the_jason

I'm sorry I brought it up.

Welcome newbie.

Okay, once again I was merely sharing what APPEARS to be contentious. If it's truly not, then I apologize. I'm just stating what I see. My intent was not to be judgmental.

And don't you dare come out of your room til mornin'.

I never said your thread should be closed. I never even saw the thread which you were referring to. I merely explained what the rule is. If it didn't apply to then fine. I never said it did.

Whoa dude! I was merely expressing a concern. If you don't share my concern then fine, but you don't have to belittle me for it. I wasn't unrighteously judging anyone. Maybe their intent isn't to contend, but there have been several threads in which that appears to be the case. And if you read other posts in this thread, I'm not the only one who feels this way. No need to attack me for expressing a concern.

Because our church has a lay ministry, we rely on virtually every member to operate the ward. In order to create a new ward there has to be a minimum number of priesthood holders and active members. We cannot simply create a new ward if there won't be anyone to fill the callings.

I think you missed my point. I have no problem with questions. I love talking about the gospel, as long as the person has a genuine interest. The people I'm talking about ask "questions" that are more like accusations. They seem to be trying to prove something. They have an agenda. Contention is of the devil and I want no part of it.I also don't feel like something needs to be officially reported before action can be taken. Anyone who reads the forums regularly knows which threads I am referring to. I guess I'm just asking for a little proactivity on the part of the staff. No news is not always good news.

There seem to be a lot of threads these days about people questioning certain doctrines of the Church, even questioning books of scripture. I understand that this site has great missionary possibilities, and I also understand that we are to allow people of other faiths to express their own opinions. I don't have a problem with those things. What I do have a problem with is coming in here every day to find that a new thread has been started in which the truths which I hold dear are called in to question. If I were to start a thread about how the Qu'ran (sp) is flawed or how the Pope is a fraud, I'd be reprimanded. Yet, nothing seems to be done about people who question the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To those who post these types of things: if you don't believe our teachings that's fine. Just keep it to yourself. I don't believe your teachings either, but you don't see me starting threads about how your beliefs are wrong. We are all entitled to believe what we want to believe, even if it's viewed as wrong. To the admins of this site: Can anything be done to cut down on this, for lack of a better word, crap?

Most missions have a "2 sacrament minimum", meaning an investigator must come to sacrament meeting at least twice before they can be baptized. All too often I see missionaries bring people to sacrament twice and think that's enough to baptize them. Most of those converts barely know any church doctrine and don't have a testimony. They also haven't been properly fellowshipped. I know it is the goal of every missionary to have a lot of baptisms, but sometimes less is more. I didn't have many baptisms on my mission, but at least 2/3 of the ones I did baptize were retained. I think the responsibility lies with several people for the retention of new converts. Members have the responsibility of fellowship. Missionaries have the responsibility of teaching the gospel. Investigators have perhaps the greatest responsibility of gaining their own testimony. I've always had the belief that if a person doesn't have a testimony of the gospel then let's not baptize them until they do. Baptism to boost numbers is not and should not be the objective.

Wow! Oregon be representin' in da hizouse!! (ok that sounded lame coming from me )

The human head weighs 8 pounds.

...Dr T. has a lot of useless information in his noggin?

We don't know everything, nor are we supposed to know everything. Heavenly Father has revealed to us all that we need to be exalted. Once we're exalted we'll receive more answers than we ever dreamed existed. A person does not need to know all the answers to have faith. That's what faith is: believing things that you don't completely know. Heavenly Father doesn't give us knowledge and then say 'Now go have faith.' Faith brings us to knowledge, not the other way around.

DS, I'm not sure you will find the answer you are looking for here. I'm not sure you even know what answer you are looking for. Several people have tried to help you, to which you've responded with many "what if" questions. I think we're spinning our wheels here. If you don't know what you want then it's impossible for us to know what you want. I'd suggest taking the matter to the Lord and then being patient. The Lord doesn't answer our prayers when we want him to, but he does answer. Be patient, and good luck.

Wow cool. My Bro lives out there. BTW, I don't know if your title "Hello from the Pacific Northwet!" was a typo or not, but it perfectly describes where we live. lol

Welcome! What part of the NW? I'm from Portland and currently live in the 'Couv.

It's my experience that if I pray to receive my own will I rarely get it. While opening a business is certainly a righteous and honorable thing to do, it may not be the Lord's will. Your prayer probably went something like this: "Heavenly Father, please help me to open a business that I may provide for my family..." when perhaps a more humble prayer would have been "Heavenly Father, I've decided to open a business. Please let me know if this is thy will. If not, show me thy will." Maybe the Lord had something better in store for you, but if you consume yourself with your own desires He won't stop you and often times it results in failure. We should always be seeking the Lord's will for ourselves and our families. He knows us better than we do.

I'm sure you're familiar with Joseph Smith. His manner of knowing which church to join. Obviously, commonfolk like myself probably won't have heavenly being appear to them, but we can use his method as an example.First, Joseph and his family were religious. During the religious uprising which took place at that time, Joseph was able to visit and study different churches. He was as confused as you were. He wanted to be part of God's church, but didn't know how he could determine which one that was. Then, he came across a scripture in James (man, I feel like I'm on my mission again). "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." -- James 1:5-6 Joseph asked in faith and received his answer. You will receive an answer too, if you ask in faith. All the studying and asking people about their beliefs won't get you your answer. Only through faithful prayer to Heavenly Father and a confirmation of the Holy Ghost.

I believe faith is hope turned into action. In other words, anyone can hope the gospel is true, but only those with faith that it's true signify it by their actions. They live the gospel. They don't just sit back and hope. Faith and hope are closely related, but faith requires more effort. Hope is the beginnings of faith. Faith also involves knowledge, though not perfect or complete knowledge.Okay I'm not making any sense, but anyway....

Read Alma 32.

What is your purpose here? Are you trying to convince people that the Church is false? Are you trying to impress us with your much research and knowledge on theology? If either is true, count myself uninterested. I don't care how much studying you've done. All the research in the world can't compare to a comfirmation of the Holy Ghost that I've had. The Church is true, the doctrine is true, the priesthood authority is true. Nothing can convince me otherwise.

I fundamentally do not care if you agree with me. As the scripture in Alma 32 so wonderfully explains, when we have faith we hope for things unseen. Hope implies an unsure knowledge, a quest for greater light. While my computer may have been built by knowledge, there had to first be faith that it could be built. Faith instills the pursuit of greater knowledge.

I see where you are coming from, but your statement is false. Your faith may be 1000 percent unchallengable, but there is room for more knowledge. Unless you were there, you don't KNOW. Like I said earlier, faith is more important than knowledge. The fact that one has faith instead of knowledge does not make their beliefs inferior. Quite the opposite, in fact. I'm not sure anyone other than the prophet and apostles really KNOW anything. We all rely on their knowledge to produce our own faith.

However, the original post was asking for clarification on LDS doctrine, not other Christian doctrine. If you are not LDS or do not have knowledge of LDS doctrine, then spouting off your own beliefs is counter-productive and does not satisfy the query of the original poster. In the future, make sure your answers line up with the question that is asked.