52 Churches

[Jamie123]

You probably know by now, the guy has just been baptised LDS.

Does that mean you like him again now @zil2? 😁

[zil2]

16 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Does that mean you like him again now @zil2? 😁

Did I dislike him?  Are you by chance mixing him up with the "Hello, Saints" dude, or...?

[Jamie123]

10 minutes ago, zil2 said:

Did I dislike him?  Are you by chance mixing him up with the "Hello, Saints" dude, or...?

Perhaps my memory's playing tricks on me ... I thought I posted one of his videos and you said you initially liked him but later thought he was concentrating too much on what was wrong.

I removed the video link in case it violated some forum guideline, so its hard to check.

Maybe you're right - perhaps the video I posted was Hello Saints and not this guy.

I miss our BoM reading group. That was a good experience.

Edited April 28 by Jamie123

[zil2]

2 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Perhaps my memory's playing tricks on me ... I thought I posted one of his videos and you said you initially liked him but later thought he was concentrating too much onwhat was wrong.

I removed the video link in case it violated some forum guideline, so its hard to check.

Maybe you're right - perhaps the video I posted was Hello Saints and not this guy.

Sounds like the Hello Saints dude.  I only have vague memories of this guy until someone (else) recently posted about his baptism, then I went and watched all the LDS videos he'd done - it was an interesting thing to watch his conversion before he even knew it was a conversion.

3 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

I miss our BoM reading group. It kept me going through the latter half of last year. I'm afraid I've fallen back into the Slough of Dispond since.

We're reading all year long.  You can join in any time.  The schedule is the same for everyone.

[Jamie123]

18 hours ago, zil2 said:

 

We're reading all year long.  You can join in any time.  The schedule is the same for everyone.

That's interesting - this schedule is for the whole LDS Church?

Edited April 29 by Jamie123

[zil2]

2 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

That's interesting - this schedule is for the whole LDS Church?

Yep.  Whole world.

[Jamie123]

1 hour ago, zil2 said:

Yep.  Whole world.

Interesting. Similar to the Common Lectionary.

Is it also used by the CoC and the Strangites and all the other Book of Mormon churches?

[zil2]

32 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Is it also used by the CoC and the Strangites and all the other Book of Mormon churches?

I cannot imagine they would - that would be strange indeed.

[Jamie123]

14 minutes ago, zil2 said:

I cannot imagine they would - that would be strange indeed.

Would you say it was any stranger than Protestants and Catholics using the same reading schedule? (Which they do.) But it's not important - I was just curious.

[zil2]

31 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Would you say it was any stranger than Protestants and Catholics using the same reading schedule? (Which they do.) But it's not important - I was just curious.

I don't know enough to compare.  It's just that the Church and its off-shoots are very different, so I wouldn't expect the off-shoots to use Church material, though there's nothing stopping them, I suppose.   It's just that they're founded on the idea that Brigham Young wasn't the right one to take over, so using materials that would include quotes and teachings from that prophetic line would be sort of self-defeating...

In other words, the Come, Follow Me manual isn't just a schedule for which Book of Mormon chapters to read, it includes lesson material, quotes, references to General Conference talks, hymns, etc.

[Carborendum]

34 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

Would you say it was any stranger than Protestants and Catholics using the same reading schedule? (Which they do.) But it's not important - I was just curious.

The CoC no longer believes the BoM to be scripture.  And they abandoned the D&C a long time ago.  I'm sure they think even less of The Pearl of Great Price which was not canonized until 1880.

Your comparison would be similar regarding the reading schedule if it were only about the Bible.  But the Come, Follow Me manual also has commentary and discussion items, and quotes from our general authorities to be studied hand-in-hand with the scripture reading schedule.

Edited April 29 by Carborendum

[Jamie123]

35 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

The CoC no longer believes the BoM to be scripture.

Are you sure about this? From the CoC website: "Community of Christ uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants—not to replace the witness of the Bible or improve on it, but because they confirm its message that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God".

Maybe the distinction is they don't believe the BoM has anything new to add. Having read the BoM myself, I find the most striking "new idea" to be "Christianity before Christ". Although the Old Testament certainly foreshadows the coming of Christ, we don't really see people we would refer to as "Christians".

[Carborendum]

1 hour ago, Jamie123 said:

Are you sure about this? From the CoC website: "Community of Christ uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants—not to replace the witness of the Bible or improve on it, but because they confirm its message that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God".

Maybe the distinction is they don't believe the BoM has anything new to add. Having read the BoM myself, I find the most striking "new idea" to be "Christianity before Christ". Although the Old Testament certainly foreshadows the coming of Christ, we don't really see people we would refer to as "Christians".

About 40 years ago, the CoC leadership decided to review all the D&C and determine what was still considered canon.  Thus, their D&C is not the same as ours.  So, when they say they consider it scripture, I have to ask: Which sections?  And when I say "they abandoned it," I'm saying that they don't really give it the same credit as we do. 

The same goes for the BoM.

Recently, they have made public statements that the Book of Mormon is basically considered scripture in as much as the Book of Psalms is considered scripture.  They are inspiring stories and parables.  It was never supposed to be a true story of real people who actually lived.  I don't think they made deletions and edits like they did the D&C.  But they don't really give it the heed that we do.

On the other hand, I tend to think that way about the Old Testament.  I believe that a bunch of really interesting things happened in some literal world a long time ago.  But what was recorded and re-written over the centuries and millennia, eventually morphed into a highly figurative, poetic, parabolic, fable-like rendition of that literal reality.  That is the Old Testament as we have it today.  I would really like to know what the real-life experience was that generated those stories.

But the Book of Mormon is to be taken literally.  It is a collection of journals of prophets who wrote what they specifically witnessed just as the Gospels were written.  Some of them may even have taken liberties.  Some of them may have even included hearsay that they didn't take the time to verify -- because it seemed believable at the time.  But it should be considered as literal as any record that was compiled by an earnest scholar who looked up old reports and 1st hand accounts.  Sometimes mistakes will be made.  But so goes any historical work.  Yet the final product is the one that God wanted us to read and study and learn from "as if it were all literally true" as it relates to our salvation.

That is my personal opinion as it stands today.

Back to your question: Am I sure they believe...???

No, there are only 250,000 people who aren't quite sure if God actually speaks to any apostle more or less than any individual.  So, if they purport to have a central leadership that guides them as God would have them be guided, it sure doesn't sound like much certainty or unity of faith exists there.

Edited April 29 by Carborendum