estradling75

It got handed over to the one with the most in the end... ie God took from the 99% and gave to the 1%

I am not saying that... Lutheran's are claiming that. This case shows that they clearly have that as an option for whatever disciplinary process that they follow. How often they use that is up to them. This puts the laws the define the EEOC up against the Constitution's protection of the free practice of religion

Or we could consider the parable of the Talents... Were those that have more get more

You start your return by showing up to church on Sunday. Along with basics of prayer and scripture study. As you move forward and become more sure that this is the path for you then you talk with the Bishop. See what he has to say about what needs to be done to restore you to full membership and all the blessing that come with it. Repentance is a great wonderful and true principle, it can handle this if you are willing

Sounds like your friend is being overly zealous. It is important and you do need to work on it.. But in balance to all the other important thing you need to do

Edited because I was an idiot and spaced the questionable image in the link I posted

Right but a tenet of the Lutheran faith is: that disputes are resolved in the church, not the courts. We might not like it, we might not agree with it, but it was part of the Lutheran faith long before this happened. They acted as any other church has the right to act when one of its members breaks a tenet of faith. Her threat to sue them broke the tenant of her faith. And the Church responded according to its long held beliefs and practices. Some see that as a free exercise of religion. Others as illegal retaliation in a labor dispute

The article said she started off as a Lay teacher only later did she get 'Called' as a Minister. Two different things combined together and confusing the issue. The 'Calling' should be exclusively the domain of the church. The Lay teacher job should be subject to the EEO

United under what though? Its easy to say "things should be different..." "We want change..." Its easy to mouth generic platitudes. They haven't gotten to the brass tacks of detailing what needs to be different or changed and more important how to change it. Trust me... what they've done so far is easy compared to what needs to come next in order for them to get the change they want.

Since the OP has publicly announced they will no longer participate... That means the only point for this thread would be continue to publicly mock their position. Thread Closed

He will and we are not... But much like the example of Nephi whose story you are quoting we are to keep trying no matter how many times we fail, until Heavenly Father in his own due time shows us the way.

Because neither of us (our groups) have the whole story. We are not told what was possible only what happened. Your belief is that Adam and Eve could have kept both commandment...But then you have to figure how God can fair and just and merciful to people how by definition have no knowledge of good and evil. Plus explain how god let his plan go seriously off the rails to something else entirely when Adam and Eve broke the commandment. Our belief is that God gave Adam and Eve a seriously hard choice... Lets compare it to Abraham's command to sacrifice his son. This also clearly set up a conflict between that command and the Thou Shall not Kill command. Both command are of God and by all appearance he could not do both. He had to choose one or the other, and live with the consequences. With Abraham we learn that at the last moment God had a plan in mind to stop Abraham and offer a way out of the hard choice. With Adam and Eve we never get to see if God would have offered them a way out had they chosen differently. We are told only what happen. Thus leaving question and requiring us to work by faith.

Its in response to all your claims that the Mormon position doesn't give Adam and Eve a choice... Or some how limit or force god to be unjust or unfair

I think you missed my point... Alot of Christians believe that if Adam and Eve had not have fallen then we all be kicking it right now in the garden. If that was truly God's plan for us then this life has to be plan B... This plan B then wouldn't be a slight tweak of the plan do to human will it would be a total revamp that require things like a Savior that the first plan didn't. The Mormon position is that the Garden of Eden was always intended to be a transition point, that got this part plan going. Its shows that human weakness and the temptation of sin are all accounted for. Not only accounted for but worked into the plan. That while we can cut ourselves off God's purposes are still going to roll forward. Unfortunately there is a very human tendency to try to justify sin. In the case of Adam and Eve we can only see the one path. Other options that they may or may not have had that would worked are unknown. We only see God taking a sinful act and turning it into something great and wonderful for their benefit and advancement, all according to plan. But because God did this, we want to make the sinful act less sinful because it turned out for the best. This is a very human, very common thing to try. I think when we do this hold up a mirror to our own desires. That like Adam and Eve God will take all our sins and change it into something wonderful. That is the promise of the atonement if we make use of it.

Please note they are not 'secret' they are sacred. When some one considers something sacred and/or personal they are not going share them with people that might mock them. For example I doubt you would have shared your personal clothing choices if you thought we would mock you for them. Chances are you saw what this thread was about and felt that people here would understand your choices even if we didn't agree with the details. That any question you might get would be less about attacking what you consider sacred and more about understanding them. We are the same way. Unfortunately to the people outside our our belief systems sacred and secret look alot like and secret is by far the more sinister of the two.

