As Mormons settle in this weekend to listen to their prophets, seers and revelators at General Conference, may these insightful and significant words from Christian pastor Charles Spurgeon be on their minds:
“Beloved, because Jesus is the sum of the gospel he must be our constant theme. ‘God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ ‘I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.’ So spake men of old, and so say we.
“When we have done preaching Christ we had better have done preaching; when you have done teaching in your classes Jesus Christ himself, give up Sunday school work, for nothing else is worthy of your pains. Put out the sun, and light is gone, life is gone, all is gone. When Jesus is pushed into the background or left out of a minister’s teaching, the darkness is darkness that might be felt, and the people escape from it into gospel light as soon as they can. A sermon without Jesus in it is savourless, and worthless to God’s tried saints, and they soon seek other food. The more of Christ in our testimony the more of light and life and power to save.” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Jesus Christ Himself,” December 9, 1877)
All who love Christ: May Jesus ever be the constant theme of our testimonies.
May the Mormon people come to realize the truth about Jesus, then they will be consistently be
testifying of Him exclusively , and not together with their prophet and church .
I spoke to my ex-wife on the telephone tonight, just to jog your memories I have talked about her & the doubts she is having concerning the LDS in previous posts.
As often happens the talk got around to her beliefs & her relationship with the LDS. I asked her about the doubts she had been having & she told me that she no longer has a testimony & is pretty sure now that the LDS is a deceptive cult. Unfortunately she’s afraid to leave because it’s the only social life she has.
I asked her Do you truly believe in God? “Yes”
Do you believe that Christ died for you? “Yes”
Do you believe that the Gospel message is to be found in the N/T? “Yes”
I then said to her, “bearing in mind that you believe those things to be true & the LDS organization to be false what will you say when you stand before God & He asks you why did you stay in what you know to be a cult led by a man you know to be a false prophet”?
She thought for a moment & said, “you’re right, I really should leave”
In case you’re all wondering why I mention this under the topic of General Conference it’s because I read to her the quote from Spurgeon that Sharon timed so beautifully today, I had only just read it myself when my ex called. Anyway, I read the complete introduction to her & although these aren’t her exact words, this is more or less how she replied,
“That is so right, Christ is hardly ever mentioned in GC or in church”
Old Man, looks like God is doing some great things in your ex-wife’s life ! We’ll continue to pray
for her . Keep us posted .
As far as Mormon leaders talking about Jesus at Conference goes , I suppose there be much
said about Him . But then again Mormon leaders have taught a lot about Him in sermons
from 1830 on , and it’s apparent in perusing these teachings that we see that the Mormon
Jesus is not the true authentic one as revealed in the Bible . Mormon leaders today are reluctant
to publically teach about Jesus some of the things their predecessors were bold in teaching
about Him .
It’s exciting to know that the same Jesus that established His church through His apostles and
then sent them out to teach who He was and how to be saved ( Rom 1:16) , that gospel is still
mighty to save even today . Sadly, followers of latter days prophets come with a message that
confession of their prophet is necessary for salvation , they constantly bare testimony of this.
But those people who have come to know Jesus in a personal saving way realize that no
confession of a latter days prophet is necessary because the same gospel that saved those in
former times still saves in these latter times —it’s that powerful and sufficient . Heb 7:25 .
Sharon wrote an article on this blog a couple of years ago titled “A Personal Relationship With Jesus”. In it she quotes LDS apostles Bruce McConkie in an address at BYU. Here are some quotes from cousin Brucie.
“We worship the Father and him only and no one else. We do not worship the Son and we do not worship the Holy Ghost.” (5)
“Now, in spite of all these truths, which ought to be obvious to every spiritually enlightened person, heresies rear their ugly heads among us from time to time. There are those…who have an excessive zeal which causes them to go beyond the mark. Their desire for excellence is inordinate. In an effort to be truer than true they devote themselves to gaining a special, personal relationship with Christ that is both improper and perilous. I say perilous because this course, particularly in the lives of some who are spiritually immature, is a gospel hobby which creates an unwholesome holier-than-thou attitude.” (18-19)
“Another peril is that those so involved often begin to pray directly to Christ because of some special friendship they feel has been developed. In this connection a current and unwise book, which advocates gaining a special relationship with Jesus, contains this sentence: ‘Because the Savior is our mediator, our prayers go through Christ to the Father, and the Father answers our prayers through his Son.’ This is pure sectarian nonsense.” (19-20)
“ And you have never heard one of the First Presidency of the Twelve…advocate this excessive zeal that calls for gaining a so-called special and personal relationship with Christ.” (21)
“I am well aware that some who have prayed for endless hours feel they have a special and personal relationship with Christ that they never had before. I wonder if this is any or much different, however, from the feelings of fanatical sectarians who with glassy eyes and fiery tongues assure us they have been saved by grace and are assured of a place with the Lord in a heavenly abode…I wonder if it is not a part of Lucifer’s system to make people feel they are special friends of Jesus when in fact they are not following the normal and usual pattern of worship found in the true [LDS] Church.” (22)
Isn’t it interesting that the LDS apostles basic says that seeking a personal relationship with Jesus is a tool of the devil. I can only surmise that the sincere Mormon hearing this would concluded that they should not and indeed better not, seek a personal relationship with Jesus. In McConkie’s world, such a thing is absolutely forbidden and a trap.
Sharon included a quote from Gerald and Sandra Tanner who had been LDS but found their way to Christ through the Holy Spirit.
“From beginning to end the New Testament stresses the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In Matthew 11:28 we find Jesus Himself saying: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ This same theme continues right into the book of Revelation where Jesus says: ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’ (Revelations 3:20) The Apostle Paul certainly taught a close personal relationship with Christ in his epistles. For instance, in Philippians 3:8-10 we read: ‘Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;’”
Sharon’s article is worth reading since it directly relates to the topic at hand.
http://blog.mrm.org/2011/06/a-personal-relationship-with-jesus/
OK, shall we say that confusion reigns in the LDS church? Here is an address to General Conference in October of 1976 regarding our topic at hand. Many of the things that are stated in the address could have been stated by an evangelical Christian pastor. But what we’ve learned with Mormonism is that a person must dig a little deeper than the words that are spoken. What would McConkie have to say to his fellow LDS leader since this address was made six years prior to (McConkie’s) address at BYU.
I’ll provide some excerpts and then provide the link.
“There is a great humility and timidity in my soul as I presume to speak about coming to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world and the Son of God.”
“Recently in South America, a seasoned group of outstanding missionaries was asked, “What is the greatest need in the world?” One wisely responded: “Is not the greatest need in all of the world for every person to have a personal, ongoing, daily, continuing relationship with the Savior?” Having such a relationship can unchain the divinity within us, and nothing can make a greater difference in our lives as we come to know and understand our divine relationship with God.”
We should earnestly seek not just to know about the Master, but to strive, as He invited, to be one with Him (see John 17:21), to “be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). We may not feel a closeness with Him because we think of Him as being far away, or our relationship may not be sanctifying because we do not think of Him as a real person.
“How can we receive the personal blessing of the Master’s divine and exalting influence in our own lives? Since our own feelings are sacred to us and cannot be disputed by others, let us begin with those quiet assurances which occasionally can come to all of us and which we know are true. We cannot always prove these verities to others, yet they come as a form of knowledge. Is this part of the divine which ferments within us, reaching to its source? Is it not like a personal witness of truth flowing through the thin curtain which separates this world from another?”
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1976/10/a-personal-relationship-with-the-savior?lang=eng
This address is really revealing and worth the time to take a look at. I say this because the words spoken are quite familiar but the meaning is applied in an entirely different way from orthodox Christianity. This is very clever and very deceptive.
As I listened to James E. Faust in his October, 1976 address at GC I had one question that I wanted to ask him. That question is, “Mr. Faust, who is this Jesus that you talk about?” There is no doubt, I guess, sincerity in Mr. Faust’s words. I would say even piety and devotion. In fact so much so that someone listening to him, without knowing who this Jesus is that he’s speaking about is not the Biblical Jesus. This is the seductive nature of the cults.
There is sincerity, devotion and even piety but what there isn’t is truth. There’s enough Christian sounding language in his address that those not knowing what lies beneath the words could very easily be taken in. I can plainly see why TBMs are so TBMish. It all sounds good. But then we remember the words of Gordon B. Hinckley:
“In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints ‘do not believe in the traditional Christ.’ ‘No, I don’t. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. He together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages.'” (LDS Church News Week ending June 20, 1998, p. 7).
