subgenius wrote:Obviously the peanut gallery failed to read and comprehend the blog link posted in the OP. The usual bandwagon of superfluous criticisms and armchair pontifications have once again fallen into the worn rut if the road to mediocrity. Soon Brigham Young will be dusted off and paraded around as a condemnation of the church. All style and no substance from the usual crowd of mudslingers. So, what of the articles of faith? Or the rather concise points from the OP link? Why no meaningful criticism for anything of value to church or member? Because their minds are as empty a their arguments.
You've posted three times in this topic, now, so what's your contribution? The OP asked: What teachings of the LDS church do you consider to be essential? In other words, what church teachings are so important – so foundational – that if you found out they weren’t true you’d probably leave the church?
Get us back on topic by answering the question, Richard.
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
Uncle Ed wrote:Nothing about the doctrines of the LDS faith are asserted to be exclusive...
Absolutely incorrect.
When Jesus lived on the earth, He established His Church, the only true Church. He organized His Church so the truths of the gospel could be taught to all people and the ordinances of the gospel could be administered correctly with authority. Through this organization, Christ could bring the blessings of salvation to mankind.
After the Savior ascended into heaven, men changed the ordinances and doctrines that He and His Apostles had established. Because of apostasy, there was no direct revelation from God. The true Church was no longer on the earth. Men organized different churches that claimed to be true but taught conflicting doctrines. There was much confusion and contention over religion. The Lord had foreseen these conditions of apostasy, saying there would be “a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. … They shall … seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it” (Amos 8:11–12).
•How does the famine spoken of in Amos 8:11–12 affect people?
The Lord Promised to Restore His True Church •What were some of the conditions in the world that prepared the way for the Restoration of the gospel?
The Savior promised to restore His Church in the latter days. He said, “I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder” (Isaiah 29:14).
For many years people lived in spiritual darkness. About 1,700 years after Christ, people were becoming more and more interested in knowing the truth about God and religion. Some of them could see that the gospel Jesus taught was no longer on the earth. Some recognized that there was no revelation and no true authority and that the Church that Christ organized did not exist on the earth. The time had arrived for the Church of Jesus Christ to be restored to the earth.
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
You're conflating doctrines with authority and revelation. "Spiritual darkness" means no authority or revelation, not the disappearance of surviving doctrines and concepts that happen to be largely true in and of themselves. All religions contain truths surviving from the past when they were first revealed by authority and revelation. Therefore, agreement with Mormon doctrines shows these surviving doctrine concepts to not be exclusive to Mormonism, and this is largely true of all its doctrines: they existed here and there in other religions prior to the advent of Mormonism....
A man should never step a foot into the field, But have his weapons to hand: He knows not when he may need arms, Or what menace meet on the road. - Hávamál 38
Uncle Ed wrote:You're conflating doctrines with authority and revelation.
How are statements from authority and revelations NOT doctrine.
"Spiritual darkness" means no authority or revelation, not the disappearance of surviving doctrines and concepts that happen to be largely true in and of themselves. All religions contain truths surviving from the past when they were first revealed by authority and revelation. Therefore, agreement with Mormon doctrines shows these surviving doctrine concepts to not be exclusive to Mormonism, and this is largely true of all its doctrines: they existed here and there in other religions prior to the advent of Mormonism....
You should really have read the link I provided...
Important Truths Were Restored •What important truths have been brought back with the Restoration of the Church? The Church today teaches the same principles and performs the same ordinances as were performed in the days of Jesus. The first principles and ordinances of the gospel are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost (see Articles of Faith 1:4). These precious truths were returned in their fulness when the Church was restored.
Through the gift and power of God, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, which contains the plain and precious truths of the gospel. Many other revelations followed and have been recorded as scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price (see chapter 10 in this book).
Other important truths that the Lord restored include the following:
1. Our Heavenly Father is a real being with a tangible, perfected body of flesh and bones, and so is Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. 2. We existed in premortal life as spirit children of God. 3. The priesthood is necessary to administer the ordinances of the gospel. 4. We will be punished for our own sins and not for Adam’s transgression. 5. Children do not need to be baptized until they are accountable (eight years old). 6. There are three kingdoms of glory in the heavens, and through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, people will be rewarded according to their actions on earth and according to the desires of their hearts. 7. Family relationships can be eternal through the sealing power of the priesthood. 8. Ordinances and covenants are required for salvation and are available for both the living and the dead.
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
Uncle Ed wrote:You're conflating doctrines with authority and revelation. "Spiritual darkness" means no authority or revelation, not the disappearance of surviving doctrines and concepts that happen to be largely true in and of themselves. All religions contain truths surviving from the past when they were first revealed by authority and revelation. Therefore, agreement with Mormon doctrines shows these surviving doctrine concepts to not be exclusive to Mormonism, and this is largely true of all its doctrines: they existed here and there in other religions prior to the advent of Mormonism....
Ha! Every word you used in the above paragraph had been used before. To make matters worse, except for Mormon, all were derivative from European root words!!!
moksha wrote:Ha! Every word you used in the above paragraph had been used before. To make matters worse, except for Mormon, all were derivative from European root words!!!
Just like some of them have Martian roots...
- 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