To Mormons: How long does it take to become a member of Jesus Christ's Church ?
My Daughter is going to marry a Mormon lad in January of next year. I am already a Catholic. I can't attend her wedding unless I am a member in good standing of the LDS church. I already believe the teachings of Jesus, but not so much the stuff about Joseph Smith and the controversies in the early church history. Is it OK to still attend Catholic church functions if I still attend LDS meetings on Sunday? I love coffee too. Is that going to have an effect on my Church membership with the LDS?
The Catholics give a little leeway on stuff you must believe to me a member in good standing. For example, the Church teaches that the Pope is infallible whereas I believe that he (the Pope) does make mistakes now and then (he is only Human). I understand the LDS church also believes that their leader is getting direct instruction from God. Can I still be a member if I disagree on that point? I think just about all the churches have stuff that their members may disagree about. Can I get a list of all the stuff I must believe in to stay a member in good standing? I have about 10 months before her wedding. It looks like I may be very busy if I am going to make it. Please help me.
Thanx D.B
Well, I know the Mormon lad has gotten a D.U.I and I found Marijuana in his car (when we went to get it from the impound lot, probably my Daughters). Hmmmm...Hmmmmm. I wonder if they would still have temple recommends if the "Bishop" found out (Mormon Bishop, not Catholic) . I think we may be having a nice Catholic wedding after all. Thanks for your help everybody. I figure that the 10% of my income that I would have spent on tithes would fit nicely in her Catholic wedding budget.
Usually, a person cannot attend temple sea lings until a year after they join the church. These ordinances are reserved for the spiritually mature.
Some members choose to have a regular civil wedding and then are sealed in the temple at a later date. This is not recommended by the church though because of the sacred nature of marriage.
I strongly suggest that you have your daughter invite the missionaries to your house. Be honest with your intentions. If you are willing, they are perfectly happy to teach you about the church no matter where you are. All your questions will be answered and this will greatly help you understand your options.
You have to baptized for a year before you can get a 'temple recommend'. You can't get baptized if you don't believe in Smith and his story, or if you are still a practicing Catholic.
There is no way you will be judged fit by Mormons to attend your own daughter's wedding.
to get into the temple, to see your daughter married you need a temple recommend.
to get a recommend:
1) you have to have been a member for a year... there used to be some leeway in this, for marriages, but I dint know the current position, as it doesn't come up much.
2) you must obey the word of wisdom (that includes no coffee)
3) you have to sustain the leaders.... that means that you have to believe that Tommy Monson has a direct line to god.
4) 10% of your cash goes to the church...... when I was a member there was a bit of leeway in this, but - from everything I hear - this is one of the main questions in the temple recommend interview, now and there seems to be no wriggle room.
the fact that convert couples are forced to deny friends and relatives access to the wedding is a real point of contention for many, many people.
and, of course, in the USA, couples who get married outside the church (in a civil ceremony) cannot get married in the temple for 1 whole year
Unlike the UK, where a couple can get married in a civil ceremony, with all their non-member friends and relatives in attendance - and then go and get sealed in the temple the same day.
if it can be done in the UK, it seems evil and perverse that they dint do it for everyone.
[incidentally Mitt Romney got married (to his convert wife) in a civil ceremony and got married in the temple the next day (In the USA)..... double standards???]
why would you want to join if you don't believe it - to see your daughter married in the temple you don't believe in and wouldn't understand?
you don't have enough time if that was the plan - but on top of that doesn't it seem a bit silly? ask your daughter to consider a ring exchange ceremony after her temple wedding.....the temple wedding itself is extremely simple - no pomp and circumstance - no aisle - etc......
as to your other questions ---
JS and controversies I can address if you wish to ask them one @a time. - email me if you wish.
you are welcome to attend meetings
the LDS do NOT believe in infallible prophets - but we do believe in modern-day prophets.
edit: if your additional comments are true - you should pull your daughter and her fiance aside and talk with them about that - if they have repented from those actions and taken the proper steps a temple marriage would still be possible. if they have not, perhaps you should remind them of the quality of honesty - especially with the Lord....who doesn't 'need' it, but does appreciate it. as a mom - bad move to go straight to the bishop IMHO, simply to sabotage a wedding you aren't happy with. this is HER day - not yours.
The time it takes to joint the church is an individual thing, I've known people who met with missionaries for several months I have known people who were baptized on the very next Saturday. You may request missionaries to come to your home at Mormon.org.
To be baptized you do have to obey the word of wisdom. The idea that the prophet is infallible is of course silly. Men don't have to be infallible to teach about Jesus Christ, if they did then they wouldn't need Jesus because they'd be perfect already. You do however, need to sustain him as a prophet, seer, and revelatory, and the leader of the church.
After you are baptized a period usually of about one year is required before you may attend the temple. The temple is a sacred place and those who desire to go there need to make themselves holy. Asking how much leeway there is before your actually breaking the rules isn't really the right attitude. I am sure however that even if you miss your daughters wedding she would very much appreciate the opportunity to go to the temple with you.
