ElectofGod

I jumped in this at the middle so I hope I am not reading anything wrong. I apologize if I am. The truth offends. Jesus Christ was killed for teaching the truth. Why because the Jews didn't like it. They believed the bible, they believed in moses but when the truth was in their face they killed the truth, Jesus is the truth. In the last days he warned. When shall Christ come again? He answers that question. Take heed you are not deceived for many will say I am Christ. Otherwards there will be many false religions, false teachers, prophets. He warns all of them. All men should take note and determine if they are. Even those in the LDS faith should. They should measure the word against Christ and see if its good. All things that point to Chirst are of him. It is up to us to determine what that is. Through prayer and the holy ghost we can find that truth. Further he continues. Again he warns in the last days mens heart shall fail them. They shall become offended. Thats the truth these days. Everyones offended over everything. They sue due to offense, due to greed, due to trying to be right about everything (2 Timothy prophecy). Than it continues, many are deceived, but the kingdom has not come yet. What must occur? "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness" Who is going to do that preaching if his church does not exist upon the earth? God must have setup a church before he comes that does this. There are very few religions that do this. The truth can only be known through the Holy Ghost. Search the scriptures. Find it. Pray to find it and that each of us (all should pray for this) will not be deceived. Than read the book or mormon and determine if its a truth or a lie of deception by Satan. Many will say "lo here, lo here is christ". Determine who really is of Christ. Truth offends it always has. It caused his disiples to be killed. They called the jews wicked who thought they were righteous. They believed in the bible! They practiced it and lived by every word which is why Christ chastised them. The LDS church is the only church that has any scripture besides the bible. Its true or its not. Find out. You won't find out just by reading the history of the church. If you want to find a perfect church you won't in this World. Christs church was not perfect when he lived. Jonah wasn't perfect. His apostles were not perfect. Moses through anger destroyed the plates thus losing the chance for the promise land. No man or church will be perfect. But there is still a church that is directed under the hands of Jesus Christ himself. He directs it just like he did when he was alive, through living apostles. The savior lives, he speaks, the power to heal, the power to bless, the power to do all things Christ did is present again. The Church of Jesus Christ is evidence of this. Why look ye for only things that offends or that is in error instead of looking to see if the fruit is there? Will ye destroy a tree because it bears good fruit due to a few rotten fruit on the tree?

I will give this a shot. Adding to what has already been said. What does it mean to be on his right hand? As already stated it means to be accepted of christ. It means to be joint heirs with Christ. What does it mean to be on his left hand? Commentary of the book of mormon on Mosiah 5:10 tells us the symbolism behind it. Left hand of God symbolism Further. Now we understand the phrase. "Ye know not what ye ask for". Christ was saying, no-one would ask to be at my left hand. I think there is another quote that states angels are also on the left hand. Those who have not received a body? What is it saying when... to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? I am not completely sure but perhaps its not just baptism by water. Joseph Smith states, that is not a complete baptism. One has to be baptized by fire after to receive the full baptism. But what is that symbolic of (physically it means receive the HG), spiritually it means to have a change of heart, a remission of your sins, speak with the tongue of angels, and the ministry of angels. One does not have the HG until worthy thus they must have a change of heart and constantly seek justification through the HG. What cup? We have water cups which are actually wine symbolically. Why? "Jesus has suffered the wine press alone". Well we still must suffer as stated above. The most important thing he is teaching is this. What? Isn't he the judge of all? Doesn't he present us to the Father? Isn't he the adopted father of us all? We learn from the new testament that no man is perfect except God. "Therefore be ye therefore perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect", Than he says after his resurrection, "touch me not, I have not yet ascended unto the father". He doesn't have a body yet, he isn't perfect yet. Than in 3 Nephi 11, "Therefore be ye perfect even as your father in heave, yea even as I" (paraphrasing). The father responsibility is to do the perfection of all of us. It was at this time he received his resurrected body (by God) thus becoming perfect. Christs responsibility is to sanctify us and present us to the Father. So I assume, he is referring to this. If I accept you I will present you to the Father and he will decide what you are worthy of? No man can go into the celestial kingdom except he be presented to the Father and is found worthy by Christ to be presented to him. Else they are terrestrial beings. Those who are blessed with the presence of the Son but not that of the Father. But I am confused on why the word "whom" is used. Not sure what is being referred to here. Or an entirely different option is this. If we are on Christs left hand we would be greater than Christ because we would be on God's right hand, therefore if we want that it is up to the Father to give. Yet only Christ will be on the right hand of God. We will be joint heirs under Christ yet inheriting all that Christ has but will not be greater than Christ. Hope that helps.

