estradling75

There is also the flip side of that... When a faithful member goes to church and participates... How many people might they uplift or strengthen? Even if only a little bit? Our covenants include helping others. Yet to many members who are under these covenants make church attendance all about them. What they need... what they get... and with such a selfish mindset they end up with nothing but misery. Which is exactly what one should expect from such a covenant violation. It is one of those gospel paradoxes that those that go to church thinking what can they give, who can they help... tend to get more out of it then those that always are about what they get out of it.

One might hope. Because there is a world of difference between being excited at the new possibilities Technology gives us to Preach and Live the Gospel. And declaring the old ways of doing so as being the cause of all our woes and problems... Because he has being doing the later ever since he joined the site.

An example of someone who personally wants all the benefits of the Church is a Hospital for Sinners model, but then condemns anyone else who is there and also sick. Christ commands us to meet as a Church. He even goes so far as to even put his name on it. One of the many reason is that it is part of the continued test of mortality. If we can't practice Christ-like charity toward people who are trying (no matter how flawed). What hope to we have to lay claim on the blessing of the Celestial Kingdom? If one can not follow the Good Samaritan model toward the flawed faithful, one will not be able to do it to the stranger as the Lord commands.

I call it the pendulum swing. Yes I realize that needs to be explained. We are suppose to be on the strait and narrow path. But some time, individually, as families, and as a church we can stray from the path. That is when the watchmen (The prophets and apostles) do their job and push us back in the right direction. However many take the current warning and effectively ignore all the other warning and scriptures. This means they go to the another extreme. They do not land on the strait and narrow path but they might be able to wave to it as they cross over it. In this case our watchmen have been strongly pushing the Family and Individual gospel studies aspect of the Gospel. Maybe they saw us straying thinking the church aspect was all we needed, Or maybe they foresaw the Church aspect being shutdown/greatly limited due to COVID. Either way now we are seeing the pendulum swing the other direction. Members of the Church forgetting/ minimizing the fact that they Lord and his Gospel requires us to gather together beyond family. (Currently we are being forced not to gather by the Goverment mandates on COVID that is not on us, but on them, and the church is working that as best it can) The simple fact is the gospel has always being a hybrid Individual, Family, Church thing. And all parts in proper balance are required of the Lord. Those member who think and acting as if the Church is no longer important or necessary are just as wrong minded as those that mistakenly think the church is all we needed. As for the failing of leaders... Yes it happens and yes they will be held accountable. But the simple fact the sins of one do not excuse the sins of another. Alma's son behavior did not transfer the sins of the disbelieving on to his own head. That sin remained firmly on them, rather he added to the sum total of collected sins with sins of his own. Alma called his son to repentance as he needed to, but that did not kept the others from being condemned for not believing... no matter what justification they used. Everyone (except Christ) sins. This makes the church a hospital for sinners. Sadly to many people when they see the sins of there follow church members/leaders forget this and use it to justify doing whatever sin they really wished for anyway.

Two thoughts... The resurrection is a form of Judgement therefore it makes sense that it would take place when other judgement happen. In 1 Corinthians 15: 39-42 we read We commonly use this to show the Three Degrees of Glory, but Paul is clearly talking about Bodies, more importantly Resurrected Bodies. Aka the resurrection is "celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial, and bodies telestial;" Thus Resurrection is a Judgement. This lends weight to the idea the the Kingdom's of Glory are not places but state of being. Thus someone with a Celestial Body is in the Celestial Kingdom no matter were there might be physically. This means if you resurrect with a Celestial Body you already have a huge idea how the rest of the judgment is going to go. Second thought... During judgement we are told we will have a bright recollection of all our guilt, and know that the judgments are just. Having a perfect memory sounds like the function of a resurrected brain to me.

Well clearly the closer one is to Truth... the less adjusting they will need to do once the Truth is made known. That is an advantage. Having said that I think we will all find that the unrevealed Mysteries of Godliness that still lie in front of us, when revealed, will show that difference between what we thought we knew and what is true is still huge. Or to put in another way all the revelations we have now will turn out to be the kindergarten class of God's college.

Of course we must continue to seek him and adjust that is one of the most important things. Let me use your lists as an example. Dancing, coffee, tea, smoking etc... Are all done because we believe that is what God wants of us. We might hedge up a bunch of reasons and excuses why the Lord wants that of us, but it does not change what should be our fundamental driving force. Doing the will of God. As our understanding changes our behavior changes So a faithful Latter-day Saint seeks the Lord and continually adjusts as they learn more. Then the prophet says "Thus saith the Lord... No More Dancing" Said faithful Saint stops dancing even if they danced a lot before. By the same token an Assemblies of God Chaplain who has spend his life serving God the best he knows how. He gets a "Thus saith the Lord... No More Coffee" of his own. Odds are such a Faithful and Obedient Chaplin obeys and stops. No matter how much he liked coffee before. Neither one are sinners (in that thing) until God's will is made known, to them, and God will be merciful as they work to repent (aka change) and follow their new understanding. As for the true nature of God. I ask anyone to find one attribute of Christ that we need to learn and emulate (aka that is actionable by us), that is fundamentally different, depending on if the truth is Godhead or Trinity. Name one? Being one with God? Christ taught us that in the garden when he basically said "Father this thing you want me to do is hard and I want another way if possible, but nevertheless not my will but yours be done." The actions and attitudes Christ is exemplaring here for us to develop are exactly the same, with either doctrinal foundation. Both type who try their best to follow Christ will at some point stand before God and be corrected of their errors (which will be many assuredly) Errors in understanding are the easiest things to correct (aka repent of) Both of these people will gladly accept the correction and move on. The real danger isn't the wrong understanding (which is easy to correct) the real danger is hardening of our heart against the Spirit's attempt to offer correction. That is when it gets hard, because we rebel and this rebellion will lead us to the point of the refusing to hear the Lord and refuse correction in the simplest things.

Doctrine in the sense of Truth is as important as Truth is. However not all Truth is of equal value. For example, knowing that I like the color blue is a Truth, knowing the Sun will rise in the morning is also a Truth. But they are not equally valuable to everyone. When it comes to Gospel truth... faith is an action word. What we do with what we have is of great importance (See the Parable of the Talents). Someone with a lesser light could be living it to the extreme and thus be blessed. While someone with a greater light could be ignoring it and trampling it underfoot, they will not be blessed. Thus to me the theological discussion of Godhead vs Trinity are interesting and valuable, but they are less important then someone trying their best to live as Christ would want them to. And I am not sure I see how the difference between Godhead and Trinity affects that.

I think we see examples of both in this very thread. The powerful automated IT process is in the app itself which includes account login which allows, if needed, the church to block spamming or rouge accounts without shutting down the whole system. The very first human filter is the member. They get a chance to share the gospel to those that think might be interested this aspect of it (as described by the OP) and they can and should judge the quality intuitively based on their knowledge and understanding. Honestly very little should get pass this human filter. And on accounts where it does, that is where the little old ladies would catch it and possibly trigger the suspension of the account. If said account is submitting things like "Boaty McBoatFace" However removing that first human filter makes it increasingly difficult to properly judge the quality of the names.

And the simple fact is that the first, easiest step, in filtering spam is... to have people sign in.

When it comes to Mono vs Polytheism, we also have to take in historical context. Typically when one thinks polytheism one thinks of Egyptian, Greek or Roman Gods. These groups all had one thing in common, the God's fight each other. There are stories where a mortal would do something to anger one God but gain the protection of an other. Monotheism did away with this conflict/Godswar. The easiest way to understand how there can be no conflict is simply being one. Jews and Christians were and are Monotheistic. But we run into a problem with the most literal interpretation of Monotheism when we deal with Christ. The Jew killed Christ because of his claims to be the Son of God and thus keep the literal interpretation. Christian's embrace the declaration, but then have to call upon the unity or "Oneness" of the Father and the Son to maintain Monotheistic status the Father and Christ are never in conflict. Many Christian use the Trinity model of God being of one substance. This works but it can be hard to explain. The LDS faith uses the model Christ gave the apostles as the model of the Godhead itself. He told the apostles to be one and warned them if they were not one they were not his. Thus our model is not one of substance but of heart, intent, and action. This allows God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost to be different people while being one God. This also leaves the door open to others joining and being a part even though the others are not called out. Because the ones called out have a direct role to play in our salvation. In order to be a part they have to be one in heart, mind, intent, and action... Thus no conflict between them. This is the door that logically puts Heavenly Mother in the Godhead without explicit call out. Husbands and Wives are to be One. Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother clearly must be one. But then we run into cases were people using that logic to try praying to Heavenly Mother. This is highly illogical. Using logic to claim the Godhood of Heavenly Mother but then defying that very logic in praying to her. She is and must be One God. And we have been very clearly instructed by God to pray to the Father in the Name of Christ. This is how we avoid the potential conflict of polytheistic many Gods. Thus Heavenly Mother would be the first on to shut down any attempts to pray to her. Having said that God is merciful to us in our weakness, and misunderstandings, they are less merciful to willful rebellion. It is also the path to Exaltation... when we become one with Christ, we are also one with the Father and whoever else is also One with them. But anyone else who is One like Heavenly Mother no matter how long ago they might have gained that status would by the Nature of being One fully support the Plan of the Father like Christ does. Thus no conflict, no Godswar, no end running the plan of the Father by trying to appeal to someone else. It is simply not possible.

Have you also considered the implications to things like the Adamic Language, and the Tower of Babel?

I have a ten-year old special needs son... The reason I bring him up is because when you described your dog and her behavior and limits, your more or less described my son's behavior and limits. Per Traveler's definition both your dog and my Son are intelligent. But that just means they can be Conditioned (aka Pavlov's Dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning) That is not a very high bar. Abstract Reasoning is a much higher Bar. Now some might say that responding to words means they understand language... But do they really? or are they simply responding to different types of "Bells?" As much as I would like to think and hope for the former, it seems to me to be more of the latter. Then we have the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis https://www.thoughtco.com/sapir-whorf-hypothesis-1691924 which would seem to support the idea language linked to abstract thought, but the Hypothesis has it flaws. As mentioned language itself is abstract thought somewhere along the way human infants and children move beyond Pavloven Conditioning to Language. Steps that animals don't take (and my son hasn't taken yet for some reason). I have had various of my son's language therapists talk about the importance of language in higher intelligence. Almost as if there is a positive feedback loop. Abstract Reasoning allows language, more language allows for more Abstract Reasoning which allows for more language. I am no scientist but I would be very interested in seeing the results of any test or experiment seeing if there is a correlation between Abstract Reasoning and Language Skills

I think the parable of the Talents applies here. Some people start off with more then others. Others ended up with more then others. But that did not seem to really matter to the Lord. Those that diligently tried to do the will of their Lord pleased him no matter the results. Those that did not try, did not please the Lord. In this world some of us might start off in what appears to be a more advantageous position, or a more disadvantageous position. The only way it matters is in how it affect our willingness to try to do the will of the Lord. That means there is no "collective answer" to the question. But rather a bunch of highly individualized answers

Its more then just when we die. President Nelson is warning us right now to get ready for something. We ignore that at our own peril. It would be like knowing that Noah was God's prophet and his watchman. Then when he warns us to board the ark, we say nope the Second Coming is a long way off so we do not need to. Well we would be right about the Second Coming but that would not help us at all. Wereas those that mistakenly think Noah is talking about the Second Coming and so they get on board well yes they were mistaken but they are saved anyways.

That is a much better support. President Nelson is clearly warning and forewarning in his latest talks. Given that the Lord had is all figured out on how to fulfill every prophecy and tells us he will tell his prophet we should be listening to that. If it turns out that it is not the 2nd Coming that President Nelson warning us for, we are still better off preparing as if it was. Because such preparation will see us through what ever it is President Nelson is trying to get us ready for. Wereas if we think is it impossible for the Lord to speed up his work, therefore do not heed the warning... Well second coming or not whomever has that mindset is going to be very much screwed when whatever it is we are being warned about comes.

This scripture does not support your position. Verse 10 talks about the Day that the Lord shall come in power (aka 2nd Coming) Verse 11 says "IN that day" not BEFORE that day. Thus the logical read of 10 and 11 is that the Lord comes in Power and then the whole world gets taught. The Lord coming in Power and setting up a thousand year reign (aka Millennium aka 1000 years is a day to God) make it not only possible, but also tells us what kind of work we are going to be doing for a thousand years. Most of the scriptures that talk about the everyone being converted, everyone hearing the gospel, everyone confessing Christ are talking about Millennial events not precursors to the Second Coming.

Given what is happened to our temples I am looking for the Abomination of Desolation. The Abomination of Desolation is something prophesied to happen twice. Once in the Early Christian church, and once in the end times. Daniel 11:31 and 12:11 tells us when it is set up. So we have the daily sacrifice taken away, the Abomination gets set up and we have about 3 and half years of it. In the early church the Temple handled twice as day sacrifice plus personal worship. Armies surrounded the temple. The sacrifice was stopped, a pig was sacrificed on the altar (an unclean animal) and the armies setup the worship of Zeus in the temple. It seems very likely a similar event will happen at the end times. In the past people have wondered what could possibly stop all our temples? (aka the Daily Sacrifice)... Well now we know. Apparently COVID 19 can. Was this a fluke? A Warning? Or is it beginning to be fulfilled? I have my own opinion on the subject, but we are commanded to be watching for the signs and preparing for his coming.

Others have already covered policies and practices.. So let talk doctrine. If I am understanding Catholic doctrine correctly (and I make no promises that I do. I am a outsider with an outsiders view and understanding) is that at conception something brand new is brought into existence. It never existed before and it will never exists again. If you stop conception you stop people from ever existing.. which is worse then murder. Thus a Catholic who understands this doctrine (assuming I understand and explain it well enough) will feel a lot of guilt about going on contraception. It is really understandable and unavoidable. But since the OP is here requesting our view point. Here is our doctrine. The Pre-existence. Any one that ever came to earth and got a body or will come to earth to get a body, existed before that point as personages of spirit. We had personality and opinions and we could and did make choices. Conception begins the creation of a physical body. Assuming everything goes well at some point (not clearly defined although there are many opinions) one of these personages of the spirit moves in and their experience with mortally begins (for however long that lasts aka until they die). Thus for our faith, contraception is not in and of itself a problem. The why we are choosing to use it could be sinful, but that is no different from our motivation for just about any choice. Are we trying to do what God would have us do to the best of our abilities, or are we trying to defy God and trust in our own wisdom and understandings?

I see no reason why they would stop now. For the last several election cycles the Dems have thrown everything including the kitchen sink at the Republican Candidates. In so doing they set themselves up as the "Boy who Cried Wolf." Then Trump came along and they found they might really be facing a "Wolf" but that the "Villagers" were no longer really interested in coming to the rescue. For them to stop would require them to recognize how their own actions help create the situation we now find ourselves in.

The democrats are being myopic and hypocritical again. When Trump was elected they claimed voter fraud by Russian interference. They made an excellence case that we need to be sure our votes are really our votes. And they got there investigation that found nothing. Now Trump is warning and forewarning of potential voter fraud... And the Democratic hypocrisy in on full display. Instead of remembering that we need to be sure that our votes are really our votes they are discounting it. Such discounting is also very stupid. If Trump is indeed playing games the best way to disarm him is to have an investigation. Prove that Trump got nothing and that the vote is secure. But if the democrats block such an investigation they play right into his hands. If Trump loses he can make "I told you so argument" and there will be plenty that believe that because the most logical reason for the democrats to block investigation is because they already know what will be found and they do not want it discovered.

Unlike me, and everyone else God is Perfect, All Wise, and All Knowing. This is a standard Christian belief. But then a lot of Christian read the creation story and think that this Perfect, All Wise, All Knowing God's plan went off the rails right out the gate, and that Christ being the Savior is some kind of Plan B. This idea makes no kind of logical, rational, reasonable or scriptural sense. God's plan must have clearly have been designed to handle sin or He is not Perfect, All Wise and All Knowing. Thus the plan was for them and us to become mortal. However this conclusion can lead to another flawed line of reasoning. That God's plan that can "Handle" sin, some how "Required" sin. This is a very dangerous line of thinking that in some how or in some way God wants us or wanted anyone or worse required any one to Sin. In the Garden of Eden Adam did sin and did disobey God. And God's plan handled it perfectly. A lot of revelation had been given on this subject. Now some have speculated on what would have happened had Adam and Eve Obeyed God and not sinned. That is not what happened so we do not know. Now modern revelation does tell us what would have happened had Adam and Eve remained in the Garden. But the idea that God's plan would have been thwarted by "Obedience" is just as ludicrous as it being thwarted by "Sin" We simply do not know how the Plan would have used the "Obedience" of Adam and Eve to bring to pass the Mortality of Man and get them out of the Garden, because that is not what happened. We see and know how the Plan used the "Sin" of Adam and Eve brought to pass the Mortality of Man and get them out.

