1. Do you believe in God, the Eternal Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost; and do you have a firm testimony of the restored gospel?
2. Do you sustain the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the prophet, seer, and revelator; and do you recognize him as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys?
3. Do you sustain the other General Authorities and the local authorities of the Church?
Anyone who cannot answer in the affirmative to these questions, should not have a temple recommend.
Ray A wrote:Here are the first three TR questions:
1. Do you believe in God, the Eternal Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost; and do you have a firm testimony of the restored gospel?
2. Do you sustain the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the prophet, seer, and revelator; and do you recognize him as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys?
3. Do you sustain the other General Authorities and the local authorities of the Church?
Anyone who cannot answer in the affirmative to these questions, should not have a temple recommend.
harmony wrote:What are you insinuating, Ray? Just spell it out.
I'm insinuating nothing.
What occurs between you and your bishop is your business, and his, not mine. If he knows your views, and you've been totally honest with him, and he gave you a recommend, and based his judgement on what you told him, then that is your business. I would like to know where you stand on those questions, out of curiosity, but that's something you don't need to discuss if you don't want to. As far as I can tell, you don't fully support the leaders, nor sustain the exclusive nature of the questions, but maybe you worked something out with your bishop.
harmony wrote:What are you insinuating, Ray? Just spell it out.
I'm insinuating nothing.
What occurs between you and your bishop is your business, and his, not mine. If he knows your views, and you've been totally honest with him, and he gave you a recommend, and based his judgement on what you told him, then that is your business. I would like to know where you stand on those questions, out of curiosity, but that's something you don't need to discuss if you don't want to. As far as I can tell, you don't fully support the leaders, nor sustain the exclusive nature of the questions, but maybe you worked something out with your bishop.
I sustain my leaders when they lead. I see precious little of that. I am not required to support them.
harmony wrote:I sustain my leaders when they lead. I see precious little of that. I am not required to support them.
If you have been totally honest with your bishop, then it's his call. I have given TRs to people who I felt didn't have strong beliefs, and didn't fully support leaders, but they were otherwise living the Gospel. I even protested the threatened excommunication of a lady who was definitely a heretic in regard to authority. I think people have to "work things out", and pulling the excommunication lever, or denying TRs too prematurely can be counterproductive. People can be in rebellion at certain things in Mormonism, but still basically believers. I would give leeway there, but for constant, open criticism, I would ask why they want to remain members if the Church makes them so unhappy, and always cantankerous about issues. And I would question their sympathies - is it more (generally) with Mormonism, or the critics of Mormonism?
Ray A wrote:Here are the first three TR questions:
1. Do you believe in God, the Eternal Father, in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost; and do you have a firm testimony of the restored gospel?
2. Do you sustain the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the prophet, seer, and revelator; and do you recognize him as the only person on the earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys?
3. Do you sustain the other General Authorities and the local authorities of the Church?
Anyone who cannot answer in the affirmative to these questions, should not have a temple recommend.
Well praise the Lord and pass the Captain Morgan. Now, my point (and I posted a host of TR questions before, which went answered by Harmony on the basis that...well, she wasn't going to answer them) is that Harmony would probably not have any problem with the first.
The second and third, however, are sticky wickets.
The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance.
On second thought, God, being God The Father, and living within a Patriarchal order, and very probably having numerous eternal companions and creating, in concert with them, vast concourses if spirit sons and daughters...
Perhaps Harmony would have some serious problems with question number one.
The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance.
Its really quite simple: look at a list of the fundamental doctrines and teachings, central to the Church and its truth claims, ...
Its really quite simple: show us that list, please! (If there is an existing one ... )
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei