misinformation are used to discredit The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as a Christian church.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Bible doesn’t say God created Satan and gave him free will so he could become evil. Philosophers imputed this idea to cover the theological contradictions that a good and sovereign God would create a place where the existence of evil, injustice, and suffering could be so prevalent.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Evil is an inherent possibility and exists eternally along with the good, otherwise, God would be its creator. There would be no good if there were no evil and there would be no evil if there were no eternally existing laws through which God is sovereign. He cannot be holy by designating himself as holy. He is holy because he has overcome evil and upholds all eternal law.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We teach that Jesus was the only way to God, that he did have to die and Jesus agreed to do it before the world was ever created. Adam and Eve too were chosen before to be our first parents. This was the only way the Father could save us and offer a glorious opportunity of exaltation to his children, those willing to follow Christ and make eternal covenants. It is based on eternal principles and laws. It requires that we be moral agents in a fallen world.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The mainstream philosopher-theologians claim that the Trinity made up the laws, thus forcing people to suffer on earth. It also made up the punishments and created a hell for those creatures that it created out of nothing. Most of which will suffer forever in hell.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The real reason for creation was and is to let us have a learning experience. It requires that we have the means to be liberated from the negative consequences of our sins and death because of our mistakes. Jesus overcame death and sin so we could rise with him. Our earthly suffering and the injustice inflicted by evil people ends at death. It is temporary in that respect.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When we accept Christ his mercy becomes available to us and we won’t have to suffer the full consequences our sins and we can become free beings in eternity. By living his gospel we also find joy in the journey of life, understanding our divine purpose for living, and the nature of our relationship to God.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The reason Jesus could satisfy the demands of eternal justice is that he lived a perfect life. He was not subject to the laws by which sin results because of his perfect obedience. This does not refer to the law of Moses but to eternal laws. All those that receive the gift of his atonement likewise attain that perfection in him.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Bible teaches that Jesus was foreordained to be the Savior of the world. His Godhood allowed him to give up his life. It was not taken from him. The condition of his mercy is that is we that repent of our sins. Faith in him is what causes us to do this.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Any that have implied that I don’t believe in the Jesus of the Bible that lived on this earth, that he is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, my Savior and Redeemer, and who is also the living resurrected Christ is from a source other than me. That source whatever it may be is a faulty one.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Prophets of God have been called again to preside over the Savior's church. They are the shepherds that lead the flock of Christ. They are chosen by him and have His authority and receive divine guidance for His Church. I invite you to learn more and to know that you are literally a child of God your Eternal Father.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Additional Information</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Latter-Day Saint Story</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The term Mormon was intended as a negative connotation used by our early critics. Mormon, however, was a great prophet-leader in the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ so we embraced it for its association.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The actual name of the church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have noticed that many churches that declare Christianity don't even reference the Savior in their names. Many use a name for brand marketing purposes or the name of their founder.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Joseph Smith's search for truth led him to pray for guidance as to which church was the Lord's and which he should join. In the 1820's when he was a young man, just like today, there were a diversity of doctrines from biblical religious teachers that were confusing to him. If there is a universal truth about God, shouldn't there be a church and a faith that represents him and unites all true believers? There was when Jesus was on the earth.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He said God, the Father and Christ appeared to him as an answer to his prayer. He said they were individual beings and that they were glorious beyond description. It was an extraordinary declaration for a boy his age. It brought him criticism and defamation. The pastors of the churches he attended told him this experience was not from God and immediately sought to downplay and discredit his testimony of what happened.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even though he was only 14 years old, many things took place after that initial experience. He didn't claim to start a new church or reform an old one. Prior to his experience, many reformations had taken place as Christians, biblical scholars and religious professors disagreed with each other. Joseph Smith was told not to join any of the existing churches.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Joseph was told that he would be taught and prepared to restore the authority and organization of the original church of Jesus Christ and establish it again on the earth. He was called to become a prophet of God, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. His calling is to prepare the world for the second coming of the Savior.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because Joseph Smith's testimony and the evidence of his prophetic ministry are substantial and convincing in their own right they are attested to by many. While his adversaries have not disproven in any way his claims, they have sought and still seek to discredit him using various forms of misinformation.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Narratives have been developed by his critics regarding events in his life that they spin to demonstrate, at least in their minds that he was a false prophet. If you are not willing to investigate his message from original sources you could be misled by the falsehoods that exist in the volumes of biased information disseminated by his critics.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Shortly after his visit from God, one of the messengers that visited him told him in a prophecy that his name would be known for good and evil throughout the world. Evidence abounds that this prophecy has been fulfilled.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Have you ever prayed to God to know the truth of something? This is the process that makes sense if you are looking for truth in your life. If you are willing to read the Book of Mormon you should ask God if it is true. The book extends a promise and many have received the witness that it is a testament of Jesus Christ.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The doctrinal clarity that the Book of Mormon gives to the Bible as a companion scripture is enlightening and compelling.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The best way to gauge the Christianity of Mormonism is to read the Book of Mormon. It is what it claims to be, a testament of Jesus Christ. Reading it with an open heart and mind it is evident that it was not produced with any other intent than to demonstrate that God loves his children and still communicates with prophets on the earth. It will give you insight as to why Joseph Smith's testimony has spread throughout the world.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Other Notes and Observations</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The non-atheist critics of the church would like others to think that Trinitarianism is the viable alternative to the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Nicene creed defines what is known as the Trinity, the deity of mainstream Christian philosophers and theologians. This is known as Trinitarianism. This creed is easy to research online if you care to know more about it. Most orthodox Christians use it as their foundational doctrine. Mormons do not and in this sense of the word, we are not orthodox Christians.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trinitarianism is a theology based on metaphors. We all know the Bible talks about the Father and the Son. In orthodox biblical teachings, these are not really a father or a son except in a figurative sense. The only reason these scholars use the male nouns and pronouns is that the Bible does.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The actual doctrines of mainstream Christianity declare God to be an incorporeal genderless being. As such they have no actual relationship except as imputed to them metaphorically by human scholars and philosophers and their limited wisdom. These scholars will tell you that you are a child of God but it is in a metaphorical sense only. According to them, you are simply a creature creation, not a child.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The most recent seminar against the church that I attended was by a former Mormon, Lynn Wilder. She goes around speaking at evangelical churches about her experience when she was a Mormon and describes her version of Mormonism. She uses her past employment as a BYU professor as credibility for her message and her book "Unveiling Grace." Her approach is typical of the church's critics.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On page 218 of her book she says "For example, Mormonism took the biblical idea "people sin and need a Savior" and twisted it into, "people sin and can be their own savior", referring to her son on the same page, she says, "Josh’s patriarchal blessing said", ”Those who receive you and the message you bring will one day recognize you as a savior on Mt. Zion” She then states, “Mormonism declared that my own son would be recognized as a savior!” She wants you to think that Mormons can be their own savior. We do not believe such a thing.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those outside the church may not know this or how we use the term. The term “savior on Mt. Zion” comes from Obadiah 1:21 in the Old Testament. She claims that she realized Mormons were wrong as she read the Bible. How did she not discover that non-Mormon Bible scholars use the same term? Not only does she seem ignorant of Mormon teachings, but she also doesn't seem very credible as a biblical scholar that she now professes to be.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In another example, she says she attended an LDS worship service on an Easter Sunday and that none of the speakers talked about Jesus. First, this is highly unlikely. Second, she does not tell readers that the reason LDS members attend sacrament meeting every Sunday is to partake of the sacrament to remember Christ. Her book is full of incomplete and inaccurate comparisons like this.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I have become familiar with many of the church's critics and their claims I have witnessed that their arguments are often irrational and based on fallacies. If they do use a true event they mix it with their own opinion narratives nuanced to reflect their bias or reference it without the background in which it was spoken, the culture in which it took place or out of context with what we know to be established doctrine.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The misinformation they disseminate has spread substantially over the centuries. Another form of criticism comes in the form of unrealistic expectations and then they opinionate as to why they think Joseph Smith, his successors, and the church do not meet them. These have been in the form of accusations that church leaders have somehow carefully crafted a cover-up of various historical events. These events are recorded in the history of the church and available for study to those that wish to know.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even with the many negative assertions taking place, the church has grown to over 16 million members with over 30,000 congregations known as wards and branches all over the world. The local congregational ward leaders receive no compensation for their service and all together are a unified worldwide church.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The divisions created by Bible scholar debates in mainstream Christianity are self-evident in the modern-day sectarian churches. Scholars and religious leaders operate their congregations as independent entities for monetary compensation. They claim God no longer speaks through human prophets but that they through human interpretation can tell people from the Bible what God expects.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some former members declare to be atheists and denounce the church simply for the sake of denouncing it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In many random conversations over the years, I have noticed a disconnect in mainstream Christian believers from their fundamental doctrines. The average believer goes for fellowship, not doctrinal understanding. The concept of the Trinity is not explainable and many simply dismiss it as not important. They often believe like Mormons do in the corporeal nature of God.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trinitarianism or mainstream theologians teach that Satan managed to foil God’s main plan to live in the Garden forever. It implies that Adam and Eve, or Satan initiated the need for Jesus to become a Savior. To them, Satan and evil pride caused the fall. Quite the opposite is true. God's love brought about the voluntary fall and the voluntary atonement by the Son of God.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trinitarianism is comprised of all forms of mainstream or orthodox biblical churches and the theologian-philosophers that teach the doctrines of the Nicene Creed. They teach the traditional trinity of beings of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost existing as one single incorporeal and genderless God.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mormons believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. These three are separate physical beings of the male gender and together they are one Godhead unified in the holy work of salvation for God the Father's children. We believe that Jesus is the only Begotten Son of the Father in the flesh, that he suffered and died for us and he is our savior and redeemer.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The difference is that in Mormonism humans are actually related to God and have infinite potential to progress. In Trinitarianism, humans are creature creations not related to God in any way but are simply creature creations that are fundamentally flawed and only have limited capacity for progressing in eternity.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mormons believe in the historical Jesus of the New Testament. We believe the Bible is the word of God. We believe the Father and Son are actually literally related to each other as father and son as the Bible teaches. We believe Jesus is the only begotten Son of God in the flesh. We believe that he suffered and died for us and is our savior and redeemer.