I visited a Community of Christ service where the sermon topic was the Holy Spirit. Lots of reflection on what the Holy Spirit is - and where it is. The speaker declared that the Holy Spirit is "everywhere, including on another planet."

Was that a reference to Kolob? Would visitors think instead of Matt Damon in "The Martian?" My mind immediately landed on Kolob - because of all I have learned here from you all.

[The closing statement was read from Doctrines and Covenants...but there were no copies available and no reference to Joseph Smith nor the LDS church...]

Per the speaker, the Holy Spirit is even in ALL people, baptized or not, Christian or not....now that's something I'd never considered before!

IMO: the "Holy Spirit" is a meme, in the original sense that it was intended (Christopher Hitchens? Richard Dawkins? Somebody look it up). It is an idea that somehow has found a place in the human psyche and is very difficult to get rid of. It has no basis in anything approaching demonstrability. If you want to equate it with Jung's Collective Unconscious idea, be my guest, but before you do you need to have a clear grasp of what Jung meant. Even Jung seems to change the meaning. Does he mean an evolutionary-based inherited set of synaptic pathways that lead all humans along similar thought patterns? Does he mean a shared, pantheistic cosmic communication system? He went both ways. But as for a cosmic force primarily accessible via profession of a belief in the saving efficacy of the death of Jesus, I think you are on shaky ground.

IMO.

Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene (1976)

...maybe, but there seems to be less and less deep-connective ties w/LDS ideology. They acknowledge the ties, but have chosen to move on from the craziness. What is curious, is that the RLDS/CoC still has a large portfolio of the original JS documental and artifact collection. I live close to the CoC op and visit it periodically. I think they have a better collection of......stuff. Plus, their temple is more cool. They seem much more harmless and easier to deal with than LDS. Not saying I'm signing up. But more interesting...….go figure.

Probably not as Mormons would understand Kolob. The RLDS/Community of Christ never accepted the Pearl of Great Price as scripture the way the Brighamites did.

I don't think most Christians would even know what Kolob was.

I checked out the CoC website. The mainstream evolution of the LDS church. They look progressive and pretty much blend in with normal churches. They have fair race representation among their presidents and one is even female. Bet they'd welcome Kate Kelly with open arms haha. Looks like they actually care about improving the world, not just paying lip service for PR credit. I saw Nauvoo, Kirkland, etc. on there. Bet it'd be a weird meeting between the two lds groups. I could see CoC being easygoing about sharing Nauvoo, but TBMs scoffing or not knowing what to make of them.

This group is very socially aware, big into Social Justice. The tragedy at the Texas high school got as much mention (a lot, by several speakers) as the stirring Bishop Curry sermon at the Royal Wedding (also positively interpreted by multiple folk).

Does this group being a bit less "crazy" than big-bad-SLC-mormonism make up for their founder being a con-man and lech, their acceptance of the demonstrably-false BoM* as "scripture," and their attempts to hide JS' history (specifically with polygamy)?


*"We affirm the Bible as the foundational scripture for the church. In addition, Community of Christ uses the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants—not to replace the witness of the Bible or improve on it, but because they confirm its message that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God."

http://www.cofchrist.org/basic-beliefs



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2018 01:25PM by ificouldhietokolob.