No disrespect to any Mormon out there because my belief (Christianity) in the end may be right or wrong just as well as the Mormon belief. What concerns me is the basis of their belief. I understand that it is very easy to believe the devil slash fallen men may have altered the bible to make some of it not true therefor justifying Joseph smith and his teaching. But there are very clear verses in the bible that say there is no god but me and no god after me. so i don't really understand where they get the idea from a man who was "divinely inspired" that its OK to believe in something that has multiple Gods. or where you can become a god your self by living the correct life style. its just confusing to me. So maybe someone with a better grasp of the religion can enlighten me? I'm not trying to disprove anything only trying to get some answers
Ever see water boy? Where he is always saying 'mama says this or that'. We believe what we are taught, especially what parents teach us. We are little the ms, just like them but smaller versions. Children learn by example and teachings, mostly by example and copy parents well.
They are taught this.
The bible says this too, and how do they get around it?
Matthew 4:4
Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "
Jesus says to live on every word from the mouth of God (the bible is God's word) and the word comes from the mouth. Meaning the bible comes from the mouth of God and is his word. It does not say to add other books to this. It says to live on just the word of God, not another book. Just the word of God.
bless you and pray for them.
When Jesus was accused of blasphemy, he quoted scripture that expressed a belief in multiple Gods (John 10:34). The bigger question, is why a Christian wouldn't believe Christ...
Ask this question at the above mentioned link, and a representative of THE Church Of JESUS CHRIST Of Latter Day Saint, would be glad to assist you.
Also this a good question to ask your local LDS Missionaries. They will come to your home, upon your request, and delve into such far ranging questions as this.
To answer your question, the answer is this:
The LDS Church believes that people should be as righteous as they can be, and they should live as many of the commandments of Jesus Christ as they can.
Everyone lives and everyone dies. Everyone will be judged according to their works, and thoughts, in this life.
It is Jesus Christ who will judge you after you are dead. Jesus Christ is a perfect judge.
The more righteous you are, the higher in Heaven that you will go. God is perfectly just. That is just the way it is. The greater the Good Samaritan you are, the more clout you will have in the afterlife. Simple.
To avoid Outer Darkness, which is the Devil's Kingdom, you need to repent of all of your sins. If you don't repent of every single sin in this life, you will have time in the Spirit World to make a rectification of any sin in your personae. If you do NOT, you will have plenty of time to do this in the Spirit World. Then if you don't, then you will be forced to go with the Devil and his Angels for eternity into Outer Darkness.
However if you do finally get it together and repent of all of your sins, in the Spirit World, or in this life, then you will go to Heaven.
Heaven has many different levels. A person who murders, but then repents, will go to the Telestial Heaven, which is the lowest Heaven, if they had sufficient knowledge, prior to their crime that is wrong. King David murdered the husband of Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, and then Bathsheba became one of King David's wife.
Since King David had prior knowledge that murder was wrong, and because of the intrinsic seriousness of the sin of murder, King David was from that point consigned to the Telestial Heaven no matter what else he ever did. If King David does repent completely, then he will not go to the Telestial Heaven, the lowest Heaven, if he does not repent completely, he will go to Outer Darkness instead.
So therefor, you want to be as righteous as you can for three reasons.
A) so that you don't go to Spirit Prison.
B) so that you will have an opportunity to go to the highest level of Heaven that you are worthy of according to the judgment and calculation of Jesus Christ.
C) so that you won't go to Outer Darkness because you become so attached to a certain sin, regardless of what it is, that all that the Devil has to do is offer you your sin for eternity, and you will agree to give him your soul, and thus be consigned to go to Outer Darkness for Eternity.
There is no sin in Heaven, even the lowest Heaven the Telestial Heaven. So therefor the sooner that you repent, the better. Because no unclean thing can enter in to the Kingdom of God.
There is no free pass. There is no saving by Grace, without faith and works.
If the commandments of Jesus Christ are not lived voluntarily, then there are consequences, and those consequences are eternal consequences for Eternity.
If you repent of all of your sins, and live the commandments, and fast and pray... and meditate on the scriptures on a daily basis, and you are courageous in following what Jesus Christ says to do, and how Jesus Christ says to live, and you are the good Samaritan, then there is no reason that you could not go to the Celestial Heaven, which is the highest Heaven.