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I have gone through this process over the years I think I came to realize why others don't really understand our teachings about Christ. Generally speaking, quite a bit of inaccurate information has been perpetuated in the Chrisitan community both by critics of the Latter-Day Saints and biblical apologists and their theological analysis.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the subject of Mormonism comes up in Christian venues, pastors, Bible study leaders, and others use information from these sources that isn't correct. The members of their fellowships assume it is accurate because they trust their preacher or teacher that they hear it from and they believe it and also disseminate it.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I talk to others about their theology I find a disconnect between what the scholar theologians teach and what the average Christian believer understands about their trinitarian roots as well.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some Christian theologians say we are not Christians because we believe that there is a literal relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ, that it is not metaphorical or fictitious like they teach. We also believe that the Father and Son are physical beings and we are created in their image. This places Mormons outside the bounds of some unique definition of what constitutes a Christian.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The traditional Trinitarian scholars teach that there is not an actual father-son relationship in the Trinity because they are incorporeal beings, meaning they don't have bodies. The titles of father and son are metaphorical only as are the male pronouns they use to describe their deity. We can't be created in the image of the Trinity since it does not have one.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Trinitarian scholars also that claim that because Latter-Day Saints have additional scripture like The Book of Mormon-Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and are led by living prophets we aren't really Christians. They claim God no longer speaks to mankind like he did in the Bible.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Professors of classical religious teachings would have others believe that Trinitarianism is the viable alternative to Mormonism because it has a 2000 year history. They can't reasonably rationalize it though because it is a history of division and disagreement regarding doctrines and practices resulting in thousands of sectarian biblical churches. </span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This manifestation of the apostasy or falling away from the church that Jesus established was prophesied in the Bible. This is what brought about the Church of Jesus Christs of Latter-Day Saints. It is the restoration of Jesus's church, not a reformation of the Catholic church which is what Protestant and Evangelical Trinitarianism is. This restoration is also a biblical prophecy.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The doctrinal agreement in common of these churches is the Nicene Creed. This establishes the basis for all of the creedal or orthodox Christian beliefs about God. Mormons do not hold to this core creed and therefore don't fit the classical or orthodox model of Christianity.</span></span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-80333541481904378802017-12-10T11:15:00.001-08:002021-08-22T12:01:51.393-07:00How Can We Have An Eternal Family?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I attended a traditional Christian church with my parents as a young boy. I later learned that the fundamental precepts of our theology were that marriage and family relationships as we know them were temporary and ended at death. I did like the feeling I got when I went to church but the teachings didn't really make sense.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My mother died a month before I turned nine. After her death, I lived with a lingering curiosity about heaven and wondering if there were answers to this mystery of life. The vague concepts of what heaven might be like in traditional Protestantism were not that reassuring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I later learned that the idea of eternal family relationships was a teaching unique to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (The Mormon Church).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I attended church with some friends and learned about what they believed about life after death it made so much sense. The plan of life and salvation that centers on Jesus Christ and was ordained by our Father in Heaven is centered in our families.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"The Family, A Proclamation to the World" summarizes the doctrine and the principles of eternal families. <a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&old=true">https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&old=true</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Latter-day Saints teach that God created our spirit before we were born. Our spirit and body are created in the image of God. Our spirit is the literal offspring of God and is the result of the love of our Heavenly Parents. We were not just imagined into existence at our mortal birth. Our spirit is image of God is male and female and also is our physical mortal body. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">Marriage and families are established by God for our happiness. As his children, our eternal happiness is increased in our family relationships as is God's. The principle of Marriage came from heaven. It is a covenant that unites husbands and wives in the bonds of affection and nurturing. As we faithfully keep this covenant it grows stronger by creating and working together in this life and extends into eternity if we remain faithful to it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Motherhood and Fatherhood are eternal precepts. In the relationships that exemplify the pattern God established in the earth, we see that human creation only takes place when there are a father and a mother. Under ideal circumstances a husband and wife. Because life's circumstances aren't always fair, opportunities still exist after we die that give every person a chance to form these relationships.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">LDS theology is unique because living prophets and apostles with authority from Jesus Christ have revealed the nature of families. Orthodox teachings are based on the conclusions of self-appointed philosopher/theologians.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Traditional or orthodox Christian theology teaches that the creation of man and woman, the male and female genders, marriage, and family were completely new concepts in the Garden of Eden. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Latter-day Saints as a Christian community testify that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. As the living and resurrected Christ he leads his church in our day. As our Savior, he can and will help us find happiness through his eternal gospel. All individuals and families can be healed and find happiness if they are willing to seek it through him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The opportunities to have a full family life are not limited to this temporary mortality only but do require our diligence to learn. He is the Savior of the Father's family and our individual families as well if we will let him.</span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-78796338978593769952017-11-19T13:19:00.002-08:002019-07-05T11:24:17.593-07:00The First Vision-Truth From The Grove-A Revelation of Eternity<span style="font-size: large;">My search for truth is based on a simple observation. The world exists and so do we. Is there a God that created us or not? If so then what demonstrates the nature of this being or beings? Who is authorized to speak for God? Can we identify actual eternal unchangeable truth? Can we communicate directly with God, and if so how do we do so? How do we find out the truth about these things?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Joseph Smith was 14 years old in 1820. He tells his experience of seeking to know his standing before God and how he could know which of the many churches was the right one. What resulted is known to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as the "First Vision". We learn many profound truths from his experience. <a href="https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-vision-accounts-synthesis?lang=eng" target="_blank">Link to Joseph Smiths narrative of his vision.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">He would have recounted the experience dozens if not hundreds of times verbally to others after it happened. Some religionists persecuted him for telling it and for not writing it down until some 12 years later. From these critics, many false narratives developed regarding his life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;"> Several variations of the experience have been written focusing on different aspects of what took place. The experience he describes cannot logically be ignored even though his critics will try and say that it didn't happen. They have a burden of proof that cannot be met. While their attempts have persisted for almost 200 years, Joseph's message and testimony of God has filled much of the earth. One of the angels that he said visited him prophesied that his name would be held for good and for evil throughout the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">He did not go into the grove of trees seeking to create a story or looking for a vision. He did not make a published record of his account until more than a decade after it happened. This wasn't the day and age of instantaneous communication nor was there a reason to make a written account of the event at the time it happened. The time did arrive however and it was necessary to share the message with others in the way God wanted it to be published.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I found answers in the church's teachings that make sense of the questions about the purpose of life and our eternal destiny as individuals and families. These teachings open our minds to the concept of an eternal glorious family of God to which we belong. God has once again called prophets to lead his church?<br /><br />Since he first declared to have conversed with God and other heavenly messengers he has essentially been on trial. Even though he has been dead for about 150 years. His testimony has not been stopped through the efforts of his critics. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Even though they craft dubious narratives, conjecturing about historical events, the critics have a burden of proof that they cannot meet. The use of fallacious allegations is rampant in their narratives to incite spurious charges and conjecture. They cannot disprove Josephs testimony nor that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, a divine record, translated by revelation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">He has been called many negative things in the biased narratives designed to discourage people from investigating his message. That message started at the age of 14 and his life ended 30 years later because he would not deny what he had experienced. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">His message was to instill in people a desire to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to proclaim his eternal gospel in preparation for his second coming. His testimony of Jesus Christ and God the Father stand as a witness to his message and calling as a prophet. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Without the testimony of Joseph Smith, we would not have a prophetic witness of God's involvement with modern society. Bible scholars and philosophers have dominated Christianity with debates and declarations that God is silent and they are somehow his voice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I am somewhat grateful for those that are antagonistic against the church and Joseph Smith. Studying their allegations and comparing them to the truth has demonstrated symptomatic bias and misinformative narratives that are full of fallacies, conjecture, and opinions. They are crafted and presented as history and facts when they are not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From Joseph Smith's "first Vision" we learn that God is an actual person and has a glorified physical body. We are quite literally created in the image of God. We look like him. What was later understood and revealed makes perfect sense as well. Whose image is the woman in the likeness of?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We now understand that God did not invent the two genders of male and female in the Garden of Eden. If so it would be nothing more than a random experiment, a spontaneous change in the actions of an eternal being. Men are in the image and likeness of our Heavenly Father and women are in the image of our Heavenly Mother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Modern and ancient Bible scholars and philosopher-theologians teach that God is genderless being and not a parent at all and creation of souls is a random process. They also teach that we are not created in God's image because the being they teach as being God it has no image at all as an incorporeal triune deity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God is not a single parent, but the eternal union of glorious individuals living in perfect harmony that love each other. From that love springs endless and eternal creation of human souls and the means to lead them to eternal life and exaltation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Godhead that we are familiar with in the Bible consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. They are three separate and distinct individuals. All things are done under the direction of the Father. He delegated many aspects of the creation of this world and worlds without end to the Son as a premortal being. His redemptive role from his life on this earth transcends time and covers worlds without end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We can call each member of the Godhead with the title of God or refer to them together as God, as they are united in one purpose to bring salvation to all of us. They each speak for themselves and for each other at times as their unity is perfect. The traditional concept of God is that of an incorporeal and genderless entity known as the Trinity. A being which had never created a soul until 6000 years ago in the Garden of Eden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our Eternal Father is the father of our spirit. He is an eternal being of the male gender. Fatherhood and manhood are features of godhood. His fatherhood is not independent of womanhood and motherhood, both genders are eternal. God is the supreme head of the human family. He is not a solitary being or the only one of his kind, nor is he a single parent. Men are created in his image and women in the image of our eternal mother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Womanhood is eternal. It was not a random observation by God in the Garden that it was not good for the man to be alone and that something new had to be done about it. For this purpose, Mormons believe marriage is ordained by God, to unite a man and woman as an eternal companionship, with the potential to become endowed with powers of eternal increase. Such was the promise to Abraham.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As the Most High God, our Father in Heaven is all knowing, and all powerful. He is a possessor of all powers that exist that produce a righteous existence. In other words, he is not a mystical possessor of powers that philosophers think he would possess in order to be God. He governs in an infinite kingdom but not alone. He knows and comprehends all things. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">God is the creator of endless worlds, souls, and salvation. The spirits of these souls are us, the spirit children of our eternal Father. As such we are eternal beings, the intelligence of each one of us is co-eternal and uncreated. As such our individual worth is incalculable.<br /><br />The Methodology for Saving Souls. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Through the prophet Joseph Smith we learn that salvation and more importantly exaltation is an eternal ongoing process. We also learn that people that live on the earth without full opportunities to know the truth will have such opportunities.<br /><br />What is the eternal Christianity of Mormonism? We lived with God before we born on the earth to our mortal parents. We are part of his eternal family. He chose his most righteous and also firstborn son in our pre-mortal family to be a Redeemer and Savior to us. He was known as Jehovah and was born as the Son of God on the earth and the only begotten of the Father in the flesh. He became Jesus the Christ. As a member of the Godhead, Jesus was always the plan for mankind’s salvation. He would be a voluntary sacrifice for sin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This plan is based on eternal laws of agency, justice, mercy and the perfect love of God. The creation of earth and mortality was and is a necessary step for the eternal growth and happiness of his children. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Mortality would be introduced by a choice, not by force. The Eden setting was designed for this purpose. “The man has become as one of us” was the declaration by the Gods after the fall. Adam and Eve became this world's first Christians. It was a forward step not backward.<br /><br />How does one know the truth? God can and does reveal the truth and answers the prayers of those willing to study and ask. Of this, I have personal experience. To say otherwise would be to say that he leaves knowledge of eternal things to chance. Only one church with divine authority existed when the Savior was on the earth. Men changed it. It has been restored to the earth with the fullness of God’s authority. <br /><br />The Book of Mormon is another testament of the Savior. Its pages contain doctrine that confirms the truth of the Bible and gives clarity to it. If one wants to know the truth then they must read it and study it. Divine messengers have visited the earth to restore authority and ordinances and covenants that are eternal in nature and assure us of God’s interest in our well being.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Holy Ghost will testify with confirming power that these things are true and that living prophets guide the church. We can all have a direct channel of communication with God. I have felt it, observed the effects and know that it is real and true. Happiness, understanding of life’s purpose and eternal perspective have been the result.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The struggles and challenges of life are more confidently met when we understand why we are here and that Jesus Christ is involved in our lives. It is an eternal plan, not a temporary plan that brought us to this mortal experience and its requisite personal growth through faith and obedience. It will bless us now and continue into eternity to bless our eternal souls if we will embrace it.</span></div>
Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-75324592114483264702017-09-06T16:27:00.001-07:002021-05-05T09:35:57.556-07:00The God of the Galaxies and Eternal Creation<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The modern telescopes of modern science have amply demonstrated that galaxies beyond our ability to count them exist. What does this tell us about the nature of God? Is there really only a single all-powerful force capable of only creating inferior creatures as described by Augustinian doctrines or Calvinistic Reformation theology? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;">The scriptures speak to us in terms that seem ancient and unscientific. Perhaps this is God's accommodation of our intelligence or lack thereof. Many therefore conclude that God is old fashioned or some pharisaical invention of philosopher/theologians. In reality, the scriptures introduce us to the knowledge of beings that reign in the eternal and infinite heavens and are the most scientifically advanced of all. They are the masters of all science. Our science just a small part of God's science. Where do the principles of perfect justice, mercy, and the agency of individuals fit into the equation of eternity?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Religious theology has been heavily influenced by the opinions and limited understanding of scholars and philosophers. Their theological debates and deliberations produced a being that creates on a random basis, creating things out of nothing and experimenting with such precepts as free will, pre-determination, and pre-destination. Plain and simple precepts about deity were lost when Jesus and his apostles were killed and the authority of the church was lost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">God has called modern-day prophets and restored authority to give us an understanding of who we are. We no longer need to live in doubt and darkness trying to understand the opinions of scholars who have long debated what the scriptures say and mean. Professional religionists have perpetuated the incomprehensible deity of the 4th century AD and developed narratives that revolve around this doctrine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To what end does all of this take us? What is this heavenly goal that is so actively preached about in the modern mainstream of Christian teaching? If heaven is a state of bliss, what causes such bliss? Will we be actively engaged in some prospect of eternal creation patterned after the family as Mormons teach, or do we become genderless creatures forever on some euphoric high that is somehow imputed into those that make it to heaven? The scriptures speak of becoming kings and queens. Kings and queens over what? If creation ceases with this world then what kingdoms could possibly exist in eternity?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why is it that according to orthodox theologians this essence of perfect intelligence and all its notions of all power cannot create a perfect society of people? Why would this god, the Trinity make us unlike it is? The Bible does say we are created in the image of God. Why would it create at all if it already existed in a state of perpetual bliss and order? Religious scholars refer to God as a male. That is what the scriptures say, but that isn't what orthodox scholars believe. They use the nouns and pronouns of father and son and of he and him yet none of them apply in the context that we are familiar with. Their doctrinal essays and theological statements tell us that the Trinity of creedal origin is, in fact, a genderless and celibate being due to its incorporeal nature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why did God ordained marriage? Bible scholars would conclude because the Bible narrative says he did. Yet they believe and teach that God is a single, celibate, genderless, incorporeal essence of the highest intelligence. This is their conclusion. To be in its image would be to also exist as genderless, incorporeal essence. Why would such a being establish marriage between two genders? It would seem that their logic is flawed as well as their scriptural exegesis. Was creating male and female some new idea first tried out in the Garden of Eden? The modern and ancient professors of religion established and promote the concept of a perfect being that creates chaos out of perfection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mainstream Christian apologists have yet to come up with a rational explanation as to why Jesus, a part of the genderless trinity became a man and born of a woman except to do what? Even though later resurrected as a man he later becomes part of the Trinity again, reverting to some part of the incorporeal essence that it is. It is a single entity sacrificing another part of itself to itself. Was the concept of a savior a first-time experiment or based on eternal principles of justice and mercy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The revelations to God's modern prophets have dispelled the false notions that God is an essence or that he is genderless. He is a man and is the father of the human race. To become a father also includes the existence of a mother. God is a married exalted being. Neither is the man without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord. Marriage is his eternal order, not a temporary invention for humans on earth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Marriage is ordained in the likeness and image of the Gods, male and female. Our heavenly parents are an exalted man and woman. They are Gods as individuals and together they are the God of the creation of human spirits. This is where love finds its power. They are one in creation. It is their likeness and image, male and female. God, the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost form the eternal Godhead that we are familiar with. They are separate beings united in a holy and eternal purpose.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When the time came to form the earth, which was done for an eternal purpose, the Godhead, consisting of The Father, Jesus was Jehovah as a pre-mortal God, and the Holy Ghost again created the mortal man and woman in the image of God which is the image of male and female. Womanhood and manhood are eternal stations of existence on which the creation of a spirit offspring is founded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If God existed in a state of non-opposition he would not be anything. If existing by himself he would have no need for laws or punishments or negative consequences. Mainstream theologians have imputed the virtue of love to his essence as a divine trait that he just somehow has. Where then did hate come from if at one point God was the only intelligence in existence? Where did the prospect of hell come from if love was the reason for his actions only good existed prior to the creation of man?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Orthodox theologians invented the concept of free will to explain why man can hate and do evil and bring pain and suffering to the world. Their purpose for this is to take responsibility away from God, yet for them, he is the first cause of creation. For these teachers, free will explains why there is a devil but it is still a contradictory conclusion. They teach that God essentially made some pawns or robot-like creations out of dirt and then gave them artificial intelligence they call free will so they would not be robots but somehow now convert to free-thinking individuals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Another faulty part of their logic is that they teach that God continues to make these creatures, or actually has other people make their bodies through sexual expression. He then imputes a spirit by breathing into the body and free will comes at the same time. This is happening thousands of times a day. Apparently, these scholars do not believe that God did not rest after the six days of creation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If the pattern for developing love is a relationship and if creation is based on love, then where does it come from? Would it not come from the emotional bonds developed for another, even for an eternal companion as they lived and struggled side by side through some stage of learning and development. This is the pattern and order set in the earth by God. As couples are sealed under eternal priesthood covenants the opportunity exists for those that desire such relationships. It requires opposition and testing to develop such a relationship. It would seem most reasonable that for one to be given the power of eternal increase then a great measure of attention must be rendered to the principles and laws by which it is given. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our individual intelligence is eternal. This is an everlasting spark of light, truth, or energy that we do not have much information about it. In this individual intelligence exists the will of mankind, men and women also have an eternal gender. As the will or intelligence is brought under God's powers of creation a spirit is formed consisting of eternal matter and intelligence. This is one part of our soul. As we gain a physical body we then form what we refer to as a soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Living in the presence of God in a pre-mortal time we were taught and instructed in some precepts of eternal opposition, the prospects of good and evil. Satan rebelled at that time and was cast out without an opportunity to be born of earthly parents. He is incorporeal as to the flesh but not the spirit. Having rejected the offering of salvation and exaltation, he and those that followed him became opposition to God and his prophets and saints and humankind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The existence of evil and suffering is because every one of us has a will that is independent of God. Learning to submit to God's will is our test and opportunity. he has given us all things pertaining to eternal happiness. The only thing we have to give is our will.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God's love provided a Savior that could redeem us from the fallen state necessary to undergo the growth required to understand the knowledge of good and evil. Only with such knowledge and then choosing the good can God's children be exalted. The process is called repentance. It comes when one is humble and aware of their fallen state. Then come baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us under this umbrella of grace. Our spiritual nature is changed and we become like our heavenly parents as we obey their precepts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The redemption and exaltation that God desires to give his children are for them to be like he is. To love as he does. To live as he does with a fullness of joy. That fullness comes from providing an opportunity to his children. We have experienced it to some degree when we have children and nurture them or render service to others in need.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God's attributes of perfection are such because eternal laws and principles define what they are. Without such God would just be a simple declaration of whatever he might deem his will or whim. If his will is not defined in some way by principle it is simply a whim and no one with any intelligent thought would deem God to be a whimsical being. He is the creator of earth and the galaxies and this he will do eternally and we with him if we so choose to follow.</span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-80517945404061114882017-05-29T06:34:00.004-07:002018-11-28T21:38:34.193-08:00Critics and Opposition to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">A fundamental truth taught in the Book of Mormon says that there must be opposition in all things. If this were not the case then what would we be? We would be mere pawns in a neutral playground, not growing or learning by making choices and experiencing the consequences.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">All things have some type of opposite or opposition otherwise we would not have any choice in the matters we face. Good things have opposition to them. Good and evil exist in an eternal state of opposition to each other. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been opposed by many critical individuals since it was founded. The misnomer of Mormonism has been attached to the teachings and theology of the Latter-day prophets in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There is really no such thing as a "Mormon church". It is a nickname initially meant to be a slur against the organization and its members.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">For almost 200 years Joseph Smith has been the Prophet of the Restoration to millions of Latter-Day Saints. To a few active critics and their proteges, he was a simple 14-year-old boy that orchestrated a grand religious hoax. He never preached a sermon inside of a chapel and died when the church was in its infancy. There were less than thirty thousand members yet he is somehow the genius leader of a cult that now has 30,000 plus diverse congregations all over the world led by an unpaid clergy. Quite the opposite of mainstream churches where the gospel is preached for money.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints attests that Jesus Christ stands at the head of it. Orthodox Christianity professes that its lack of cohesiveness and divisions are unfortunate and its unregulated nature allows for many preachers to teach as they please.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The sectarian churches guided by its many apologetic scholars invented the term Biblical Christianity in order to more easily franchise authority using the Bible. There is no such pattern of gaining authority from a book in the Bible. The pattern in the Bible demonstrates that the tendency has been for people to reject God's prophets.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The Savior established a church when he was on the earth. Catholics lay some foothold on being the oldest duly organized church under the emperor Constantine. Protestants are simply anti-Catholics and Evangelicals are often anti-Protestants. None of them carries the name of the Savior or claims authority to be what is termed the Kingdom of God on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Why is this?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Some critically minded people just can't seem to accept the fact that even the Lord's church is full of imperfect people. Leaders and members alike are such people. Certain events and practices they don't agree with have occurred in its history.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The critics represent themselves and have no claim to any authority and claim no credentials to speak for God. They speak for themselves. Their opinions are not designed to lift others or to take a person anywhere except away from the church.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Critics use bias and deception to portray their story to misinform people. I joined the church is 1973 as a 17-year-old. I have witnessed this for about 45 years. I have attended many "anti-Mormon" presentations at various churches with friends and family members.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The claim of these critics is that Joseph Smith managed to establish a 200-year ruse and do or cause to be done other evil things in the process. In so doing they set up a burden of proof that can't be met and yet proclaim it anyway. Joseph Smith was willing to die for his claim and his earliest critics that it would go away when they killed him. He was a prophet of God bearing testimony of truth and restoring the authority of Jesus Christ to the earth?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Mormon critics practice what can be described as a "wilderness of mirrors." They create an environment where the information provided blends truth, half-truth, opinions, lack of historical context and fiction so that uninformed readers or listeners have a difficult time telling what is true and what isn't. Someone with certain doubts may gravitate to it and use it as a reason to justify their doubts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The critics that accuse Joseph Smith of being a false prophet do so at the behest of a few vocal critics that have propagated stories out of context and mixed them with opinionated statements. They accuse the church of lying to cover up Joseph's "true" character based on little-known facts of cultural insignificance from the early 1800's, or of allegations regarding the practice of polygamy and other practices that may seem strange or out of the ordinary without other information.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">They use fallacies in defining their narrative of Joseph's youth. They tell of things that were normal and cultural in the 1820's that would seem strange if you did them in our day and age. It is like comparing the practice of bleeding sick patients in early medical practices to how a disease is cured today. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The critical narratives depend on a listener's lack of knowledge and lack of desire or opportunity to get all of the facts to know what the actual circumstances were. If the false narrative comes from someone they trust, like a Christian church there is a tendency to dismiss the need for more information. These narratives have been repeated over and over in churches and on the internet around the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The process is readily identifiable for the purpose of spreading false information. Such was the case with me after I joined the church in 1973. I was taken to a church where a lecture was being given to explain why the Mormon Church was the fabrication of a "con artist". Their methods and actions of teaching and disseminating are the real work of "con artists". Here is what they suppose.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The critics base their overall antagonism against the church from an irrational standpoint. They want people to believe that a 14-year-old boy, Joseph Smith made up a story and told multiple lies to support it over a 30 year period. These lies would become a con for centuries to come over a changing leadership and uncertain conditions. The church would endure substantial persecution and eventually become established throughout the world and known for its moral and family values.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Could a 14-year-old boy really stick to a story so profound as saying he saw and talked to God and angels for his whole life while being persecuted for it? A story that led directly to his early death at 44 years of age. Several versions of the first vision have surfaced but if you have ever tried to write about something in your past you will soon discover the weakness of the mind in recalling exact events. Some were accounts he told to others that later wrote them down.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">This story and movement also included the development of theological teachings the were starkly different from mainstream Christianity. He explained the contradictions in their teachings and doctrinal conclusions. This increased the persecutions in attempt to defame him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">God was a person he said, with a glorified and exalted body and so was Christ. We were created in their image and likeness. Current orthodox teachings taught that God was a genderless incorporeal intelligence that assumed 3 personalities and was worked into the narrative of the Bible.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">As a boy prophet in 1820, in the United States, he saw God and was visited by resurrected apostles and prophets that laid their hands on his head to ordain and give him authority. No other church founder has made such claims of authority that the fullness of Christ's gospel would be restored to actually prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ. The only things that had taken place before were reformations of the existing churches. None claimed authority to be the true church. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">One of the angels that ministered to him told him that his name would be had for good and evil throughout the world. A very unlikely scenario for a 14-year-old boy in upstate New York in 1820 yet it is so. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Today 190 years later that you can speak his name in religious circles around the world and they know his name, some for good and others for ill. His critics have fulfilled the prophecy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">It wasn't enough to see God and angels and to tell all the other churches their theology had certain flaws. He brought forth another book calling it scripture and that he had translated it from gold plates. How does one get such an idea for a story, let alone come up with a whole book and calling it scripture? According to his critics, the whole story is a fabrication from Joseph's imagination or copying some other book.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">He wasn't deemed just a book but a sacred record, another testament of Jesus Christ. His testimony was that he translated it from the plates. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Anyone that reads it with a sincere desire will see that it could not have been written by a person of ill intent. An evil man could not have written it as its content inspires pure faith in Jesus Christ.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">He declared that this book was a correct scripture containing the pure doctrine of Christ. After 190 years no one has proven it not to be so. Millions testify that its content is divine. Hundreds of millions of copies have been distributed throughout the world in 110 languages.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Over the next 20 years or so he said he received the mind and will of the Lord regarding many subjects and the kingdom of God in preparation for the second coming of the Lord in his glory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">He called it scripture too, the Doctrine and Covenants. Imagine the idea of saying that modern revelation came to a latter-day prophet. His detractors would call him a false prophet but they couldn't prove it or stop his testimony.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Through all of this, he was persecuted by many enemies on many fronts. His children dying, his family suffering. But what con man would not endure such acts of persecution and suffering?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Then of all things, 10 years after his first vision at age 24 and with no clerical training he started a church. He said it would eventually be on every continent and spread throughout the world. It would be patterned after the Lord's church in the New Testament. His critics could not stand for such a thing. The made sure to label it a cult lest any consider joining it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">No critics or enemies could stop its progress Joseph testified. Looking at it today, that prophecy has been fulfilled after abundant barriers and challenges that could or should have stopped it, including his death. Today 30,000 plus geographic congregations exist around the globe and are led by a volunteer unpaid clergy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Was it some grand con to organize the church using local volunteers? Even so, some of the best and the brightest minds would be attracted to it and lead it through all kinds of adversity at all levels. It would survive times of trouble and later prosper much to the disdain of the church's detractors.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The most brilliant part of the con is it would be pulled off for the most part after Joseph Smith was dead. The vast majority of his followers would never meet or know Joseph Smith in person. This would truly have to be one of the greatest cons in history. Using a dead man's story to build a thriving church throughout the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The first missionaries travelling through the world would go telling the story on foot and horseback and be travelling across the oceans by ship. Many tens of thousands would join the church. They would cross a desolate wilderness and established a community in the mountains of Utah. A hundred years later the messengers would be 18 to 22-year-old youths leaving their homes and paying their own way for two years at a time and millions would join the church.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Mormon critics don't like the fact that missionaries tell people that they can read the Book of Mormon and pray to find out if it is true. It has happened for millions of us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">They call members of the church ignorant fools that have pledged their lives to the church through baptismal covenants and found ongoing purpose and happiness being aware of their eternal destiny through temples.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Members don't use tobacco or drink alcohol, tea or coffee. This part of the con clearly demonstrates a brainwashing effect. He told believers about health issues unproven by science until at least a hundred or so years after his death. Surely he had some hidden techniques of mind control yet to be discovered by modern psychologists.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">"Joseph Smith’s vision of man’s eternal nature and potential reach from an existence before birth to the eternities beyond the grave. He taught that salvation is universal in that all men will become the beneficiaries of the Resurrection through the Atonement wrought by the Savior. Beyond this gift of immortality is exaltation or to become like our Father in Heaven. This is the purpose of our creation and a mortal life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">Just a handful of modern critics and apostates are the only people confused enough to recognize that what they call a con has become a worldwide church that blesses the lives of millions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: medium;">The evidence and testimony of the Spirit of God confirm to me that he was a prophet of the living Christ. His critics are the likely ones that have been deceived as they base their opinions on an irrational viewpoint that a 14-year-old boy could devise such an organization as the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.</span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-43165958152268559572017-05-14T09:01:00.001-07:002020-04-30T11:13:46.551-07:00Why Latter-day Saints Believe in Eternal Families<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">My parents were good people and I had a pretty good childhood. They would have referred to themselves as Christians but I don't remember a prominent display of their faith, other than attending church as a family from time to time. They valued family life, honesty, and work. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">They taught my brothers and me good values and to consider the existence of a God. I wasn't overly concerned whether God had any role in my life, or in the world for that matter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I became curious and desirous to know about eternal things after my mother died when I was 8. I believed but didn't know who or what God was. Our family attended Methodist and non-denominational churches on a sporadic basis when I was growing up. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">My mother's death caused me to wonder more intensely about God and family relationships. My earliest recollection of the concept of God was a picture at the Methodist church showing a face representing Christ without a body, but with a trail of dust and light behind it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I remember asking my dad how churches were different. He said that all churches were really the same. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">We lived in a small farming community in Southwest Idaho where there was an active ward of Latter-day Saints. I was still young and not much-interested religion though. Going to our own church was a chore and something we did not enjoy doing as kids.