DennisTate

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  1. Like
    DennisTate got a reaction from anatess2 in Youtube Apologetics   
    Reading near death experience accounts got me disfellowshipped from the Worldwide Church of God and one of its offshoots back in 1991.  
    I am truly impressed by the fact that Latter day Saints tend to accept these accounts and take them as seriously as I do myself.  
     
  2. Okay
    DennisTate reacted to NeuroTypical in Completely crazy anti-Mormon novel   
    Throw in a kissing scene, and maybe some zombies or something, and I'll watch it!
  3. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Jane_Doe in Non Mormon - Heaven   
    Super-short answer: all people who follow Christ will spend eternity with Him, happy beyond their wildest dreams.
    Much more informative, but longer answer: members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints don't view the afterlife as a binary Heaven/Hell the way other Christians do.  Rather the LDS view is more of a spectrum view, where even evilest* people end up happy in the eternities, with some measure of God's presence.  The more one accept God into your life, the more of God's glory and happiness that person receives in the eternities.  Obviously LDS folks hold that LDS beliefs are the most correct and fullness of the Gospel, leaving to the fullness glory / happiness / God's presence. 
    Even much more informative, but longer answer: see here https://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-46-the-final-judgment?lang=eng&_r=1
     
    *Ok, 'evilist' excluding the Cain type folks.    
  4. Like
    DennisTate got a reaction from anatess2 in Youtube Apologetics   
    Wow!!!!  Listening right now...... I love how his voice is cracking as he speaks!  That is a good and appropriate reaction to all this!
  5. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Magen_Avot in What does "A Personal Relationship with Christ" mean to you?   
    I have been contemplating the question of "what is a Christian" for awhile and have had some meaningful discussions with my now missionary daughter. She has had many such conversations with others as well. It has been interesting but I have found that there is no well articulated meaning. It changes to make one's point. I did a search on this subject in the forums here and found PrisonChaplain had just posted "What do Christians Believe?" and it was an interesting read and I was led further afield.
    I read on the web a statement by Matt Slick who said this, "Christianity isn't about rules and regulations to follow. It is about a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ." This statement has stayed in my mind because it has been an anchoring point in the last year for me. The thing is, the more I think about it the more I ask, what do you mean when you say "a personal relationship with Christ?" I have not found any past op that has touched this subject so I'm asking for your thoughts. Definitions, experiences or what have you...
    I chose general beliefs because I'm not directing it to LDS specifically.
  6. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Just_A_Guy in Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon   
    The way I look at it is, if I wrote a love letter to my wife on our five-year wedding anniversary, why shouldn’t she want me to write another one on our ten-year anniversary?  There’s nothing that says there can only be one love letter, or that inherently makes the one letter of more value than the other.
  7. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to showustheking in Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon   
    If the Holy Bible was the breath of Jesus Christ first and foremost, why do we accept the Book of Mormon of equal standing? I'm just a little bit confused on why the Book of Mormon is needed when the Holy Bible is God's message to us. I'm new to the faith and still exploring a lot of questions.
  8. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Sunday21 in Completely crazy anti-Mormon novel   
    Blessed be the Wicked by Bartley
    I never realized how completely nuts you have to be to hate us! This is a detective novel that is set in Utah and is anti. It tries so hard to find reasons to hate us. The idea is that the church has declared that there are ‘unforgivable’ sins. Well, yes. There is one but no  one I have ever met, understands it!
    Okay, back to the plot: So as some sins are unforgivable, this is so nuts, you have to kill the sinner! Can anyone follow that logic? I can’t!
    Next: Apparently we have a committee that monitors all the communications including emails of suspected apostates. That would have to be a huge committee! 
    I picked this book up with no suspicions and it just started in on this lunacy! 
    I have to keep reading and find out how we are these cold hearted murders! 
     
  9. Like
    DennisTate reacted to omegaseamaster75 in The public school teacher salary thread   
    Nope I agree with you Vort, it is almost a part time job they are fairly compensated. When you add in the pensions and other benefits they are very well compensated
  10. Like
    DennisTate reacted to unixknight in Canada has ZERO legal protection for the unborn.   
    The legality of partial-birth abortion varies here by state, but the trend is not in the right direction.  Since the Supreme Court basically stripped unborn babies of their rights, there's nothing stopping partial birth abortion in all 50 states, were the U.S. Congress so inclined.  In fact, that was part of Clinton's platform in 2016.
