person0

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Everything posted by person0

  1. I am aware of, and have read the criticisms. You need to read the apologetic material in order to form a full opinion. One small sliver before you read is to understand that there is translation and there is translation. When Joseph Smith translated the Bible, he did not do so from a manuscript, he received revelation as to the missing portions, yet it is still known as the Joseph Smith Translation. You say translate in the literal sense, but Joseph could have received revelation of additional information not clearly present, that cannot or ought not be revealed. This would still qualify as translation in the same sense as the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. In reality there is no point in quibbling over such an issue, because, while we can converse of doctrinal differences and help you to understand the LDS perspective, there are certain things one would never be able to accept until they read the Book of Mormon, and followed the counsel of Moroni to pray with a sincere heart to know if it is the truth. Once you know the Book of Mormon is true by the power of the Holy Ghost, as I do, then it does not matter if the Pearl of Great Price is a literal translation or a revealed translation, and many other issues become irrelevant. If you are not willing to research the apologetics along with the criticisms then there is no sense in discussing the matter.
  2. In regard to number 3, without expounding at super great length, let us consider the implications of Romans 14:11: This sentiment is repeated in the Old Testament here, the Book of Mormon here, and the Doctrine and Covenants here. The immediate implication of the word saved in the third article of faith is that of exaltation, as opposed to salvation in the normal concept of heaven as has been previously discussed. However, even if we take in the more general sense, members of the Church believe in a liberal salvation of mankind. Meaning, that because we believe there are three different kingdoms of glory. Eventually, even the most wicked of men will be rewarded with the lowest level of glory, but not until after they bow and confess and experience hell during Christ's reign upon the earth. The fourth article of faith answers the third in terms of what the principles and ordinances are. Faith, repentance, baptism, etc. Every single person will receive and accept these before judgement day occurs, whether they receive them in this life or the next (baptism for the dead), at the first opportunity or later on will be a factor in God's judgement and where they ultimately end up. The only individuals who will not be 'saved' to any sort of glory are the sons of perdition who deny the Holy Ghost. I knew that's where you were going, however, the translated manuscripts are actually highly incomplete as to what the Church originally had in its possession at the time of translation. There is insufficient evidence based on that to determine whether the translation is exact or not. There is an article regarding this here. We also agree that we only believe the Book of Mormon to be true as far as it is translated correctly, but we believe it to be translated correctly as @anatess2 clearly explained.
  3. Successful arranged marriages (even non-Christian) are a witness the the truth shared by modern Apostles and Prophets that any two individuals, who are faithful and seek to live up to their covenants and grow together towards Christ, can have a successful, joyful, and eternal marriage, with happiness in this life and in the next. Spencer W. Kimball laid out the formula which would be applicable to arranged marriages and marriages of non-Christians as well, however, those of us who have the true gospel, have that as an added blessing to rely upon. Here is a key part of his message (emphasis added): Based on these guidelines, I believe that at least some form of an arranged marriage could occur by the prayerful guidance of the spirit. My marriage was not arranged, however, if my wife were to pass away, I would not have a problem entering into an arranged marriage of some sort with a second spouse (so long as I felt we were both willing and able to meet the above criteria). A problem in our society these days is that it is not as culturally acceptable (certainly not the norm), and there are sooooo many SJWs who would have an overly vocal problem with it. There is a general nationwide deterioration of family values, and mostly individual pride issues that would make it difficult to enter into an arranged marriage, even within the Church.
  4. I hate experiencing sleep paralysis, it happens to me about twice a year just in my normal sleep routine. I am asleep, yet partially awake/aware of my surroundings, but I can't move at all. Even my thoughts are slow and everything moves in slow motion, it's a crazy experience, and usually ruins my whole day because it makes me feel like I didn't get enough sleep and it feels like it lasts for hours even if/when it only lasts a few minutes. Anyway, just a little rant there. For anyone who wants to know more, here is a link to webMD on sleep paralysis. Hope no one else has to deal with this.
  5. I'm not sure I am personally ready to fully interpret the meaning as applicable to the Jews or to our day, however, I think it's an interesting cross-reference of verse 7 with Christ's reasoning for teaching with parables: Almost the exact same phraseology is used in both passages. I would assume that is relevant to understanding the meaning here. The church manuals have this to say about it: When looked at under this context, it appears that Christ taught in parables with much the same context as the Lord commanded Isaiah to teach the people. The prophecy of their rejection and failure to understand the spiritual nature of the message sees fulfillment in both time periods, which is further evidence of the truthfulness of Isaiah's experience. Thank you for the study opportunity, I recently gave a talk on the parables of Christ and had not previously made this connection!
  6. One of my favorite tools to teach and understand the principles of chastity in their accurate and true context is the talk by Jeffrey R. Holland: Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments Memorable moments from the talk:
  7. 'He that seeketh findeth'. If you are not willing to read and investigate on your own, with a sincere desire to understand and to cone to a knowledge of the truth, why should @anatess2 or I or anyone else explain it to you. If you are not willing to study it for yourself, it won't matter if we explain it.
  8. We do not believe that we are able to rid ourselves of sin. Christ's atonement is the only way we can do that, it is through his grace that we are even able to become better people. In fact, without Christs atonement, we would become like Satan (literally): Also, if you pay attention to verse 7, you can see that even if we were to pretend that we could rid our own evil desires, we would still need the atonement of Christ. If I lived a 100% perfect life and never made a single mistake even once, I would still only be able to be saved by Christ because of the fact that it is His power that could resurrect me and bring me back into His presence. Regardless of how you look at it, we believe that only 'through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved'.
  9. @runewell you can respond do my post in the other thread here please. As a reminder: Thank you
  10. A new thread has already been started for @runewell and any topic of discussion/study here: It appears runewell is purposefully choosing to not use it so far.