Edit: If the boy is doing Marijuana then I wouldn't be happy with him marrying my daughter anywhere. Not in a Catholic church, not in a Mormon temple, not anywhere. If what you say is true sounds like there's some 'spraining' to do.
Joseph Smith was a con man. People paid him money to find treasures. His excuse for not finding treasure was it was guarded by spirits. He was arrested as a "juggler," or "con man." He was brought before a justice of the peace. The judge ascertained that there was enough evidence to try him. This was in Bainbridge, N.Y., in 1826, The judge was Albert Neely. Smith was labeled a "glass looker". The evidence against Smith was sufficient that, if Smith had not left town, he would have been judged guilty. Smith then went on and fabricated the Book of Mormon. He got his idea for the book from Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews, or "The Tribes of Israel in America".He supposedly used a pair of spectacles to "translate" the plates for the Book of Mormon, friends and relatives said he used the same stone he used in his former money digging scheme.The gold plates never existed according to a witness. An early Mormon convert heard Harris say "I never saw the plates."
Details can be found in "Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon", by David Persuitte.
There has not been found one piece of archaeological evidence to support the story of ancient America found in the Book of Mormon. In the 1950s, the LDS church financed "the largest archaeological project ever funded by a religious institution" It was successful in that it uncovered an enormous amount of archaeological information about ancient America, but as far as providing any evidence for the Book of Mormon, it was a failure. That has not been changed by any subsequent archaeological findings.
In his book, Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church, Simon G. Southerton shows that the American natives show no evidence of Israelite descent, which contradicts what the Book of Mormon says.
Joseph Smith had an eye for women, so he instituted plural marriage and took over 50 wives, some of them the wives of other men.
Mormon doctrine:
God was once a man He has a body of flesh and bone and lives on a planet near the star Kolob. The sun gets its light from the Kolob. God has at least one wife, our "Mother in Heaven," but she is so holy that we are not to discuss her nor pray to her. We can become like God and rule over our own universe. There are many gods. In the highest degree of the celestial kingdom men have more than one wife. A righteous Mormon will see the face of God in the Mormon temple. If a Gentile becomes Mormon, the Holy Ghost actually purges his Gentile blood and replaces it with Israelite blood.
. Jesus was married. Jesus and Satan are brothers, They are our brothers. We are spirit children of Heavenly Father. Jesus was conceived by God by having sex with Mary. We should not pray to Jesus. The "Lord" in the Old Testament is Jesus in the New Testament, but different from "God the Father". Christ will not return to earth in any year that has seen a rainbow.
Before coming to this earth we lived as spirits in a "Prue-existence", in which we were tested. Dark skin is a curse from God, the result of our sin or our ancestors sin. If righteous, a dark-skinned person will become light-skinned. Not only will humans be resurrected to eternal life, but also all animals.
All humans before the Flood lived in the western hemisphere. The Ark transported Noah to the eastern hemisphere. Mormons should avoid traveling on water, Satan rules the waters. You can identify a false angel by the color of his hair, or by offering to shake his hand.
American Indians are "descendants of Lehi", but there is not a hint of the Hebrew language in any of the Indian dialects. The Garden of Eden was in Missouri.The Book of Mormon says that Lehi found horses in America. Horses did not exist in the Americas until the 16Th century. The Book of Mormon says that Nephi had a bow of steel. Jews did not have steel in this time period and iron was not smelted in the Americas until Spaniard arrived. The book of Mormon mentions "swords and cimeters." Scimitars were not around until the rise of Islam (500A.D.) The Book of Mormon mentions silk. This did not exist in the Americas at this time.
In D&C 130:3 it says, "The idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man's heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false."
"I already believe the teachings of Jesus"
No, you believe in the teachings of the Catholic Church, not Jesus.
"For example, the Church teaches that the Pope is infallible "
Which is an example of the Catholic Church's falsehood because nobody is infallible, including Thomas S. Monson who is the true prophet of God today.
The reason you cannot attend your daughter's wedding is because only those who have accepted the full gospel of Jesus Christ who are worthy members of the church may enter the temple.
"Well, I know the Mormon lad has gotten a D.U.I and I found Marijuana in his car (when we went to get it from the impound lot, probably my Daughters). Hmmmm...Hmmmmm. I wonder if they would still have temple recommends if the "Bishop" found out"
That's pretty low. They want to get married in the temple for time and all eternity and you want to take that away from them? For your daughter's sake I hope she doesn't have a Catholic wedding.
For a good person, a few weeks to a couple of months.
It sounds like they're not going to have a temple wedding unless somebody or other lies through his teeth, so if they have a bishop officiate in their wedding, it will be free. There's no charge to have the reception at one of our places of worship, either.
To Mormons: How long does it take to become a member of Jesus Christ's Church ?
