Can you join the mormon church if you smoke?

[Hemidakota]

What is the purpose of quit smoking? Quit drinking? Or too live a healthy and clean life?

[FinGirl87]

I'm not a member of the LDS church, but I used to smoke. I quit on november 2007 with a drug called chantix (it's called champix here in finland), and I haven't smoked since. I tried with nicotine gum etc before, but I couldn't.

Just a tip, not an ad:)

[lilered]

A friend of mine used to say: " It is easy to quit smoking, I have done it a hundred times!

The trick is to stay quit, me thinks.

[Iggy]

A friend of mine used to say: " It is easy to quit smoking, I have done it a hundred times!

The trick is to stay quit, me thinks.

You are oh so right about that! When I finally quit, I didn't stop craving them until nearly a year and a half later. By then the tar and nicotine was totally out of my system. THEN I was repelled by the smell of cigarettes. The smell of them on people, their clothes, embedded in wooden furniture, draperies, carpets and upholstery.

We have three people who are investigating the church- And elderly woman and her two adult unmarried sons. All three are heavy smokers, and it is all I can do to sit within three rows of them. They reek of cigarettes and it actually makes me physically sick.

I tell myself that this Church is a Church for sinners, that we are all welcome here and that I, and the others members of the Church MUST fellowship them no matter how badly they smell.

[lilered]

There is a saying that I have heard a few times that I often think of. If a Bishopric can't smell smoke on a few of his flock, then they aren't doing an effective job.

Translated that means that even member smokers need to feel welcome in the church and the first step is to get them to return to the flock by returning to church, then the spirit of the Lord can help with changing them and strengthening their testimony line upon line, precept upon precept.

[Hemidakota]

When a person begins the journey with Christ together in this probation, as it only single motivation [being born again], anything that resembles sin will begin the process of removing such bad elements from his/her life style. It is then we can see clearly the Godhead, the Gospel in action, and be a helping hand to others.

[lostnfound]

you may join the church, but you cannot enter the temple. The temple is a vital part of salvation.

i had started a thread called john 3:16 and in it we discussed faith/works.but no one ever mentioned the temple as part of their salvation plan...could you explain this to me?

Also if you could explain why someone can't smoke before being baptized? Are there other things that one can or can't do before being baptized lds?

[rameumptom]

For LDS, there are two definitions of the term "salvation." There is a general salvation offered by Christ's atonement and grace that is a near universal salvation. All of God's children will be resurrected, and the vast majority of those who come to earth will receive a kingdom of salvation/glory, due to Christ's grace.

Depending upon a person's personal righteousness helps determine their level of glory received in the heavens. Christ taught that in his Father's house are many mansions, and Paul knew a man that went to the third heaven. Baptism as mentioned in John 3 is a minimal requirement to enter into the highest kingdom as a child of God.

However, there is another definition of the term "salvation" that Mormons use. It is another way of describing "exaltation." This means a person who has become just as Christ and God are and receive a fullness of all they are and have. To receive this requires higher obedience and faith to the gospel, but it also requires the temple ordinances, as we believe that the highest glory includes being sealed/married to spouse and family in the eternities - extending family blessings throughout all eternity.

[EruditioSalvatus]

I'd rather be god's dockworker than his kid waiting to swipe the family business.

[rameumptom]

I'd rather be god's dockworker than his kid waiting to swipe the family business.

I do not understand that concept. Many parents are very pleased when the kids take up the "family business." In this instance, the family business is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). God does not want us to be dockworkers, unless we really want to be something less than being on the corporate board. In such a case, he allows us to have our free will and desire. But he mourns the narrowness of view wherein we delimit our own progression. Paul told us to have in our mind the same though Jesus had, which was that it was not robbery to be equal with God. Paul also taught that as children of God, we are heirs and co-heirs with Christ. Heirs inherit all their parents' stuff, unless they lose that inheritance. The person who desires to live as a dockworker is a person who has chosen not to accept the full inheritance that God offers.

It isn't an issue of swiping the family business. No one is replacing nor usurping God in his throne. That was Satan's plan. Our teaching is to receive all that the Father offers to us, which is all that he has. Why should we wish for anything less than what He wants us to have? Yet, for many, they choose the lesser because they do not understand the true relationship between Father and child.

[lostnfound]

many will choose the path to destruction because they do not understand.

[HiJolly]

many will choose the path to destruction because they do not understand.

That much is certain!

HiJolly