TruthDancer wrote:I got to a point where I needed to follow what I believe is truth and holiness. I needed to live in accordance with what I consider the highest light of which I am capable, rather than remain in a situation where I was constantly feeling at odds with goodness and the ultimate unfolding of the universe.
(and you still haven't commented on the thread I refered you to - and today you are going to tell the choir what you already know they are expecting to hear)
Why doesn't the HG like a Bible bash?
Isn't it possible that pastor shook your little fishbowl a little?
Pretending to be bcspace........ CFR.
How does the Mormon faith make things simple? How does it tie doctrine together? The doctrine of the church is a tangled mess. No one really knows what is doctrine, when a prophet is a prophet or a man. The JSmith Bible conflicts the other doctrine, the Book of Abraham conflicts everything, the D&C conflicts with the Book of Mormon and on and on. It is a mass of confusion.
Unbelievers may of course translate "the Holy Ghost hates a Bible bash" into "if you discuss the Bible with informed non-LDS you may end up with the distressing feeling that their arguments are better than those you were taught by the CoJCoLDS".
I agree. I hold no brief for any religion nowadays, but one of the better points I recall C.S. Lewis making in favour of what he held to be the core doctrines of Christianity was that it did not look like the kind of religion that anyone would simply make up out of whole cloth: it had too many awkward and intellectually uncomfortable things about it. This he held to be evidence that it was a series of true facts about the way things worked, something discovered rather than invented.
The present-day doctrines of the LDS faith as set out by believers like Gazelam are praised by them for having the opposite feature: all questions are neatly answered, all anxieties explicitly soothed. There is a place for everybody, and all one has to do is to find one's place and act accordingly (of course I realise that the LDS faith is not the only one that offers believers that kind of comfort).
Later in my life I began to realize that the messages I received through revelation were not always accurate. I began to admit to myself that sometimes they were absolutely wrong.
As a TBM chapel Mormon, I spent a great deal of my efforts in emphasizing the importance of emulating the peace that is Christ's charity and to witness for ourselves what the Book of Mormon prophets described as singing the song of redeeming love (Alma 5:9-62) a manifestation I believe I had experienced throughout my life. This was the foundation of my hopes and beliefs.
A few years ago when I began to search the Mormon books to vindicate my heros, the door of inspiration literally slammed shut and even my dreams began to become increasingly darker and without instruction. Even after commiting to several consecutive days of painful fasting during the hot Arizona summer, the peace, assurance and confirmations never came. If somehow they would have come, I would have shelved my doubts and held on to any gift received. But whoever or whatever it was that passed information to me from beyond the veil (up to my 42nd year) had cut and run.
"Gazelam"
I can't find the exact quote, but Joseph once stated that there are different kinds of revelations, some are of the devil, some are of his own making, and some are of God. It is a persons duty to learn to distinguish between them. You had obviously reached that point and had some problems.
"Joseph looked into the hat in which he placed the stone, and received a revelation that some of the brethren should go to Toronto, Canada, and that they would sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon. Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery went to Toronto on this mission, but they failed entirely to sell the copyright, returning without any money. Joseph was at my father's house when they returned. I was there also, and am an eye witness to these facts. Jacob Whitmer and John Whitmer were also present when Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery returned from Canada."
" Well, we were all in great trouble; and we asked Joseph how it was that he had received a revelation from the Lord for some brethren to go to Toronto and sell the copyright, and the brethren had utterly failed in their undertaking. Joseph did not know how it was, so he enquired of the Lord about it, and behold the following revelation came through the stone: "Some revelations are of God: some revelations are of men: and some revelations are of the devil." So we see that the revelation to go to Toronto and sell the copyright was not of God, but was of the devil or of the heart of man."
- David Witmer, AN ADDRESS TO ALL BELIEVERS IN Christ, 1887
Gazelam wrote:inc wrote:As a TBM chapel Mormon, I spent a great deal of my efforts in emphasizing the importance of emulating the peace that is Christ's charity and to witness for ourselves what the Book of Mormon prophets described as singing the song of redeeming love (Alma 5:9-62) a manifestation I believe I had experienced throughout my life. This was the foundation of my hopes and beliefs.
I think I'm at that point now, that I am beginning to move from understanding laws and principles to trying to put them into operation through love and service. Trying to emulate the man behind the laws as opposed to just declaring the laws. Beign the person behind the principle instead of just teaching it.
I can't find the exact quote, but Joseph once stated that there are different kinds of revelations, some are of the devil, some are of his own making, and some are of God. It is a persons duty to learn to distinguish between them. You had obviously reached that point and had some problems.
What you say here also occurred to Joseph Smith. He spent a season where the Lord kind of left him on his own. "The heavens were sealed.." he said, and he was left on his own. This seems to me to be the part where God expects us to take what he has already given and work with it. God doesent want to have to tell us what to do all of the time. If we are to grow, then sometimes we need to fly on our own.
Its our responsibility to be true to the covenants we have made
Gazelam wrote:inc wrote:As a TBM chapel Mormon, I spent a great deal of my efforts in emphasizing the importance of emulating the peace that is Christ's charity and to witness for ourselves what the Book of Mormon prophets described as singing the song of redeeming love (Alma 5:9-62) a manifestation I believe I had experienced throughout my life. This was the foundation of my hopes and beliefs.
I think I'm at that point now, that I am beginning to move from understanding laws and principles to trying to put them into operation through love and service. Trying to emulate the man behind the laws as opposed to just declaring the laws. Beign the person behind the principle instead of just teaching it.