clbent04

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Everything posted by clbent04

  1. I have heard that, but making the connection that all ordinances must be performed by mortals on Earth seems a bit of stretch for me when relating it to D&C 128's "whatsoever you do not record on earth shall not be recorded in heaven"
  2. My personal opinion is there are a lot of misconceptions about how righteous non-members are supposed to find the Truth, almost as if it's as simply as having them read Joseph's Smith First Vision and WALA! I don't think it's that simple. For some, maybe it is that simple, but when you take into consideration how many religions out there claiming to have the truth, and that the LDS Church is one among many, non-members can be open to the truth while as the same time being cautious to not blindly accept just anything. That's not always something easy to balance as we as members of the Church know ourselves as we seek additional truth and light.
  3. If I'm applying this scripture to my question the same way I believe you are, wouldn't that limit the ordinances performed to our existence on Earth? If so, it doesn't seem to make sense to me considering our existence here on Earth is but a small fraction of what our time will be in the eternities. To think no other ordinances will be performed after this existence seems improbable to me.
  4. I'm trying to flesh out how members in general understand the salvation of others outside the LDS Church versus my own understanding of it. Who do you think will be given the opportunity to accept baptism via proxy baptism performed on behalf of the dead? Where is your dividing line for those who quality for that opportunity versus those who already had their chance to accept it during their mortal lives?
  5. Considering the life of a Baptist who lived his beliefs faithfully and exercised just as much love and charity as a faithful, covenant-keeping Mormon would, do you think the Baptist is automatically cut off from the Celestial Kingdom simply because of the religion he claimed in this life? What if that same Baptist had a pair of LDS missionaries knock on his door once, but for whatever reason the Holy Spirit did not prick his heart in that moment? What is God to do with all our brothers and sisters out there who live just as honorably as the most faithful Mormons do? Where do you draw the line with those who should be given a chance to accept the gospel via baptism of the dead versus those who already had their shot and blew it? Should your non-Mormon friend not be given an opportunity to accept the gospel in the life hereafter because he has an association with you, a member of the Church, and you once invited him to read the Book of Mormon? What if you invited him to Church with you and he attended for a year but then dropped off? Does he not get a chance at accepting the gospel in the life hereafter? Was that his shot?
  6. Do you happen to have a reference for this? I've been trying to find it myself, but not sure if I'm searching the right terms.
  7. To further qualify how I'm using the term “Celestial”, I consider charity and love to be the defining characteristics of what qualifies someone for the Celestial Kingdom regardless of the what religion they claimed here on Earth. If a Methodist lived a faithful life with just as much love and charity in his heart as the faithful Mormon, one is not necessarily better off than the other in terms of their eternal salvation. It’s my opinion that anyone of Celestial caliber independent of their religion on Earth will naturally accept the gospel whenever the Holy Spirit presents them with their chance to accept it. For it to constitute as an official chance to accept the gospel, it must be received as God-given knowledge that the gospel is true, knowledge that was testified by the Holy Spirit to be true and could not be refuted in good conscience. In most cases, I don’t consider a pair of missionaries knocking on your door to qualify as what constitutes your chance to accept the gospel.
  8. Also quoting @Vort who once responded to me on this subject that, "If this were true, the Church and the ordinances it provides would have no reason to exist." But can the Church and its ordinances be just as important as you believe them to be despite not being necessary to stumble upon in this life? I believe so. Whether we are required to go through those ordinances in this life or the life hereafter, the ordinances are equally important regardless of place and time.
  9. This is to continue a discussion from another thread that I was having with @Just_A_Guy My personal interpretation of the gospel: Before God reveals us the Truth, we are not penalized for rejecting it; and once He does reveal it, He always does it in such an unambiguous and even overpowering way virtually no one who lived a life of Celestial caliber will reject it. Is their still a need for the LDS Church if being a member in your mortal life is not required to make it to the Celestial Kingdom? @Just_A_Guy If we consider a non-member who lives a life worthy enough to be admitted to the Celestial Kingdom upon eventually accepting the gospel for what it is, the fact they made it to the highest Kingdom without living as an LDS member on Earth shouldn't discourage us into thinking the gospel isn't as important as it is. It should further validate the truth that God is a merciful and just God who is mindful of all His children, and how we are unable to comprehend even a small fraction of the many moving pieces involved or the many beautiful reunions that await us.
  10. A special additional blessing reserved for the elect that God Himself doesn't participate in? This is just as much an assumption as my assumption.