You are right on that. Did Christ have to sin to know sin? Nope. So there must exist an ability to know how it feels to some degree without doing so. I tend to think that understanding comes through a variety of ways. Suffering is just one. Service is another. How does Christ know what its like to overcome an addiction? He must have at least been tempted but is that adequate? Gethsemane is quite amazing if we think about it.

I think death did not occur before A&E. According to the early brethren of the church this planet was created in the heavens next to Kolob in the celestial heavens. (Though some think it was a terrestial earth) When adam and eve partook of the fruit, their bodies (veins) turned into blood thus becoming corruptible. Along with this the earth fell from heaven (along with lucifer) and came to where it is now in the Universe. They lost their pre-mortal knowledge because they lost the presence of God (fullness of the light of Christ which is truth). My favorite question is what if Adam and Eve did not take of the fruit what would happen? Would life still exist? I say yes (just not as it exists in this telestial world) but won't speculate on that at the moment. The book of mormon mentions this with the terms, "the earth was unwrapped as a scroll" (paraphrasing). Now the dinosaur issue is completely different. Perhaps the earth was matter which was taken from another creation or there was dinosaurs when it was in heaven lol? I also know the early brethern has said things like there is life on each planet including our moon (Brigham young liked to speculate about that a lot) Perhaps they are just spiritual worlds instead of physical? also I believe this is the only telestial world out of all of the creations in the universe under Christ. God may have others but Christ himself says he came to this earth because it was the most wicked (telestial) so there exists terrestial worlds just not telestial. We need more spiritual eyes to see them. Joseph Smith was known of giving a blessing stating a few worlds where he was to minister to when he passed on. The parable of the 12 planets in d&c 88 if I remember right relates to this. Or 84?

There are many quotes in general conference about this. The saints in the future will have to endure greater suffering than the pioneers did. This is partially what was talked about in our elders quorum. Not to tangent on this I could quote those if needed but I will quote a different quote. McConckie said it better about many who will die, be martyred, sent to their own carthage jail, etc. (Helamen 10 or 15 lol applies here, forget which) I will quote this if you are interested. See The coming Tests and Trials and Glory I will copy a few excerpts. Horrifying part! I brought up the following quotes in the lesson. Holland, has stated: "The road to salvation always goes through Gethsemene... Come follow me." but he did also say it just won't be as "severe" as Christ's was but we still must suffer. Suffering is the only way to become perfected in Christ. Without it we would fall short of the Glory of God. Also we will never be alone. There will always be someone there even if its an angel like for Christ. Hinckley even has stated, some will be called upon to be martyred (again that Helamen 10/15 reference). [speculation] I feel we each choose what we wanted to perfect in ourselves in the pre-existence (the obedient did) and therefore to gain that experience heavenly father setup "a proving ground" for us to do so. Not sure if we knew what that was but I feel we did choose how we wanted to grow. (agency) Next I shared the thought, We are not here to prove to God anything. God already knows who we are, what we are, and how we will turn out. We are here to prove to ourselves what we can do. What we are. Become aware of our imperfections, weaknesses, strengths, and overcome them. Some may not be overcome in this life though. Just like a Father always loves his son no matter how sinful he is. The father will always love and accept him. But it is up to the son to accept that gift. To accept giving up his sins to return to the Father. Just like we are the prodigal son he will lovingly accept us as his. How can we know others without knowing their pain also? We can know the lonely only by being alone. We can know those who endure pain by enduring pain. etc. Hope this first post isn't to depressing. It may sound scary but its actually quite a blessing if we have the strength of the Lord with us. This is what I am currently working to overcome. If those future trials come and I am not ready.... I don't want to be a foolish virgin.

Just saying hello.