Thread For Desiré To Show Me How She Only Believes In One God Without


JoshuaFKon
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I am going to pray for a better attention span.. (I was told I probably have ADD)... please pray that I get a better attention span! :(

ADD, IMO, is what happens to a child when their parents pay no attention to them. If that be the case, than far more kids exist with an attention deficit disorder that we know.

About a quarter of my friends are diagnosed with ADHD... I am not sure about ADD...

but my friends are a pretty depressed niglected group...

Some are "emo", more are "goth"..

And I... I am a princess.

I am also the grand daughter of a superhero.

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  • 1 year later...

Okay, here is an analogy that I used, and my LDS bishop father in law seemd to agree with it.

An Egg has three parts: External Shell, Egg White, and Egg Yolk.

God the Father is the Egg Yolk. He is the center. He is the Life of the egg. He is the main part.

Jesus the Son is the Egg White. He represents that through Him, we can reach the Father (yolk).

The Holy Spirit is the External Shell. The shell is the hardest part of the egg, and it protects the white and the yolk. It is the part of the egg that is exposed to the outside world. It protects the egg. The Holy Spirit can deal with our sin. He protects us by giving us guidance. He can look at sin, where God the Father cannot.

Try that on for size.

LDS beleive that As Man is God once was, As God is Man might become. In other words. God (Heavenly Father), once walked in a life full of trial and tribulation and tests and followed the path of righteousness (baptized, endowed, sealed) in order to acheive the celestial kingdom and eternal families. If this is acheived, He was then rewarded with a world of His own to start the whole process over again (present world we are in). We are His Sprit Children sent to Earth and earthly bodies in order to walk in a life full of trial and tribulation and tests and if we follow the plan of salvation and righeouseness (baptized, endowed, sealed) and acheive the celestial kingdom, we will inherit the same. Note the emphasis on become like God and the use of the little g in gods.

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I see no prohibition in the Bible against believing in the existence of more than one God.

The Bible is rife with tales of pagans and heathens worshipping rocks, sticks, trees, idols, etc.

Jehovah made clear in the OT that the covenant people were to worship only one God.

Then again, LDS often use the term "god" or "God" to refer to a position of authority and glory, not necessarily the Being we worship as our Heavenly Father.

Make no mistake: LDS only worship one God, our Father in Heaven.

We worship God the Father, in the name of God the Son, by the power of God the Testator.

Yes, three Gods that form the Godhead. It's not complicated.

We pray to no one but the Father. We invoke no name but that of Christ.

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Then again, LDS often use the term "god" or "God" to refer to a position of authority and glory, not necessarily the Being we worship as our Heavenly Father.

Crimson- I am most definitely LDS, so is my dear Husband and when we say God we mean Heavenly Father and only Heavenly Father.

During Gospel Doctrine classes and RS classes that I have attended - God is always Heavenly Father- NOT someone in a position of authority and glory, but ALWAYS Heavenly Father. All the Primary Sharing Times that I have taught (was in Primary for 4 years) God is Heavenly Father only.

A person of authority could be the Branch 1st Councilor, or the Branch President or even the Stake President or the Stake Patriarch, or the Primary President or one of her Councilors, or the Chief of Police in the town/city where we live. They are most definitely NOT gods.

I just want the investigators of the church who come here and who may read this topic to understand that most LDS do say God and mean Heavenly Father only.

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D&C 132:19-20 defines exaltation as godhood.

D&C 132:29 explains that Abraham has entered into his exaltation and sits on a throne.

Hence, Abraham is now a god (i.e. in a position of glory and authority, subject to the Father).

This is why we refer to the members of the Godhead by their unique Titles, such as:

God the Father.

God the Son.

God the Testator.

I'm not trying to make this into a big detour from the discussion, but show that there's a difference in believing in the existence of more than one god, and only worshipping our God, the Father.

In all the cases I've seen, the Biblical warnings are against worshipping false gods, false saviors, etc.

Perhaps it would be more useful to say that LDS believe there is only one Savior, not many saviors.

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D&C 132:19-20 defines exaltation as godhood.

D&C 132:29 explains that Abraham has entered into his exaltation and sits on a throne.

Hence, Abraham is now a god (i.e. in a position of glory and authority, subject to the Father).

This is why we refer to the members of the Godhead by their unique Titles, such as:

God the Father.

God the Son.

God the Testator.

I'm not trying to make this into a big detour from the discussion, but show that there's a difference in believing in the existence of more than one god, and only worshipping our God, the Father.

In all the cases I've seen, the Biblical warnings are against worshipping false gods, false saviors, etc.

Perhaps it would be more useful to say that LDS believe there is only one Savior, not many saviors.

Thanks for the examples, CK. I see what you mean now.

Elphaba

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I don't see worshipping only the Father as helping LDS avoid Evangelical charges of poly-theism. Some are aware of LDS only worshipping the Father and still see the plurality of Gods idea as poly-theistic.

