Obviously I wish the same best wishes to you Parker. That goes without saying friend.
But your “refutation” of the article as simply someone following Aquinas (incidentally, a master of Scripture and theology, and a man whose only desire was Christ) over the Bible is a little too dismissive for me. You read the same (well, nearly the same) Bible as we orthodox Christians do, and yet you follow a Church that teaches a history that has no basis in any kind of solid fact, no basis in the Scriptures other than what LDS apologists can twist to suit there uses, no basis in any kind of tradition in the least…it’s simply not there.
For pete’s sake, your biggest university (Brigham Young University) is named after a man who had over fifty wives, held that people lived on the moon and the sun, and a man who uttered statements such as this:
“Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so” (Journal of Discourses, 10:109, March 8, 1863).
Your sacred scriptures proclaim this:
“And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.” (2 Nephi 5:21)
I do not find this in the real sacred Scripture. I do not find any evidence that God was simply once a man, and that we all become little gods. Mormon apologists mine our saints and church fathers for support of your doctrines of exaltation and godhood, and yet hold these very saints and church fathers as apostates, members of a church that is considered as an abomination by your church. And as far as I’m concerned, the Book of Mormon is so blatantly the work of one author, that if it were any more obvious, it would be a mammoth in the living room wearing a lampshade for a bonnet and reciting Cicero’s
Philippics from memory - for goodness’ sake Parker, Smith’s “revelations” in the D+C sound exactly the same as the entire Book of Mormon. That, and the whole circus over Egyptian funeral scrolls supposedly being written by Abraham that essentially rips off the Genesis creation accounts and inserts “the gods” all over the place…
If Mormons stopped trying to be labeled as Christian, then that would be a different story. Mormonism would simply be another religion. But when you say you worship Jesus Christ, you are saying “I worship a god who was once human and became a god, who was the son of a god who was also once a human, and on and on…”, whereas Christians say we worship Jesus Christ as Lord, God, and Savior, one with the Father and the Spirit, eternal and without beginning. Mormons can’t even explain the eternal regression of gods and humans becoming gods.
I’m sorry Parker - well meaning as you may be - Mormonism is not the same thing as Christianity, not by a long shot. Mormons wishing to be recognized as Christians is kind of like if Christians started complaining that they weren’t recognized as Muslims or Wiccans.
I can give credit where credit is due - most religions have some truth in them, I have no doubt of it. Even the Book of Mormon has admirable teachings in it (though this is probably due to its ripping off sections word-for-word from the Bible). The faith of Mormons is inspiring at times, and their charity is often unmatched. But for goodness’ sake Parker, Mormonism is similar to Christianity in terms and figures used only…you must somehow see this on some level.
Can you direct me to where you dealt with issues of racism within the early LDS movement, and what caused it to be rescinded in 1978?