onefour1

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  1. I think the burden becomes lighter when we learn to love the yoke. God does not want his children to begrudgingly live the gospel in the kingdom of heaven but wants us to love keeping the commandments and being a righteous person. The key is to experience a mighty change of heart and then you no longer find it to be a burden but a joy to carry his yoke. With this change of heart, our burdens become light as we love serving the Lord and doing his will. We simply become like him and take on the character of God.
  2. Doesn't John 17 speak to this issue. Lets see what it says: John 17:20-23 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Apparently we are to become one as the Father and Jesus are one and that we may become one in them. We are to seek the same glory that they have with one another, that we may be one, even as they are one.
  3. When I was in college I took a philosophy of religion course. The instructor to the course presented us with the following logic: If God is omnipotent, omniscient, and an omnibenevolent God, Then why didn't God simply make us perfect like himself? Certainly if God is all powerful, he would have the power to create us to have all knowledge, wisdom, power, goodness, etc, etc. just like himself. If God is all knowing, he would have the know how to make us perfect like himself. And finally if God is an all loving being, surely he would have saved us from the suffering of this world and simply made us perfect like himself. Because this did not occur, God does not exist. I agree that the way people today view the concept of Omnipotence is flawed. In today's world, Omnipotence means that you would have the power to do absolutely anything imaginable. I reject this idea. I don't believe that omnipotence means that one can do absolutely anything imaginable. I believe Omnipotence means that you are able to do all things that are possible. I do not believe that it is possible to exist and also not exist simultaneously. I also do not believe that God can be a being who is all good and simultaneously all bad. I believe that there are things that are eternally impossible even for God. For example, I do not believe that things can be created from absolutely nothing. Scripturally, God had told of one thing that not even He can do. It is found in Doctrine and Covenants 93:29. Doctrine and Covenants 93:29 29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. In this verse God is telling us that intelligences cannot be created or made not even by God himself. What this means is that our intelligences are eternal in nature and have always existed. So it was not possible for God to create us out of nothing and make us be whatever he imagined. The intelligences are in whatever state they have rose to in the past eternity. If our intelligence was not perfect, then God, who creates us from existing intelligences cannot create us perfect. Thus going through a learning state is essential for our progression. So if there are things that are impossible even for God, then Omnipotence does not mean that God can do absolutely anything imaginable. Even God himself lives within certain bounds. He is omnipotent in that he can do all things that are possible to do. I imagine that for us to progress, we need experience and learning. This earth life is a temporary state where God can allow us to go through all sorts of temporary experiences for our learning and progression. Even if that includes suffering and death. To the prophet Joseph Smith the Lord said: Doctrine and Covenants 122:5-8 5 If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea; 6 If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb; 7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. 8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
  4. When I read Genesis or any other account of the creation, I don't read that the earth was created on the first day. Genesis 1: 1- 5 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Here we first read that the heavens and the earth were created in the beginning. It then goes on to say that God said, "let there be light" and there was light. He then divided this light from the darkness and called light day, and the darkness night. This period of light and darkness was the first day. Didn't the light come after the earth was created? If so, then the earth was created before the first day. Thus, all we know about the earth's creation is that it was created in the beginning. I believe that the earth was created sometime in the beginning which could be quite some time before God said, "let there be light".
