Whynot

Most people don't think for themselves because they are mentally lazy and it's easier to side with those you like or respect than to forge the pathway to return to the truth when most would rather hear what makes them feel comfortable - it's human nature. But Jesus wants us to become all we were created to be. Jesus never taught a feel good doctrine. His message divides spiritual light from spiritual darkness - that's the nature of what He taught. Jesus said if we don't believe Moses, we can't believe Him either. One has to be firmly based on what Jesus taught if they belong to Him. He came to call everyone to repent and do the will of God because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Those who are of God will hear Him and follow Him. That 'Prophet' spoken of by Moses and Peter (Acts 3:22,23) is the Living Prophet, Jesus Christ. So the issue is to abide in His teachings given to the disciples when preaching the message of God in His earthly ministry, as well as the further revelation from heaven about those things which are outlined there. Have you carefully considered if you are abiding in everything He taught? One Disciple to Another If you do what He said you will be His disciple indeed. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. It's the same for everyone - His words are true, and He gave those original disciples the eternally extant words of the Father to His children. Those who are His will hear, those who are not His cannot accept them or do them. Those of the light will come to the light that they may see their deeds are done in God. Those not of the Father will not come to the light of His word because they can't face the fact of their darkness, but will seek their own kind to follow. Jesus said His words were imperishable by any means. Do you believe Him?

John 14:23,24; "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." . Jesus gave hundreds of teachings, and each has important lessons in our discipleship to Him. We are not to be hearers only, but doers of His word. Surely Jesus came to manifest the righteousness and truth of God so that we have reason and hope in our faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Micah 6:7,8 we are told: "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" Surely Jesus came to show us exactly what these things mean: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God and our fellow man. We can have emotional love towards the Lord, but we also need to show our love by our actions of keeping His words - after all, love is a verb:-)

The Spirit works to draw us to Christ or convicts us if we reject His gospel, so in that sense I can see critical action of the Spirit prior to receiving the Lord. After we are baptized the presence of the Spirit is undeniable. And He still lets us know when we stray, but I don't think He leaves us with each stumble, but pressures us to repent and make things right, so long as we don't keep rejecting His direction to us and then leave us without conviction of our errors. I thought LDS believed the same thing about baptism as the Church of Christ, as many early LDS were in the same fellowship as the 'Campbellites', which take a very literal view of Acts 2:38, that it is a matter of the promise of God to all generations to come since then, and that it is for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I've heard Evangelicals say baptism is what one does as a result of being forgiven and having been given the gift of the Holy Spirit - a matter of what 'eis' means - because of - or - for. And that the record in Acts implies it is God who adds to the Church those who are being saved (those who were baptized), which implies the role is in heaven, and this relates to the 'book of life' spoken of in other Scriptures. Church of Christ will not recognize anyone as a member who has not been baptized for the forgiveness of sins and such that is not in complete accord with the promise of God that Peter gave. Am I misunderstanding something? Thanks!

Regarding the covenant and what Jesus said, the most complete record is in the gospel accounts, and He said the covenant was His blood and body and the Sacrament was a time to remember Him and what has been done for us - as a memorial to honor His giving His life blood and the abuse and scourgings prior to the cross. Passover was a memorial to the time when God freed Israel from bondage to Egypt, as we are freed from bondage to sin, and called to a new life in abiding in the Lord and His word and His example. I'm trying to digest the quote above. The simple reading seems to say LDS believe they have the Spirit before they are baptized? and that they believe baptism is into their Church - as some protestant denominations also believe? Please correct me if wrong.

