Awakened

Here, perhaps I should give you guys some examples. Why is Love such an important attribute of deity? Why is Satan pushing against the family so hard? How can having the priesthood benefit one versus just praying to God for help?

Oh c'mon now. That's terminology/scripture related. lol Uh... The only two things that come to mind are Kolob and celestial.

Nope. We're both wrong. Tithing was reinstituted during the time of Joseph Smith. Lorenzo was just telling the people that they needed to recommit themselves to pay tithing again. EDIT: Ninja'd by FolkProphet.

Huh. I guess that could be counted as a gospel question... But dang, that was pretty obscure. Ask me another though anyway and I'll count that last one as a loss for me.

Brigham Young I think. Alright. Source(s)?

Nope. Why would we be shielded? I don't think there's any evidence from any of the general authorities for the theory that we are being shielded at all anyway. In fact, in a way, We're encountering more evil than in the past. This form of evil may not be breaking down our door or tar and feathering us or etc. but it is almost everywhere and it is always trying to drag us down into sin. It's much less, "Hey, you a Mormon? GET 'EM!" and much more, "Oh you're a Mormon? That's cool... But hey, don't you think you're missing out on life? You really should at least try some things like drinking." or better yet, "Hey, it's OK if you 'sinned', it's natural and really isn't a sin at all. Don't worry about it."

Yep. That's a scripture question but eh, I'll answer anyway. Most likely Habakkuk since he is not in the standard scriptures. False. Animal sacrifice was done away with the Law of Moses when Jesus came. Yep. Moses I'm sure... That's a history question though. Gathering of Israel is a physical gathering. As to Adam's gathering, no, I don't think so. Only the leaders of the church and past general authorities will be there. The New Jerusalem will be built first in America. Nobody knows where it will be exactly. An infinite amount.

I do a lot reading on a whole lot of gospel topics. I'm just now wondering how much I really know. That's where you all come in! ITT try to trip me up by asking me any gospel related questions you want. If I had to guess as to the outcome of this, I bet you guys will get me. A lot of you look more experienced than I am in these matters. Thanks in advance for humoring me.

Family Guy here if that counts. For me, it's super hit and miss. Some parts and episodes just knock it out of the park in a whole bunch of aspects, and some other parts and episodes are like, "WTH were the creators thinking? This is lame/disgusting."

No, you misunderstand me. I'm not saying at all that Satan hasn't used these tactics before. Not at all. He uses every tool he's got all the time. What I am saying though is that lately, he's been focusing much more now than before to get Church members to give in to his temptations. Well, it's quiet in terms of physical conflict is what I was trying to say. Very quiet on that front. On another however, as you have said, another battle of spiritually apocalyptic proportions is raging.

Yep, link's broken. The forum did that to me as well once. You need to edit your post, click the toggle switch on the top left corner of the tool bar in the post box and that will give you the raw message. Then go to where the broken URL is and fix it.

While I agree with you, I don't think that applies to this situation. Satan can't exactly throw us off very well because there are a lot of parents who teach their children how the world is and prophets to instruct us what's coming, so that robs him greatly of any element of surprise. And besides, if that really did work, then he would do it all the time. He's switching tactics because the battlefield's changed.

Ah, OK. The first question is very simple. When the Fall happened, there were two types of deaths that occured. Physical and spiritual, as we all know. But that was the FIRST spiritual death because we were separated completely from our Father in heaven. The veil over all our minds though, making us forget where we were, makes it bearable. The SECOND spiritual death will only occur to those who completely reject the Gospel and will suffer for their sins themselves. They will be separated again for a long while and then return to inherit the Telestial Kingdom when thier suffering is finished. As to the second question, whether our mortal bodies have any saving grace to them by themselves, well, I really don't think so. HOWEVER, the body serves as much more than an anchor weighing us down. It is through it that we experience the world around us. If CONTROLLED PROPERLY, it can work mostly to our benefit. But if the body were calling the shots... That's the thing. Satan can tempt us and take control of us through the body if the spirit submits to it. So if the body was in charge, the Adversary would have full sway over us. If we take that factor out though, our bodies probably wouldn't act so devilishly but only just. The behavior of the body is simply animalistic, doing what it wants, when it wants, no matter if it's good or bad. Survival and pleasure are its two goals. There is simply no scripture out there that supports the body having any spirit-like personality traits.

Actually, I was talking much more in terms of opposition to the Church than any actual events in the world. What makes you say you're a passing irritant though?