The Celestial Heaven is a very exalted place. The Terestial Heaven is exalted but not as much as the Celestial Heaven. The Telestial Heaven is the lowest Heaven. Outer Darkness is not a Heaven, it is the Kingdom of the Devil, and it is a completely evil and sad place.
The Celestial Heaven has many levels in it. The highest level of the Celestial Heaven is the highest Heaven that there is.
Jesus Christ dwells in the highest level of the Celestial Heaven.
If you are sufficiently righteous in this life, than you can get into the Celestial Heaven. To get to the tip top of the Celestial Heaven, in addition to being perfectly righteous, then you must also be married.
Only exalted Angels who are married can raise spirit Children. By the way there is no such thing as sex in Heaven...
Spirit Children will then be allowed to one day get a body, just like you and me. On a Planet just like this one, perhaps in this Universe, perhaps in another Universe.
Perfect integrity is the foundation of perfect ethics. Perfect ethics is the foundation of perfection creation. To create perfectly, both perfect masculinity and perfect femininity is required.
Those who are perfect are given all that God has. All that God has is a Multi-Verse.
So the rewards for being the Good Samaritan are very great.
We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly. That does not mean we believe parts of the Bible are wrong. Mostly it's that a lot of things were left out.
At one point, Paul points out that there ARE many gods and lords, both in heaven and on earth (real vs. false). But, FOR US, there is ONLY ONE God, our Heavenly Father, and only ONE Lord, Jesus Christ.
Paul also said, twice, that we can be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. To me, an heir is someone who inherits everything from the other person. We can be as God is, whatever that entails. What it does NOT mean, however, is that we are gods over each other, or that we are equal to God or that God ceases to be our God. It's kind of like, when you become a parent, it does not mean that your parents cease being your parents, or that you are now your own parents, or your parents' parents, etc.
If you go to our web site, instead of the anti-Mormon web sites that I suspect you have seen, you might be able to sort it out better.
The Bible isn't as clear cut on this as you're making it sound. There are many references to "Gods". Additionally we are told in the Bible that we can become "like God" just as Christ has become "like God".
Gratefully we have modern prophets, revelation, and additional books of scripture that can be used to more accurately understand and interpret the Bible.
1 Samuel 2:1-2:
My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high.... There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides You; there is no Rock like our God.
Their basis of God is Joseph Smith's version of "a" god for us earthlings. When they see verses like the one above, Mormonism teaches it as, there are no other gods --- FOR US, on this earth. Every universe has its own god who they claim was once a human being, exalted by living a perfect life by acceptance of some council of unknown like-gods, not found anywhere in the bible. Each has their own spirit sons who mirrors our "Jesus". A bizarre concept to Christian believers, that any "man" besides Jesus Christ could ever be perfect! Jesus Himself says no other born of this earth can ever be as perfect as He. Did Jesus lie? Let it never be said!
I assume since Joseph Smith considered Jesus is the perfect Lamb necessary for Salvation, then perhaps he developed this LDS-held man-god theory based on that fact he couldn't find a way to dismiss such so easily. There are a host of bible verses the LDS misrepresents when it comes to the Christian's definition of God. For each one, Mormonism has an illogical to us answer for. It makes sense to them, though, but the rest of us sit scratching our heads in confusion. We ask, where exactly do they get the basis for that belief?.... But that's not what the Bible--and God says about Himself, we counter.... Oh, but the bible is wrong and the book of Mormon is right, we hear. Therein lies their basis. It all points back to Joseph Smith. Take him out of the equation, Mormonism evaporates into thin air.
Personally, I don't care for the LDS belief system. There seems to be so much uncertainty within it. When you preface a belief system upon a collection of words, then claim that word collection might be not quite right, how can you have a truly firm foundation for any developed theories, let alone faith in an unchanging, Holy God?
Because the Bible backs up our beliefs. & No, the Catholic Church is not the true church. If you read the Bible you'll actually see the Catholic Church is the church talked about with devilish doctrines.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also commonly called "Mormons" by many people). I am a practicing Mormon because I have prayed to God to know whether this Church is His Church, and He has communicated to me by His Holy Spirit that the Mormon Church is His Church. I have read (numerous times) the Book of Mormon and prayed about its truthfulness and received the same answer from Heavenly Father.
