pentecorman

Who said anything about "hate the church?" I love the church. Bishops can make mistakes, so can pedophiles. But God does not. See, now is when members fall back on "everyone, even prophets, make mistakes." No one ever wants to talk about the contradictions in what we say and preach versus reality. We say, "Repent, get cleansed through the Atonement." Then what we actually do is put astrisks next to people's names who have something that warranted disfellowship even though they have repented, gone to the temple, hold reccomends, and it is 20 years in the past. That is hypocricy. The problem is that we feel like apostate church haters if we say anything. I did not bring up this topic, but I will speak honestly about it. Not everyone who has been disfellowshipped is a child molester. Some may have been disfellowshipped by one of those "mistakes" made by the bishop that you want to excuse.

"Don't let Paul become an Apostle, he was a Jesus hater and Christian basher." "Don't let Alma the Younger go out on a mission, his eyes will become attracted to women and things of the world again and will destroy the church." We think we believe in the spirit of revelation to guide us. Then it gets real and we deny the very power thereof. Sad.

This really addresses several problems. I grew up thinking that God actually "called" people through inspiration/revelation. So you are either saying "don't obey God because common sense says not to," or "God really has nothing to do with these small calling, we just fill them in as needed, and would never put a repentant pedophile in because we all know he has not really been born again." I also grew up believing this church was "big" on forgiveness too. Imagine saying that to your wife -Yeah honey, I forgive you, but I'm keepin' tabs. If you feel that way just divorce/excommunicate and move on!

If there is something in someone's past, and he/she repents, then is that person still a threat? Is he/she still the subject of questionable intent? How?

That's right.

Actually, there are confidential marks placed on your record that only your Bishop (or Stake Pres) has access to. I learned this when I inquired about becoming a CES teacher. They said you cannot be divorved and you cannot have been disfellowshipped or exed. I inquired "how would you know if I were?" I was told that there was an astrisk at a certain spot on your record that indicated this fact of your past. It is also used for scout callings and any calling when working with the youth. As a parent I think this is great. However, as a person I think it dismisses true repentance and permanantly brands people. Terrible!

There are no scriptural references for God progressing in knowledge . If He is ALL KNOWING then what??? I am sorry to say that we need to stop placing our earthly limitations on an AWESOME GOD!

Bruce R. is not the church, and he is not an expert on Christ's church. Where are his references from the scripture? He has edited his own "Mormon Doctrine" and made some serious errors in his faulty doctrine(ie Blacks and the Priesthood). This is because he bases his words on what other people say in sources like Journal of Discourses.

He becomes SUPER-GOD. No, but seriously, He is God, what else is there?

I don't think that we understand all that there is. We thought we had all of the mysteries answered but we don't. If the answers are not in the canon of scripture then we should be careful. How do we live with God ETERNALLY? With our families we are sealed to ETERNALLY? Will God no longer reside on KOLOB with His family when He is on this Celestialized earth? Will all of us, who become a god, stay on this Celestialized Earth eternally? What about when all of our spirit children on one of our worlds we create become ressurected and ready to live forever with their God (one of us) then will they come to our Celestial earth or will we have to go to theirs, hence leave our eternal abode with our families and our God? If God is willing to save those through works by proxy and make a way for salvation by giving His Son as a sacrifice, then as long as we speculate, we might as well err on the side of Gods LOVE and GRACE and MERCY. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve to get. Too many questions in this realm of thought. My answer is that there is an opportunity for all to progress if they belong to a degree of GLORY. Otherwise, why would God waste His time with it. The whole idea IS Eternal Progression.

I am not really big on this stuff. It takes so much time. However, I really need to ask questions, share my beliefs and get involved in discussions. I hope that i will be enlightened as well as enlightening. I am a family man with 8 kids. I am a music educator, politica scientist, and I love to dig deep in the scriptures.