Christians have long maintained that Mormonism teaches a Jesus that is different from what the Bible reveals. Of course, the Mormons say that they believe in the same Jesus that originally walked on the earth and is revealed in the Bible. Though they may make this claim, it is up to them to prove it. Especially in light of what Mormonism says about God and Jesus.
In Mormonism, Jesus is a creation, the product of relations between god and his goddess wife who used to be people from another world (McConkie, Bruce, Mormon Doctrine, p. 192, 321, 516, 589). Jesus is the literal spirit brother of the devil and of you and I (McConkie, p. 192, 589). Also, in Mormon theology, God has a body of flesh and bones (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22) as does his wife and together they produce spirit offspring in heaven who inhabit human bodies on earth.
http://carm.org/hinckley-says-mormons-believe-different-jesus
James E. Faust had the words down pat. What he didn’t have was a personal relationship with the Biblical Jesus. The Jesus who he would acknowledge, following LDS doctrine, doesn’t exist!
So it would appear that we have a real conflict here regarding the LDS church leadership and the idea of having a personal relationship with Jesus.
First of all let’s not forget the words of Gordon B. Hinckley that the Jesus of the LDS religion is not the Jesus of traditional Christianity.
So one avenue we could explore is “Who is Jesus?”.
But within the context of the LDS church, the Mormon Jesus is, according to James E. Faust someone that the members should seek a relationship with. Then apostle Bruce McConkie advises that such a thing would act as a tool of the devil.
Now which of these men is hearing from the Mormon god? You know, the god who lives on or near the planet Kolob where he procreates spirit offspring with his multiple wives serving as goddesses in his sphere of planetary rule.
I would have loved to have heard a debate between Faust and McConkie regarding the issue of a personal relationship with Jesus. But first I would have liked each of them to expound on who Jesus is and how they have come to know that this Jesus of whom they speak, is one of many offspring of the Mormon god and one of this god’s wives.
Faust quotes the Bible, which is interesting because the LDS church teaches that the Bible is corrupted and cannot be trusted. That instead revelation is a better guide to the truth.
The Bible plainly teaches who Jesus is. The Church Fathers in their writings reaffirmed who Jesus is.
The Kolob god of Mormonism can’t be found in the Bible neither can his many wives. The concept of men becoming gods cannot be found in the Bible either. In fact none of this can be found even in Smith’s creation, the BoM. We can only assume then, that this god and Jesus are the creation of a false prophet who changed his mind at least four times regarding who God is and finally settled on the Egyptian fertility god Min, who Smith displayed in the BoA sitting on a throne exposing himself.
Yes, it is important to dig beneath the spiritual sounding rhetoric of James E. Faust and Bruce McConkie to find the truth about what the LDS church really teaches.
Did you know that McConkie disputed the Adam-God doctrine revealed by Brigham Young? Oh well, that’s just another crack at who the Mormon god is by another of these Mormon prophets. It would have been kind of fun to get them all in a room together along with Smith and hear them hash it all out.
There’s a very good reason for checking things out and not just accepting what a person says. Defender of the Christian faith, Dr. Walter Martin use to say, “Question everything someone tells you. Even me.”
That was good advice and I’ve always followed it. Mormons are taught to not question their leaders but to accept what they say. The two Mormon mottos regarding this are, “Always trust your leaders. They will never lead you astray.” and “When the leaders speak, the thinking has been done.”
A person should kind of wonder about that because in regards to our topic here we have two Mormon leaders from the same era saying two diametrically opposed things. One is urging the members to have a personal relationship with the Mormon Jesus while the other is saying to do so is falling into a trap of Lucifer.j
So what should a faithful member of the LDS church do? First of all I would suggest that such a Mormon would do a side-by-side comparison of the ever changing doctrine of God of the LDS church and who the “prophets” say who Jesus is and that of orthodox Christianity.
The other thing I’d do is ask about Jesus’ position within the LDS religion. The most important thing in the LDS church is the Mormon system itself.
In Christianity, we come to the authentic Biblical Jesus in faith and in so doing attain to eternal life. It’s immaterial what Christian denomination a person chooses to join or if they don’t join one at all. In the LDS religion, a person is joining a religious system that they think will turn them into a god if they follow that system. That’s why LDS members get so wound-up when someone “leaves the church”.
