revsmith

Brother, another thing you may wish to consider is this - many of the stories in the OT are there to tell us what NOT to do, not what to do. David was made King through the intervention of God, this does not mean that coveting another man's wife (and getting him killed in action to have a shot at the widow) is living trhe gospel, it is the opposite. God's mercy is shown in his ultimate forgiveness and David's redemption. Even the chosen of God fail, give in to temptation and need redemption in Christ. An old saw says history is written by the victor, in ancient times we might say it is written by the survivor. Much of what we view as harsh and cruel in God in the OT is what was written by those who suffered his chastisement. Through those two lenses the nature of God, even in the OT, is very different. Like the stories in the Book of Mormon, God dealt with mankind in joy and blessings when they were righteous and with correction when they failed.

I miss coffee and iced tea. I give them up in obedience to God, not out of any pretense that there is anything wrong with them. Our faith is different from all others because it is complete. Many seek and serve God, through the glass darkly as Paul taught. Islam and Judaism focuses almost entirely on submission to God. Buddhism on attaining moral perfection, Orthodoxy and Catholicism on the Glory of God, Protestantism on the Word and Faith. Through WOW we submit Through Living the Gospel we seek moral perfection Through Sacrament and Song we celebrate the Glory Through Meeting and Teaching we study the Word. The restoration was and remains the union of God's desire for us and the full path home to Heavenly Father. Every cup of coffee I skip is a prayer of Thanks to Him.

Heavenly Father appeared all at once to all people and declared that the end of days had come, and that on the following Sunday he would end the world and the Judgement would commence. The following day the New York Times ran the story with the headline "God to destroy world, women and minorities hardest hit."

We tend to think of the creation as the seven days discussed in Genesis. I believe that God dealt with man in the ages leading up to Christ's ministry differently than after because he was still in the active phase of the creation. We known from the flood that he decided the work needed a complete "reset" at least once (perhaps in part because of the nephilim, there was a danger that a fair number of people walking the earth wouldn't even be human). In any event the OT describes those ages when God was very active in shaping, controlling and managing his creation in a very direct way through prophets, miracles and the rare direct intervention (sodom, moses etc). With the earthly ministry of Christ the creation phase ended, and this world became truly ours, to fully exercise both the agency and dominion of man. I don't believe that God was different in the OT days, I believe that his work was different and his purpose was directed to making an ordered world, rather than in these latter days when he moves to restore the gospel to mankind. Thus the OT is important to us as a record of how god shaped us to be righteous, while the Book of Mormon and the NT express and shape our present relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When our children are infants we manage their world to keep them safe and discipline is based on "because I said so". When our children our older we teach by example and discourse.

I am a retired Anglican priest who converted to the LDS church six months ago. My wife, a life long member, and I were struggling and I prayed daily for guidance. My wife suggested that I go to her church with her one Sunday when I wasn't needed to help at the local CAC church. The people I met were charming, and I had never had a congregation that was as devoted to actually living the gospel as the Mormons I met seemed to be. I agreed, with skepticism, to meet with the missionaries. Almost at once the troubles that were besting us began to resolve. I promised the Lord that if our biggest trial resolved I would take it as the sign I had been praying for. Lo and behold as the Missionaries asked I prayed over the truth of the Book of Mormon and the prophesy of Joseph Smith. I felt a swelling in my heart that it was true, and upon resolving the last of our difficulties were dealt with. I was baptized a month later (and defrocked a week after that - can't blame them) Life has been blessed and joyful ever since.