An interesting question

[Maya]

A friend of mine in the finnish forum asked an interesting question. I promised to put it here to see what you guys think of it.

He asked what we think has been or is Muhammeds task in restoring of the gospel??

An other frend of mine said ther ethat he believes ALL religions have a task in restoing the gospel. I too feel that is correct but we have not found any special reason for Muhammed other than all religions make people more aquianted in the consept of religion as a whole.

[Guest tomk]

Truth is not the exclusive domain of the LDS truth. God does use other religions to serve His purposes. Inasmuch as someone speaks truth, they are helping to do God's work. But the priesthood and ordinances for salvation only reside in one church.

[rameumptom]

There are four levels of truth, according to the gospel: Celestial (fullness of truth), Terrestrial, Telestial, and Perdition. Of course, Perdition rejects the light and gift of the Holy Ghost, as so rejects almost all truth.

There is only one religion that teaches a celestial level of truth, ordinances, and authority: the LDS Church.

According to D&C 84, Moses attempted to give the children of Israel the fulness of truth, but they rejected it. They were given the Aaronic Priesthood and the Law of Moses in its stead. This is a Terrestrial law, a law designed to lift them up above the teachings they knew in Egypt (a Telestial law).

God inspires many nations with the truth and knowledge they are ready to receive (Alma 29:8). It makes sense that Mohammed's teachings were given to lift the Arab and African pagans of his day up to a Terrestrial level of faith. How it has been implemented since, however, is another thing.

I also believe that Buddha, Lao Tse, Confucious, and others were sent to give a Terrestrial level law to their people. You could call them Terrestrial prophets, I suppose.

[HiJolly]

A friend of mine in the finnish forum asked an interesting question. I promised to put it here to see what you guys think of it.

He asked what we think has been or is Muhammeds task in restoring of the gospel??

An other frend of mine said ther ethat he believes ALL religions have a task in restoing the gospel. I too feel that is correct but we have not found any special reason for Muhammed other than all religions make people more aquainted in the consept of religion as a whole.

1) He promoted devotion and love of ONE God -- his fellow men were polytheists at the time. (Buddha did this too)

2) He promoted rules for good health

3) He promoted a holy day of the week

I can't think of any others off the top of my head.

HiJolly

[tubaloth]

Give it time, the full restoration isn't complete yet. I believe that more scripture that is to come shows the link between Muhammed (and there followers) and the LDS church. Give it time.

[Hemidakota]

Not unless they find a worthy prophet to lead Islam....right now, there isn't anyone wanted to risk his life.

[teddyk]

Give it time, the full restoration isn't complete yet. I believe that more scripture that is to come shows the link between Muhammed (and there followers) and the LDS church. Give it time.

I'd like to know more about this link^this is a bit new to me.

[Maya]

I think tubaloth may mean the scriptures that we will be able to translate and find if we are rigious enough...

I think rameumpton said it well...

[bert10]

<> The son of Hagar was also the son of Abraham.

<> In the days of Mohamed Christianity had already fallen into corruptions. <> Mohamed did teach a more purer gospel then what we have today in the Quran.

<> He did succeed in keeping his teachings from being immediately absorbed by the Christians by using the word Allah...instead of Christ.

Peace be unto you

bert10

A friend of mine in the finnish forum asked an interesting question. I promised to put it here to see what you guys think of it.

He asked what we think has been or is Muhammeds task in restoring of the gospel??

An other frend of mine said ther ethat he believes ALL religions have a task in restoing the gospel. I too feel that is correct but we have not found any special reason for Muhammed other than all religions make people more aquianted in the consept of religion as a whole.

[Maya]

What is the biggest problem for a muslim to be converted to LDS? I have a lot of muslim friends, but I dont dare to tell them that much about the LDS. I am a bit afraid of what will happen to them if they would convert....

[HiJolly]

What is the biggest problem for a muslim to be converted to LDS? I have a lot of muslim friends, but I dont dare to tell them that much about the LDS. I am a bit afraid of what will happen to them if they would convert....

I would say it is two-fold. First, we don't accept the Q'uran as scripture; Second, we don't accept Mohammed as our prophet. Most muslims are VERY literal about those two, they are NOT negotiable. The Sufis are a little more flexible (or in some cases *much* more flexible), but they can't admit it to their less enlightened Muslim friends, so they don't.

I have discussed things with a whirling dervish (a few years back) and we did quite well.

HiJolly

[jolee65]

What is the biggest problem for a muslim to be converted to LDS? I have a lot of muslim friends, but I dont dare to tell them that much about the LDS. I am a bit afraid of what will happen to them if they would convert....

Why are you afraid for them??

[HiJolly]

Why are you afraid for them??

If they are within the jurisdiction of Sharia law, they could be executed for leaving the faith. Sharia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HiJolly

[Moksha]

Muslims set themselves up for very severe reactions from other Muslims when they convert to anything else.

[jolee65]

I know I just wanted to see if anyone else did, yeah I understand that if the father is muslim then the children are , doesnt matter if the mother is a different religion or not the children follow the fathers religion.

[Maya]

Thanks Jolee I did not know that the muslims follow father in religion... Otherways I agree with the answers given here....

I feel that it is easier to talk about religion with a muslim than an evangelist. Muslims may be interested in what we say, but evangelists close their ears and sometimes their common sence too. But today there are a lot of muslims that dont really believe in anything, at least not what the tradition is.

