This below is from the old board. The topic is called: God's love is conditional in the Mormon church. Believe it or not. I found it on a random Google search(keep the posts coming!)

Here is from the old board:


"This quote is taken from the synopsis at the back. The entire article is on page 20 of the February 2003 Ensign, for those of you with the stomach for it.

DIVINE LOVE

"While divine love can be called perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, it cannot correctly be defined as UNCONDITIONAL (originally italicized)," writes Elder Russell M. Nelson. Yet "Jesus asked us to love one another as He has loved us. Is that possible? Can our love for others really approach divine love? Yes, it can!"



Okay, so, which is it? Perfect, infinite etc. or is it conditional? And if our love approaches divine love, then does that mean we should love one another conditionally? I don't think you can have it both ways can you? What sense is some poor TBM going to be able to make of that?

Makes about as much sense as everything else they teach."



And I can testify, people take this teaching to heart. To love like god(conditionally)! Excuse me while I go puke.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2011 12:45AM by anon123.

It's quite simple.

Those old men (the twelve) could never represent me or my god or how I feel about my family and life.

Octogenarian asswipes.

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13: 34 and 35

I wonder if MOST religious people even think about it anymore.

That verse and commandment ascribed by Jesus does not appear to be conditional to me. :)

Rebeckah... That's the old 'new command'... the new 'new command' is "Obey the guys that say they represent me; by this mindless obedience everyone will know you are mormon."

Seriously, this is one of the factors that helped me overcome my feelings about leaving after I had already reasoned myself out of the church.

I sat for years and years in Mormon church meetings, longing to hear about the pure love of Christ, but Love was never taught there. Love was never practiced there. In fact, Christ was not mentioned except at the end of a prayer. They used his name but did not practice his love.

I observed only petty gossip, social climbing, emotional manipulation, lies, false promises, threats and abuse, love-bombing and shunning. This lack of love depressed me.

Obedience, tithing, temple work for dead people, dress codes, and honoring the priesthood are the subjects of the Mormon lessons. I left the cult with no remorse, because I knew I wasn't leaving anything worthwhile.

Last year I bought the three volume set of Doctines of Salvation and nowhere does it say that Jesus died for us because of His love for us. Nowhere does it talk about divine love or coming to earth out of love. Why Jesus came to earth was to fulfill the Law making it possible for us to return to the Father. By doing this Jesus becomes the perfect example of obedience to the Father.

Jesus then, died only as a perfectly obedient sacrificial lamb. And God had to sacrifice His only begotten. Obedience and personal sacrifice. That really is all they teach. If you are obedient and sacrifice your time and talents and are doing your duty you'll be found on the right hand of God.

In the entire series, there is only one reference to Gods love and that is a quote from a popular hymn.

It was when I bought those books and others along with attending a new church, that the pieces all fell into place. As it turns out, the reason that my own deep held beliefs seemed out of place was because my faith had been hijacked by constant appeals to duty.

It's actually rather refreshing to have ones faith confirmed instead of put on the back burner to make room for the more pressing need to learn and conform to the latest everlasting policy.

Romans 5:8 - But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

This would lend one to believe he died for us even though we weren't worthy of it. That seems pretty unconditional to me, and pretty loving as well.

You are me, forestpal. sheez. I am sooooo glad I'm not the only one in the world to see that. I truly feel like I am not alone. One time the pianist in relief society stood up in front of us all and talked about the love of Christ for us, and she cried. CRIED! I left shaken. Her crying was sorrow, like she KNEW something wasn't there that should be there. I wonder what ever happened to her. She is probably still there playing the piano.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2011 01:03PM by suckafoo.

Like the song my mom wrote and is sung for hyms for Sai Baba about how God is love and since God is in everything love is in everything

Mormonism is constantly dangling the carrot of approval and love in order to keep the believers moving forward (backward, actually). If Mormonism said, "Don't worry, you're fine, you're loved," then there would be far fewer reasons to do all the crap the church demands.

So when the leaders say on one hand that divine love is conditional, yet, on the other hand, say we should all love one another with divine love, it makes perfect sense. They're setting up another condition for approval. "Do you love everyone with divine love? No? Then you're not good enough yet."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2011 09:23AM by Stray Mutt.

Yet another reason why I take anything a GA says with a grain of salt as big as Mount Everest!

http://i4m.com/think/leaders/conditional_love.htm

Nice article on the evolution of unconditional to conditional