ldsguy422

You should read the revised version of Matthew 7. I love it! It's such a great chapter because it fully aligns with my worldly views of never judging others. 
 

 

President Lee called the Sermon on the Mount, "the constitution for a perfect life." I think it's fair to say that it teaches more about true discipleship than any other passage of scripture. 

I felt inspired to read through Matt 7 again.  I found it interesting that it had a LOT of input into this conversation about the 10 virgins, wheats and tares, &...
I have not really read the Sermon on the Mount for a very long time.  I had forgotten just how meaty and concise it really is.

You should read the revised version of Matthew 7. I love it! It's such a great chapter because it fully aligns with my worldly views of never judging others. 
 

 

You should read the revised version of Matthew 7. I love it! It's such a great chapter because it fully aligns with my worldly views of never judging others. 
 

 

The Guide to the Scriptures, on the church website, states that the Church of the Devil is every evil and worldly organization on earth that perverts the pure and perfect gospel and fights against the Lamb of God.

@ldsguy422
 
Baal is most commonly known as a Cannanite and Mesopotamian god.  He was worshipped as an agriculture god (fertility.)  Sometimes he is also referred to as Son of Dagon (grain god) and also Hadad (storm god.)  The Cannanites believed he had all power over people and and nature.  He was not the head god of their pantheon.  His father El is the head god.  
 
Asherah is the consort of El, though she is frequently paired with Baal.  She is a fertility godess (and sexuality.)  The worship of Asherah often included temple prostitutes.
 
The worship of both often involved human sacrifices.
 
The groves used in worship often included orgies and human sacrifice.  Asherah was often represented by a carved tree, which appeared in groves.  This is partly why the groves were burned by the Israelites (when they were on the right path.)
 
Also interesting about both these gods/godesses, as well as many others, you can find the same names, or similar names scattered across numerous ancient cultures, or their equivalents with different names.
 
 
 

The Guide to the Scriptures, on the church website, states that the Church of the Devil is every evil and worldly organization on earth that perverts the pure and perfect gospel and fights against the Lamb of God.

Let me point out that the article's author used the rite spelling.

I found this kind of amusing, even thought provoking.
From Dailywire:
I don't know if the author of the article intentionally did this, subconsciously did this, or completely unintentionally did this, or perhaps she didn't even know the difference?
But, uhmmm... yeah.

As one political wag said, abortion is a sacred rite, if your god is Moloch.

I have known many missionaries who had some sort of justification for not confessing to the bishop and went on their mission. Doing so are them alive until they finally confessed. Every second is mental and emotional torcher if your friend goes on a mission without confessing.
Here are some exercises I have done to help my self chill out about confessing sins to the bishop.
1) tell myself “repenting and coming clean is a requirement for exaltation. Serving a mission is not.”
2) Ask myself “do I really believe there is a God? Do I really believe this is God’s church? If I really believe these things, going to my bishop is the obvious decision. If I don’t and I am only in it for the cheap schooling and social life, than who cares, I’ll just go on a mission without repenting”
3) tell myself “this is a weakness I have. The only way to overcome it is through Christ. Christ has given clear guidelines on what someone ought to do to become clean of their sins. Do I become clean or do I stay hiding?”
Maybe share those with your friend

Make rappers quote Apostles Great Again.
 

I asked my stake president if being in the ACLU would keep me out of the temple. He looked surprised and said it wasn’t about politics. It’s probably the same thing. 

There is a difference between arguing that something is right, versus arguing that it is not the kind of wrong that can or should be prohibited by government action (eg adultery, fornication, gay sex, recreational drug use, cussing).  I believe that directly participating in/encouraging a specific person to undergo an elective abortion, remains grounds for church discipline; but under present conditions it’s kind of hard to envision the Church administering ecclesiastical discipline to a member over the member’s political positions.
 
In a broader historical sense, I believe that question was added to the TR interview primarily to weed out fundamentalists and other polygamists whose theology (as of the 1920s-1940s) said that while the LDS Church was doctrinally wrong, the true sealing keys could still be found in LDS temples and thus it was necessary to feign allegiance to the LDS Church long enough to get your own temple work done.

More correctly, one could say we are pro-revelation for the rare exceptions.
The correct interpretation of the Church position is that abortion is always unjustified except when God reveals otherwise, and that He will not reveal such outside of the circumstances of the specified possible exceptions.