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we moved to Boise, I became aware of some of Latter-day Saint teachings. I went to church with some friends when I was about 16. I learned about how they didn't use tobacco or drink alcohol. I heard about their doctrines of living prophets and the principle of eternal marriage, families, and temples. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had never heard teachings from orthodox Christian ministers about eternal marriage or family. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I quickly realized that many things I had been told about Mormons were not true and that those that had tried to dissuade me were seriously misinformed. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Christian churches that I attended taught that marriage until death do you part was the result of their orthodox theology. Over the years I have asked many people what they thought about family relationships and most claim some hope that their family relationships continue after death. This is not however what orthodox Christianity teaches. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the process of learning about Latter-day Saint teachings and mainstream biblical theology. The doctrinal teachings and practice in mainstream Christianity are based on opinions of Bible scholars, essentially the philosophies of men and women, not revelation or affirmation from God. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sectarianism is based on the philosophies of various individuals that do not agree on how the Bible should be interpreted. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is founded on revelation from God to prophets, the same pattern described in the Bible, and how God led his people.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">From my conversations with Christian believers, they did not seem familiar with the basic tenets of their own fundamental mainstream doctrinal teachings. Latter-day theology gives the strongest assurance that I know of that marriage and family relationships can continue after death. The bonds of love and affection of covenant marriages can continue in the eternities. Their capacity for love and nurturing increases.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where did we come from, why are we here on earth, and what happens after we die? The traditional perspective declares that s</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">o much of life is just a mystery and God left it to us to figure out</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Theologians declare that the Bible is perfect but that no person, minister, or scholar understands it perfectly. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why do their disagreements create so much confusion and contention among themselves? This is one reason there are so many churches. If there was one God over us all, why would he have more than one church? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I was 17 years old I was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Many of my questions were answered and God confirmed the truth of it to me through the power of the Holy Ghost. This is a pattern explained in the Bible. It is part of the process of being born again spiritually. Before that time I had no idea as to how God would communicate truth to me. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some tried to tell me I was not informed enough about religion, that Latter-day Saints were not Christians, but a cult and other misleading things as well to dissuade me. Now after 45 years I have been well assured by association and study and know with certainty their suppositions were not correct and they had been misinformed themselves. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many long-standing myths about the church and Joseph Smith still persist in the modern era. Everything in the church, Sunday attendance and worship, the temple, tithing and any participation in any respect is voluntary. There is no paid clergy. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">There have been 16 prophet-leaders in the nearly 200-year span of the church. Jesus Christ and his gospel and teachings are at the center of our beliefs. The majority of the church has never met Joseph Smith yet his early critics established a narrative that persists with all of its falsehoods that we somehow worship him. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Critics still purport that a 14-year-old uneducated boy could be a mastermind or mind control genius of some kind. They make allegations of the church being a cult? These are perhaps the most biased of the myths perpetuated by critics. </span><a href="https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2017-01-0100-ask-of-god-joseph-smiths-first-vision?lang=eng" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">This video explains how the church began.</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It is a principle we can all use to discover the truth.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have watched how activity in the church has blessed my family. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I served a two-year mission to Argentina when I was 19. I have married in the temple 40 years ago. My children have chosen to be married in the temple as well. Six have served missions, my five sons-in-law have served missions. I have also known hundreds of members and observed thousands of people in the church. Millions of others have had experiences similar to mine as we witness the effects of the gospel teachings and living them. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have served in many callings over the years including serving a local service mission and a temple ordinance worker in the Mesa Arizona Temple. As I look back over my experience with the church, the temple and the doctrines of Christ and eternal families that are associated with it, I feel an extreme amount of gratitude. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Theology Explained</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the false stories that I had heard before I joined the church was that Mormons believed that only Mormons went to heaven. Other Christians still claim that we are not Christian. I knew it wasn't true but didn't really understand why others thought that. I became aware of this along with a multitude of other inaccurate things that Mormons supposedly believe and do. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">These notions circulate in sectarian church meetings and other settings and are often promoted by those that disagree with the church on various principles, doctrines, and teachings. They then team up with various Bible scholar apologists to promote anti-Mormon bigotry.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being accused of not being a Christian made me wonder what other Christians really believed. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learning about some of the differences in theology taught me why there are certain misunderstandings circulating in the religious world about Mormons. Many church-attending Christians are not familiar with their own theology let alone that of our teachings.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">We believe that we lived with God before we came to earth. We are literally the sons and daughters of God. All human beings are literal brothers and sisters. The theology is very unique in that as I mentioned earlier we teach that marriage and family unit relationships can be eternal. Another unique claim of Latter-Day Saints is that we are created literally in the image of God, male and female. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Orthodox Christianity teaches that we were created out of nothing at our birth, we never lived with God or knew him. We are essentially pawn like creations like robots even, made out of dirt which was made out of nothing. They teach that this was God's first and only creation with people on it. They also teach that God has no form, is celibate, solitary and genderless. In mainstream Christian terminology words like brothers and sisters, mother and father are used, but are only metaphorical and not as we understand them in our family relationships. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no actual relationship with our creator in orthodox biblical Christianity and their theology. Since Jesus and God are the same substance of being, even though the terms father and son are used, they are neither father or son since they are the same formless being and genderless. The titles are metaphorical and refer to the components of the scriptural godhead. For a short time, Jesus was corporeal, but Christian scholars don't agree on whether the resurrection was literal or will be his eternal state of existing or not.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has millions of believers worldwide. We</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> do not believe in the mysterious Trinity of the Nicene Creed of orthodox Christianity. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">We believe in an eternal Godhead consisting of our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. They are the divine leadership fully united as one in the saving process of Heavenly Father's children. We may refer to all three as one God meaning the Godhead or we may refer to them each individually as God.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Orthodox sectarian churches teach that God is a single, solitary formless, genderless, celibate and incorporeal entity. Latter-day Saints teach that God the Father and Jesus Christ have bodies. They are glorified men, and literally a father and his son. They are exalted beings of the highest possible glory and we at present are not. We do look like them however and that is what it means to be created in their image. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mainstream Christianity again teaches that we are created in the image of God (that is what the Bible teaches) however orthodox theologians also teach the formless nature of deity and therefore the impossibility of being created in God's image. This is a contradiction that seems evident to me. They use other metaphors to be in God's image. Since the Trinity is three parts they say the body, soul, and mind are like the Trinity, three parts in one person.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The average Christian believer that has some biblical scholarship as well as those that don't find God most approachable in the form of Jesus Christ. For the obvious reason, he was incarnate or embodied in flesh. According to their own theology, he is not really the son of God, but a part of a mystical trinity of beings that form one incorporeal god. Neither fatherhood or sonship is actually acknowledged except for metaphorical purposes since the Bible uses those terms.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Their precept is that deity is genderless by determination of Bible scholars and such teachings of orthodox theological seminaries and divinity schools.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mankind is according to these scholars a creation of this being, a pawn of sorts, but not really a child like we are children to our parents. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">According to these same professors of religion, we are not really created in the image and likeness of God at all because according to them God has no form. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">To Mormons, the image of God is not a single genderless deity as taught by mainstream theologians but is male and female as in separate and actual beings, NOT in the same person.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Where does our spirit come from? Our individual intelligence is eternal and our spirit is the offspring of God in a literal manner. We are the sons and daughters of God. We are part of God's eternal family. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our creation is the result of divine love between eternal beings, our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother. There is no single parenthood in the Celestial Heavens. We </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">are all brothers and sisters to each other and to Jesus Christ, Children of the Most High God, our eternal parents.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our life on earth is an essential part of the growth process and an eternal pattern of creation that allows us to develop our eternal potential. All mankind will be saved through the resurrection of Jesus Christ no matter what they believed while alive. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">The resurrection does consist of varying degrees, however. We came to earth for a divine purpose to form our own families, which also can be eternal as I mentioned. The temple blessings and covenants exist for this purpose. This is our turn to learn to love, serve, create and nurture the life-giving process.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe that because of the perfect love of God, he wants all of us to return to live with him. It is, however, our choice. He will not force us and cannot force us because he also abides by perfect justice. This is based on the doctrine or principle of moral agency. He will give us the information we need to return to his presence but it only happens if we chose it and follow it. That is how we demonstrate our faith. We do make a doctrinal distinction between salvation and exaltation. The choices we make affect the outcome.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those that offer willing commitments through their covenants to the eternal designs of our Heavenly Father receive all of the necessary grace to become exalted in the image and likeness of God. That is his ultimate endowment based on his perfect love, justice and mercy and our willingness to accept it and act on it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Traditional doctrines of salvation teach that mankind is forever inferior to their creator and will worship him in a static heaven.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Temples, Chapels, and Eternal Families</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The idea that families are eternal was something that struck a profound agreement with me as I was learning about religious precepts. The church is unique in this regard.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">What is the difference between a chapel and a temple in the Church of Jesus Christ? Why do we believe in eternal family relationships and others do not? It is because we have a spirit that is eternal without beginning or end. We are not or mere pawns created out of nothing at our birth and infused with a type of artificial intelligence that brings with it a will of imputed freedom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The scriptures speak of God making covenants with the ancient prophets Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It talks of a posterity as endless as the stars and of blessing all the families of the earth. How is this to be done?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All of the aspirations of our religious commitments come to us through the love and atonement of Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer. These are represented and taught in our chapels and temples. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The temple teachings continue the Savior's invitation to follow him into eternity and receive all that the Father has to give. Jesus taught that the temple is his Father's house. It is “The House of the Lord”. Temples are of ancient origin and mentioned throughout the New and Old Testaments. In the</span><span style="font-size: large;"> temples of the church, I have always found peace and been reminded to live with eternal perspective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you have ever attended a sacrament meeting worship service or more than one, you should understand that it is supposed to be a reverent time even though it can be a cacophony of sounds. Children will occasionally be crying talking and so forth. Without a paid clergy the speaking assignments are filled by the many members that accept the opportunity to speak. We attend as families and such is the nature of teaching small children how to worship God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The chapel is where we meet for regular Sunday worship, This is our Sabbath day and we meet to renew the covenants or promises that we made at baptism and in the temple. In age group categories and separate classes as men and women, we also study and learn by teaching each other in a Sunday school. Time at home is also intended to be meaningful in a way that helps us rest from our weekly routines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Part of the Sacrament meeting or main worship service is partaking of the sacrament, the bread, and we use water instead of wine, represent the Savior’s sacrifice. As we rest from our worldly cares, ponder his love and the commitments that we have made to follow Jesus Christ I have observed that we are renewed in spirit, body and mind. We also have midweek youth activities in the chapels and other meetings and conferences. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many members take turns doing the teaching and leadership functions that allow a “ward”, the local congregation, to successfully function. There are over 30,000 wards in the church and thousands of Chapels around the world where the local congregations meet. There is no paid clergy in the church and our 70,000 plus missionaries also serve without financial compensation. This is unique compared to sectarian churches where the clergy usually receive compensation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Before going on a mission or getting married in the temple, Latter-Day Saints participate in a ceremony in the temple called an endowment. It is simply and profoundly an endowment of knowledge, and it is a commitment making process. We make covenants and receive ordinances that confirm our faith and commitment to Jesus Christ and his Church and Kingdom. We are also instructed about eternal principles and patterns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Temple attendance is very much an act of private worship. After receiving our own endowment we attend on our schedule and the frequency varies according to the member's own desire. We dress in white clothing and wear special clothing as part of the temple ordinances. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The clothing is symbolic of greater learning. You might think of the caps and gowns we wear when we graduate from high school and college. They symbolized something important, a learning experience and new commitments. The special clothing we wear in the temple and the temple garment we wear under our clothing after we receive the endowment <a href="https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-01-1460-sacred-temple-clothing?lang=eng">can be seen here.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Participation in temple ordinances and covenants takes place when our faith and commitment is prepared to move to a higher level of learning and commitment. I would compare this to the example of a university in that we can understand that there are expectations and qualifications in order to progress to that level of learning in a university or advanced degree. Certain foundations must exist before one can benefit from the higher learning opportunity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the marriage or “sealing” ceremony in the temple, a couple is sealed, or bound together in a sacred promise and covenant, that if they keep will allow them to be together for eternity as a married couple. Their children will also be bound or associated with them forever in family bonds and affection. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We make our best efforts as humans to follow these lofty pursuits but rely on the Savior to help us fulfill them. Without him, they simply will never come to pass. Some marriages are also performed for time only in chapels or other places and later the couple can go to the temple to receive the temple sealing ordinance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Attending the temple is not intended to be restrictive nor does it depend on a person's accomplishments. The participants must be prepared and worthy or the process will be of little benefit. This is one reason that once a temple is dedicated only members that live the standards and teachings of the gospel can go inside and participate. What takes place there would mean nothing to someone that is not a faithful member of the church. Entry is based on a system of honor with a series of set questions in an interview with a person's bishop and stake president.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">These local leaders assist local members in preparing to attend the temple and the goal is that all members might prepare and attend when they are ready. This is also why missionaries go all over the world to teach people and invite them to come and learn. While much of the endowment is scriptural, there is also much in the way of learning from revelation to God’s living prophets that establishes a broader understanding of our eternal identity and the eternal nature of God’s ongoing plans for his children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Temples have been part of God's teaching process for mankind since the fall of Adam. The latter-day temples are a restoration of all the teachings, covenants and ordinances that God desires us to have at this time. The sects of modern Christendom have some few vague hints of ancient practices in the robes that some priests wear. Modern evangelical preachers however often wear jeans and t-shirts. They have little to no understanding of the nature of symbols or ordinances.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Creedal Christianity in its drive for informality has in some cases done away with the practice of baptism. This ordinance had been taught as a requirement for thousands of years. It is meant to symbolize the profound experience of change in a person's life. That is what the temple ordinances do. We do something significant. Something that we will remember doing. It can't be routine or mundane. The purpose of an ordinance is to emphasize our commitment to follow Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the modern world of informalism, any hint of ceremony seems strange unless the person has been taught enough to understand what they are doing and why they do it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Salvation for the Dead and Temples</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Billions have lived on the earth without hearing of Jesus Christ or his church or his covenants and ordinances. There could be nothing more unjust than to condemn these individuals based on a lack of opportunity. Since we are eternal spiritual beings after we die and before the final resurrection there is yet an opportunity where individuals can be taught and accept the plan of the Father and the mercy of the Savior. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The idea that there is teaching and learning opportunities on the other side of the veil of death is uniquely a Mormon teaching. Interestingly enough even Christian apologists like C.S. Lewis admitted that such an opportunity must exist for God to demonstrate perfect love and justice. Mainstream Christianity just doesn't teach it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When we go to the temple after our own endowment or marriage we can return as often as we like to vicariously represent individuals of our family or others that did not receive these ordinances. This gives us the opportunity to reflect again and again on our eternal destiny and to meditate and ponder to be taught by the Holy Ghost.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> God is a being of perfect justice and places the same requirements on each of us. The process is very individual both on earth and in the place where the spirits reside until the resurrection. They can accept the ordinances performed on their behalf if they so choose and receive all of the associated blessings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">My parents never joined the Mormon Church while they were alive. I imagine that the Lord’s church in the eternities is called something different if such even exists. As I understand that we will be organized as families in the eternities. Even so, they must accept and believe any and all truths that God requires of us. If they do so they will still be able to go to the highest order of heaven or the Celestial Kingdom as we call it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I have performed the ordinances of baptism, eternal marriage and the endowment for them. I don’t know if they accept them or not. I have faith and suppose they will. They were truly good people. When I went to the temple for them, I could feel my love for them and theirs for me as their child. These affections and bonds never leave us. The assurance that this is so is what the temple is about. I look to them as a source of peace and joy, both now and forever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As Latter-Day Saints, we proclaim the authority of God’s priesthood to perform the ordinances of the House of the Lord. Even so, many people, for reasons I don’t know or understand will not look to us for answers to questions about eternal truths and the nature of God. Those that do will find answers. They can confirm them through a process of personal understanding and revelation as I did and that millions have.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our missionaries can help anyone that will listen to apply these principles. The philosophies of men prevail throughout the world and have produced a blinding effect on the general condition of the world. Eternal things are left on the side while the pursuits of the world occupy most people's time and attention and pursuits. The temple is the great reminder of eternal things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The test of our faith is real. I attest to the fact of God’s eternal love, his true plan of salvation and that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He is our Savior and Redeemer and directs the work of salvation. I testify of living prophets that hold his authority and preside over the church in the earth. We can all participate in it if we desire. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Posted by Charlie Brown April 29, 2017</span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-35178254866926535592016-12-21T18:07:00.000-08:002020-04-28T08:31:43.780-07:00The Eternal Human Soul<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What is the nature of our soul and does it endure beyond death? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Can a purposeful life be established without knowing something about the eternal principles or laws by which we exist? As we look at the endless creations in a vast cosmos do we ponder our place? Are we eternal beings with great potential or temporary flashes of electrochemical or cosmic energy without any significance at all?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What are the human soul and the eternal aspect of our existence? With what theological understanding can we define the soul? When studying our world don't we generally try to adhere to sound scientific advice? What about sound theological or philosophical teachings? Many prefer their own notions that falsely soothe their mortal temporality with illusions of their own devising.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">From a Latter-Day Saint perspective, the soul is the spirit united with a body. It is the union of our spirit with this physical mortal body. Unique to LDS theology we understand that the spirits of all men and women are the literal offspring of God. Theological doctrines of mainstream orthodox Bible scholars teach that our existence is as pawns brought into existence out of nothing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Before our birth and after our death we see an endless and beginningless existence which is a time of no time. Time pertains only to living on a planet in any solar system in any of the infinite galaxies and its orbit. If we are here for an eternal purpose our current state of existence demonstrates that it does entail the necessity of physical mortality and a body such as we have. Otherwise, we would not be here as we are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If this time on earth is not a testing and learning period for our soul, what is it? How we will respect the soul, which includes the body, our own, and that of others. Avoiding obsessive behaviors through this process of life is one of its great challenges.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Our personal growth as eternal beings can only happen when the body and spirit are subjected to challenges and stresses. Although it may not seem like it, the oppositions, illnesses, and aging we face in life strengthen us in ways we may not fully comprehend. We do in fact live by faith. We go to school to learn, we exercise to get strong. These and many more obstacles are faced as we seek to become better at the things we choose to pursue that pertain to our spiritual nature.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">When we die, the body and spirit are separated for a time. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the spirit and the elements of the body will be united together again. At this time, the final resurrection, the body will be perfected and glorified to varying degrees according to the person’s willingness to learn eternal principles and follow them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The ability to make choices in life often called free will or agency comes because the most basic eternal element of our spirit, our intelligence was not made or created. It has always existed. If this were not the case then we would not have a will independent from God. If our spirit or mind were created out of nothing, it would be the equivalent of artificial intelligence. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Our intelligence is a fundamental or elemental form of eternal light, truth, spirit, or energy of which at the current time we have limited theology regarding it. God did not create it but through his power and the eternal plan he brings us to a state of existence capable of learning, living, and forming relationships and acting on our own eternal will.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">A veil of forgetting was placed on us as we came from God's presence. Now we act as we choose without force or influence other than our exposure to truth and error, in other words, exposure to the knowledge of good and evil. By choosing good we develop in such a way that our will aligns with our eternal potential to become like our creator.