This thread is over three years old... The OP and another who have been quoted since it was restarted have not been on in years.. If you want to talk about the Death Penalty please start a fresh thread. Thread closed

Patriarchal Blessing are based on faithfulness... Therefore your falling away could invalidate them. That being said people make mistakes. The whole point of the atonement is to help people get back, and get the blessings of the Lord. So while the details of your Patriarchal Blessing might not hold any longer. The blessings of being sealed is still a possibility. Do your best to live faithful and true to what you have now and you will receive them. Even if it takes until after this life to see it

Question for you... Do you believe that a all knowing all powerful God created a plan for us humans... And that this wonderful plan was then horribly and totally derailed by the actions of Satan and Adam and Eve? Resulting it the need for the all knowing and all powerful God to come up with another plan to get things back on track? To me a plan that doesn't take into account the Father of Lies, and mortal choices isn't a much of a plan at all. The Mormon position is that the Father's initial (and only) plan is still working exactly as it is suppose to. Satan's temptation and Adam and Eve's choices are all accounted and prepared for. It a interesting diversion to wonder what would have happened had Adam and Eve (or even Satan) chose differently. If God is worthy of the title then clearly it would have been prepared for and the plan would continue on. We simply don't know how might have happened because it isn't necessary for us to know

Possibility... You are learning and seeking answers now aren't you? Other possibilities I can think of are testing to see how you respond to things of the spirit and/or preparing you for whatever it is that is to come in your life

Except Packer's talk really doesn't do anything to limit the timing of the Second Coming... At all (Which is how I take the 2012 prediction) Why? Because after the Second Coming comes the Millennium... And during the Millennium lots of things will change but being mortal and marrying and having kids will keep on going. Thus it could happen tomorrow (or in 2012) and Packer's words will still hold true.

Welcome to the Site Danielle-marie. One of the purposes of this site is to answer questions for those genuinely seeking answers about the LDS faith. A couple bits of advice to help you when you are ready to start. First start a new thread in the related area depending on the nature of your question (ie LDS Discussion, General Discussion, Advice, etc.) This helps bring your question to the attention of those interested in that area. Next if you have a big list of question it would help to break it down to a single question or strongly related group of question per thread you start. I say this for two reasons... If someone sees a huge list of question its quite possible they will look at it and think they don't have the time or the information to give a good answer to all the questions and thus not respond. You should get a more and varied response from fewer questions per thread. Second the more complicated your opening post the more likely your thread is to get confusing to read or follow as people respond and counter on it. And their is a greater chance of it going off on a tangent. So try to keep it simple. Finally this site is not official. In response to your question some one might point to something official, but for the most part we are just a bunch of people with widely varying background and experiences (including in and out of the church) giving opinions. Therefore you will need to evaluate each posters response for their relevance to your situation.

In all the cases of being married for time in the temple that I am aware of (which admittedly are few) its always been the case where both spouses had already been sealed, then lost the partner they were sealed to. So neither one was settling or being denied the blessing of a sealing. In fact they had shown that they knew exactly how important it was. They were simply adapting to the lost of their partners while in mortality in a way that is perfectly acceptable

Well by that standard I am also an abject failure... Not only that but I appear to be going in reverse

We do use the phrase Word of Wisdom to mean two different but related things. First and most common is related to worthiness (like for temple recommends). That aspect is much narrower and more explicitly defined subset of the whole thing found in the 89th section. For many members meeting the worthiness requirements is all they are concerned about. This is also the obedience aspect. Then there is the rest of the Word of Wisdom, were the ideas of moderation, and wisdom on what you eat really come in to play. This is the area where personal revelation and understanding come in. This is the place for things like caffeine, too much sugar, and or fats and all that other stuff come in. Not worthiness related but good ideas. When you see disagreement between Mormons on the subject it is almost always because they are focused on different aspects. For example caffeine... A case can be made against caffeine using the larger view, but to say someone is not living the Word of Wisdom (aka worthy) because of caffeine is out and out false.

Netflix is hemorrhaging users ever since it decided to pretty much double the cost for its services. I understand that they have a bottom line to watch... But this looks like they are doing everything in their power to push through a failing plan that they hoped would fix it...