Saint Peter

The last stage is not performing an Atonement. I think those verses you are referring to is that Jesus was then resurrected. So having a perfect body is a requirement to be perfect. But we cannot possibly perform an atonement after this life cause we cannot die again

We know the earth was created from already existent matter. Why is it hard to believe that death from pre-existing places that pre-date this earth could be found?
 
Suppose the lumber that makes up your house had been exposed to termites in the lumber yard but treated for it and all of the termites were exterminated. Some evidence of them still exists if you dig deep into your house and find it, but the house itself was never over-run with termites. Same kind of situation.

Have you read, "Earth in the Beginning - Revised and Enlarged Edition" by Eric N. Skousen?  

It's a bit hard to get around 2 Nephi 2:22.

What!? The scriptures? Bah! We have science!!

If we turn to the scriptures for answers......it would seem that there was no death before the fall and no procreation. The theory of evolution would seem to be at odds with scripture I would think, since it doesn't sound plausible that various forms of life would seek to evolve if their was not procreation or death.
 
What would be the need to evolve if their was not death?
 
As Lehi said,
 
"And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
 23 And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
 
These scriptures would apply to all things....plant, animal, etc. 

Ok that makes a little more sense.
 
Personally, I have not problem with God using evolution as a tool to create the human body-- it's still His creation and we are all spiritually literally His children.

Yes, the Church has no stand on organic evolution, nor has it ever. The First Presidency statement you quote is exactly right: Organic evolution, like heliocentricity or germ theory or Mendelian genetics or Newtonian mechanics, is a theory of men. That does not make it false; it makes it irrelevant to eternal truth. And Adam, the primal parent of our race, was fully, 100% human. That does not answer the question of Adam's creation, which is basically, "Did Adam have a belly button?" (Answer: Of course he did.) That question remains unanswered, because it, too, is irrelevant.
 
God does not tell us how he accomplished the creation, or exactly what was involved in the fall, or how the atonement works. These are all questions of mechanics, and God doesn't normally bother teaching us mechanics. He seems much more concerned that we learn the important elements, such as faith and love. But again, that does not make the "theories of men" uniformly wrong or false, only of minor importance.

Dang. That explains so much.

Meeting with Bishop tomorrow at 9:30am
Why am I worried about being excommunicated? This church has provided so much -- I do hope that what they teach is true but I feel like I am confused right now.
My Bishop is a very aggressive guy. I just don't know. I'll keep y'all posted. Grateful for your responses.

Here is the cold hard truth:
 
You made temple covenants.  The law of chastity does not differentiate between married or single people.  You served a mission.  You taught people the law of chastity.  Your covenants are binding, recommend or not.  You have clearly and unmistakably broken those covenants and mocked that which is most holy.  This isn't sin like having a coffee, not paying tithing, or even watching some porn.  It is serious, grievous sin.  Excommunication is a very real possibility.
 
My brother, with all that being said, fear not and repent.  Call your Bishop.  Don't give a darn about what other people might think or what they might say.  If they think less of you because of this then they have committed the greater sin, not you!  Expect your friends and other members to be helpful, kind, and nothing but supportive.  If they are not, then ignore them.
  
 
 
 
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  Isaiah 1:18
 
Do you want that relationship and testimony of Christ and the Holy Ghost?  Jesus Christ is right next to you with his arms outstretched.  Swallow your pride and call your Bishop right now.  I mean right now.  I don't care if it's 3 am where you're at.  This can't wait.  The sooner repentance is started the sooner you will begin to heal.  It will be humbling, painful, and difficult, but your bishop, stake president, and most importantly, your elder brother Jesus Christ will help you and comfort you.
 
If you choose to be willing and obedient, then great things await.  As you progress through repentance, remember to forgive yourself!!  Move ahead and don't dwell on the past.  If you exercise humble faith you can still achieve the highest glory of the Celestial Kingdom.  From Paul to the Philippians:
 
this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
 
Get this behind you.  So you slipped up.  Everyone does in all different ways.  Take the Lord's outstretched hand, get up off the ground, dust yourself off, smile, and move on.  Put this in your past.  Call your Bishop.
 
If you do not have a desire to change (repent), then there is nothing anyone can do for you.  Nothing.

The "no" answers are wrong. A Melchizedek Priesthood holder who has abandoned his temple covenants through adultery is most certainly subject to excommunication. Whether that actually happens or not is at the discretion of the stake president, and it may seem an unlikely outcome. But possible? Oh, yes.

I don't know what BYU's anthropology department teaches, but its biology department certainly does teach evolution.  They even have a handout they give to more doctrinally conservative statements, basically including statements from various GA's saying "it's possible", "the Church has no position", et cetera.  Personally, my only problem with evolution is when evolutionists insist that there is no room in the process for any kind of Divine, guiding intelligence that could have influenced the way things played out in some way.
 
If I were, during a period of inactivity, fornicating regularly and had since stopped and tried to come back into activity--I would expect there to be some kind of repentance process which could theoretically include excommunication; though I would be pretty surprised to see a bishop/stake president take things quite that far--more likely I'd be asked not to participate in priesthood ordinances, not take the sacrament, and not attend the temple until I had figured some things out.  (Remember, too, that because you hold the Melchizedek Priesthood your bishop doesn't have the authority to unilaterally excommunicate you--he'd have to get the Stake President to agree, after a hearing before the stake high council.)
 
