I'm Teaching GD Class Next Sunday

[_Polygamy-Porter]

*consiglieri bishop's phone rings, caller ID from Provo Utah.

[_Jason Bourne]

Oh, by the way, Consig, you are accountable to your Savior, Redeemer, and ultimate judge for this kind of thing.

Just thought I should remind you, before you put yet another millstone around your neck.

Yes Droop he judges not you.

And thus we see moreof the fruits of the spirit, more of charity-the PURE LOVE of Christ-coming from one claiming to be in line with the gospel he claims to that he accuratly represents.

[_consiglieri]

Awesome!
I'm sure the ward will love hearing from you again. Wish I could be there.

Thanks, M&G! Great to see you!

I will try to post some comments regarding the lesson as I have time to write them down.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_Franktalk]

I have given several lessons in the high Priest group. I never followed the lesson plan. Also the Bishopric would show up when I gave a lesson. Let me say that many are thirsty for an honest message from the heart not the head. From what you have written so far it appears to come from the head. These chapters show how God loves us, step back from the detail and see why God has law and why there is justice and mercy. To me it seems that you may be falling into a trap. Let us say that you walk into a museum and the guide is talking about the glue with holds the display cases together instead of the history of the artifacts. Don't be that guide.

I would start by saying that God loves us and has a plan for us. Then I would talk about how souls learn and how souls need to experience mistakes so we can learn. Then I would frame the chapters to show how God knowing we need to fall and be brought back has provided a path for us to do that very thing. But that is me and that is what I would do. I wish you the best of luck in your presentation.

[_Drifting]

I would start by saying that God loves us and has a plan for us. Then I would talk about how souls learn and how souls need to experience mistakes so we can learn.

When a class member puts their hand up and asks "what was Gods plan for those children that went to the cinema in Denver and ended up getting shot" what will be your response?

[_Tarski]

Just make sure that everything you teach is not what the Church teaches those verses mean and is not apropos to the plain meaning of the text itself.

Plain meaning?? LOL

Anyone who honestly reads the Book of Mormon (especially King Benjamin's sermon) will realize that your version of the gospel is far from the plain meaning of the text.
There is no promotion of masonic or mason-like rituals in the Book of Mormon.
There are no super-primate notions of God in the Book of Mormon.
No Kolob and no notion of celestial polygamy or men becoming Gods.
There is no condemnation of government as such nor any clear promotion of free market ideology.
No glorification of profiteering or idolizing of the entrepreneur and certainly no glorification of wealth or capital (personally, I am free to ignore all of this since I don't accept the Book of Mormon).
Indeed, the Book of Mormon wholly lacks any Droopy-esque remaking of Jesus in the image of Ayn Rand (the latter representing nearly the polar opposite of Christ's message and precisely the polar opposite of King Benjamin's message).

In fact, one can study the Mormon scriptures honestly for years and come only to the conclusion that, were it true, God cares very little about anything that Droopy rants about.

[_krose]

I would start by saying that God loves us and has a plan for us. Then I would talk about how souls learn and how souls need to experience mistakes so we can learn.

When a class member puts their hand up and asks "what was Gods plan for those children that went to the cinema in Denver and ended up getting shot" what will be your response?

Yes, the plan for them was pretty awesome, but it doesn't hold a candle to the loving plan he has for the starving children in Africa with the flies on their faces, or the kids who are kept for years as sex slaves. It's good to know there is a plan, and that these kids are now able to learn from their mistakes that landed them in these predicaments.

[_Droopy]

You're just reminding me that you're a self-righteous, pompous asshole.

Jaw dropping irony, really.

[_consiglieri]

I would start by saying that God loves us and has a plan for us. Then I would talk about how souls learn and how souls need to experience mistakes so we can learn. Then I would frame the chapters to show how God knowing we need to fall and be brought back has provided a path for us to do that very thing. But that is me and that is what I would do. I wish you the best of luck in your presentation.

I appreciate your suggestions.

One of my problems with the manual on this lesson is that it uses these chapters to talk about the plan of salvation with the premortal existence all the way through the three degrees of glory. This is something that can happen when we deal with what we think the text should be saying rather than what it is actually saying.

There is nothing here about the premortal existence and nothing about the three degrees of glory. This is a correlated excuse to not actually deal with what the Book of Mormon does say.

My goal is to teach the Book of Mormon, not correlated Mormonism using the Book of Mormon as a pretext.

I find the Book of Mormon has a lot to say if we will stop imposing our beliefs on it.

(I know that is not what you were suggesting; I am just bringing this up here because your post made me think of it.)

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

P.S. When the GD teacher showed me the manual with the customary circles showing the different stages of existence, including the three vertical circles showing the kingdoms, I told her I think it helpful to draw them as follows--I then drew the celestial kingdom circle, then the terrestrial kingdom circle inside it; then the telestial kingdom circle inside that.

It was her jaw that dropped, Droopy.

[_zeezrom]

My goal is to teach the Book of Mormon, not correlated Mormonism using the Book of Mormon as a pretext.

I find the Book of Mormon has a lot to say if we will stop imposing our beliefs on it.

I wish I belonged to a book club made up of people that approach the books the way you approach the Book of Mormon.