mrmarklin

This weight is in the realm of normal FWIT.

Clearly some sins are worse than others. If one looks at the consequences of any particular sin, one can rate them. Obviously taking a life has serious consquences. And adultery, with its capacity to destroy sacred marraige, and possibly give rise to bastardy outside of a normal family life is not a good way to go either.

How could we possibly know? When the Christ talks about doing what His Father has done, one must understand this in context. It's unlikely He was around during the mortal life of Elohim. He must be referring to His premortal existence.

Most of the Anti stuff is taken 'way out of context. I have read some of the speeches in entirety and properly understood, there is no "Adam is God" theory per se. Also remember that transcription back in those days is not what it is now, and may have been subject to error.

There are some things in the bible account of the origin of man that are incontrovertible. One is that Adam nad Eve could not die in the garden of Eden because of the composition of their bodies. One can only assume that they were created by an immortal being, and not evolved. Had they been evolved, presumably they would have been subject to death. It was only AFTER ingesting a forbidden fruit AND trangressing the law of God that their bodies underwent a change. One can only assume that the result of these two actions converted them to mortality. It's my personal belief that God cannot create anything mortal. Mortality can only be introduced by something else that can be used by the agency of another. This was the case in the garden. Of course Adam was set up so to speak, but that was God's plan. I'm with old James E. It's useless to speculate on pre-Adamic man. No one knows.

I'm not sure us nine posters reject evolution in toto. I don't believe that I descend from anything other than God, but I can certainly understand based on the science today why many believe mankind did evolve. Maybe lesser creatures evolved somehow, but I'm not sold on that either. Frankly, there are not enough facts to determine how all things were created. Only vague verses in the Bible, and scattered fossil remains, of which there are new discoveries all the time. Discoveries which on an ongoing basis challenge the supposed "knowledge" that went before. But nothing will convince me that I'm not a child of God. This is repeated ad nauseum in the Bible particularly in the New Testament.

Not sure that incest is good or desireable but there are certainly some close relationships in the bible even ignoring Adam's children. I'm not sure incest was looked at the same way then as we do now. Abraham married a blood niece. The entire house of Israel is from this marraige. Lot's daughters slept with him after the death of their mother to preserve the line, and Tamar slept with her father in law (Judah) to preserve her husband's (Judah's!) line(perhaps not strictly incest). Note all the incest in Egyptian Pharoah's genealogies. In the beginning they were righteous rulers. The intermarraige custom must have been descended from earlier practice. It's clear though that by Moses' time incest was prohibited.

I don't know why we're still arguing. The procedure in the Scripture is clear. In general the bishop is in charge of the aaronic priesthood. It is NOT the Presiding authority except as granted by the Melchizidek priesthood. High priest preside, and have precedence. Note that Bishops are always High Priests!!!!

An apple is eaten one bite at a time. You cannot do everything, so you must prioritize yourself. Taking care of your family is #1 so going to work and doing a good job should be a very high priority. Scripture reading is a good activity, and as you can see many people give it some time every day. I'm personally an inveterate reader, but don't always read scripture all the time. Going to meetings can be important, but remember the Church is a support group to a large extent. Take advantage of it. Going to the meetings can reinforce your testimony, and keep you in touch with like minded people who also want to obey the Lord. But remember going to meetings isn't the reason We're Mormons, although some people would like to think so. Only ONE meeting is required, and that's Sacrament meeting so we can renew our covenants. All the other meetings are instructional in essence. I don't go to every activitiy and that's certainly no sin or even necessary.. I knew a brother who volunteered for everything so that he didn't have to help his wife with their many children because those tasks were distasteful to him. Do you think he got any blessings as a result?? Yet he was seen by the outside church members as "selfless". So don't be concerned about what others are doing, or "seeing". Each of us have our own strengths and weaknesses, and we need to build upon them. The Church has many outlets for our interests, and we're all different. So don't think you have to do everything. In our complex society we are allowed to "specialize".

I completely accept evolution for YOU. It's becoming more and more obvious. Just not me.

Yes, that's correct. I edited my comment. I was officiating.

The senior High priest of the ward presides in the absence of the bishopric. True Story: I was the 2d counselor in the HP leadership abt. 20 years ago. All the bishopric, the HP group leader and 1st counselor were out of town. I got a call from the Stake informing me that I would preside over sacrament meeting next Sunday!! The 1st counselor in the Stake presidency sat with me on the stand, and everyone was acting a little sheepish. Someone had dropped the ball!!!! I was pretty far down the totem pole so to speak, but I was the senior HP that day. (edit) I guess I actually "Officiated" at that meeting. The Stake leader would have been the one presiding. Note that the procedure was in strict fulfilment of the scripture previously quoted.

I think they call it being born.

BTW I voted Yes on the survey. Does this make me Ape-like in my mentality????? What a thought!!!!!

It's interesting Snow is so adamant about the "fact" of evolution. Makes him seem like one of the Evangelicals he averrs to despise. Certainly wouldn't want any anomalies or evidence to the contrary get in the way of this "fact". Genesis 1: [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. I'm sticking to my guns: I never descended from a monkey. Or any amoeba either. I understand the church's policy and agree with it. It's just my personal belief that I didn't evolve. You can be evolved if you want to. BTW Snow, I'm very educated and evolved (did I mean involved?) in a successful career. I'm having a lot of fun seeing you bloviate on this forum!!!!

Oh yeah, I still didn't descend from anything other than God.YMMV.

Newton's premises were considered absolute until Einstein had a better idea. And perhaps Hawking after that. There is no proof of evolution. It is a theory, and perhaps a correct one, but many people have doubts. There are just too many holes in it right now to be accepted as fact. However it does seem to explain a lot. It's what I would call a working hypothesis. We have proved the earth is round by observation, so that's really not a theory anymore. Oh yeah, it really isn't absolutely round either.

I believe that some of you may have evolved from monkeys etc., but I didn't.

You can receive answers to your prayers if you pray with real intent. If you pray and are not cofused by what you propose to the Lord, you have received your answer. Satan wants to take the mistakes you have made, and compound the felony by making you feel you can't pray. But you can. See you bishop and clear up your chastity problems, and you will be able to see a very visible way of getting out of the predicament you are in. You are not the only one who has fallen into satan's trap, and you won't be the last. Just don't start believing you are irredeemable, because you're not.

Haven't looked at this thread since the first few posts!!! Lot's of controversy. It seems that due to the fact that we are created in God's image, evolution would be precluded. Many eminent future modern day prophets have voiced this point of view before they were prophets. It does seem significant however, that the Church has no official evolution doctrine, unlike most of our Christian counterparts. I personally don't buy into evolution. If you think you evolved from a monkey that's OK by me. But I'm a child of God. YMMV

But don't inhale!!!!!!!

It would save a lot of time to do concurrent repenting!!!!

On Second thought all this is well and good in the wealthy industrial nations with a terrific infrastructure on the internet, but in third world and other emerging places where the Church is having so much success its a lot tougher. Because the people don't have the means in the home to do a lot of this stuff. A lot of countries still have internet "cafes" etc so people can still have access, but not have to purchase a computer. I'm sure it will be many decades before the Church will have full online reporting of almost any kind. On the other hand, those of us fortunate enough to have these facilities should certainly use them.

Makes a lot of sense to me. The Church is way behind on this sort of stuff. For people who have to travel any distance at all this would be a great time-saver and convenience. I've never felt the Church was overly sensitive of saving time for people. Like in the old days Ward teaching used to be called Block teaching. Because in Utah you would teach those on your block. Of course as the Church expanded here in the US and overseas this terminology became obsolete, and even funny.

The Church is far from predicting disasters on a world wide or even national scale. There are enough local ones for that!!! The program the Lord has for us does not contemplate the END coming too soon IMNSHO.