Bensalem

You keep equating Israel with a physical patch of land. It is not! Israel is a family in Christ. Israel is united in Christ. Until you can see these things my preaching the one true Israel in the LDS church is meat you are incapable of digesting. D&C 14:10 “Wherefore, I must bring forth the fulness of my gospel from the Gentiles unto the house of Israel.” …speaks of the restoration of Israel coming through the gentiles, which it did through Joseph Smith. No conflict; only fulfillment.

I've been weaned from the milk and I’ve partaken of the meat of gospel and I wish to share the food of our Lord Jesus Christ with all who will lend an ear. Scriptures also give plenty of reasons for having no fear or shame in proclaiming the gospel.

Good luck and good spirits.

Yes, and our spiritual feet must take us first into the waters of baptism, which is the gateway into the LDS church and into Israel.

If I understand you correctly the books you listed earlier record the martyrdom of those persecuted by the Catholic church.

How can we walk in the land of Israel if we don't first have a spirit unto Israel? The Jewish people deny Christ...yet it is our Lord Jesus Christ who has the charge to restore the kingdom of Israel. The Christian churches deny reveled scripture and the living word of God in prophets...yet the restored Israel is a nation of prophets. I guess I have less tolerance than the average latter-day saint in allowing the sacred name of Israel to be shared by non-believers. Perhaps I see grander things in the Genesis story and in the dream of Israel. The sacred ground of Israel is the LDS church, not the patch of land in the Middle East as presently occupied. The "staircase connecting heaven and earth" is the apostolic power in the Melchizedek priesthood to bind on earth what is bound in heaven and vise-a-versa. The angles going up and down the staircase is the authority of the Aaronic priesthood in the ministering of angels. Jacob’s journey was one in search of eternal marriage. The LDS church has the gospel of eternal marriage. Genesis is not just a history of our forefather’s relations with God, it is the predictor of the world, and the Israel, and the family God would build in Christ and His Church.

I never said that the Catholic church's actions were anti-Semitic. I said that they did not represent Christ. Their actions through history demonstrate that Christ was not guiding their church leaders. Their history is witness to their apostasy. Of course you are right if you look at it in a strictly secular way. But you left out the scriptures regarding Mr. Doe, which foretold of his misfortune. As the story goes, Mr. Doe had been blessed of God to receive much in this life but he failed to give credit to God, he became proud of what he felt were his own accomplishments, he only thought of himself and lacked charity. It was foretold by a prophet of God that Mr. Doe would lose his house and all his possessions in a great fire. Mr. Sam knew nothing of these scriptures recording the fate of Mr. Doe but Mr. Doe was a faithful man and had read them several times always reassuring himself that his God was a merciful and forgiving God and so he felt his actions would be tolerated by our Lord and that the day of fulfillment would never come. Mr. Doe’s pride and false security blinded him to the reality that the fire would come in fulfillment of the word of God. Now in the light of this fulfillment, who is to blame?

I am unfamiliar with those writings. Are you saying they support my assertion that the Roman Catholic Church has an atrocious history?

I should have been clearer. I was speaking of ignorance in regards to things spiritual. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7) "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10) "The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility." (Proverbs 15:33) One cannot be taught if one denies the teacher. Christians who deny living revelation are no more likely to receive knowledge than an atheist who denies God.

I am aware that you are not one of those that called me anti-Semitic. I am not basing my views of Catholic atrocities on the voices of others. I believe my reading of history allows me to make those claims myself. It doesn't take much vision to see that the Catholic church in Rome did not represent Christ in their actions and policies toward other people, cultures, and nations. Forgiveness certainly removes the blame.

These scriptures do not allow a literal descendant of Aaron to become a bishop in the LDS church without first being baptized in water and by the Spirit according to the gospel. Neither could a literal descendant of Aaron become a bishop if he denied that Jesus was the Christ, or if he would not sustain Joseph Smith as a prophet and the apostles as being the leaders of His Church. A literal descendant of Aaron must be a convert first. Such a person would naturally not be an enemy of God.

Paul's teaching on grace removes man from the equation of the Atonement. So does my claim that we should hold the Jewish people blameless for the crucifixion...lest the claim be made that they gave us our Savior by their acts or at their hand. It had to happen in fulfillment of God's word as recorded in the BOM when Nephi had a vision unto the Atonement and crucifixion of Christ, a description more clearly stated than anything found in the Old Testament. Another poster made it clear that the UN declaration established a Jewish state, they did not establish Israel. So I too will call it a Jewish state, not Israel...since I recognize only the LDS church as being the threshold of Israel. Blameless, faultless, and forgiven. I use each word in support of the others.

