Roger Morrison wrote:Frank, when U speak of "the church" is that any church or specifically Mormon? Are you married? With children? LDS? TBM? Bi? Convert ???
What do you think of the Fall? Redemption? Original sin? The Genesis Creation Story? Enough for now:-)
Enjoy your day, best regards, Roger
There are many churches and they can indeed teach the gospel. But only one church will have the authority to perform the ordinances. At least that is my understanding. That comes from how the Temple was treated in the Old Testament. Now that the Helper (The Holy Ghost) is available in the world it is not surprising to me that there will be many Temples. But the original Temple will be rebuilt and it will be for the Jews. This to me is clear in scripture as well. The church or authority needed to be restored. It is appropriate that the church would be new and not one of the apostate churches already in existence. The treatment of the LDS by the other churches is an indication that the LDS church is doing things right. If they were not then it would be ignored.
The Fall is an interesting subject. I think that the plan of God needed to be carried out. So did Adam and Eve disobey God as part of God's plan knowingly? I have my doubts. But it would not surprise me to find they both as spirits took on the weak flesh so the fall would happen. In this way they knew in their spirit what to do but because of the veil they still acted in free will.
I am married. I became a Christian about six years ago. I became a Mormon one year ago.
Original sin makes no sense. Children are not able to sin until they know what they are doing. Even Paul said that the law was made so the Jews would know sin. So I have a problem with original sin. But in the flesh we all sin once we come of age. So you may look upon our choice to come here as accepting a sinful existence. To know sin or evil is to live it and live around it. Our choice of how we deal with sin is why we are here. Now there is yet another way of looking at this. We could say that as a result of the original sin we do sin. And there is scriptural support for this. The sins of a father will carry into future generations. Not as sin but the circumstances of birth will reflect an environment caused by the fathers sin.
1Ki 15:3 And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.
I think that walking in the sins is not the same as having the sin. More environmental or situational. I think that some misread this one.
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
I think the design of the world and the way families are made according to God's plan will have an effect in the following generations. But how many people actually hate God? One would have to believe in God first. I think this would be very rare indeed. But some think that God places sin on people. I think we place the sin on our self by our free will.
Redemption is the flip side of coming here to experience sin. On the one hand God said to come here and wallow in sin and be in a weak state so you will fall into sin. But He gives us an out to wipe away the sin and come back to Him. This is a simple view of our choice to come here and learn good from evil. The rewards are great but also the risk.
The stories in Genesis actually happened. Exactly how and when I sure don't know. They had to happen or the Plan of Salvation is just a story. This was done so that modern man would stumble. This is clearly laid out in 2 Peter 3.