WARNING: It\'s gonna get pretty TL;DR in here. When I first came here and made my account, I made my name Awakened as a nod to that moment of complete clarity and happiness I had experienced, now a while ago. I\'m sure most of you already know this. However, during my time here, I began to think of the implications of my awakening. I began to think about how it was ages past as compared to our day. I then thought about our spiritual natures and tied it all together. It all starts with how the Adversary has opposed the Church throughout ancient history. With how many people back then were \"quick to do iniquity\". All it took seemingly was someone getting up on a soapbox and telling people what they wanted to hear. We see such examples of this with Nehor in the Book of Mormon and the incident of the golden calf in the Old Testament and many others scattered throughout the pages of the Scriptures. And if it wasn\'t that, it was other countries and groups making flat out war against the believers. Skip to the times of the Restoration. As we all know, Joseph Smith encountered crazy amounts of greed and hate fueled opposition. He was slandered, arrested, beaten, tarred and feathered, robbed, betrayed, and finally assassinated. In spite of all this, the Church survived and grew. And now, let\'s come back to the present day. Where\'s the straight up opposition that has constantly plagued the Church for millennia? Where\'s the wars? Where\'s the hate? I think we all know the answer to this. It\'s not really there anymore. Sure there are still some who flagrantly oppose the Church, but it\'s not nearly at the level it once was. So why did the Adversary switch gears so late into the game? I believe this can be explained by something the General Authorities keep telling us. That we are choice son and daughters of God that have been saved up for these last days. Satan knows this. He knows that straight up opposition won\'t work very well, if at all, against us. But we are not unfalliable! Satan also knows where we are weak. Instead of fighting, Satan has instead opted to persuade us. To fight such spirits would be like throwing gasoline on a fire. But by tempting us, he can disable us and turn the tables. My friends, a very long time ago, there were also of course some very faithful people. These people, with the power of God and Jesus Christ, cast out demons, split seas, tore down cities, conquered armies, healed countless people both physcially and spiritually, and did many other awe-inspiring things. If they could do that then imagine what we could do. Imagine the great potential inside each of us just waiting to be awakened and made use of if we would just hearken to and obey the Lord\'s commandments. Satan is trying to bring us into his grasp very softly but surely. But we shouldn\'t let him. We can\'t. Instead, we should know what he is trying to do and stay ever vigilant. He\'s trying so hard to get us to accept his enticements so he can have us, but the Lord can do any and all things and he can help us greatly if we choose it. May we all have the courage to resist and call upon the Lord when we can\'t do anymore.

I've been scanning through this thread and I don't see what exactly we're debating. What is the question that needs to be answered?

Yes and no. I glanced at it. What's she's saying is very, very similar if not identitcal to the concepts expounded upon in the book, "The Secret". Perhaps perspective was a bad choice of word there. Porn degrades everyone it involves. No one is safe. And you're right about relationships getting affected by this. But that's the thing. As you know, I have no relationships at the moment. And as for my parents, well, there are no kids in the house whatsoever and I try to keep this to a minimum and even then, only at night when people are sleeping. Although I was talking more in terms of seeable consequences (like too much smoking will cause you to have health problems), yes, I was thinking about this as well. Even with that though, as you said, some aren't so attuned and those that are may just brush it off. This is a consequence indeed but a rather indirect one. No, the biggest noticeable consequence of all this for me is my thoughts. The more I do it, the more thoughts I have that are indecent and will just feel generally more sad and/or angry and/or tired depending on how much I keep doing it. It also feels like this weight on my mind that I don't exactly notice until it's gone.

Oh actually I have. It's a great movie. I've just seen it too many times. While I used to work at Walmart, they used to have this movie playing in the break room ALL the time for some reason. This led to me getting very tired of it. After that, it was Home Alone 2. Anyway, here's a funny pic some of you may remember.

Oh, you're talking about perspective. OK. Once again you're right. I keep forgetting that principle. However, I've been struggling with this for a while (the porn is actually a somewhat recent thing) and it's been quite disheartening whenever I try to quit and I just slip up again even though the way I tried to quit was wrong those times. Also doesn't help that the whole thing is so harmless (to everyone else), so pleasureful, so accessible, and stays in the mind. Even if you looked at just what it does to you personally, it's rather hard to find something and you really have to look deep inside. A good part of repentance starts with some sort of guilt or remorse, but with a sin like this that conceals its effects so well... Yeah.

I'm probably thinking about this too much but I really can't say I like that quote. At all. Life is pain AND happiness. There is light and dark. Hot and cold. Matter and antimatter even. Sorry for that little rant there.

Are you sure? You're saying that I should keep telling myself that I have enough faith in the Lord until I actually do, are you not? Actually, it's kind of ironic because for other things, I have no trouble in having faith in the Lord. If there's a tough financial situation, I have faith. If I'm seriously sick, I have faith. If my brother is about to keel over because he drank too much, I have faith. So why can't I have faith in the amazing happiness the Lord can bring into one's life?

Could you be more specific? Like, do you mean more gentle in demeanor or less blunt or... ?

Changing my general attitude towards serving a mission. I have been making some good progress on that front though. And also of course, this.

I don't think they're necessary at all, no. I think they're there for appearances sake.

No, I haven't for several reasons. One is because I rely on my parents to drive me anywhere (sad, I know) and I don't think I'm ready for them to know about this yet. Another reason is gas money. We're all paying the bills here and we each need to keep our spending in check. And finally, I don't think the small town I live in would have an active one at all anyway. Yes, you'd be right, but faith without a clear goal doesn't really work. A lot of people could tell me they're completely happy living the Gospel and I could read the Scriptures for days at a time, solid, but I feel like until I can see it with my own eyes... It's like praying to know if the BoM is true. You can listen to all these people's stories on how they received that witness, but it will always be something you just need to do for yourself. Likewise, I feel like this is something I need to see for myself. Am I wrong? (Seriously, if you do, please tell me straight up. I love honesty.)