BTW, here is a screenshot from the churches 1999 handbook:
 

As old school as this sounds, I truly truly believe this is one of the biggest issues in society today. 

I think the point Carbs is making is that, unlike pro-lifers, we don’t take an absolute position that life begins at conception or that *all* abortion is tantamount to killing.  We feel it’s “close enough” that we generally support restriction/prohibition of elective abortion, but we don’t camp out at abortion clinics shrieking “murderer!” And dumping blood on people.
The subset of LDS who openly advocate elective abortion, I think, aren’t necessarily missing any deep theology that specifically addresses precisely when life begins.  What they are missing, I think, is a broader understanding of chastity and the meaning of life and how to find personal fulfillment.  The pro-elective-abortion movement, at its core, assumes that a) consequence-free indulgence of human appetites are so essential to the human condition that at least some of them—especially sex—ought to be regarded as a human right; and b) that the denial of this “right” fundamentally makes life not worth living.  
There’s a whole constellation of social issues and life problems that ultimately arise from the interplay of these two assumptions—abortion, LGBTQ issues, sexual violence, divorce, fatherlessness (and, via fatherlessness, crime and poverty generally), the “crisis of connection”, mental health, obesity, suicide . . . The Church is not immune from these trends; and it becomes further entangled in them to the extent that its youth become caught up in the broader secular disregard for the principles of chastity and self-sacrifice and healthy human relationships.

Elder Bednar believes agency is the least understood gospel principle. Do you think his comments would indicate that it's our responsibility not to justify the sins of others? I'm sure he's mostly speaking of our individual actions, but he also mentioned our agency being enlarged, which I take it as impacting more than just self. 
 

I'm not a Sunday School teacher, but I sub pretty regularly. I usually ask what everyone has learned - or what questions they may have had from the lesson material. If no one raises their hand, these are the steps that I more-or-less follow for facilitating/moderating Sunday School.
1. Begin by giving a decent amount of context on what the Israelites were facing (or Saul, David, Solomon, whoever). 
2. Ask a class member to read an important passage of scripture from the week's reading
3. Follow-up with that class member that just read - and ask what their thoughts are on the scripture
4. Give my own impressions on the verses that were just read. Talk about the teachings of the church concerning that specific topic, whether it be on complaining, seeking after other gods, or trying too much to fit into the culture of another land. 
5. Talk about how those principles are relevant in our day and time.
6. Ask open-ended questions to the class. i.e. How might we be tempted to fall into the exact same traps as the Israelites? And what are ways we can check ourselves not to fall victim to these outside pressures?
7. Let the class take over. Ultimately, the spirit will take over. There's revelation scattered all over the room. The more we stay focused on a specific issue and a specific doctrine, and build off of each other, the more I feel like we understand a passage of scripture in the spirit in which the author intended it to be understood. I will insert thoughts from time-to-time related to the discussion - and will sometimes reel the class back in if we veer too far from the topic. 
8. If the discussion dies down, then I proceed to the next portion of the lesson - and repeat the cycle. 
Usually classroom comments take up 80-90% of the class time. That's the way it's intended to be, IMO. It's really cool when the doctrine is taught, the spirit is felt, and you can see people's eyes just light up. 

Elder Bednar believes agency is the least understood gospel principle. Do you think his comments would indicate that it's our responsibility not to justify the sins of others? I'm sure he's mostly speaking of our individual actions, but he also mentioned our agency being enlarged, which I take it as impacting more than just self. 
 

That’s all true, but in modern times using the terms “pro choice” and “pro life” are the easiest ways to determine someones views on the abortion issue. Of course it’s vastly more complex than that-but those terms suit the argument just fine. 

Elder Bednar believes agency is the least understood gospel principle. Do you think his comments would indicate that it's our responsibility not to justify the sins of others? I'm sure he's mostly speaking of our individual actions, but he also mentioned our agency being enlarged, which I take it as impacting more than just self. 
 

I'm seeing lots of active members of the church show their support for the pro-choice movement. 
I've always felt like pro-choice was incompatible with the views of the church.  Am I wrong here? God is pro-choice in the sense that he gives everyone the freedom to choose. But, if you took a covenant to represent Christ, I expect your support to align with Christ, and not the world. Yes, I realize that other people have their agency. But, what about the agency of the unborn that is being completely ignored?
Am I missing something? Obviously we allow for the rare exceptions such as the life of the mother being threatened, rape, and incest. But, what about all of those elective abortions? How can a pro-life stance be consistent with the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ?