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What do you want to know about LDS beliefs?
- Thread starter nutshell
- Start date
roli said:
First of all, D&C 130:22 says absolutely nothing about God being "exalted to godhood." Not one word. Please try to refrain from misquoting our scriptures.
We, too, believe that God is spirit. The difference between our belief and yours is that we believe Him to be a spirit with a body and you believe Him to be a spirit without a body. The Bible doesn't actually say one way or the other, so our doctrine is no less Biblical than yours. We must worship Him in spirit and in truth because that it the only way it is possible for us to worship Him -- spirit to Spirit.
Furthermore, the word "invisible" does not mean "without substance." It simply means "unseen." God is invisible to us because He choses not to show Himself to us, not because He has no substance.
Since when does the definition of a "true Christian" have anything at all to do with identical interpretations of various passages of scripture. There are thousands of Christian denominations in the world today. Are the only "true Christians" the ones who believe exactly as you do with respect to every point of doctrine?
I don't know. How can Baptists and Catholics both be Christians?
Of course God is not the author of confusion. But take the Latter-day Saints out of the picture entirely, and you still have an incredibly divided house. You have Christians who believe we are saved by grace through faith alone and Christians who believe are saved by grace through a combination of faith and works. You have Christians who believe that once we are saved we are always saved, others who believe that it is possible to lose one's salvation through disobedience and loss of faith, and still others who believe we aren't saved unless we endure to the end. Some Christians baptize infants, others don't. Some believe that the Lord's Supper is symbolic of His body and blood, while others believe the bread and wine are literally transformed into His body and blood.
I could go on and on, but I'll assume you get the point. Christians were divided in their beliefs long before we ever came on the scene. You can draw the line between who's a Christian and who isn't wherever you want, but that's not going to change a darn thing as far as God is concerned. If you don't think Mormons are Christians, that's your prerogative. But in the end, your opinion isn't really going to matter.
Just so everyone knows where you're getting your information, I'd like to include the source of the information that you posted above. It can be found at the URL www.carm.org/lds/bom_look.ht. CARM is also known as the Christian Apologitics and Research Ministry. It has extensive resources to assist its visitors with deciding that Mormonism isn't Christian.
We're both Christians because I say I'm a Christian and don't give a crap what anyone else thinks about it. I assume you would have a similar response if someone felt that you were not Christian. Who cares! Let God decide. I have a feeling he isn't much into grouping people under stupid titles anyway. We both follow and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some might follow an incomplete gospel and I follow a restoration of the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, but we can all still be friends.roli said:
Anyway, as for your totally unrelated part of the question, last time anyone saw Christ in your Bible he had a body of flesh and bones, didn't he?
Why the differences? That's easy. The early church got rid of prophets and revelation. The church based its doctrine on the philosophies of men and threw in some scriptures to support them. Any scriptures that didn't mesh with these philosophies were thrown out as being heretical. Instead of appealing to God for revelation and scripture, the church had council after council where they debated what the true doctrine was. Read through the Great Apostasy thread that Dan has been doing if you want more details on what led to the church of Christ splitting into the various fractions. I can sum it up in one sentence: Reliance on men rather than reliance on God.roli said:
You know what, the more I read some of the "Christians" that post on here, telling the LDS members that we're not Christian no matter what we say, the more I don't want to be included in your exclusive club of Christianity. I follow Christ. I know that He is the Son of God. I try my best to be meek, humble, a peacemaker, and all of the doctrine that Christ taught. I know that Christ atoned for our sins. If this excludes me from the Catholic/Protestant Christianity Club, so be it.
silvermoon383
Well-Known Member
No, we don't belive that we can become a God (big G). We believe that we can attain all that God has and become all that He is (essentially becoming a god (little g).
Even then, God will still be God to us. That relationship will never change.
Even then, God will still be God to us. That relationship will never change.
nutshell
Well-Known Member
thomas89 said:
We believe that we can become like God. That does not mean we will ever be His equal. He is our Creator and He provided a way for us to return to Him again. We will forever be in his debt and we will forever worship him.
We believe that we are the children of God. Romans 8:17 teaches, "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
If we are heirs than that means, IMO, that we can receive all that God has.
I like to think of it this way. A puppy grows up to be a dog. A kitten grows up to be a cat. A chick grows up to be a chicken. What will the children of God grow up to be?
I hope this answers your question.
C.S. Lewis said it much better than I could ever hope to:thomas89 said:
"The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were gods and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him for we can prevent Him, if we choose He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) He own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful: but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said."
I once read Mormon theology teaches that god used to be a man on another planet, that he became a god by following the laws and ordinances of that god on that world, and that he brought one of his wives to this world with whom he produces spirit children who then inhabit human bodies at birth. The first spirit child to be born was Jesus. Second was Satan, and then we all followed. Is this true or not? Explain.
There is no official LDS doctrine that speaks of God's beginnings. We believe that all of God's children had a pre-mortal existence, that we lived in His presence prior to coming to earth. Romans 8:29 refers to Jesus Christ as "the firstborn among many brethren." Since He obviously wasn't the first of God's children to be born on this earth, His status as "firstborn" obviously refers to His spirit state. Acts 17:28 and Hebrews 12:9 respectively, explain that we are all not only God's creations, but His own "offspring," and that He is, in fact, the "father of [our] spirits." We are all sons and daughters of God. Jesus Christ has a unique place among all of God's children, however, because He is the Only Begotten Son of God in the flesh. He was with His Father in the beginning and created worlds without number under His Father's direction. Satan (known pre-mortally as Lucifer) was at one time one of God's highly favored spirit offspring. However, when he rebelled against God and was cast out of Heaven, he forfeited the right to ever be known as a son of God again.barnabus said:
SoyLeche
meh...
Even if that verse meant what you are wanting it to mean, it says nothing about a change happening when someone converts. It says specifically that it will happen after a few ("not many" is the words that it uses) generations. The LARGE majority of the "Lamanites" that are members of the church are converts. There aren't a whole lot of 3rd and 4th generation Mormons in Latin America - so we are still waiting for the full fulfillment of the prophecies concerning them.barnabus said:
That said, while many have hypothesised that skin color has something to do with it, that isn't necesarily the case.