Now, if I were fornicating regularly and had no intention to stop; and those facts were common knowledge--I would not at all be surprised to have my bishop ask me to come in and discuss whether I really want to stay a Mormon at all; and perhaps to refer the matter up to the SP for further discussion.

Read this great article on faith and grace, etc. It helped me in my ever ongoing quest to increase my understanding of faith and other related topics. It also addresses some of the conflicting ideas I've seen expressed here in this forum. So I thought I'd share it for discussion and enlightenment purposes.
 
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/benjaminthescribe/2015/08/necessary-background-on-grace-faith-works-law-justification-for-the-coming-lds-gospel-doctrine-discussions/
 
It's a bit of a read, but well worth it.

If you look at the history of Joseph's use of one, he clearly was not continually bound to it. It was a tool he used as he learned. Later, he had no need and gave it up. He was still a seer.

No.

Resurrecting my own thread to add this little anecdote, attributed to Robert L. Millet:
Of course, something said by Brother Millet's father when Br. Millet was getting ready to serve a mission was obviously some time ago (a generation or two ago), so it may not exactly reflect our current attitudes, but I'm not sure it is completely gone from our LDS culture.

"Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2)
 
Unless you believe in a God who steps backward in time to punish you for evil actions you haven't yet committed, this question makes no sense unless you grant a conscious premortal existence of some sort, wherein the man might have sinned. I have yet to hear a Christian who disbelieves in premotal life explain this verse in any satisfactory manner.

What troubles me are religious topics that never get discussed in other Christian faiths because of Mormonism.  Polygamy in the Bible, baptism for the dead, degrees of glory, all eschewed to the extreme because they might just give Mormonism some credibility.  And historical precidence seems to be trumped by current dogma, which also troubles me.

This is my opinion and it doesn't mean I am right or wrong...my biggest issue with members of our faith are .....I don't think we study enough to find out what we believe or why we believe it. I have always felt like if we know the doctrines it might help us understand or be comfortable talking about them. I don't mean talking in a contentious way.
It does seem like there are a number of members who stray away from talking about grace because you never heard much spoke about it years ago. Grace is a beautiful doctrine. When I say study....do we read each day ?? Do we read the lessons before attending on Sunday ??

I have wondered if such predictions are not just concerning the record in question but perhaps something to say about individuals present at the conference. I wonder if the prophesy is more about someone being translated than a specific time based on normal life expectancy. BTW – Jesus made a similar prediction about “this generation” not all passing away before the fulfillment of the last days – perhaps he was talking about the Apostle John and not a standard lifetime.

Some thoughts on the matter: I think people tend to view Peter's early leadership in the church differently than they may view a modern-day prophet's. Comparing a mistake Peter made as an early church leader to, for example, a mistake Joseph may have made early in the church that required revelatory correction may be more accurate. I'm not sure anyone views an understanding that Joseph had to learn line-upon-line as criticism of Joseph though.
 
As comparison against a prophet who has been, A) raised in the gospel, B) worked his way up through the years in a variety of different church leadership positions, C) is also being/has been supported by other prophet's and apostles revelation/wisdom and D) goes about stubbornly doing his own will anyhow, is where they may be a problem. In other words, to see that Peter had something to learn in the very early days of the Christian church is very different than seeing, as per the example given, that the first how-many of our prophets were/are simply entrenched in tradition.
 
It don't see it as a problem to compare apples to apples. Prophet's can be entrenched in tradition. But when they are, the Lord corrects them. When we compare said correction given to Peter (assuming it was a correction), to issues that prophets have supposedly perpetuated simply following tradition against the Lord's will, then it gets into something else altogether. If God willed the priesthood to go to all races sooner, it would have done so sooner. If God willed to "correct" Brigham Young on the matter, He would have. And if women were meant to have the priesthood, they would have it -- according to God's will and not according to the traditions of men.
 
I don't know if I've gone anywhere you wanted to with the discussion. But there are some of the excretions of my brainwaves for your perusal.

1. In the last chapter of Luke (remember, Acts is just Volume 2 of Luke) Jesus tells the apostles to preach to all the world, beginning at Jerusalem. Luke 1:8 also establishes a sequence for preaching: first Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, then the rest of the earth. Jesus gave them a sequence and the apostles stuck with it. They were not being stubborn or misunderstanding the Master's intent; they were simply waiting for "the long-promised day".
2. There was no Church-wide policy excluding the baptism of non-Jews prior to Acts 10, else there would have been no preaching in Samaria and no baptism of the eunuch by Phillip. The Church may not have made it a priority to seek converts from among those groups prior to Acts 10, but I see no evidence suggesting that those who came of their own accord were refused (except for the statements of Jesus Himself to the Canaanite woman, which--as Jesus' own actions showed--was not an absolute proscription).

Unless I have any good reason to believe otherwise I would rather accept the Biblical account as accurate and if it says someone lived to be hundreds of years old I will believe it. How old was Sarah when she had Isaac? She knew she was well past child bearing age. If the months were being counted as years then wouldn't that have made her a bit of a lass?

This part, from a teen/young adult perspective:
 
-Don't ask your parents to borrow their car before you have earned a license. The answer will be no.
-General rule: you can only use the car to the degree that your parents can trust you.
-Be willing to do your part to help maintain the car and put gas in it as needed.
-Being willing to use it to drive your brothers and sisters around or do other things for your parents also really helps.
-Never do stupid things with your parents' car.
-The more you use the car well, the more you'll get to use it.
-Always say thank you.
 
Who knew my parents were teaching me about spiritual gifts all along?