  11. Okay
    DennisTate reacted to unixknight in Canada has ZERO legal protection for the unborn.   
    They don't have any rights in the United States of America, either.
  12. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Third Hour in Church History: Joseph Smith Raises a Dead Man   
    There are few things in life that I find more intriguing than stories of people being raised from the dead — and this story about Joseph Smith and early Church member William Huntington did not disappoint. William Huntington related the story of this miracle to Levi Curtis, another early member of the Church, and Levi recorded the following: "He said he had been sick some weeks and kept getting weaker, until he became so helpless that he could not move. Finally he got so low he could not speak, but had perfect consciousness of all that was passing in the room. He saw friends come to the bedside, look at him a moment and commence weeping, then turn away. He further stated that he presently felt easy, and observing his situation found that he was in the upper part of the room near the ceiling, and could see the body he had occupied lying on the bed, with weeping friends, standing around as he had witnessed in many cases where...
    View the full article
  13. Okay
    DennisTate reacted to anatess2 in Church History: Joseph Smith Raises a Dead Man   
    @DennisTate, have you seen this?
  14. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Tyme in Mormon vs Trump   
    I’d like to see a Mormon Republican run against Trump in the primary. The only one who stands a chance is Romney. It could get ugly. I think Trump would attack the church.
    would you like to see that? Do you think Romney has a chance?
  15. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to dogwater in My Prediction of the End of the United States   
    I think the Trump and the animosity are a hiccup while we sort out our tribalist behaviors into a more constructive path. I think the society and system can withstand the pressure and adapt in a constructive way.
  16. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Vort in Does Multiverse Theory fit with Ezekiel 37 and the White Throne Judgment?   
    :lightbulb: Ah! Realization just hit!
    Rereading this thread (which Dennis Tate linked to from another post), I suddenly realized what a "multiverse" theory might have to do with quantum mechanics (QM).
    QM includes a concept called "Many Worlds". The idea of Many Worlds is used to describe a particle's/event's path through time -- its history, as it were.
    The basic idea is this: Consider some quantum event, such as an electron trying to "tunnel" its way through a barrier. There is a finite probability (call it p) that it will succeed, and obviously a finite probability (1-p) that it will fail. At that moment, consider there to be, I don't know, ten million parallel universes created, (10,000,000 x p) of which have the electron succeeding in its tunneling quest and the remaining (10,000,000)(1-p) of which have the electron failing. Now continue that pattern for the electron's next quantum event, and the next, and the next. Eventually you reach a pathway that the electron has taken through all the infinite possible "universes" to arrive at its actual endpoint. That's the Many Worlds idea, that out of all possible realities, the electron has taken one unique path which defines the reality in which it (and we) actually exist.
    There are multiple interpretations of the Many Worlds theory, most of them simply startrekkian in their scope. (Literally; I remember several ST:TNG episodes that explicitly used Many Worlds to show how multiple Enterprises from multiple timelines in multiple universes existed. Blah. ST:TNG really was the pink cotton candy of SF.) This might shoehorn rather neatly (in a comic book narrative way, not in any scientific sense) into a "multiverse" context, where the "multiverse" is created from all these quantum events, each of which spawns a "new universe".
    So, anyway, there you have it: How a "multiverse theory" might be thought of as some sort of QM idea.
  17. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to Jane_Doe in Bridging the Gap   
    And there's the salesman thing again...
  18. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to person0 in Why was the Atonement of Jesus Christ Necessary?   
    I am interested in the answer to this question from a non-LDS perspective.  My personal view, which comes from the LDS perspective is that there are self-existent eternal laws that exist outside of God such as justice, and mercy.  Many attributes we ascribe to God would also fall into the category of self-existent and eternal, such as benevolence, perfection, righteousness, and so forth.
    The fact that these laws are self-existent and eternal allow for a principle which is likely considered heretical to many Christian denominations; the idea that God could cease to be God.  Not that it ever would occur, but that it technically could happen.
    My belief is that God must comply with eternal law; He continuously lives in perfect obedience.  The plan of salvation, and Christ's atonement is His perfectly crafted plan that complies with those laws and enables the salvation of mankind.