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is it to sin? It is opposition to an eternal principle of some law that is everlasting and unchanging. Sex is an eternal principle based on the fact that the powers of creation are established in two genders. There is also an eternal opposition to this. These are the eternal truths that have always existed. Commandments are based on these eternal laws and sin is the violation of an eternal principle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We can take the law of gravity as a principle we all should understand. If you jump from a high place and fall to a hard place this would be like the act of sinning. That would be compared to breaking the law. Such an act could kill you physically. It doesn’t mean you can’t do it. You can also conform to the law by understanding it and using a parachute or net or other methods that allow flight or a soft landing. The laws of physics can't be broken and violation of them always has consequences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Violation of eternal principles causes the spirit to become dead or desensitized and a loss of spiritual capacity or death can occur. In such a state a soul is unprepared and therefore not able to stand in the presence of God. This lack of preparation can be reversed in almost every case under certain conditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The eternal nature of the consequences of sin has been overcome so that we don’t have to suffer the negative effects if we repent or change. Our Savior, Jesus Christ brings this opportunity for change to occur, for our spirit to heal, and to gain or regain the desire and willingness to learn eternal principles and follow him. This frees us in the most profound way to receive what God desires to give us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Even if a person doesn't know these principles they still find something to identify with and formulate a purpose for life. Without an objective that gives them hope and a purpose, a person can become depressed or despondent and under more extreme circumstances end their life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For most of us, our body demonstrates miraculous capacities for having experience and for healing when damaged. The exceptions are examples of the uncertainty of life that makes it a test with real challenges.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">When subjected to the opposition through exercise the body will break down muscle tissue and with proper nutrition become stronger. Some people become obsessed with this process. In coming to earth our spirit is exposed to the opposition in many forms. Through this life which is a step in our eternal journey we learn things and become stronger as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Our intelligence, whatever level we each might possess allows us the element of self-determination. Our intelligence is a self-existent form of light and truth, an eternal spark of the energy of some kind. It was not it created out of nothingness as taught by certain theological philosophies of man.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While space expands infinitely around us, we can still find an opportunity to discover something of closeness and intimacy between souls that can seem as profound as the distances and dimensions beyond human comprehension?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The nature of this intimacy is founded on eternal principles. Because of our fallen nature, our understanding of its proper application to happiness must be learned. There are many teachers and promoters of philosophies based on a few years of advanced education and some decades of experience. Such are the philosophies of men and their opinions. They end at death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our unique journey of life brings about self-discovery and almost endless opportunities for making choices. It starts out in the simplistic innocence of life waiting to be developed. A human baby is a helpless creature. How did that life come about? Was it the result of a union of two people committed to giving that new life every opportunity to learn and grow within the bounds of protective guidance? It can also be an act of selfish indulgence or of ignorant experimentation? As billions of people will die and others be born over the next hundred years, under what circumstances will they be introduced to the world?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Prior to joining the church, I wondered about my identity as a person. Most of us do. The questions of where did I come from, why am I here and what happens after death has been part of my personal internal dialogue for as long as I can remember. Most if not all of us will be engaged in the struggle for our full identity. It is a part of life, learning and becoming. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When I was in junior high I came across a book written by a doctor about everything you wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask. That was pretty much the title of it. While I don’t remember the specifics, it basically told about many of the perverted things and escapades people would do to find sexual arousal and sensations that were bizarre and often dangerous. It beckons the question: How do we all eventually decide the manner in which we are going to be aroused and fulfill sexual sensations? Sexual experience gives a false sense of power. As the powerful hormones are released they produce such an effect, whether we do so by ourselves or with any partner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While I understood the ideas of what the book was about I was never inclined to implement any of the things I read. Fortunately, the consequences of many of those acts were also explained. A few years later I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which played a formidable role in the development of my attitudes after that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Even then I had a strong sense that these ideas, practices, and acts in the book had no benefit for me. Reading it came about from curiosity. From that experience, I gained an insight that many times people may be curious about something and if they act on the curiosity they may find themselves in a place that is difficult to move away from.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">This is how fetishes, perverse ideas and any ideas for that matter develop if one continues to think about them. Many times, however, curiosity as an innocent child can lead to experiences that form neural connections that are central emotions and feelings that we revert to that can remain a part of our experience into adolescence and adulthood. We may think they are a part of us until we become aware that we do have the power to change them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is it about sex that makes it a topic of both avoided conversation in homes and between couples and overly demonstrated as fantasy and acted it out in public media venues? How is it that anger develops and that what may have started as a loving attraction to another person becomes a hotbed of contention and discord leading to many of the social ills we face today? After my mother died I witnessed some of this in my dad's subsequent relationships and marriages.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">How do we establish the attitudes and practices that allow us to enjoy the intimacy that heightens our most powerful bodily sensations? How do we achieve a synergy of souls that allows us to create life and bond with each other and to the children of our creation? We should be reminded that neither is the "man without the woman or the woman without the man in the Lord."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">If love, trust, and respect are at the core of a relationship its chance for success is higher. Such is not the case in relationships built on selfish foundations and indulgences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Because of the principle of agency, known to some as free will or our freedom to choose, people can think that there are somehow new frontiers of sexuality as a philosophical choice. They may think that in the modern world they will become acceptable to God if enough people are accepting of such ideas. These philosophies of men and women drive many sexual related ideologies. They are the cause of much of the brokenheartedness and unhappiness in the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God has however established both the process and the guidelines for success and happiness in this endeavor of relationships based on lasting intimacy. I have observed personally how those counsels and commandments can bless a person. Commitment to complete fidelity in marriage is preceded by respect for the powers that create life. How will you measure your life when it comes to your opportunity to create and develop lasting intimacy? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is a multitude of philosophies regarding sex, love, and relationships as I mentioned. They are for the most part the philosophies of men and women with peer group acceptance that have somehow found a prominent presence in society. They have been developers of the dialogues that take place on this subject. Their credentials are those given by other men and women, not from God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Some children have a childhood of joy and happiness and others of abuse and neglect. What will determine which it is? In whatever manner it goes, it becomes a complex time as adolescence shapes our experience as we mature into adults. From there it can grow into either a life of primary happiness interspersed with some challenges or a life of constant challenges. For this reason, I have the opinion that parenting is the most important endeavor undertaken in life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">From what I have observed, many if not most of us will be exposed to some kind of trauma, scene, abuse or experience that is negative regarding sex and sexuality. It is part of the opposition that will likely happen as we live in the fallen world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the modern society in which we find ourselves it is difficult to raise a child with values that regard the body as something to value let alone with a healthy sexual identity. Many false ideologies exist regarding body dynamics ass to what might be appropriate to do to it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Even if a parent could teach a child perfect principles, the outcome would still be uncertain as the encounters of the child will always be subject to the agency or freedom of choice of the child and the morality of society. Because life is a learning experience, humans don't really have any right to judge another for where they are in their respective journey. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sexual abuse, promiscuity and every form of sexual aberration have always been with the human condition. Opposition exists in all things in life. The pursuit of pleasure without restraint or so-called sexual liberty, not only with the opposite sex but with whomever and whatever a person might choose are options that either willingly or unwillingly become the stimulus for our minds and the bodies capacity for sexuality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sexual preference has been proclaimed by many to be their choice and others say they were born with what they feel towards a particular gender. The idea that a person was born attracted to those of the same gender is a claim that seems to be asserted when the adherents have some prohibition in their basic moral upbringing that would tell them that what they are doing is against that moral precept.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Developing our sexual attractions is something that takes place during our whole life. It will change as we age or undergo other physical and mental challenges. We will all be tempted to act outside of our leaned bounds if we have them. How is it that decades after marriage people divorce or profess same-sex attraction? They weren’t born this way. Their thoughts, feelings they developed and exposure to ideas that they ultimately acted on gave way to them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">God did ordain the union of men and women? If he is the giver of the gift and establishes of its purposes then it becomes our choice to follow it or not. Marriage was instituted for the purpose of organizing the power to create life and providing joy in the partnership of marriage. Any sexual act outside of this authorized union hurts us spiritually, damns us, stops our progress with and degrades the eternal purpose of the union and our spiritual sensitivities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cultural norms have for millennia, for the most part, supported the development of relationships that would build society through the creation of new life. Happiness was sought through the sexual expression of men and woman and this attitude has been learned by children and the development of their sexual identity follows. Life isn’t perfect as we all know. Abusive sexual activity manifests itself in a multitude of ways. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In modern society, it is difficult to raise a child with a good self-esteem that will also contribute to the path of their sexual identity. Where does the idea come from that a person has a sexual identity other than the gender with which they are born? It is a philosophy of man, the opinion of self-proclaimed experts and nothing more. That our gender is eternal is knowledge gained from prophets of God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sex is meant to draw us together as a human family. This can only happen when there are bounds that help us see how the purpose of restraint gives expression to greater joy, happiness, and pleasure that can lead its participants to the creation and nurturing of our human family. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sex at its highest and best purpose is by eternal design and will when used according to its designer please both God and the people authorized to be participants. By authorized, I mean legal and lawful marriage between a man and a woman. This pattern is based on the eternal principle that we are created in the image of God, male and female. To be in the image of someone is to look like them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To find a fullness of joy or happiness we learn the roles that each person has based on gender and the fullness of expression that each person is endowed with. We must act in accordance with our eternal identity of which our gender is an unchangeable part. If relationships are eternal as Latter-Day Saints teach, we see the image of God expressed in the creation of families. The power of creation is in each of our bodies and by eternal design is to be realized through the union of those bodies. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We will be developing and controlling our sexual attractions for our whole life. They will change for various reasons and we will be tempted to act outside of our stated bounds. Opposition will test the resolve of each of us for most of our mortal life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">People in today's modern age would never stop to think for even the briefest moment that they somehow lacked authority to act on their sexual instincts and desires.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We all think differently or so it would seem. Two or more people can see the same thing and think entirely different thoughts about it. The fact is though we all think the same. How our brain records experiences is the same for all of us. It provides the stimulus through our senses for our bodies to produce certain chemical reactions that are in essence stored in the body.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Neurological connections are hardwired from experiences and our reaction to them. These feelings can form as we live unaware of what is taking place until we develop the self-awareness to control them. Our likes, emotions, dislikes, addictions, attractions, and personalities can change with a concerted effort to do so, Some are more difficult than others. All are developed by the way we responded to the stimulus we encounter in our life’s journey. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In this way, you could say we think differently. We receive a stimulus and store the experience in unique ways according to the individual nature of our path. Some effects compound with greater force creating a spectrum of understandings, opinions, and attitudes as we might allow them. This is why we may see things differently, why some are more loving, kind, mean or angry. Some feelings are also affected by chemical balances or imbalances in our body and brain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Even though we all experience some element of the emotional spectrum, some choose to control which they allow to compound in their life. Others default to the non-virtues seeking to provide sensations to the body that may or may not allow them to develop their emotional intelligence to higher levels of virtue as they move through life. It is also reasonable to think that sometimes feelings do develop that may not be controllable under normal circumstances. These, however, are not the correct basis for regulating a standard of behavior.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sexual experience and the attitudes that we approach it with are developed. We each have a biological gender, it is not something we change. Our sexual attitudes come from training, culture, learning and choices based on stimulus and responses and philosophies we encounter in the world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There have been extensive studies of the brain and psychology to know that neurons that form pathways of emotion and feelings can be changed. To say otherwise denies the essence of agency and free will.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After Eve partook of the fruit, Adam knew that his most important duty was to the command that God had given, to stay with her and multiply and replenish the earth. This was the will of God and Adam and Eve fulfilled it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The promise of a literal resurrection is fundamental to our doctrine as Latter-Day Saints. Orthodox and sectarian Christianity debates whether such is the case. Their scholars don't know. To us overcoming death is to come forth from the grave united to our spirit and thus the soul becomes eternal in a final state of being. At that time however the body will be perfected and glorified to the extent that the person was faithful to their covenants. Some will have the power to continue creation and others will not. It is not an arbitrary thing. It is determined by our choices during our life and any opportunities we have before the resurrection in the spirit world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">From what I understand of saving principles is that no person will be judged by God for that which they could not control. If circumstances led to certain decisions and behaviors when they could not discern they may not be accountable. We should not deny the eternal agency that each soul is given once truth is presented to them be it in this life or that time before the resurrection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our doctrine is clear as to what it means to be created in the image of God male and female. We look like God. Our heavenly parents are Gods and they are God. They are male and female. Motherhood and fatherhood are eternal principles, as are womanhood and manhood. We are their sons and daughters. Creation of human souls is not the act of a solitary incorporeal genderless intelligence forming pawns or robots to worship it out of nothingness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sex is an eternal part of that image. It is sacred and holy to those that make it so. It can also be perverted in prurient ways not keeping it sacred. From this opposition, our agency is established. For this purpose was creation ordained and a fall arranged and salvation offered. To give us a chance to become like our heavenly parents and to enjoy eternal increase and the joy of giving new life eternally, nurturing eternal souls to find their greatest potential. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Jacob 2:5 But behold, hearken ye unto me, and know that by the help of the all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth I can tell you concerning your thoughts, how that ye are beginning to labor in sin, which sin appeareth very abominable unto me, yea, and abominable unto God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Alma 29:5 Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2 Nephi 2:5 And men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto men. And by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law, men are cut off. Yea, by the temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from that which is good, and become miserable forever.</span></div>
Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8992968965708973393.post-8478367983620028402016-08-24T09:57:00.001-07:002020-09-10T09:22:56.528-07:00Endless Love-Fact or Fiction?<div class="p1">
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<span style="font-size: large;">What do we think love is? If we are going to identify something as the most elevated of emotions, we should have some idea of what we are talking about. It is a feeling that manifests in our lives in varying intensity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">We like to think or say that love is in our hearts but in reality, love develops in our mind. It is cultivated and stored in the cells of our brains and our bodies in ways we hardly comprehend. Neuroscience has revealed to us how neurochemicals, receptors, and electrochemical functions operate. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">This emotion can and does act on our whole body. We know our heart is affected in a physical way at the sight or thought of a special person we love. T</span><span style="font-size: large;">hese feelings seem to extend to all of the nerves in our body at times. Don't some refer to the depression that sets in when love or a loved one is lost as a broken heart?</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Like words, emotions are recorded and stored as electrochemical light and energy in a format more powerful than any computer. No computer can convert information into emotion or convert emotion into a physical experience like the human experience.</span><br />
<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Our feelings or emotions go into action according to the stimulus we might receive. We also create them by choosing to act on the knowledge we gain in our associations and activities. This causes me to think that our mind is more than our just our brain. Emotion is science and I think it is a more powerful science than we understand at this time. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">You can't speak of love having an eternal nature without some theological underpinnings. How trustworthy are the opinions and musings of social scientists and scholars. Their temporary views on relationships and most orthodox theological concepts terminate marriage at death. Then also there is that streak of individual philosophy that each person seems to think they have all the answers. </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Where does our natural intelligence come from? How does such a complex emotion develop in beings living on a world in an endless cosmos? </span><span style="font-size: large;">Are we mere creatures of evolution, some spontaneous creation of a bored deity or are we of divine origin in a never-ending order of familial relationships of a higher order than we now know? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Is love limited to a single planet? Just because we can look billions of light years away doesn't mean we can even begin to behold of the worlds without end throughout eternity and endless space. Even so, orthodox theologians have concluded that love did not exist as a mortal attribute until human history began some 6000 years ago. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Life is and should be more abundant because of love, not limited. God's love compels them to give more, not less. To bring about the perfect love of God involves a sacrifice, to a degree we may not comprehend in our present circumstances.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">The perfect love of God is the perfect balance of justice, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. We too can develop these principles with faith, effort, and much grace because of their sacrifice. Ultimately love is an endowment that we must seek with real intent.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Love, like all characteristics, is developed in a progressive way through interaction with others. It starts before birth when we lived with God. It is the love of God for their children. In this mortal life, emotions are intensified in our physical body and we are exposed to a spectrum of opposing choices that require our decision to actuate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span> <span style="font-size: large;">Opposition in life can manifest itself as handicaps or disruptions in our organic chemistry that are out of our control. Other attributes and addictions that we choose can also cause us to lose our ability to control our thoughts and actions. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Imagine how easy it would be to love others if everyone was nice to us. Loving those that may not love us is the power of love. When we are released from mortal limitations it expands potentially to a fullness of God. The perfect love of God causes joy. We can be endowed from on high with capacity beyond what we ourselves might experience even to receive a fulness of godly attributes.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">This is light and truth that exists in each of us and we can develop it. We must recognize that opposing vices also exist to every virtue. We would call hate and darkness an opposite to love and light or sweet to bitter or good to evil. </span><br />
<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">If there is such a thing as true love there will undoubtedly be counterfeits as well. If we fall in love can we not also fall out. Love is a choice. Without natural opposition, there is no real experience for freedom of choice or emotional development.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As eternal beings and on the higher level, love develops in our natural intelligence which is part of our spirit. It develops through experience and service. True love inspires selflessness and acting for the good of others as opposed to selfishness or self-preservation. This is the highest level and order of development of both emotion and intelligence. </span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">We develop love and other attributes and emotions by our thoughts, pondering, reading, entertainment and from mentors at home and elsewhere. This is part of the stimulus we submit ourselves to as naturally existing beings in a life experience designed for this purpose. How we act reinforces what we accept. We choose which stays and which goes and how it plays into our eternal development. This is the agency associated with our will to act.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The principle of agency gives us the opportunity to choose between good and evil and to act without coercion. We are subject to the natural consequences of the eternal laws and natural laws that govern our existence. Agency contemplates a principle greater than so-called free will because agency associates us with an eternal identity and gender.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The creation of our spiritual body is the result of the perfect love of God. What else would it be? The image of God the scripture says is male and female. If love is not connected to a relationship and creation then it would have centered in nothing and therefore not existed.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">We were created male and female in the image of God, this is the eternal pattern of creation. Love is the source of God's desire to lift us to our full potential. The creation of the earth and the pattern of life is for our benefit, blessing, and progress not for Theirs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is no creation without both motherhood and a fatherhood. This is self-evident truth manifest in the earth and eternal law. Likewise, there is no continuation of love without this creative process. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">We are the literal sons and daughters of eternal parents and their love for us is based on this relationship. We should love one another because we are quite literally brothers and sisters.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Would God really create something out of nothing and then begin to love it on a random whim? If so we would be nothing more than pawns of creation.</span><br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Think of the love of a mother. It is quick and sure in most cases. The love of a father often develops more slowly through service to both mother and child. Once solidified it can become a bulwark of dependability and stability.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The creation of our physical body is a similar pattern here in the earth. God has endowed us with the power to create children in our image and likeness. This process, however, doesn't always take place in a union of love and respect. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Unwilling parents may not develop a love for or may even abuse their children in such cases. Others may be inspired to change, rise up and accept responsibility for their actions. Creation of life can change us and make us better if we will accept responsibility for it.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Most of mankind has the power to create life with some few exceptions. It is given to us as a natural occurrence and exists independent of how we might choose to develop our appetites and passions. Love develops not only by serving others but serving with them and being served by them.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The law of sexual integrity also known as chastity guides us to the highest order of eternal relationships. This law is an eternal self-existing principle and more opportunities exist that we are not fully aware of at the present time. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">God ordained marriage for men and women and invites us to follow His pattern for the fullness and perfection of love. This is the transcendent opportunity to serve not only each other but with each other in sacred opportunities whether or not children come naturally to the union.</span><br />
<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Living outside the bounds of these protections causes loss of the sensitivities that allow us to develop the full potential of this eternal emotion. </span><br />
<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Marriage is the commitment required to reach the full potential of love and it will be more than a lifetime process. It is the process of eternal lives. </span><span style="font-size: large;">This present life is one of choosing our eternal destiny. If we refuse to obey the laws on which they are granted they surely won't. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Our decisions do determine our direction and ultimate destiny. This is the law of Agency and the law of the Harvest. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">God will not force us to act in a holy manner just because he does. He invites us to follow because our eternal nature can develop to its fullest potential by doing so. This is the path to the exaltation of his children. This is the path of perfect and eternal love. It comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&_r=1" target="_blank">See "The Family" a proclamation to the world.</a></span></div>
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Charlie Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04534269695319148139noreply@blogger.com0