Most Mormons don't really use the bible for anything other than to collect dust-They don't trust it that much (for good reason)....so they readily dismiss anything doctrinally from that book if it contradicts their supergod made up BOM.
Seriously, who really believes that the bible is any better than the BOM or any other man made religious book?
A common feature of cults is to diminish or disregard Christianity. The founder, be it JS, L Ron Hubbard, Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science), Sun Myung Moon, or others, realizes that his belief system contradicts the Bible and Christ.
So they have to "correct," or "complete," or "interpret," or "restore" the "true gospel/church/doctrine/mystery/whatever that has been lost, yea, these last 2000 or so years. That means re-writing the Bible, radically interpreting it with strange and exotic symbolic interpreatations, or cherry picking those scattered verses they find useful.
Other portions (and there are usually lots) which contradict them --such as that escellent verse from Acts you found, pigsinzen-- are simply ignored.
Orange, I for one accept the Bible as true. That's another thread, of course, but it's possible to exit a cult (mine was Christian Science) and eventually develop a healthy religiosity and faith in God. Here's to ya!
Abraham never existed. Moses never existed. The Exodus is as big a lie as anything Joey Smith said.
Heres a fact you can test for yourself. People don't die and come back to life. Don't believe me then try it yourself. Jump off a building. Make sure you splat really good to make sure you are truly dead. Then, rise from the dead. If you can't do it then the bible is full of $hit.
Science is your friend.
If you can do the mental gymnastics it takes to convince yourself the bible is true then you should have no problem believing in moronism.
caffiend Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Orange, I for one accept the Bible as true. > That's another thread, of course,
Indeed; whether traditional Christianity is true or not is kind of beside the point. The point is that it is a fairly ready made structure that Smith (and others) have piggybacked on (restoration, etc) to launch their own religions. Restored gospel? Sure. But blatant inconsistencies are conveniently swept under the rug. It's a matter of having and eating cake, really.
If I were ever to start a cult I'd try to come across as a restoration of Mormonism from the apostasy of TCoJCoLDS. Even if you only took 1% of them you'd have a nice startup. And the cog dis is already baked in.
The only portions of the Bible I find inspiring are the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as they deal directly with what Jesus Christ taught. Not so much his miracles, but his teachings on how we should live our lives, the way we should behave.
I find a great many of his teachings resonate with me and have improved my life and my relationships with my family and friends.
However, I also find a great deal of truth in Buddhist philosophy, which I find compatible with Christ's teachings.
I had to do away with the OT, ie genocide, war, slavery, misogyny, and racism. Not to mention the 10 commandments were not original. They were present in Egypt written on the walls there and pretty much believed all around the area.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2013 03:17AM by alphonso.
Unfortunately, rather than proof that the two are separately physical entities, standing at the right hand means to stand approved or to sit at the place of honor.
Modern revelation supersedes ancient revelation. The Mormon cult was founded by a Prophet of God. It has always been lead by a true Prophet of God. The Prophet has spoken; the thinking has been done.
The BOM is the Word of God. If something in the Bible contradicts Mormonism, well, we are taught to believe the Bible "as long as it is translated correctly."
My children and I left Mormonism, because it is not Christianity. In some ways, it is the opposite of Christianity. It is possible to leave Joseph Smith's church of Polygamy and still believe in Christianity. It works for us.
The existence of temples in a supposedly Christian religion always bothered me. Jesus dies on the cross, the temple is destroyed by god. Check.
Okay, if that's the case, and 'the final sacrifice' has been made, thus eliminating the need for the temple, then why build a bunch of them?
Apart from that, all the stuff that went on inside the jerusalem temple when it was operational has nothing to do with what Mormons are doing their temples at all. They don't even bother to construct them in the same or similar designs, being that the design was so integral to the functionality of the Jerusalem temple. So either they're using an abridged bible to design temples, or the more likely scenario, they're just making it up as they go along.
Something else that always irked me to no end: in 2 chronicles, David is all about building a temple to god, but god basically tells him to go build his own house and take care of his own life first. Why then is there such an enormous push to serve the Borg over your family? I mean, Mormons are all about David and Solomon and all of those old guys, but they don't seem to have read much on them.
If you check the Bible you won't be able to find the spot where God said he wanted a temple.
God asked for a tabernacle not a temple.
David wanted to build God a temple because he had built himself a palace. God said he never asked for a temple but would allow it to be built, but not by David. He let Solomon build it.
Again, God didn't even ask for the first temple let alone all these other supposed Mormon mini temples.
I did go looking, and you are correct. God doesn't seem to be really big on the temple thing... I still don't see why they put out those crappy DVDs about how they're renewing the Jewish Temple Ordinances, blah blah blah... but I'm fairly certain that nowhere in my Torah do any of the priests in the temple exchange secret handshakes through a polyester curtain...been looking for that one...
I think its interesting that none of the Mormon stuff they do in their temples was done in Solomon's temple except they fixed the vail that was ripped when Jesus died and put it back up.
For regular Christians the torn vail signifies that because of Jesus's death on the cross there is no longer a vail or barrier between us and God. The mormons put that barrier back up and added secret words and handshakes to get through it.
For anyone interested, I'll look for an official lds statement regarding this scripture. To be honest, this was a verse which also bugged me when I was a tbm.
The footnotes don't help, first of all, and only mutually references Acts 17:24. Hm. Also interestingly, the NT Institute manual never even mentions Acts 7:48 or 17:24. A quick search of lds.org didn't leave me with anyone offering any sort of statement clarifying this verse.. So nothing official, to my knowledge. It doesn't fit with lds belief, so throw it out and ignore it. It's simply not a useful truth.
Yup, still no solution.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2013 10:32AM by msp.
The temple is one of the more comical things that Mormons do. Since you can now watch the whole temple ceremony online, I make sure that when I speak to people about Mormonism they watch the temple videos. It is the best anti-mormon stuff ever besides for Joseph Smith.
Anagrammy, I know we're on different religious tracks, but you're spot-on. A temple is a place where there is intercession between God (or a people's gods) and the congregation of worshipers. The New Testament says, "There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 2.5).
King David was a very mixed bag. He was especially righteous in his younger period and the early part of his reign. But as his kingdom expanded, he tolerated more pagan elements. Many Old Testament commentators have pointed out that he hit the skids as he acquired wives and concubines. This was especially true of Solomon. When you stop to think of it, it applies also to JS. Until polygammy, his was just a minor crackpot sect. But something this evil, this controversial, this damning necessitated ever-increasing layers of power, doctrine, and deceit.
Anyway, all the sacrifices and things were part of the Old Testament covenant. Christ's death is the final and complete sacrifice. Priests came from the tribe of Levi, not Aaron or Joseph/Benjamin.
If I may offer 2 corrections: prostitution was strictly pagan -- along with child sacrifice. And it's the ARK of the Covenant. ("Ark' = vessel)
pigsinzen Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet - Acts 7:48, KJV
The inscription above the entrance to the Idaho Falls Temple, where I received my endowment in 1952, is a quotation from Habbakuk 2:20:
"The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him."