  11. With the way Mormons already appear to the outside world, I don't think it would change public perception much. Believe it or not, Mormons aren't in the vanilla, generic category of what the common person considers to be a "normal" Christian religion.
  12. I agree there's more relevant gospel topics to be focused on in terms of testimony building. But if I have this question there's a good chance someone else does too. Not every question has an answer, but just hearing someone else say, "yeah, I've thought about that too" is somewhat reassuring. If it's between playing Call of Duty and and shooting up Nazi Zombies for an hour versus exploring my religious curiosity, I'd say developing my religious understanding is more productive regardless of how relevant someone else might think my questions are.
  13. Not that we have a lot of insight on this subject, but whenever I hear Heavenly Mother referenced within the Church, I perceive there's this idea that God only has one wife in particular. If we are referencing something we have very little information about, shouldn't we do so assuming God follows the eternal principle of polygamy?
  14. I acknowledge that although my life experiences and observations have led me to have the opinion I do, it's important to step back and look at the bigger picture here like you're doing. Whether I'm right or wrong about men having a greater tendency to do evil things, doesn't change the fact both sexes have unlimited potential for good. But here's a question: How is polygamy going to be practiced in the Celestial Kingdom if we have the exact same number of men and women?
  15. The same goes for women. https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures “Fewer than 40 per cent of the women who experience violence seek help of any sort. In the majority of countries with available data on this issue, among women who do seek help, most look to family and friends, and very few look to formal institutions, such as police and health services. Fewer than 10 per cent of those seeking help appealed to the police.”
  16. Statistics regarding abuse: https://ncadv.org/STATISTICS Plenty more statistics support the same result that women are more sexually and physically abused than men. Any cop who's been on the job long enough would tell you the same. Still don't think there's a leaning of women being more sexually and physically abused than men? https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/07/29/12-trafficking-statistics-enormity-global-sex-trade/1755192001/ Like @Just_A_Guy suggested, sex trafficking in the United States isn't what the average person thinks it is, and it is much more prevalent than you may realize. While well-off American girls are hardly the victims, the main victims are poor Asian foreigners who come to the United States to work as prostitutes who operate under the guise of your neighborhood massage parlor. You know that innocuous looking massage place in the same plaza as the Wal-Mart you shop at? Unless it's a recognized, reputable massage franchise, there's a good chance they're handing out more than back rubs over there. I see the illicit massage parlor busts at least a couple times a year in the news. https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2021/04/04/inside-the-45-billion-erotic-massage-parlor-economy/?sh=5da00dfc79a8
  17. Women aren’t innocent. I wasn’t suggesting that. Also I specified upfront that my opinion is based on my personal experiences and observations of the world. Females are sex trafficked more than males and domestically abused more in terms of physical violence. Emotional abuse of course goes both ways. No way to offer a solid answer on this.
  18. My personal experiences and observations of the world around me lead me to believe women are more righteous than men. 1.) I don't see nearly as many women abusing men as much as I see men abusing women. Does that translate to one sex being more righteous than another? I don't know, but for me it more so supports rather than invalidates the idea that women in general are more righteous. 2.) Girls are more mature than boys when it comes to having a first-time, romantic, adolescent relationship. But again, does early maturity in adolescent, romantic relationships translate to one sex being more righteous than another? Not necessarily, but it might be why so many like me have similar thoughts surrounding the subject. The heartbreak I unintentionally caused with the adolescent relationships I was involved in was largely due to my immaturity. In retrospect, the girls I dated were just these sweetheart, balls of love, and I regretfully didn't carry myself as transparently as I wish I would have.
  19. I get what you're saying, I'm just not interested as much as you are in dissecting this topic much further than I already have.
  20. *In terms of how this country is going to vote
  21. I don’t see the point of me trying to scramble to find some conservative objectivity to a matter that’s entirely subjective which is how you want to debate me. Only thing relevant is America’s general attitude towards these topics of sexuality, not any one argument.* *In terms of how this country is going to vote
  22. I just can’t bring myself to tee this one up for you. You’re MLB, Vort, not tee ball.
  23. I don't have any good answers. I'm glad I don't have to litigate this kind of stuff. God speed to whoever does.
  24. I don't see how you can make the slippery slope argument stating that pedophilia is just 3 steps away from homosexuality (assuming that's what you're suggesting). If that's the case, I need to interview some of the town folk from Sodom and Gomorrah to see how kids were treated back then and question if the US is better or worse relatively speaking.