Just so you’ll know, BJ: All of the quotes cited in this thread ARE from official LDS sources. They are all from either:
Mrs. Colbert, how is it possible that you have never heard this basic Mormon doctrine? It is stated clearly in the teachings of the LDS (Mormon) church that the “trinity” consists of three separate gods – Father, Son, and Spirit – and that the “god of earth” (Heavenly Father) is among many gods in the universe.
BJ, here is an section from Joseph Smith’s King Follet Sermon (Sunday, April 7, 1844*)*, as printed in History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 302-317. I will let it speak for itself.
"I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show what kind of a being God is. What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears and hear, all ye ends of the earth, for I am going to prove it to you by the Bible, and to tell you the designs of God in relation to the human race, and why He interferes with the affairs of man.In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is necessary we should understand the character and being of God and how He came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see.
These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible.When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave. I suppose I am not allowed to go into an investigation of anything that is not contained in the Bible. If I do, I think there are so many over-wise men here that they would cry "treason" and put me to death. So I will go to the old Bible and turn commentator today.
I shall comment on the very first Hebrew word in the Bible; I will make a comment on the very first sentence of the history of creation in the Bible—Berosheit. I want to analyze the word. Baith—in, by, through, and everything else. Roch—the head, Sheit—grammatical termination. When the inspired man wrote it, he did not put the baith there. An old Jew without any authority added the word; he thought it too bad to begin to talk about the head! It read first, "The head one of the Gods brought forth the Gods." That is the true meaning of the words. Baurau signifies to bring forth. If you do not believe it, you do not believe the learned man of God. Learned men can teach you no more than what I have told you. Thus the head God brought forth the Gods in the grand council.
I will transpose and simplify it in the English language. Oh, ye lawyers, ye doctors, and ye priests, who have persecuted me, I want to let you know that the Holy Ghost knows something as well as you do. The head God called together the Gods and sat in grand council to bring forth the world. The grand councilors sat at the head in yonder heavens and contemplated the creation of the worlds which were created at the time. When I say doctors and lawyers, I mean the doctors and lawyers of the scriptures. I have done so hitherto without explanation, to let the lawyers flutter and everybody laugh at them. Some learned doctors might take a notion to say the scriptures say thus and so; and we must believe the scriptures; they are not to be altered. But I am going to show you an error in them."Here is also a further explanation of what the First Principles of the Gospel are,,,Catholics don’t believe that “God abandoned us” in biblical times. That is one of those Mormon “big lies”. We believe that Jesus has continually guided His Church through the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus promised He would. (cf. Matt 28:20; John 15:26; John 16:13)
Glad you finally agree with me. All of the other things I posted about LDS beliefs are true as well.
BJ, if you believe that God continues to reveal truths through your prophet, then could you please explain this from the Bible?
BJ, in response to this part of your post, I realize that one of the LDS arguments for continuing revelation is the notion that without more public revelation, God would in effect be abandoning us. The LDS seem to equate the lack of new revelation with abandonment by God. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Catholics believe that Christ established a church that would be guided into all truth and never abandoned, under the constant protection of the Holy Spirit. As a Mormon, you would have to believe that God did abandon us for 1700 years.
I just wanted you to know I did see your post and appreciate the kind remarks. Thank you
I just wanted you to know I did see your post and appreciate the kind remarks. Thank you
If I can clarify, we do not believe God stopped speaking to us. He continues to speak to us, through His Eternal Word. We need no new prophets because the Word of God continues to speak to His Holy Church, He continues to express the same deposit of faith delivered “once and for all” to the saints. (cf. Jude 3)
If you were indeed a Mormon, you would know that it is the Melchezidek(Spelling?) which is held by adult men over 18 years old, and the Aronic which is held by boys 12-18. Elder is the first office of the Melchezidek Priesthood, and Elder is where most LDS men are until they die, unless they are called to be a Bishop(Bishops act as head of a congregation) or 70(part of the administration of the Church) or Apostle(there are 12) or The Prophet(President of the Church).
We also hold with great signifcance the good news of the resurrection! However, it is also important to remember how Jesus got to the ressurection - which is through His suffering and death. Had Jesus not suffered and died, there would have been no ressurection! They are inextricably related, you can’t have one without the other! I also think it’s important to remember that Jesus DIED for our sins. He was not ressurected for our sins. So if we don’t pay due respect to Jesus’ sacrifice, we are not acknowledging His wonderful gift to us. Holding one in higher esteem discounts the other.
Dear BJ,
You didn’t understand, I meant that the suffering, and sacrifice Jesus made on the cross is all tied together with the resurrection and therefore equally important. We remember all with equal importance because without one we would not have the other. Boppysbud had pointed out that we think Gethsemene was the most important event and I was saying that they all are important to us. We remember especially every time we take the Sacrament, which represents the Body and Blood of Christ. And you are right all of our Temples have the statue of Moroni on top of the Steeple, and we have paintings of Jesus in our Chapels or meeting houses.
Thanks, got it now. One question though…Why a statue of Moroni on top of all your temples? I know Moroni was important in the historical beliefs of LDS members, but aren’t there more important people that could be “statued”? I’m thinking like JESUS, St. Paul, Joseph Smith (in your belief system)…and if GOD has a body, and we know what He looks like…why isn’t there a statue of GOD on top of every temple? That just seems A LOT more logical to me. Course, maybe that’s because I’m Catholic and not LDS.