If Mormons really had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, they’d come to understand that the LDS church has nothing to do with obtaining eternal life.
In reality, a member of the LDS church is to develop a relationship with the LDS church, the religious system. They are taught basically to venerate the leadership and to trust everything they say. An LDS member who heard both James E. Faust in 1976 and then Bruce McConkie in 1982 would have to embrace cognitive dissonance.
My advice? Find the real Jesus. Put your faith in Him.
I’m curious as to how LDS react to the statement: “Its all about Jesus.”
Is it all about Jesus?
Falcon, you touched on the important point in this whole issue , namely , that there is a true
Jesus , and that those who come to Him and worship Him for who He is will receive eternal
life –Jn 8: 24. But false prophets will introduce false teachings about Jesus thus misleading
sincere people with a imitation , a counterfeit Jesus , or as Paul warned : “another Jesus ” —
2Cor 11:4 . Only the true Jesus has the ability to save those who come to Him . The Mormon
people have the responsibility to examine what their leaders have taught about Jesus and to
compare it with the Bible , and then make a decision about their allegiance to their prophets .
Their spiritual safety is involved here . No amount of good deeds done in church service can
make up for believing in a counterfeit Christ , ” another Jesus ” .
Now it needs to be said that our emphasis on warning the Mormon people about being misled
by their prophets on how the Mormon Jesus is not the true Jesus , is a very Biblical scenario .
Even Mormon leaders have acknowledged this principle because they have for a long long time
taught that we non-LDS christians have embraced false teaching about God /Jesus that is serious
enough to render our worship of God as ” vain worship “. They have even stated that people
cannot obtain salvation and eternal life by worshiping ” fake Christs ” . That is true enough , it’s
what Paul was concerned with . This is a simple concept . So before some Mormons get angry
with us for saying that they are in peril for embracing ” another Jesus ” , they need to know
that their leaders have already said this very thing about others ( like us ) who won’t embrace
the Mormon God/Jesus .
Mike,
Remember very recently we had a Mormon show-up here who insisted Jesus was “eternal”? What a joke for an LDS sect member to make such an ignorant statement insisting that that was what Mormonism teaches. We had to point out to him that according to Smith’s fourth go-round he came up with a god who was a created being, a man who had become a god. Thus Jesus was the off spring of this god and one of his many wives.
Now tell me how a created being can be “eternal”. Well the Mormon escape clause for claiming that their god, who is also a created being, is eternal is because “matter” is eternal and this LDS god is made of matter therefore he is eternal.
What total stupidity! Who do they think, other than themselves, would accept such a convoluted, inane and just plain stupid form of “logic”?
Falcon , are you referring to the statement a Mormon made that ” Jesus was always God ” ?
Mormon leaders have taught that Jesus/Jehovah was NOT always God . So he was doing what
some Mormon have resorted to in order to appear less Mormon in the public interviews —-they
deny or try to downplay some of the more “unique ” Mormon doctrines. Now I’m glad that he
believes this , however the claims of Mormonism are based on teachings of it’s leaders , not
rank and file members .
In this particular issue of whether Mormons have a personal relationship with Jesus as the
Bible reveals such , we will undoubtedly run across a Mormon who feels he/she has that type of
relationship with Jesus . For one, they may have come from a christian church background and
therefore feel we are wrong in what we say about this issue , or they may simply be dismissing
what they leaders have taught about this and decided to believe whatever they wished ,etc.
( remember we had a sincere devout LDS on here once who was not really convinced to the point
of truly believing that there is such a being as Heavenly Mother ? )
So the bottom line here is that we can only share with the Mormon people what the Bible teaches
about how unique Jesus is and what a personal relationship with Him entails . There’s a big
difference between knowing about Jesus through reading the scriptures and coming to Him
and surrendering to Him , and asking Him to forgive us so that we can receive eternal life —this
is a one on one direct interaction with the risen Savior . We get to daily spend time in prayer
telling Him directly of our praise and concerns . This blesses the Father as it’s His will for us ,
and the Bible records how this all commences : Matt 11:28 , Jesus asks ” Come to me …” .