The new AENT (Aramaic English New Testament) is really a blessing as a double check for the Scriptures handed down through Jerome and the RCC Greek texts, as the Lord and His disciples (apostles) spoke Aramaic, and a more direct translation into English is more faithful to what was actually said. As the saying goes, 'as much as it has been translated correctly', is fairly clear with the AENT. The AENT says that Jesus gives authority to those who believe in Him and abide in His word to become sons of God. Jesus also said that unless we take up our own staff of authority and leadership and follow Him that we are not worthy of Him. Now does that sound familiar? As the Lord said, when we see Him (Jesus) we have seen the Father, as Jesus is the human representation/likeness of God - but the matter is known by the spirit, because God is Spirit and the source of all that has been created, and Revelation also re tells that only God is to be worshiped, even by the other gods (el's). The AENT has a number of names that God and Jesus are called, as well as the angels are more clearly identified as 'messengers' of God. John 1:1-5; In the beginning was the Miltha. And that Miltha was with Elohim. And Elohim was that Miltha. This was with Elohim in the beginning. Everything existed through His hands, and without Him, not even one thing existed of the things which have existed. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.And that light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it." another interesting quote is Matt. 5:33; Again you have heard that it has been said to those before that you should not lie in your oath. But complete your oath to Master YHWH." Another place the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the Redeemer... Revelation 1:8,9 says: "I am Alp, also Taw," says the Master YHWH, Elohim: who is, and was, and is to come, the omnipotent." I Yochanan, your brother and partaker with you in the affliction and suffering that are in Y'shua the Mashiyach, was in the island called Patmos because of the Word of Elohim and because of the testimony of Y'shua the Mashiyach. I was in the Spirit on the day of our Master YHWH; and I heard behind me a great voice; as of a shofar, which said;...." I don't think the new translation is friendly to the Trinity doctrine. so much to check out.... it was much simpler from the Greek:-), but not as good:-)

Perhaps this would be better said as another thread topic, but I've come to see and believe with all my heart that the LDS book, Gospel Principles, should have more references to the Bible than it does, and specifically references to what the record says that Jesus actually taught. If the Church is about Jesus and the gospel of Jesus Christ, they should give references to His doctrine/teachings to support beliefs to those who are investigators. Most investigators are not familiar with the Book of Mormon, but are more accepting and familiar with the Bible. The primary difference between the LDS Church and the rest of the denominations or orthodox Churches is that faith requires faithfulness and doing the will of God - not merely professing a confession of faith or such things as some believe true that are nothing but misrepresentations or twisting what Paul said. Truth is centered in and from the Lord Jesus Christ. That the Bible has suffered mistranslation problems is evident, even in the KJV or NKJV or NIV or ASV. I would strongly recommend the Aramaic English New Testament by Netzari Press LLC to any Christian who wants to know what was originally said by the Lord and recorded by the disciples. The more I read it the more I'm convinced that the Greek and Latin texts promoted by the RCC have put a hedge around some issues of the complete truth as Jesus and His disciples gave them to us in their native tongue.

My comment had to do with your comment about Romans 1." Besides all that...how many of us are truly well enough versed in any particular science to either reject outright or pronounce as ordained any particular religion. Ultimately, Romans 1 suggests that nature itself proclaims that God is. If Paul is right, then we can indeed expect to find him, if we open our hearts. And, if we do find him, he will surely lead us where we need to go." If nature itself were the power and knowledge required to find Him and know His will and get us on the pathway to be in the 'Set Apart People' of God, then one might wonder where all the Churches were when Columbus came to the new world. Fact is that faith follows preaching and proclaiming the word of God and that there is a true gospel - the gospel as preached by Jesus Christ and the original disciples. I marvel that so many think they are going to turn atheists into Christians by arguing about creation/evolution. Why not teach what Jesus taught and make disciples of Him who are called to Him by His words from the Father? That seems to be a mode of operation and focus that would be true to the outline Jesus gave for the game-plan of taking the gospel to the world. (great commission at the end of Matthew)

There is good evidence that Jesus was conceived on Christmas, which would place His birthday in late September or early October. This is based upon the timing of John the Baptist's father being told by the angel that he would have a son. Then the days he was serving in the temple, when those days ended, then how long it took him to walk home. Then when his wife was about six months pregnant Mary visited her and she had already become pregnant before her visit. I'd rather base my belief on some scriptural reasons than someone declaring something that just doesn't fit that well with the evidence. Does it really matter? Indirectly it does.

I don't think this was taught by the Lord. He specifically said we can know if what He taught was from God that we could know by doing what He taught. This provides the most powerful witness man can attain - the confirmation of God to the teachings of Jesus Christ as being directly from the Father. To base our faith on a lessor witness - well, it's just that - a lessor witness. "If you abide in My words, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." I've found these to be true, but it did feel a bit weird to take a teaching of Jesus and specifically keep it for a while - solely based upon His word, because He said so, but in no time at all I understood and have been growing by His words ever since!:-)