I think you guys are talking past each other. After the Revolutionary War our Founding Fathers had to address the very short comings that lead to the War. They knew that a Country that was unwilling/unable to enforce its laws were going to have Revolutions and Revolts. They knew this because they had literally just done it. The British had tried to enforce its laws against the colonies, but had come up short. Had the British be able to do so our Founding Fathers would have been hung as Traitors and our history would be quiet a bit different. They did not want a repeat of what they had just done to the British being done to them. Paradoxically they also felt that the injustices that they had revolted are injustices that should not stand. This creates a paradox. How do you have enough force to enforce the laws while still having that power be subject to correction? The answer they came up with was to have Three Branches of Government with each Branch being able to check and limit the other. To that end we have an Executive Branch tasked with enforcing the law. To that end they the people and tools and training to deal with just about any rebellion that is out in the open or in its daily activities. If you resist. They are trained to escalate until you comply or are no longer a threat. When the enforcement arm is wrong or otherwise doing wrong you do not stand your ground on your lawn with a shot gun to correct them. That is not the means by with the Executive Branch is held in check. To hold the Executive Branch accountable you take them to the Courts and/or to Congress and/or to the voting booth. This means "How" you use to try to correct things you see as wrong is vitally important. If you do the "How" in the wrong way, you fail, and you just might end up dead. But if you do the "How" in the right way your physical safety should never really be in doubt, and you just might be successful. Its not a perfect system by any means... But it is really not that hard to understand how it is designed to work.

Socialism and Capitalism both fundamentally suffer from the exact same problem. The problem is Human Nature. More explicitly as the collected human wisdom has declared "Power Corrupts" Or has the Lord has declared in his holy word "Unrighteous Dominion" Socialism defenders are more than happy to point out the power corruption that happens in capitalism. They will point out to anyone and everyone that will listen how those that get rich tend to leverage their wealth, power, and influence to get more wealth, power, and influence. And they are not wrong. But their solution does not solve anything, it simply shuffles the players. Socialism requires larger centralized powerful organizations to work at all. (aka government) This is subject to corruption from the beginning. The real difference is that with Capitalism you have to have a proven track record of being effective and efficient in the large players because that is how they got there. And they have to stay that way or someone comes along and does things better and takes their power away. Government organizations are more known for their ineffectiveness and inefficiencies and once setup pretty much require a revolution to change. So Socialism effectively takes the worst parts of Capitalism... dials them to an 11 and declares, "It is better" and hopes you are foolish enough to believe it. Case in point. Currently the USA is having a "Black Lives Matter" movement and "Defund the Police" movement. Both these movements point to Police Corruption as their driving motivation. Police are a larger organization with power, so while there are many honorable and good police officers the organization itself is just as vulnerable to the corruption of power as any Capitalist (or other) powerful Organizations. The possibility of a corrupt police force is not something that came out of nowhere or caught us by surprise. We knew about it, that is why we have checks and balances. Things like the judicial branch of government with judges and attorneys, things like other parts of the executive branch like Governors, Mayors, Attorney General's etc. And that is just some of the things. But the biggest check is that for most people they do not actually have any encounter with a law enforcement officer (Corrupt or not Corrupt) And yet we still have issues. And Socialist want to add Healthcare into that?!?! I have orders of magnitude more contact with Healthcare providers then I do with Law Enforcement Providers. Healthcare is way more massive and deals with way more money then the Police ever will. That is just asking for a "Black Health Matters" movement and a "Defund Healthcare" movement. I say this with certainty because human nature is not changed. It might start off good, but "Power will inevitably corrupt" and the checks and balances for the system if there are any (which No Socialist will talk about) will not be much better then what we currently can do. Another saying of collected Human wisdom is "The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions" and that is all that Socialist have. Paver Stones to Hell. They talk a good talk, they "mean well" but the fruit of their tree is quickly shown to be corrupt and evil. And By their fruits you shall know them.

For as much as we know about the pre-existence there is more we do not know. Many of your question about exact details we do not know. However lets clarify come misunderstandings you do have. I make all kinds of plans... and I usually find out very quickly that they will not work. While we are commonly told that Satan had a plan.. everything we seen and learn at are taught tells us his plan would not work. Thus Satan has a plan but there is every indication that his "promises" were lies. For those that followed him everything points to them having full Light and Truth and choosing to embrace and side with Darkness and Lies. Why does anyone one do that?.. I have no idea but people do all the time. Finally angels are not a different type or class in the Restored Gospel theology. They are simply people like us but in a Pre-Mortal or Post Mortal state, who have an assignment to do something among mortals.