  5. Yes I believe that understanding concepts such as time and eternity is critical to understanding scripture. My concept of time and eternity are as follows: 1. The passage of events - If an event has not happened, and then happens, and finally stops happening, then we understand that the event was forthcoming and thus a future event, then a current or present event, and finally a past event. Because we as humans have the capacity to plan to do things at a future time, and have cognizance of what is currently happening, and have a memory of past events, we have an inner sense of time passage. I believe that this sense of time is an eternal reality. With God, do events not happen, then happen, and finally stop happening? I would answer yes. God created the world, Jesus has finished his atonement, and as you have stated so clearly, God has brought to pass the immortality and eternal life of some of us. God remembers all that he has done. He is not perpetually creating the earth, Jesus is not perpetually suffering in the garden, God has already spiritually begotten our spirits before coming to this earth, etc, etc. Because God experiences the passage of events in eternity as well as in time, can we not conclude that he experiences the passage of time in this manner? I find it to be very odd that God would never experience a beginning and end to events. I cannot fathom that no event ever has a beginning or end in eternity. 2. A measure of eternity - I believe we all exist in eternity and that time is only a measure of a part of eternity. I believe that God has set us upon this earth and given us a beginning and end for our mortal existence. I don't believe that the reckoning of time in this fashion is an eternal constant. In other words, God creates these reckonings. According to the Book of Abraham, God created the sun and set this earth in motion around the sun and also created the rotation of the earth on its axis. We on earth have reckoned our time according to the revolutions and rotations of our planet and thus have years, months, and days. We have divided the day further into hours, minutes, and seconds. But all these are a creation. We compare events in our lives with the motions of our stars and planets as well as the hands on our clocks. By synchronizing our clocks we are able to keep better order in our lives. I think God knew how important it would be for us to have a reckoning of time. But here on this earth, we base all our science and daily activities on our reckoning. If we were to hie to Kolob, we would have a totally different reckoning of time. I believe it says that Kolob is one of the first of God's creations. Around the time he created Kolob, God gave it its reckoning. Thus time as a measure is arbitrarily set by God in different parts of eternity. Perhaps our reckoning after this mortal existence will change and thus time, in this fashion, will exist no longer. 3. My concept of eternity is that it is the ever present NOW. Or in other words, it is what exists. I believe that change occurs within eternity and gives us a sense of a past and future. But I don't believe that the future or past have a real existence. They are what the NOW will be or what the NOW once was. What exists is what is. Change may occur in eternity, but eternity is an eternal constant. I don't believe that eternity flows through time. I believe that time is merely a perception or measure of change that occurs within eternity. Unless we compare our events to a mesure of time, we perceive the passage of events but we don't really know how long it took to occur. The upper limit on our measure of time would be eternity at which point no mesure really exists. Everything within eternity moves or changes at differing rates. Only if we take on one of those motions to be a meature can we say how much time has past. Take away the measure and we don't really know how much time has past. If all change were to cease within eternity, we would neither have a measure or perception of time. So, in my mind, because change exists within eternity and we are cognizant of it and have memory we thus have a concept of time.
  6. I have been without internet and in the hospital for some time and haven't been able to reply to this thread. I want to reply to this post in particular because I think I have been misunderstood or haven't explained myself well enough. I believe that God can see and know the future. This to me is indisputable in scripture. My arguments are not geared toward whether God can or cannot see or know the future by in how this is accomplished. I do not believe that the future exists in reality. It may be seen and known by God but I do not believe that God knows it because it has already occurred before him. I don't believe that God has already seen our lives played out in reality. If this were the case, then the existence that we are playing out now has already occurred and we would be doing nothing more that following a prewritten script for our lives. I do not believe in such a dual existence. I believe that if our lives have in reality been played out prior to our current existence, then we do not have the free will to do otherwise than that which was played out already in a previous existence. I am not arguing that God does not know and see the future but only that he is not knowing and seeing it from an already played out existence. I don't know how God sees and knows the future, but I dont' believe that it is from an existence that we already existed in.
