Help with Sunday School Question


Madriglace
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This is my first time to post a question so please be gentle ;)

I teach the 14-15 yr olds in SS and I truly love those kids ... however I have to work to keep ahead of them. I have a young man in my class who has only been a member a little over a year ... he is from Peru and was raised Catholic and seems to be having some issues seperating Catholic and LDS beliefs. Another thread here helped me straighten out his confusion about the apostles, this week he had another bombshell and this is where I need the help. I have been so impressed with the number of well read people here that turning to you for help seems natural.

I need scriptural proof of our Heavenly Mother ... now I realize that in the standard works there is little or nothing written ... what I am looking for is possibly statements fom latterday prophets and apostles concerning this ... statements that we would consider authoritative.

I tried explaining the logic of the matter ... why would we have parents on earth if we didn't have them in heaven, that the Savior did what He had seen His Father do, everything is under the direction of the Father, sealings are a required ordinace under the authority of the priesthood etc., he also had no idea of his line of authority in the priesthood ... gotta get after his leaders on that one.

Any help would be great.

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I don't believe that there is scriptural proof of a Heavenly Mother. It's all conjecture. I also suggest that it's not a topic you should be addressing in a youth Sunday School class. If the young man has questions of a nature such as that, he might be better served to speak privately with the bishop or a YM leader.

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Well considering the amount of false doctrine that gets thrown around I prefer to address the basics of the questions. And considering he doesn't have a clue what a line of authority is ....YM leaders are falling down on the job.

Just because one is JUST a SS teacher doesn't mean we can't reach these kids.

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In the heav'ns are parents single?

No, the thought makes reason stare!

Truth is reason; truth eternal

Tells me I've a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,

When I lay this mortal by, Father,

Mother, may I meet you

In your royal courts on high?

-- Mormon hymn, “O My Father" formerly “Invocation, or The Eternal Father and Mother”) by Eliza R. Snow

Mormon Apostle Erastus Snow:

"Now, it is not said in so many words in the Scriptures, that we have a Mother in heaven as well as a Father. It is left for us to infer this from what we see and know of all living things in the earth including man. The male and female principle is united and both necessary to the accomplishment of the object of their being, and if this be not the case with our Father in heaven after whose image we are created, then it is an anomaly in nature. But to our minds the idea of a Father suggests that of a Mother."

"“What,” says one, “do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of man and woman?” Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that god has ever said about himself, and anything pertaining to the creation and organization of man upon the earth, I must believe that Deity consists of man and woman. . . . there can be no god except he is composed of the man and woman united, and there is not in all the eternities that exist, nor ever will be, a God in any other way. . . . There never was a God, and there never will be in all eternities, except they are made of these two component parts; a man and a woman; the male and the female."

Third-hand account of an experience related by Zebedee Coltrin:

“One day the Prophet Joseph asked him [Coltrin] and Sidney Rigdon to accompany him into the woods to pray. When they had reached a secluded spot Joseph laid down on his back and stretched out his arms. He told the brethren to lie one on each arm, and then shut their eyes. After they had prayed he told them to open their eyes. They did so and saw a brilliant light surrounding a pedestal which seemed to rest on the earth. They closed their eyes and again prayed. They then saw, on opening them, the Father seated upon a throne; they prayed again and on looking saw the Mother also; after praying and looking the fourth time they saw the Savior added to the group.”

Although Heavenly Mother is not spoken of often, there are frequent references to heavenly parents (plural), the most conspicuous being the recent Proclamation on the Family by the LDS leadership, part of which declares: "All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.

HiJolly

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Well considering the amount of false doctrine that gets thrown around I prefer to address the basics of the questions. And considering he doesn't have a clue what a line of authority is ....YM leaders are falling down on the job.

Just because one is JUST a SS teacher doesn't mean we can't reach these kids.

I'm not suggesting that you can't reach the young man or that you're "just" a Sunday School teacher. I'm saying that the Sunday School classroom is not an appropriate setting for delving into deep doctrine.

If you think that YM leaders are falling down on the job, or that the young man doesn't know what a line of authority is, perhaps you should share your concerns with either the bishop or the Sunday School President.

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Thanks hordak ... I forgot about that one. Thanks to Hijolly as well.

While this is not basic doctrine I need something for this young man to read ... it is just wrong in so many ways to tell him to go ask someone else ... showing him Elder Snows comment and the Proclamation to the World is so much better than saying oh we don't talk about it. Doesn't need to be deep and in depth ... it just needs to be.

Thanks for the help.

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Hi Madriglace,

My one and only suggestion is to give him his own copy of the Gospel Principles manual. The lessons their should help clarify the basic things in his mind.

Catholic and LDS is not vastly different.

Good luck!

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Moses, 2 27

And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only Begotten created I him; male and female created I them.

Gen, 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Gen 5:2

Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Moses 6:9

In the image of his own body, male and female, created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created and became living souls in the land upon the footstool of God.

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