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| Humor me here...
If Gordon B. Hinkley received a revelation and then revealed it that said that the Bible was really not the Word of God, and that Jesus was a sinful man and not worthy enough to be our savior, how would Mormons react? Would they trust their prophet and believe what he says or would they continue belief in the Bible and trust Jesus?
Just curious. (I'm not looking for the answer, "That would never happen." Really it comes down to what's more important, the prophet or the Bible.)
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| The LDS Church teaches that after a person dies the righteous will go to spirit paradise and the unrighteous will go to spirit prison. This is where our souls reside until the resurrection where we will be assigned to one of 3 levels of Heaven, depending on our worthiness. However, they believe that a person in spirit prison can accept the LDS gospel, be baptised and move into the spirit paradise. What does the Bible teach?
Luke 16:22-26 "The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side [spirit paradise]. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades [spirit prison], being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And
he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to
dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in
anguish in this flame.’ But
Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your
good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is
comforted here, and you are in anguish. And
besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in
order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and
none may cross from there to us.’"'
Here Jesus tells us that there is a "great chasm" between Abraham's side and Hades, and no one can cross that great chasm one way or the other.
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| Sorry for my long hiatus. After moving, Easter, and being out of town for a while, life still seems to be passing quickly. I'm still in the process of getting our new apartment in order, and spending time doing such wifely things that were not needed in the basement we were living in. I explain this just in case anyone was curious.
I would like to talk about forgiveness and repentance. I know we've discussed it before, but I think that I've come up with a good easy way to explain the difference between Christian belief and Mormon belief.
From what I understand (about LDS forgiveness and repentance) from an earlier post and missionary teaching, we are not forgiven until restoration is made (if possible). And if we repeat a sin, then we really weren't repentant in the first place, and so we really weren't forgiven. A Christian says that you can be repentant of a sin, and yet repeat the sin later, because we are sinful people and there is no perfection that can be attained here on earth, including perfect repentance.
So, here's my easy way of discribing the difference...
While Christians look for the FIGHT against sin to know that one is forgiven, LDS look for the VICTORY over sin to know that one is forgiven.
Agree or disagree?
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| Why would God kill off the righteous Nephites, and preserve the unrighteous Israelites? Why would God continually give Israel a chance to repent, bringing them judges, kings, and prophets, and finally Christ and preserve them, yet he would kill off a race, the Nephites, that were a righteous people?
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| Well, It doesn't look like I'll be getting anymore answers to the last question, so I'll give you my response and then my second question.
Response:
The people who responded said that they would not like it if there was no distinction between the LDS and FLDS. And I think lots of LDS would answer the same way, and understandably so. The FLDS believe different things then the LDS do, they have different practices, etc. I want to use this as a parallel, just like the LDS don't want to be considered the same as FLDS, Christians don't want to be considered the same as LDS. Why? Because we believe different things. We are fundamentally different at the very core of our beliefs. If you tell someone you're a "Christian" then that word carries with certain beliefs, and the LDS do not hold to those... even if you believe in Jesus Christ, to call yourself a Christian, and not include the fact that you're LDS or explain that LDS is different from Christianity, then you're leading a person to believe certain things that you actually don't. Which leads me to my next question....
Question:
Why does it bother you when people don't consider you Christian when you disagree with almost everything that Protestant Christianity believes in? I know that you say "But we do believe in Jesus Christ." But remember my response above. And would you consider a person a Christian if they "believed in Jesus Christ" but believed that God was a great big pumkin in the sky?
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