  7. If God has experienced our lives as an actual event and not as just some knowledge, for what reason is there to have our lives play out all over again? Is the life God has forseen as an actual event our real life or is the one we are now experiencing our real life? To say this in greater detail, if all the events of our lives have actually transpired, then is it safe to say that these events are going on a second time? Are all the events that will transpire on January 15th 2012 already accomplished by myself but I don't know anything of it because I am behind the events that have transpired and am now at Dec 25, 2011. Is there some sort of dual existence going on? If the events of our lives have already transpired, then do we have any other choice in this delayed existence than those choices that we chose in the first existence? Are we not just playing out a prewritten script in our current existence? With such knowledge that our lives have already been lived, does this not take the meaning out of our current lives? In the second existence we are trapped in the actions, words, and thoughts of our first existence. I don't see a necessity of playing out the second round. Why are we conscience in this present existence and not conscience in the existence God has already seen played out? Are we already resurrected but don’t know it yet? Is this the way it really is? The idea that in time all things are ever present with God suggests that nothing is ever completed. If things are ever present with God then nothing goes into the past. With such a concept, I am still being born, the earth is still being created, Jesus is still on the earth, Jesus is still in the pre-mortal existence, Adam and Eve are still in the garden, etc., etc. If these things have transpired, then they are not present but past events. However, if God is in all and through all things, then he is everywhere present. Thus all things are present with the Lord. Now if things transpire with God, then things go into the past. But can they constantly be in the present also? I don't think so. God speaks of when he did this or did that in scripture. It is a past event that transpired. James12, can you elaborate on whether you think events have transpired already for God to know them, or whether you believe that God has a way of knowing without the event transpiring? Can you explain why you believe this and why you don’t see it as a violation of free will? I am interested in your view point. I agree with seminarysnoozer that if God’s work is to “Bring to Pass” the immortality and eternal life of man, that this presupposes that some men’s lives have not yet passed into immortality and eternal life, and that not all has transpired already before God. If this is the case and if God needs to have something already transpire before he can know it, then this would imply that God does not know all things. I personally don’t feel that God has to have everything actually transpire before him to know the future. I think there are other means of knowing it. I just don’t understand them to a full extent. With regard to free will, it appears to me that if one’s life is already played out, then if he is doing it a second time to be exactly as the first, then there is no choice than to choose what was chosen the first time. Thus if the future already exists in reality, we have no other choice than to make the same decision as that future that has already been played out. This comes across as a weird form of determinism to me.
  8. The problem with future events already transpiring with God is that it violates the concept of free will. If every moment of our future life has already occured, then all our future choices are already set. If all our choices all already predetermined, then do we really have free will to choose? I believe that God does know the future, but I don't believe that it has already transpired. If it has already transpired, then I don't believe that we have free will to choose and all our thoughts, words, and actions have already been played out. If we don't have free will to choose, and our path way in life is predetermined, then we should not be judged by God according to something already set that we really had no choice in. We are not free to choose in this scenario but are only acting out a play that has already been written(finished). Also if events transpire with God, then things that he has already accomplished are in the past. The creation of the earth is a past event, at least to us. Is the creation of the earth still going on with God? Are we still being born with God, is everything in the past still happening and never passing with God? This to me is incomprehensible. If the meaning of "all things are present with God" is that no events pass but are constantly happening in every moment, then how could God know when anything is finished? I don't think the meaning of the phrase "All things are present with God" refers to a timelessness. I believe that because God is omnipresent, that all things are present before him. He is in all and through all things. Thus everything is present before God. Or in other words, All things are in the presence of God due to his omnipresence. Time exists because there is change. Our memories remember prior states of existence before some change. Our reckoning of time is a creation of God of our solar system and a creation of man when dividing days into hours, minutes, and seconds, etc. God created our sun and set in motion our earth to rotate and revolve around the sun. From this, years, months, days, etc. were created. When something changes in our existence, we can think back and remember a previous state. For example, I was at work before and now I am at home. I remember and therefore I perceive a past. But does this mean that the past exists now? I don't think so. I think that the only thing that really exists is the present. The current now is the future of the past. If the past still exists, then we have already predetermined the existing past. I don't think the past exists. It is a past state of the now and no longer exists because of change. I also don't believe the future exists because the change has not yet happened. If the future has already occurred, then our choices, as mentioned above, are predetermined and we only have the illusion of free will but in reality our actions are predetermined. In my opinion the past and the future do not exist but only the NOW. God lives in the NOW and has other means of knowing the future. If God's days are 1000 of our years, watching what transpires over our entire lives is usually less than a tenth of a day of his reckoning. This perspective would also make things seem only but about 2 or 3 hours of our time to view our entire lives. This would make it seem very much a present event to him.