Well, that's the short answer to your question. The doctrine of Mormonism teaches all men and women how to be truly happy (i.e. lasting happiness that goes beyond death). We believe that because of Jesus Christ, all men and women will live after death and can overcome the consequences of our sins. We also invite all men and women to bring all the good they have and see if we can add to your happiness. We do not compel or force others to believe how we believe, but because of the value of what we have we have an obligation to share what we have.
I hope this answer helps you better understand what the Mormon Church is all about. Please visit Mormon.org and Newsroom.lads.org for more information.
You are buying into what your preacher has told you to think, rather than what is true.
Just remember what the religious scholars were saying about Christ. It was the same accusations.
They felt Jesus altered their Law(Bible) and technically, he did say, " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An EYE FOR AN EYE, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Did he change the words or doctrine in the Jewish Law (OTBible) or not?
Many will cry "foul" when there is perfect reason.
Jesus was judged to be a false prophet and a deceiver because His doctrine was believed to be against the Law and was judged to be so by Bible scholars and respected priests. The priests tried to scare people who might listen to Jesus by saying that he was of the devil. They tried to convince their parishioners that none of them believed in him and they were more wise in the scriptures than any of them.
We are warned not to trust in the arm of flesh to lead us to God. That means flesh's interpretations of scripture too. You can know for yourself who Joseph Smith is to God, only if you ask Him. Guesses are fine but you get what you get with a guess.
We actually don't believe in other gods. As far as we're concerned, there's only God (and Christ, but as Christ only gets His power/authority from God, He doesn't count as a second god).
Yes, the Bible has been changed a little, but any non-Mormon Biblical scholar could tell you that. That's not a Mormon thing.
the "basis" of the LDS belief is God.....it is Jesus the Christ and His sacrifice for us and atonement on our behalf.
the bible itself both predicts and chronicles a falling away from God's teachings. so the LDS "basis" of the restoration is God's words/the bible. the LDS 8Th Article of Faith states: "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God." the LDS rev er the bible and use it extensively in teaching and practice. however - we do express a reservation in the case of erroneous translation, which may occur as a result of human incapacity. and even biblical scholars generally admit the presence of errors -- both of translation and of transcription of the text. we believe the original records to be the word of God and, as far as these records have been translated correctly, the translations are regarded as equally authentic. the LDS use the KJV. the translator must have the spirit of the prophet if he would render in another tongue the prophet's words; and human wisdom alone leads not to that possession.....and the LDS are cautioned to read the bible reverently and with prayerful care, always seeking the light of the Spirit to discern truth.
the LDS place no God before God the Father. the bible also speaks of "gods" in the plural - so obviously there are other gods.....but for the LDS we are not concerned with them. we are concerned only with God the Father His Divine Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. we do NOT however, accept the ecumenical councils construct of some anomolous, unexplainable, misty idea of trinity.....whose roots can be traced directly back to the influence of greek philosophical ponderings. the bible also teaches the concept of theosis - and early christians believed it.....it was taught by Irenaeus (ca. AD 115-202) Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215) Origen (ca. AD 185-251) Justin Martyr (d. ca. AD 163) Hippolytus (AD 170-236) Athanasius Augustine (AD 354-430) Jerome (AD 340-420).......and is included in the bible in Psalm 82:5-6 (cf. John 10:34-36) Daniel 12:3 Matthew 5:48 (cf. Luke 6:40) Matthew 24:45-47 Acts 17:29 Romans 8:16-17,32 2 Corinthians 3:18 1 Corinthians 15:49 2 Corinthians 8:9 Galatians 4:7
Philippians 3:14-15 Philippians 3:20-21 Hebrews 12:23 1 John 3:1-2 1 Peter 3:7 2 Peter 1:4 Revelation 3:21 Revelation 21:7.......
the ideas taught by the LDS religion coincide with the teachings of the bible hand-in-hand
Mostly we have the same reasons as everybody else. We want to believe, or we accept what we are taught when we are young. Very few of us join because of rhetoric or logical syllogisms. Most converts receive answers to their prayers or even the burning witness of truth from the Holy Ghost, and this witness or testimony is the basis for their further spiritual development as their lives go on.
why do Mormons believe in what they believe?