[bodhigirlsmiles]

Truth is not the exclusive domain of the LDS truth. God does use other religions to serve His purposes. Inasmuch as someone speaks truth, they are helping to do God's work. But the priesthood and ordinances for salvation only reside in one church.

namaste

[aliasgeorge]

A friend of mine in the finnish forum asked an interesting question. I promised to put it here to see what you guys think of it.

He asked what we think has been or is Muhammeds task in restoring of the gospel??

An other frend of mine said ther ethat he believes ALL religions have a task in restoing the gospel. I too feel that is correct but we have not found any special reason for Muhammed other than all religions make people more aquianted in the consept of religion as a whole.

I apologize if this sounds coarse or insensitive, but to be blunt, I do not think Muhammed has done anything to help restore the gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not believe he was a prophet of God, otherwise he would have taught that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, not that it was the greatest blasphemy unto death to believe that God had a Son. Kind of a big difference. Yes Islam has much truth in it, but so does every other false religion. And per LDS theology, the church of the devil is any church that is not guided by God. They deceive people away from the truth. They damn the progression of God's children towards faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by water and fire, and ultimately work to prevent our brothers and sisters from entering into the temple covenants.

Is it divine providence that certain religions exist and have grown strong. But they do nothing to forward the restoration. They are put in place so that all the prophecies of God's true prophets are fulfilled every whit, especially leading up to the conflicts of the last day.

Other churches are good inasmuch as the churchgoers come to know more truth in them, and work towards greater truth. And this can occur in any church. But if any church works to teach false doctrines that conflict with God's true church, and work to inhibit God's children from accepting all the covenant blessings of Israel, then we can effectively deem that church evil. Thus other churches are good in a sense, especially as pertaining to the membership who come to know God better and learn of Him so they can begin to exercise faith, But they are evil as organizations that propogate damning doctrines of deception. Only one church is guided by God through a living prophet, and thus only one church is forwarding God's work in these last days (ie to graft in Israel and Restore them to the Covenants found in the temple. This is what the restoration is all about).

[rameumptom]

Pres Brigham Young and Pres Spencer W. Kimball stated that Mohammed and others were inspired by God to teach the things they did. Their job was not to restore all truths, but to provide higher truths to the peoples they were over (see Alma 29:8). Northern Africa and much of the Arabian peninsula were led by pagan gods and no code of ethics. Islam provided a way to bring these people closer to the truth - including a deep respect for Jesus as prophet.

Only one church has the authority and fullness to offer celestial glory and exaltation. But in D&C 76, we find that the Terrestrial are not enemies of God, but are children of Christ. Those who lead people from a telestial to a terrestrial glory are honorable men of the earth, not followers of Satan. Deceived to an extent? Sure, why not (aren't we all?). But they are good people with good teachings that merit a level of salvation.

[aliasgeorge]

Pres Brigham Young and Pres Spencer W. Kimball stated that Mohammed and others were inspired by God to teach the things they did. Their job was not to restore all truths, but to provide higher truths to the peoples they were over (see Alma 29:8). Northern Africa and much of the Arabian peninsula were led by pagan gods and no code of ethics. Islam provided a way to bring these people closer to the truth - including a deep respect for Jesus as prophet.

Only one church has the authority and fullness to offer celestial glory and exaltation. But in D&C 76, we find that the Terrestrial are not enemies of God, but are children of Christ. Those who lead people from a telestial to a terrestrial glory are honorable men of the earth, not followers of Satan. Deceived to an extent? Sure, why not (aren't we all?). But they are good people with good teachings that merit a level of salvation.

Thanks for the comment. Do you have the references to the BY and SWK quotes? I'd like to read them to see exactly what they said.

I'm not disputing that they taught some truth. And all good things come from God. So in part their teachings were good, and in part they were evil (mni 7). I'm not casting judgement on their personal character, nor that it is divine providence that their teachings have taken such a stronghold in the purposes of God. The initial question was what they did to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth. My answer is that they did not restore anything. They had no priesthood, restored no covenants, no ordinances, did not teach faith in the Son of God, etc. They taught other moral and ethical things, sure. And all good things are inspired by God. But restored the gospel? No way IMO.

[rameumptom]

In the Joseph Smith Manual, pg 264, we read:

“. . . Mormonism is truth, in other words the doctrine of the

Latter-day Saints, is truth. . . . The first and fundamental principle

of our holy religion is, that we believe that we have a right to embrace

all, and every item of truth, without limitation or without

being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious

notions of men, or by the dominations of one another, when

that truth is clearly demonstrated to our minds, and we have the

highest degree of evidence of the same.”

So, while Mohammed and Buddha (and others) have not taught the ordinances, held the priesthood authority, or taught directly of Christ's divine mission, they did teach truths. And those truths ARE part of the gospel.

In the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, we read that on Feb 15, 1978, the First Presidency *(Spencer W. Kimball, Nathan L. Tanner, Marion G. Romney) issued the following statement:

The great religious leaders of the world, such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as philosophers, including Socrates, Plato and others, received a portion of God's light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals....Our message therefore is one of special love and concern for the eternal welfare of all men and women, regardless of religious belief,race or nationality, knowing that we are truly brothers and sisters because we are sons and daughters of the same Eternal Father.

[Maya]

Yes I think Muhammed and Luther both had the task to teach about the truths. This teaching of truths, kind of prepared people for restorance .... me thinks.

The muhamettians, even though their religion has many same features as ours is too strict and closed that they could even consider LDS. Not until now the islamic begin to be able to also to leave their religion in European countries, but at the same time the Europeans are converting to Islam as they have no special religious opinions and they marry to islamic who do not want to change their religion.