cdowis

Among those who profess a prophetic ministry, to be a prophet Joseph Smith is unique in that he has a cloud of witnesses to his divine calling. He had over eleven witnesses to various divine manifestations -- visits from angels who laid their hands on thei heads to confer the priesthood, the BOM plates, and shared visions and revelations.

DAWKINS You have experienced Christ but that is not proof of a god. The muslim has experienced Allah, the hindu etc etc. It's all an illusion. RESPONSE Dawkins' answer is "Many people have those feelings, and everybody can't be right" merely demonstrates his ignorance spiritual reality. "I do not understand how God does things, therefore he does not exist." He is unable to wrap his mind around the concept that God can be experienced in all religions, and that these individuals are all expressing the SAME divine experience, *even if they have differences in their understanding of the manifestation of that God.*

Next time, kindly ask him whether anyone has done a study on christophobia -- the fear and hatred of Christians and their values. This mental disease causes hysterical ranting and raving, and is now rampant throughout society, even among the mental health care professionals.

Of course, but they rejected one heresy by simply adopting another. The prophet Joseph Smith was able to resolved the issue by accepting the doctrine that Christ taught in John 17:19-23. We know this as the Plan of Salvation which was beyond the ken of human wisdom. Again, the historic Christian church replaced the apostles and prophets with theologians and scholars, and thi s is the poster boy of that change. Without revelation, they were unable to understand the meaning of "one God", and created the "one substance entity" which is fully incompatible with the scriptures. (e.g. Not my will, but thy will be done; not my doctrine but the doctrine of the one who sent me, etc) The Emperor Constantine helped craft the Nicene Creed as a political solution to the division among Christians. He didn't really care what it said as long as they stopped squabbling among themselves. And those bishops who voted against it, he simply banished them.

Merriam-Webster through the force of : by authority of

I see it as a similar sense that Enoch was "translated".

You are obviously unaware of court decisions regarding a request to remove one's membership. Doing as you suggest would certainly involve the church in a lawsuit. There is hysteria on both sides of this very delicate issue, and you are the poster boy on the LDS side. "Throw it in the trash" only feeds the hatred of the church.

Are you saying that the BOA used the concept of "good, better and best"?

Also look up "white", and see why the church changed some verses.

I think there is too much hysteria and recriminations on both sides. As I have seen their concerns, it mostly involves on how the church treats the children of SSM. 1. The church has decided to use the same policy as polygamous families. 2. The purpose of the church handbook is to give policy and procedures, NOT doctrinal statements. It can change as circumstances change. 3. The "dissenters" complain that the church has gone too far in its treatment of the children of these families. It is possible, after a period of time, for the church to modify this policy as they consider the issues raised by the dissenters. For example, is it REALLY necessary to deny a child blessing to a child of a SSM couple? Maybe yes, maybe no. The main argument is that it creates a formal membership record for that child, but is it POSSIBLE to change that procedure where no formal record is created, for example. It used to be policy to give the Holy Ghost to new members immediately after baptism, which then created the membership record. Today it requires the investigator to have this done on the following Sunday, and then the record is created. Finally, the reasons for apply this policy for children of polygamous families do not necessarily apply for SSM . The dissenters do have legitimate concerns, but the haters have taken advantage of the hysteria, rather than calling for patience. And we here bad mouth these poor souls rather than see them as being victims of manipulation.

It is indeed fortunate for the church that you are here to correct the prophet/seer/revelator, the President of the Church in his misunderstanding of doctrine. Everybody else missed it!

Thanks for demonstrating why the church is lead by living prophets and apostles, rather than theologians and philosophers. Perhaps you should check out the COC -- they are always looking for intellectuals and theologians to figure out what they believe.

It's just you. I suggest that you seek professional help.

Of course, there is instances of 100 % compliance, but let's take some examples where there is some flexibility ==>> 1. how do you judge the income for tithing -- net vs gross, for example. In my case I had been paying tithing on gross income, so do I pay tithing on social security benefits? 2. Word of Wisdom is a well known example. No need to detail it here. 3. What about the theory of evolution. Of course it is clear that we are the descendants of Adam, but what about the rest of it? Death before Adam? Regarding the Liahona vs Iron Rod, it did not tell Nephi each step that he had to take. The Iron Rod implies not so much flexibility.

Unfortunately there is a group taking advantage of this doubt, and calling on a public (media invited) display of resigning from the church. There are many who have been on the sidelines in the church and this gives them the incentive to do something about their membership. Unfortunately, this touches my own family. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-mormons-gays-resignation-20151114-story.html

There was a BYU professor Dr. Richard D Poll who used the terms "Iron Rod" and "Liahonia" members. The first group followed the analogy of tightly holding onto rod and there is no variance in that path (conservatives) The second group saw the Liahona as point to the general direction of where we should go, and gives a broad path as long as we are going in the right direction (liberals). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_D._Poll This was a subject of considerable discussion at the time. Dr Poll considered himself in the latter group.

Copied it to Paint, and saved as jpg. I then copied the image from the jpg file and didn't work. Just gave me a tiny icon instead of the image.

Epidurals have a serious side effect -->> it's called teenagers.

I know what I am talking about. I lived thru the 60's and they are now our leaders -- Kerry is the poster boy for that era. As a protester he threw away his military medal away onto the White House lawn. Later he admitted that he actually still had it -- probably just threw a beer bottle or something. He made his mark with his fellow protesters when he declared that he was opposed to the Iranian war after he had voted for it. Anyway, this fellow negotiated the Iran nuclear deal He admitted that this was the only major negotiation that he had ever done, but it was a great learning experience. After the Iranians immediately started to break some of the provisions, he was asked about it. His brilliant response, "I'm not sure what to think." These protesters have taken up his clarion call, "We aren't sure what to think." And you think I'm being sarcastic.

I get the error when I try to paste an image to a post. And the image icon only shows the URL rather than the image. How do I fix it. You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community.

You are mistaken. As one of our best and brightest suggested -- a 90% tax on the wealthy. That should solve the problem, although a 100% taxation rate would even be better! These are the future leaders of America. People do not realize that there is ONE job a computer or robot cannot do -- a politician. They have absolute job security because the computer brain would explode if it had to do what politicians do. https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpBiJVvFY_WgEdo8jol8RtBWrqr9jxeb891HA01JXvIQvlHUJ-Rg

The basic issue with the Bible is.... that it has a front and back cover. The contents are inspired by God, but man put that cover on it.

That's for the next president to handle. In the meantime, he's concerned only about his primary legacy -- importing compliant voters.

Virtually the last "priesthood safe space" is now gone. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://columbiaspectator.com/sites/default/files/safe%252520space%252520FINALLY_0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2011/04/05/safe-spaces-questioned&h=6600&w=5100&tbnid=uvHx0oBYe3KxCM:&docid=DxmhtzqmLEG5SM&ei=bVxHVtCqB435eNqvvOAN&tbm=isch&ved=0CB4QMygBMAFqFQoTCJCVwJCmkMkCFY08Hgod2hcP3A

I noticed that it is much larger than the recent Montreal temple. It can accommodate almost twice the patrons in a session. I am guessing that the size of the lot is relatively small since it has more than one story.