That is exactly where most LDS members get the impressions of doctrine that are actually not Doctrinal. In case I need a little credibility with you, Croso, I am the author of the story at this link:
lds.org/new-era/1990/05/the-man-who-counted-stars?lang=eng I hold no animosity against the Church, though I occasionally get impatient and militantly defensive with members who I do not believe are being on the level.
Now that you claim you are 14, I cannot try to persuade you to believe what I do. I can share my beliefs with you and why. I can point out when some things you have been taught are inconsistent with your church’s doctrine, but I would be just as out of line to argue Catholic points with you as I would be with my own nephews, or my non-Catholic grandkids.
I can understand where you got this idea of married spirit couples in pre-mortal life, as “Saturday’s Warrior” was a big deal during my peak involvement in the Church. While I wouldn’t call it doctrine, I would call it authoritative speculation about the time I served my mission that we were organized into families in pre-mortal life, and that facilitated the Grand Council. However, I know nothing authoritative on that.
Let me address a point showing how self-contradictory some of the arguments you have been taught are from a strictly LDS perspective:
If we are created as spirits in pairs, wouldn’t that mean that the additional females would only fracture existing bonds, if reassigned for polygamous relationships?
As a Mormon your standard of what is valid doctrine is the Book of Mormon,as Joseph Smith called it “The most correct of all books”. Jacob Chapter 2 makes it very clear that the God you are taught to believe in despises polygamy. He clearly states that he only commands it when he has a shortage of covenant people (“to raise up seed”) which is the exception, not the rule. Many members in their speculation treat the idea of polygamy as the rule, and the current ban on it the exception, and this is inconsistent with the book that is the keystone of your religion. It affirms monogamy as the rule and polygamy as the exception. Learn that and you will understand more about your religion than most LDS youth your age ever get a grip on.
If God could allow any spirits (male or female) who sinned against a perfect knowledge and rebelled against him in heaven to remain there, why would transgressing without knowledge of good and evil at all justify expulsion from Paradise? Such a God has a double standard. If one thrid of the spirits rebelled, and one-third were cast out, who did God expel in place of the women he allowed to remain.
Spirits created in pairs – female spirits that rebelled not expelled from heaven – all of these are false doctrines within Mormonism. I still do not doubt that books labelled as LDS classics might contain these concepts. The Deseret Bookstore chain sells many products that are not official church publications. Even Deseret Books, the publisher, publishes few things with the offical stamp of LDS doctrine – even books by the general authorities.
As an example of how even books by GAs can be non-doctrinal, the book “Faith Precedes the Miracle” by Spencer W. Kimball included chapters adapted from general conference discourses. One of these discussed young Indian children adopted into white families whose skin lightened with time. Kimball’s account used this as evidence of fulfillment of a verse that said the Lamanites would someday become “a white and delightsome people” – execpt that is not doctrinal. In the early 1980s the Church published its most recent revision of The Book of Mormon, and the verse was changed to read “a pure and delightsome people,” negating the premise altogether.
But that did not keep other false doctrines that had grown from that verse from contiuing, such as black people would be white in the resurrection, which I first heard from colleagues in the MTC – again, completely non-doctrinal.
How can you know there are multiple gods? If you believe in multiple gods, how can you trust in God’s omnipotence? These are things you need to consider if you choose to continue believing what you do. You are likely to be taught many things about Catholicism, and we will gladly and honestly tell you if they are right or wrong. I know for example that growing up as a Mormon I was told that Catholics do not believe in revelation (false), worship idols (false), and that believe confession without repentance brings forgiveness (false).
The only other thing I feel comfortable suggesting is that you consider the significance of Mary carrying Jesus in her womb in light of the LDS definition of a temple: Is a temple of God only the temple when the Lord is literally inside it, or does it remain a temple even when the Lord is not literally present within it?