The Jewish people worshipped the pre-mortal Jesus as the Father alone. Isaiah is pretty clear on the 2nd person of the Godhead clear claim to being the exclusive God. They did not think of a Father as being a higher being to the Lord.

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I don't see worshipping only the Father as helping LDS avoid Evangelical charges of poly-theism. Some are aware of LDS only worshipping the Father and still see the plurality of Gods idea as poly-theistic.

The Jewish people worshipped the pre-mortal Jesus as the Father alone. Isaiah is pretty clear on the 2nd person of the Godhead clear claim to being the exclusive God. They did not think of a Father as being a higher being to the Lord.

If God cared so much about how things are viewed he would COME AND TELL YOU!!! lol

Why do people care if LDS think "God" is not alone in the "super-hero" department. I know He told us to worship HIM and HIM ALONE. Good enough for me.

I am not a fan of people arguing with each other using 2000 year old stories that have passed down through thousands of hands, some good some corrupt btw, slapped together 500 years ago and used as a symbol of control and domination for hundreds of years and now all of a sudden "Its a MIRACLE..the GOOD BOOK has ALLL the answers" <my best benny hinn voice>

Sorry if my sarcasm drips on you but if it wasn't for God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ revealing themselves to Joseph Smith I would definitely be a devout agnostic/atheist.

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The Book of Mormon appear's to give Jesus the status of Almighty God also. It never treat's worship of the Son as we would the Father improper. Only in 3rd Nephi does the distinction between the Father and Son come out. Ether 3:15 has us created after the image of Christ's spirit body. I do not find the book modalistic as some see it, so i think it likely the Father is a personage also. Though as a Reorganized latter Day Saint i see him as a personage of spirit. I do not care if he had a body as i see room for LDS seeing God as having a body.

I was not convinced by the basic Anti-mormon scriptural arguments against God being a personage. I also see the Father and Son as two person's as much as two of us. Jesus in ancient time's and in the D.&C. speak's as if he were the Father's personality. But i doubt the two can be crammed into together into literally the same being, but they pretended in Isaiah to be the same being.

Isa.43:10 and other similar Isaiah passages do affirm the exclusiveness of God. I just see that exclusiveness falling apart in the New Testament because i see the Father, and Son as to much person's not to be called person's.

The creed's may say they are person's, but that's not what they mean. The person's of God were likened to the person's an actor played in a play via face mask's. The creedal writer's were aware the person's of God were aware of the other person's of God. And that the three were not mere role's of God, but that's how they badly fit the idea with absolute mono-theism anyway. They knew if the three were admitted to be defined as individual's like three men the creed's would wander into teaching poly-theism.

God is responsible for letting the Son speak as the Father himself. I do not ask God to explain himself, but unless the Book of Mormon, and Bible has been tampered with God inspired mono-theistic idea's of God. I think we can trust Deut. 6:4 as saying what the original did. I think the idea of the distinct person's of God was kept a mystery back then.

Lot's of LDS critic's like to point out how poly-theistic Joseph Smith was. But poly-theism is the idea of more than one God. I don't see the three as being able to be literally the same being. So i see some Biblical poly-theism not the un-qualified mono-theism that's supposed to be there.

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Most polytheism gives different powers and attributes to different gods. In most models there is a god of the moon, a god of the earth, a god of water and so forth. There was also a time that various tribes of people sought a seperate god to call their own.

Perhaps one could say that the Blessed Three are just the same. One could say that the Father has certain attributes and duties not vested in the Son and the Son likewise, so also the Holy Ghost. It is for this purpose that many consider the notion of the Blessed Three to be polytheistic whether They are considered within the definition of the Holy Trinity or not.

The tradition known among Christians for centuries has been an effort to stand on a mono-theistic platform while acknowledging the sense in which there is a distinction between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

It is only that sense that seems to be misunderstood among Christians. Some explain that sense of distinction with Modalism, others with Trinitarianism (and I think they have some movement within that model), and others with the view held my Mormons. This distinction has been known as the Mystery of the Godhead for centuries.

I personally don't care if They are One, or Three, or One in Three, or Three in One, or whatever. For those who call it a mystery, I assume they do not know. Certainly we have modern revelation on the subject, but it remains to be a subject only known to the individual. A man cannot know God through other men, but must know God.

-a-train

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Most of the time when the issue come's up it's individual's picking on me, the LDS, and Joseph Smith. They can't see how Joseph Smith could have seen the Trinity, or Godhead as God's with so many scripture's like Isa. 43:10 contradicting that. I think Joseph Smith as one of the root's of his idea rejected the latin word persona. He felt the three were modern person's not the person's of an actor. Modern revelation played a factor, but he doubted the creedal idea of God.

The whole purpose of the creedal writer's in adopting the persona word was to harmonize the three person's with absolute mono-theistic idea's.

I understand the Trinity. A book i have entitled Understanding The Trinity by Allister E. McGrath helped me understand the idea greatly.

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