Is’nt it wonderful to personally know Jesus , and to worship Him rightly ? Today , worshiping
Jesus, knowing Jesus , is not about a church , a secret temple rituals , nor a man as the prophet
with his gospel “plan” . But only through Jesus alone can anyone be forgiven and get to live
with God in His home above with the fullest of blessings there . MJP said , it’s all about Jesus —
Amen
This term “personal relationship with Jesus” or “God” or “Christ” really doesn’t appear in the NT but the concept surely does. It’s a term that applies to what is expressed explicitly in God’s Word. It’s God’s desire to be in close, intimate relationship with us. “Why did God make you?” was the first question in my Catholic Catechism when I was in the primary grades at St. Joseph’s Catholic School.
The answer was “….to know, love and serve Him in this world and the next”. That’s a pretty good explanation of what it means to have a personal relationship with God.
This idea or concept of “personal relationship” is a way of drawing a contrast between people who practice formal religion but never really make a connection with the Almighty.
The first part of all of this is to “know” God. Joseph Smith really didn’t know God. He created a god out of whole cloth in an on-going process. Then in order to justify his creation, he came-up with a tale that the gospel was “lost” and needed to be restored.
There are several problems with this. The evidence that the gospel was “lost” and needed to be “restored” doesn’t exist. Smith needed to manufacture a reason for his free flow of consciousness when it came to inventing his religion. Then only thing that stopped his continuous redos on who God is etc. was his (Smith’s) untimely death.
I’m sure Mormons think they have a personal relationship with a god who was a man; who along with his many plural wives reside on or near the planet Kolob, gave them spirit birth in something termed the “pre-existence”. And I’m more than certain that these Mormons “feel” a spiritual connection to this god of Kolob and a personal relationship with him.
The problem is that all folks who claim some sort of religion also “feel” this warm connection with a god. Check out the religion of Native Americans with the mystic visionaries like Crazy Horse and Black Elk and rituals like the Ghost Dance.
God reveals Himself in His Word the Bible. He isn’t a god who was a man and became a god by following a system that the LDS claim was part of first century Christianity and became lost and now they practice in their Mormon temples.
Mormons would do well to dig a little deeper into their own religion’s history particularly Smith ever evolving notion of who God is.
I wonder how much Mormons really need Jesus anyway. I know this is a question they would find offensive, but it seems Jesus is dependent on certain powers and principles in his own right. Therefore, Jesus is not really the key– its the eternal principles that matter. Jesus only allows us to follow and get those principles, but that can be achieved through any person who achieved was Jesus did. Jesus is our god by chance.
Jesus is not necessary as far as I can tell. Thoughts?
I like what Spurgeon said , ” Beloved , because Jesus is the sum of the gospel He must our
constant theme.”
To understand who Jesus is and what He has did on the cross for us is all a testimony need
consist of . Yet Mormons are famous for bearing their testimony of ” the “church , and
” a modern day prophet” also the same breath . I have a feeling that in Sunday meetings in the
local Ward , Mormons are bearing their testimony with a lot less Jesus in it than they would
in public interviews , but the ex-Mormons here are in a better position to talk about that point.
Spurgeon said , ” The More of Christ in our testimonies the more of light and life and power
to save .”
Jesus saves , Jesus alone . That’s why a testimony is about Him , what He did for us , what He
means to us —once we were lost and now because of Jesus we are found , and saved by His grace.
No church organization , no prophet belongs in a testimony , because these do not save . Yet ,
in Mormonism joining their church and confessing that their prophet is the mouthpiece of God
today is required in order to obtain salvation ( eternal life ) .
This is something that should raise a red flag because false prophets in these times want nothing
more than to squeeze themselves and joining their group into the salvation equation ( what’s necessary to be saved) . But christians have the Bible , those prophets who prophecised of
Jesus’ coming as well as those apostles who knew Him and were sent out to preach the message
of salvation ( Rom 1:16 ) , we have no need to follow latter day prophets who try to mix their
own doctrinal innovations into that message .
All prophets must decrease , Jesus must increase . A testimony is about Jesus . He alone gets
all the attention every time .
MJP says,
Therefore, Jesus is not really the key– its the eternal principles that matter
I say,
It’s the principle of eternal progression that is the real god in Mormonism as far as I can tell. The billions of lessor deities including Jesus are just steps in an eternal pyramid scheme.
By definition God does not have to obey any rules that exist outside his own nature. But in Mormonism the Son and the Father and the Spirit are each subject to the same law of eternal progression that we are. Just like us they must do certain works demanded by the principle.