  11. @runewell I know others have asked you many questions, but I would like to have your interpretation on the following verses as it pertains to this discussion: Emphasis Added. Many of these verses have been shared before. We welcome your sincere interpretation, and if you really do have an answer, even if we disagree it will help us better understand how others might come to an alternative interpretation of the scriptures, and we can all be enlightened on the subject together. The simplest way I can think to put the LDS perspective is to say that we are saved only by grace, but works are still required. It appears you may define works differently, so please provide your definition of works so we can better understand. The things in bold are works, the fact that you define works differently seems to be more the problem than anything. This is false, it is work to unwrap a gift, the same as it is work to wrap it. You already did the work of repenting and following the commandments you are able, this statement by you is correct, but once again, your definition of works is different. We agree with you, but works are still required, they don't earn us our salvation, but they are still required of us.
  12. @runewell Your sincere perspective is welcome, but you really should stay on topic, or start your own thread if it's something important to you. If you continue to post things that are obviously intended to detract, you could eventually get banned. If that happens, how could you lead people in this forum to embrace the beliefs which you hold?
  13. I personally do not place much value on college education (although I have one due to the modern societal requirement). Quality experience is much more important. I agree with Walsh as well. I believe our society should reject modern universities as a whole and mostly return to a 'trade' approach (this could easily help resolve the 'snowflake' problem too!). Imagine working minimum wage for a company for 4-6 years while being trained and taught in the industry all that you will need to know to be successful in your career. You come out age 24-26 with zero debt and plenty of skills. It should not take long for a hard working and capable individual to be able to provide greater value to the company than what they are expending. If you did not work up to your potential you would be asked to go elsewhere, but you learned it in one paid year rather than after four years and thousands in debt. Even if it were an unpaid internship that is better than four years of paying for what basically amounts to nothing. I went to a business school for a portion of my degree and 3 of my professors had never worked a real job managing, marketing, or doing other business related tasks in their life, which they were supposed to be teaching me how to do. What programmer comes out of college having learned more from their courses than from their hours of tinkering and working on projects at home?
  14. Yes and if the child doesn't ever practice as was agreed, the parent will stop paying for the lessons. Just as if we decide to stop keeping the commandments, we can 'fall from grace'. Excellent analogy.
  15. @runewell The hidden key in this video/parable is that the way the child earned the money in the first place was by doing chores for her parents, who then paid her. So even though she 'earned' the money, even that part was only accomplished by their love. Our 'works' are accomplished by the grace of God, through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, even after we are blessed to be able to accomplish what we can, he still takes care of the rest. So in essence it is His grace that makes possible 100% of our salvation, but that does not remove our personal responsibility. There is a great passage from the Book of Mormon relating to this:
  16. The Spirit of God bears witness of you malintent @runewell. You are twisting words out of their intended meaning as did the scribes and Pharisees: I encourage you to repent of your evil design. If you desire to bring someone to a greater truth you should be able to accomplish it without directly and intentionally seeking to destroy the truth to which they already hold. If you can not, then either you are going about it the wrong way, or perhaps you are the one in the wrong.
  17. Jesus was given a death sentence, what did he do wrong?
  18. @runewell In my experience most Christians of other faiths do not understand the word 'works' the same way we do (which contributes to confusion in their faith vs works perspective). Most people do not realize that prayer, repentance, scripture studies, and every other gospel related action, are all works. I was talking to a former employer one time about faith vs works and he finally told me about how giving to the poor, etc was his idea of works and I came to the realization that he did not interpret it the way we do (even though he acknowledged that those things were important commandments). My perspective is that works (in the gospel) is anything that you do with your mind or body to take action that leads you to Christ. So as @Carborendum said, the very fact that he was admitting guilt and acknowledging the Savior is in itself a work.
  19. Once on my mission we were teaching investigators about eternal marriage and encouraging them to get married. They had lived together for a few years and had a baby. Marriage was their main obstacle to baptism and so we counseled with them about eternal marriage. As it turned out, the husband completely believed in eternal marriage, his hangup that came out right in front of his wife was that he wasn't sure he wanted to be with her for all eternity!!!!! As soon as he told us that, with his wife right next to him, we were like . . . come again?
  20. You could try going for martyrdom and claim 72 virgins Talk about plural marriage, that's the ticket to really 'big love' right there! If you have 72, surely you will really love at least one of them Turns out there's just one problem. . . you aren't Muslim.
  21. I have a personal rule, I don't hire family members, nor do I do business with family unless they have a long proven track record of being amazing employee's/owners with other companies/businesses to the extent that I am certain a problem like this would never occur outside of unforeseen depression causing events (i.e. death of spouse/child). I also don't ever loan money to family. Either I give them money as a gift, so that there is no repayment, or I don't give them money but point them to resources where I am confident they might obtain it.
  22. Perhaps Satan wont actually obey you unless you give him the respect he thinks he deserves!
  23. I like most of what you said, however, the EQP has exactly 0 stewardship in this situation. The keys the EQP holds have nothing to do with this woman's issue. His stewardship only applies as it pertains to Home Teaching for this family, but not the Young Women's leaders because they are a side organization not a subordinate organization. He is not the person to go to at all, unless he is their friend and they just want some friendly advice (but isn't that why they posted here?).
  24. Why wouldn't you just film it and keep it for family use only? I feel that what the leaders did was inappropriate, but in general, social media is just way too much these days with how people use it. I have stopped using social media altogether because, although I'm not a particularly private person, people just put every thing they do, and who really cares about what you had for dinner, or that your child got a participation trophy in the 3 legged race, etc, etc, etc? That being said, you've certainly got a memory, this experience will remain with you both for the rest of your lives (unless you get Amnesia)