    If you don't believe that there are laws that God Himself must abide, then why would there be any need whatsoever for a Savior?  Without absolute eternal laws, it seems to me that God could just save anyone based on whatever metrics he chooses.  And then, if He truly is a benevolent being, what would stop Him from providing a way where every single creation could fully repent over time and join Him in Heaven?  If eternal law does not exist independent of God, then it seems to me that God (based on most existing religious interpretations of Him) would be classifiable as a 'respecter of persons'.
    I once attempted to explain this idea to my Muslim father, hoping to show him why I could never come to believe in Islam, because their interpretation of God would in fact result in Him being a 'respecter of persons' based on these very principles. However, from my current understanding, this may similarly apply to many Christian denominations.
    I hope that I have made my position adequately clear.  Ultimately, the main question is, why was the atonement of Jesus Christ necessary?  However, anything related to sin or death is not really the point of this question, neither is the difference in our understanding of the Godhead.  My inquiry for the non-LDS is more of, why was it necessary for God to use the atonement of Christ to save us?
  19. Like
    DennisTate reacted to Jane_Doe in Bridging the Gap   
    You just did the salesman thing again.  
  20. Like
    DennisTate reacted to Jane_Doe in Bridging the Gap   
    @DennisTate, whether or not you intend it, this thread has an extreme salesman vibe to it.  It's really off putting and salesmanship not what this forum is meant to be used for. 
  21. Like
    DennisTate reacted to rstrats in Matthew 12:40   
    1. The Messiah said that three nights would be involved with His time in the "heart of the earth". 2. There are some who believe that the crucifixion took place on the 6th day of the week with the resurrection taking place on the 1st day of the week. 3. Of those, there are some who believe that the "heart of the earth" is referring to the tomb. 4. However, those two beliefs allow for only 2 nights to be involved. 5. To account for the discrepancy, some of the above say that the Messiah was using common figure of speech/colloquial language of the time, i.e., that it is was common to forecast or say that a day or a night would be involved with an event when no part of the day or no part of the night could occur. 6. In order for someone to legitimately say that it was common, they would have to know of more that 1 example to make that assertion.   I wonder if anyone looking in knows of any examples to support an assertion of commonality?
  22. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to anatess2 in What Does Malachi 4: 5-6 Mean?   
    In Catholic tradition, Malachi 4 (in some Bibles , there's no Malachi 4 - rather, that chapter is in Malachi 3) talks of Elijah as returning to prepare mankind for the second coming of Christ in the same way that John the Baptist prepared the way for His first coming.
  23. Like
    DennisTate reacted to Larry Cotrell in Eternal Progression- Another Perspective   
    There has been a lot of discussion about eternal progression lately and I wanted to add my thoughts in the proper place.
    Here's John 10:34 "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?"
    In this passage Jesus is quoting Psalms 82:6 "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." Psalm 82 is really about earthly rulers acting with justice. They are "gods" among the people but are being reminded that they will still have to face judgement from the one true God. In this passage, the Hebrew word Elohim is used to mean rulers as it is in Exodus 22:8,9, and 28. When Jesus uses the word "gods" in John 10 we know that he is referring to earthly leaders when we look at in the context of Psalm 82. In no way does this verse support eternal progression unless you look at it by itself.
    Here's what I believe:
    Psalm 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."
    Isaiah 43:10 "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me."
  24. Like
    DennisTate reacted to Telemantros in What is your take on the role of our works at Judgment Day?   
    Greetings! A question for your lot!
    So in the last moment in history before we enjoy God forever is the judgment seat. The bible is pretty clear that all of us (e.g. Mt. 12:36, Rom. 14:10, 12; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 4:13), believer and non-believer, face some sort of judgement for what we have done with our lives. But it also seems clear (to me anyway) that Christians will not be judged pertaining to our salvation (e.g. John 3:16, 18; 5:24; Romans 8:1). So it seems that our lives/actions are being judged here. If this is all correct so far, here's my question I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on: If we/Christians are judged according to our works, and this is not for salvation, then what is it for? Is it to determine rewards? Is it just to count the evidence that indicates we where believers in the first place? Is it to fulfill justice and balance the divine ledger officially?
    Assuming this question is making sense, what do you guys/gals think?
    Peace, Tele
  25. Thanks
    DennisTate reacted to person0 in What is your take on the role of our works at Judgment Day?   
    It is to finalize how shiny our resurrected body will be and which mansion we get to go to.  (forgive my flippancy, however, the statement is technically accurate)