tesuji

I used to live in Ivins, Utah near St. George. They have a city ordinance that you can't have the kind of lights that pollute the night sky. It was awesome.

I love this. We should build a space elevator so everyone could have this experience (might take a while, 7 billion people...) It's all about perspective, isn't it. They say the first images of earth from the moon are what really kicked the environmental movement into gear. Here's a beautiful recent NASA photo.

It's good to be wisely cautious. But in general I think followers of Christ should speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may. D&C 76: Only those who are valiant in their testimony will inherit the Celestial Kingdom.

I just noticed the following quote this morning, as I listened to Elder Eyring's recent conference talk:

Yes, I agree. Mormons believe the required divine authority to be saved was lost because of apostasy during the dark ages. God re-established this priesthood authority through the modern prophet Joseph Smith. People who want to live with Jesus must be baptized and enter into other sacred covenants in the temple, or accept proxy temple work for the same. Now, can Jesus visit the person? I believe yes. But they can't permanently be where Jesus is.

I found the answer to my question:

This is one of my favorite videos, so I thought I'd share it with anyone interested. Transcript also available: http://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=2839&index=69

I would love to be able to hide threads from my Activity Feed. For example, the ones about politics. Is this possible?

Steve Noel, Thanks for sharing this. God is an awesome God indeed!

A great book about the OP is The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections On the Quest for Faith, by by Terryl Givens and Fiona Givens

D&C 46 is talking about gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are gifts. Some people have the gift of knowing, others have the gift of believing the words of those who know. I think along with these gifts it's assumed that you are living a righteous life and working to do all you can to obey God and learn. Maybe someone here knows the answer to the following: are the gifts of the Spirit specifically for people who have been baptized, who now have the Holy Ghost?

I would love it if you could someday add a feature to hide content in certain threads and forums. I very much dislike seeing the political discussions here.

OK, this is the last I'll post about this book I haven't even read. But I just wanted to point out that if a book is false doctrine, it's not worth anyone's time. Is this book false doctrine? I don't know. But it smells very fishy

The Folk Prophet, I suspect that we might be at least partly talking past each other, and if you and I were to sit down and talk I would pretty much agree with you. From your reply, I'm also not sure if you read everything I wrote. Faithful questioning is good. I do it all the time, and I will teach my kids to do it too. I love to learn. The church absolutely teaches us to learn and ask questions. I can't agree, however, with the statement, "The most important thing our religion teaches us is to ask." I would say that the most important thing our religion teaches us is what Jesus said was the greatest commandment: to love and serve God. I don't think God wants us to be ignorant, but above all else he wants us to submit to him in obedience. i'm not advocating blind, ignorant obedience. But I am saying that obedience to God is more important than anything else, including education and asking questions. Actually, the scriptures say it is by obedience that we learn the most important spiritual truths, partly because we have shown we are ready for them. Spiritual knowledge can damn and even destroy us if we are not ready to receive and live it.

I take all of these kinds of books with a huge grain of salt. However, this one seems especially fishy to me. I encourage people to check out this book if they want, but life is short and you have to decide if things are worth your time. Also, if something is off base, then you have to unlearn false doctrine, which can also possibly steer you off course. The FairMormon review above is the one I was referring to, which made me decide not to read this.

I changed that from "when I lick Submit" to "when I click Submit." And I made the thread title into real English too.

Re: "dispensationalist" I've just read very briefly about this, on Wikipedia, the Source of All 100% Accurate Knowledge I'm not sure if Mormon belief fits the idea exactly, but it sounds at least similar. We talk all the time about dispensations. At various times in history God has officially set up his church, with a leader who had official priesthood authority to do that. It has always been limited in scope (as far as we know) - among a certain group of people, and for a specific time. In all cases it has ended because people rejected the church and its leaders. The Bible tells of many of them - a partial list would include Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus. Also, the people in the Book of Mormon. I can well believe there were others that we don't know about. Mormons believe that with Joseph Smith in 1930, that God began the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. This time it will not end.

Excellent. I want to learn Hebrew, so every little bit helps.

Excellent. I want to learn Hebrew, so every little bit helps.

Someone will hopefully answer your question about mitzvas. Mormons don't use this term. I Googled it a little, but maybe you could define what you mean for us.

Someone will hopefully answer your question about mitzvas. Mormons don't use this term. I Googled it a little, but maybe you could define what you mean for us.

I'm using Chrome and I often have problems posting here - specifically there is a terrible lag between when I click Submit and my stuff gets posted. It this normal? Is it because I'm a newbie and an admin is manually approving me? (I'm fine with this, if so.) Also, sometimes I see that I have double posted, without knowing why. Does this site work better with some browsers than others?

I'm using Chrome and I often have problems posting here - specifically there is a terrible lag between when I click Submit and my stuff gets posted. It this normal? Is it because I'm a newbie and an admin is manually approving me? Also, sometimes I see that I have double posted, without knowing why. Does this site work better with some browsers than others?

Aish, You are asking great questions, and a lot of them I'll reply for now just to this one: First, please see my post above about the Abrahamic Covenant, if you haven't. Mormons believe to be saved you must be included in this covenant, either because you are a descendant of Abraham or you were adopted into the lineage by baptism. However, Jew or Gentile, even after you are included, you must still obey God. So disobedient Jews are in just as bad situation as Gentiles who are adopted in but then disobedient.

I'm actually surprised more missionaries don't die. The death rate must be a lot lower than the average, for example, for US males ages 18-20. That's an age of high risk living, for those not living an LDS missionary lifestyle at least. I think the Lord must be watching over them. Especially the ones obeying the mission rules