First, I didn't know I was in any trouble for what I have posted. Second, I have spoken to enough Jewish people who believe that the Catholic church's role in kidnapping and forced baptisms of Jewish children qualifies my statements. And third, in proclaiming the Jews blameless in Jesus' death I am doing exactly as our Father in heaven did if He listened to the plea of His Son. This has turned out to be a very strange thread because while professing the Jewish people blameless I have been accused of being an anti-Semite. Think about it!

I was thinking of those in our time who deny the Anointed One of Israel. Will God treat them as enemies?

Thank you for providing the scriptural evidence of my claim that the LDS church is the restoration of the house of Israel (after the gentile Catholics and Christians fulfilled the first part of this prophecy).

Then why would you accuse me of such a thing when I have shown no hatred or prejudice?

That is a fine line to walk because the LDS do claim to be the restoration of Israel and its gathering place. The LDS do not have to rob or deprive those that would claim to be Israel since they rob and deprive themselves. No need to pickpocket the bankrupt. But let’s be clear. Is it your contention that the temple work the LDS do is all for not? Is there a way into Israel that bypasses the LDS church?

I don't understand your comment or recognize the source; perhaps you could educate me with an explanation.

I hope you are not claiming I am being anti-Semitic in my presentation of the concept of only one Israel and that being in the LDS church. As to your point on the scattering of the tribes and who should be considered to be a part of Israel; you seem to suggest that Israel is anyone who claims to be. Tell me, could a man in Abraham's day say he was of the family of Abraham without being circumcised? Would Abraham accept him on his word? I think not. Likewise, the claim to being part of Israel belongs to those who are baptized in the LDS church. Can you be in Israel and stand outside of Christ as the Jewish people prefer to do? Can a Christian claim to be of Israel when they deny the prophets of her restoration? No and no. Preaching one baptism, one Spirit, one Church and one Israel in Christ is not being anti-Semitic…it is being true to the word of God.

That is exactly what I am saying. Israel is where the LDS church is, not where people claim it is in the Middle East country by the same name.

The reason I am pushing for a blameless crucifixion is because the Bible supports it. It is recorded that the powers that be in Jesus' time considered it better for one man to die than an entire nation (Israel) to perish. Also, Paul in his doctrine of grace teaches that nothing of the Atonement can be credited to man, "lest any man should boast". I also like a blameless crucifixion because it accentuates the wrongness of centuries of Jewish persecution at the hands of the Catholic church, not to mention other Christians acting according to their hatred, or even today with Muslim extremism at the door of the Jewish state in the Middle East. It all points to the Apostasy that existed in these churches and peoples.

Too much is made of the territorial Israel of the Middle East as being the definition of the promise God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Neither is the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem by those in denial of Christ a milestone I look forward to. Considering that Jesus proclaimed our bodies to be the temple of God, even the LDS temples look suspect until one understands that these temples are, for the most part, used in administering the ordinances for the dead (people who no longer have a body). In this context it makes perfect sense to me that the LDS would have physical temples (not to mention that they also play a critical role in protecting marriage against the gay agenda of having their same-sex-marriages recognized in the other churches). The Restoration as proclaimed by the LDS church is the fulfillment of the promise God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (renamed Israel). The promise of Israel is the LDS promise of eternal marriage; meaning “descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven”. Israel is the only nation (and family) preserved beyond the grave and for all time and eternity. The Middle East is a patch of land I have little interest in. When Jacob bedded down for the night near the place called Luz, with a rock he used for a pillow, and dreamt of the ladder which extends to heaven with angels going up and down it, the earth was his mattress, even as his LORD spoke of the glories he would receive. Genesis speaks of four rivers, the Euphrates being the forth out of Eden. When Abraham was shown the land he and his descendants would receive extending to the Euphrates, I see the spiritual Euphrates not the physical one and paradise is still three crossings away. I recommend looking beyond the earthly and toward the heavenly doctrine of eternal progression in Christ restored in the LDS church for the safe trip all the way home. Death only continues our journey. Much learning and privilege is in store for us beyond the grave.

Do I admire ethical atheists? No, I pity their choice of ignorance and lack of faith. But I can still admire their good works.

I'm betting you won't find a new happiness if you're still lamenting about the loss of the old happiness. The best choice for an eternal mate is the one that also chooses you. Look at it this way, you may have ended up a divorce statistic if you had married someone who was not positive of the relationship. Be thankful she ended it now and not after a "trial" marriage. Btw, five years seems a long dating cycle. Could she have gotten tired of waiting? Or did you propose? Were you ready for the commitment? I usually don't ask such personal questions, so feel free to decline an answer.

To sin is to miss the mark...to fall short of God's expectations. People who do not believe in God are not exempt from sin. Being wrong about God's existence does not make God any less real. The word of God is eternal and His laws apply to all even if you choose to deny him.