The Decreasing Importance of Priesthood Power

[_Tobin]

When limbs lost are actually restored (as I am more than sure even God himself would find quite reasonable on the surface of it) and wheel-chair bound folks whose lives are so obviously detrimentally affected through whatever cripples them, are raised up to walk, run, enjoy their lives and testify of the "real" power that has occurred.....I say, until that day when coincidences are fundamentally ruled out because of the obvious use of God's power for good, and the priesthood is once again used for the good of God's children, there will always be doubt about the mere claim of possessing God's own power. God anciently actually gave over 5,000 people a free lunch of fish and bread (gee, why didn't he just simply pass that power onto them and allow them to eradicate ALL hunger in their country, now THAT would have glorified him a bit eh?), but these days we are constantly being told that it is NOT for the world to see such sacred events. Either God has changed, or we actually don't possess that which is claimed.

Exactly Philo. These pretenders have no such authority or if they did, it would be manifest already no question. I feel the same as you do about it.

[_Drifting]

Either God has changed, or we actually don't possess that which is claimed.

This.

[_consiglieri]

If you know anyone that has the priesthood power for these occasional raisings, it would really make for a magical holiday season for me.

The moral of the Monkey Paw forbids I volunteer.

[_consiglieri]

Priesthood has become all about image, the image of being holier than the wicked world. Considering that anciently Yahweh did everything in his power to SHOW he was in power, and compared to today's interpretation that these things are "too sacred" to share with the world (WTF?!?), we can see that priesthood is image and ego. They just love to sit up in their high seats facing the congregations looking down upon them from their stations of exaltation in power and authority. It's mere eye wash these days.

I have to admit it sounds a lot like the religious leadership railed against by Jesus.

[_consiglieri]

When limbs lost are actually restored (as I am more than sure even God himself would find quite reasonable on the surface of it) and wheel-chair bound folks whose lives are so obviously detrimentally affected through whatever cripples them, are raised up to walk, run, enjoy their lives and testify of the "real" power that has occurred.....I say, until that day when coincidences are fundamentally ruled out because of the obvious use of God's power for good, and the priesthood is once again used for the good of God's children, there will always be doubt about the mere claim of possessing God's own power. God anciently actually gave over 5,000 people a free lunch of fish and bread (gee, why didn't he just simply pass that power onto them and allow them to eradicate ALL hunger in their country, now THAT would have glorified him a bit eh?), but these days we are constantly being told that it is NOT for the world to see such sacred events. Either God has changed, or we actually don't possess that which is claimed.

I would be satisifed if we heard stories at General Conference of blessings for people who actually were healed.

Instead, President Eyring recently invoked a laugh when asked to go to bless a man with terminal cancer lonly to find him ying on his bed with all his work clothes on, including his shoes.

When President Eyring asked him why he was dressed, the man said because after the blessing he was going to get up and go to work.

The laughter that greeted this line, and the fact it was obviously calculated to be a laugh line, indicate that not only are miracles in short supply in the Mormon Church, they really aren't even expected anymore.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_SteelHead]

I think the ole standby of faith promoting rumors are another casualty of the verification of happenings via the interweb.

[_Sethbag]

Truer words were never spoken, Consig. They really aren't expected anymore.

I expected them when I was young. I took it seriously. I think I've told you about the time I tried to walk on water (as a teenager), and that old lady on my mission whom I laid hands on and commanded to be whole (she suffered from excrutiating, debilitating back pain). I think it would actually work, literally, just the like the stories in the Bible described.

by the way, when I mentioned these events on MAD a few months ago, I was told by all the usual TBM suspects that I screwed up by not understanding the priesthood and how it really works, and I shouldn't ever have expected to heal that woman on my mission by exercising my priesthood, ie: the authority to act in God's name.

[_consiglieri]

It is amazing the lengths we go to nowadays to avoid even the expectation that a miracle will actually occur through priesthood power.

Whenever a lesson is given in priesthood about blessings, the general consensus is that we need to always put in wiggle words such as "if God wills it," because we wouldn't want to be doing anything contrary to God's will, God forbid. I think we want to give God all the caveats and quid pro quos we can so we give him an out when nothing happens.

My take on it is different. I figure why are we giving blessings to have God's will done? I mean, isn't God's will going to be done anyway?

The only way priesthood blessings make any sense to me is if we are trying to change what would happen without the blessing--or in other words to alter God's will.

That's why I always go whole hog whenever I give a blessing.

No. That isn't completely true. Although I don't put in those particular wiggle words, I have to admit I do leave God some time to heal people. Like if they are sick, I don't go all the way and say to be healed right now, this instant!

I think my faith my have some room for improvement.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_Chap]

Ahem.

The following story is widely attributed to the 16th Catholic writer Cornelius a Lapide:

Thomas Aquinas once called on Pope Innocent II when the latter was counting out a large sum of money. “You see, Thomas,” said the Pope, “the church can no longer say, ‘Silver and gold have I none.’” “True, holy father,” was the reply; “neither can she now say, ‘Rise and walk.’”

Looks like it's happened again. doesn't it?

Or perhaps Aquinas was having doubts because of a secret porn habit, or something.

[Anonymous]

I went and found the MAD thread from a few months ago. Here's a link to one of Kemara's reply to me.

Sethbag you obviously didn’t take the Priesthood seriously, certainly not seriously enough to take personal responsibility in gaining a true understanding of it, its mechanics and its laws. If you did you would have known that your attempt at sign seeking was doomed to failure before it began.

...

No experience that you have shared bares this out. You did not exercise the Priesthood in the way the scriptures described it, where in the scriptures does it state that a Priesthood holder can walk on water for the purposes of whimsical sign seeking? Your ignorance of the Priesthood and its mechanics and laws is the only thing that let you down. Your personal responsibility in gaining a true understanding of the Priesthood is the only thing that didn’t work.

...

So you say, so you believe, but the stories you have told do not support this position. You routinely fall back on what you were taught in Sunday school, or in sacrament or from your family while growing up as support for you error ridden views on what to expect, all I can say is so what? Your ignorance is your fault and your ignorance on something as plain and as simple as sign seeking really brings into question your claim of doing everything to the best of your ability.

So there you have it. When I attempted to walk on water because I felt I needed to in order to demonstrate to myself that I actually believed such things could work, I was just childishly sign-seeking. When I attempted to heal that woman on my mission by commanding her to be whole I was apparently just childishly sign-seeking, didn't understand how the priesthood is supposed to function, wasn't acting according to the way the scriptures really say the priesthood is to be used, etc. It's all my fault that that blessing didn't work. It couldn't be that the "priesthood power" is really a sham.