At the beginning of the ministry Jesus commanded the disciples to go to the Jews only, but at the end His commandment was to go to the ends of the earth 'Go ye unto all the world' and that they were His chosen witnesses of what the gospel He preached was and that the Holy Spirit would enable them to remember everything He had taught them. So I largely agree with your remarks, but do feel a need to clarify that Jesus told them to go to the Gentiles as well. As you mention, His teachings are beyond the four gospels, and an example of this was His telling Peter via vision to take the gospel to the Gentiles, as what God had declared to be clean was clean and Peter was not to judge the command of God. I wish more Evangelicals would realize His further epistles in Revelation that prove without a doubt that salvation is not found when we don't abide in whatever He commanded - and the book ends about being judged by our works - how odd that they teach against LDS for thinking what we do do matters. This just shows too much about what and who they believe - unfortunately.

Years ago I used to frequent a particular message board that relied heavily on F.A.I.R. to support the LDS Church. Perhaps some materials are good, but others may be less convincing to someone who is not a member. The same could be said for any apologetic site that approaches the subject of Jesus Christ from a particular viewpoint. When I reviewed some of the material it was not nearly as convincing or authoritative as I've found in the teachings of the Lord Jesus Himself - and this is said in regard to both LDS and non-LDS sites that are about LDS or their own Church. If the LDS Church does indeed preach and teach Jesus Christ - more power to them, as more people need to hear what Jesus taught that they be convinced to become His disciple based upon what He taught, and that discipleship first calls for being baptized into His name for the reasons of the very promise of God, as recorded by Peter, and continual followup in discipleship to whatever He taught as a life long experience. Going through all the commandments and doctrines of the Lord, we can see that in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7) that He made a point about specifically keeping them specifically that He had just given. Because of this I find it particularly important to hear and do those teachings recorded by Matthew instead of the Book of Mormon account, which is less than the other account. I believe all His words are most important. 7:21-26 (from the Aramaic English New Testament by Netzari Press LLC "It will not be that just anyone who says to me "My master, my master!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, "My master, my master! By your name have we not prophesied? And by your name have we cast out demons? And by your name have we done many miracles?" And then I will profess to them that from everlasting, I have not known you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity! Anyone, therefore, who hears my words, these, and does them, will be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a stone. And descended the rain, and came the rivers, and blew the winds, and they beat on the house and it did not fall, for its foundation was laid upon a stone. And anyone who hears my words, these, and does them not, will be likened to a foolish man that built his house upon sand. And descended the rain, and came the rivers, and blew the winds, and they beat on the house and it fell, and its fall was great." So if you prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and performed miracles in His name, even that proves not a wink that you are right in His eyes. Each of us will be judged as individuals, so I'd rather base my faith and life upon what Jesus said than what anyone else claims to be the truth, since we have the words of the Lord in the Bible - do we need them in another book if that other book doesn't give us the whole, or best, account of them? Each takes inventory with their budget and money to make sure the money is in the bank to purchase what they need or want. Why would we do less with the words of Jesus?

I hear you Deborah. My web site was largely started as an accounting in prep of LDS accounting of the teachings of Jesus in the BOM vs Bible. What I discovered was the greatest thing possible - that discipleship and doing what Jesus told us is the gospel message. And how many Baptists or other evangelical branches teach it's just inviting Jesus into your heart and not real action is necessary? No, the truth that Jesus gave matters. Keeping His commandments - in fact, whatever He taught - is our part of the gospel, that we grow to be more like Him by faith in hearing and obedience to Him as our Lord and Savior and King - thereby we are His 'mother, brother and sister' when we seek to do the will of God - not just hear it:-)

This is what my understanding is as well, but I have met some LDS who take the matter to the point to say that 'if God does not make them a God as He is that there are going to be a lot of people die', which I personally found somewhat alarming and fanatical. I know enough not to accuse all LDS of this belief because it was expressed by one man, but it does cause me to wonder if the LDS Church needs to clarify the belief as you stated above. Becoming 'like' Him was taught by the Lord as very specific attitudes towards those who accuse us or such things and He calls us to do good, continue in love towards those who don't love us, and to pray for our enemies - things such as this - that we are called to higher levels of faith, life, love and grace towards others than the old 'tooth for a tooth' attitude. Jesus calls us to spiritual maturity to be like the Father in that way. I don't think He ever indicated otherwise, except about sitting with Him on His throne, which doesn't seem to indicate creation of our own worlds that we can be 'Gods' over.