Eternal progression is more of an eastern impersonal god like karma in Hinduism or gnosis in the early Christian heresies.
It does not love it does not answer prayer but make no mistake in Mormonism it’s the principle and not Jesus that must be obeyed and ultimately it’s the principle that saves.
At least that is how it looks to me.
peace
And that’s how I see it, too.
They– the Father and the Son– achieved their status by following the principals we are supposedly to follow. The Holy Ghost– probably the same, too, but its not entirely clear where he came from, though.
I see no ultimate need for these beings if it is the eternal principals that matter. That they might give their blessing only means they are continuing the progression and do nothing to alter the eternal principals.
It wasn’t until I left Mormonism and Jesus became EVERYTHING to me, that EVERYTHING changed in my life. I was having lunch with a dear LDS friend and former Bishop etc. and he actually said to me that “even Jesus knows He’s not enough” and then reminded me that the real point is that we will move beyond that and become God’s of our own worlds etc. It was like he was saying that Jesus is simply a means to our greater ends. I told him that was utter blasphemy and he got pretty offended.
When I sent my resignation to the membership department of the LDS church I explained that I was requesting my name to be removed from its records because I was now placing all of my hope and trust in the merit and finished work of Christ alone and that what I have found in Christ since leaving the church far exceeds anything I ever experienced while a member of the church. Jesus – and Him Crucified – has come to be EVERYTHING to me!! I find myself thinking about Him all of the time. I hunger and thirst for Him. I want to really, really know Him! I love anything and everything that will stir my affections for Him! He has become my Magnificent Obsession! Another LDS friend of mine recently told me that I was too obsessed with Jesus. I can only conclude from that remark that I must know an entirely different Jesus; and for that I will be eternally grateful!
Wilburson, praise God you have found the answer that every LDS is longing for . If they could
just remove all the church stuff and get alone with the New Testament , they could see Jesus
for who He is in a less filtered way and discover what is available from Him .
It was a blessing to read your above comments . It made my day .
I agree Wilburson– very uplifting.
I rejoice that you have come to know Christ. He’s simply amazing.
The LAST thing the leaders of the LDS church want a person to have is a personal relationship with the real Jesus because that person would discover that His Grace really IS sufficient; that He really IS enough, i.e. we DON’T need temples; we DON’T need an exclusive Priesthood; we DON’T need latter day “prophets and apostles” etc. The LDS church has too much at stake (including lots of $$!!!) to fully endorse such a relationship. I know thoses are harsh words, but this unfortunatley seems to be the case!
Wilburson said,
I find myself thinking about Him all of the time. I hunger and thirst for Him. I want to really, really know Him! I love anything and everything that will stir my affections for Him! He has become my Magnificent Obsession!
I say,
AMEN Brother, That is exactly the way I feel. I pray that He will take away everything that keeps my affections from being solely on him and his kingdom.
Your post made me long for eternity! Not because I’ll get to spend my time on something as petty as building my own world but because I’ll get to spend forever satisfying my “Magnificent Obsession!!!!!!”
The cool thing is that Jesus wants the same thing for me and you!!!!!
quote:
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
(John 17:24)
end quote:
How awesome is it to know that the Eternal Divine Son wants very much to give us our greatest desire!!!!!
peace
Thanks for that great scripture reference fifth monarchy man! I have read it many times, but in the light you just shed on it, it has now become one of my favorite verses!! What a glorious and beautiful truth!!!
Thanks also to MJP and Mike R for their comments!
Wilburson
“we DON’T need temples; we DON’T need an exclusive Priesthood; we DON’T need latter day “prophets and apostles” etc. The LDS church has too much at stake (including lots of $$!!!) to fully endorse such a relationship.”
They aren’t harsh words at all my friend; they’re simply the truth.
The LDS has roughly the same relationship with truth as a politician, i.e. they’ll speak it when it suits their purpose but most of the time it doesn’t. The primary objective of the LDS is to spread their business empire; the secondary objective is power & the control of peoples lives. Everything else including the Gospel of Christ falls a very distant third.
Now that’s Harsh 😉
Sorry, I left out the last part of your post so just to clarify what I said abounot being harsh, here it is.
“I know thoses are harsh words, but this unfortunatley seems to be the case!”