Mormon underwear? This can't be true...

[Swart]

Yeah, I have heard that one too. Should have seen the looks I got when I started wearing a cross while I was still attending the LDS ward!

You probably would have gotten a similar look if you had a tattoo, a beard or long hair.

 

[skylark1]

The answer that I am looking for has to do with this:

If our LORD had died in another way would the cross be a symbol for the atonement or the love of God? How is it that without the cross there is no resurrection? Could our LORD have not died in another way, equally terrible and equally redeeming? What is the significance of the cross beyond the fact that that is how our Savior died?

It was God's plan.

It was prophesied that Christ would die on a cross: Psalm 22



The cross is God's symbol of a curse:

Galations 3
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
​

Deuteronomy 21
22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.


​

If it was God's plan, I believe that in itself is significant. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Why is the cross the symbol of our faith? To find the answer look no farther than the cross itself. Its design couldn't be simpler. One beam horizontal--the other vertical. One reaches out--like God's love. The other reaches up--as does God's holiness. One represents the width of His love; the other reflects the height of His holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave His children without lowering His standards.​

 

[gort]

If it was God's plan, I believe that in itself is significant. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Why is the cross the symbol of our faith? To find the answer look no farther than the cross itself. Its design couldn't be simpler. One beam horizontal--the other vertical. One reaches out--like God's love. The other reaches up--as does God's holiness. One represents the width of His love; the other reflects the height of His holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave His children without lowering His standards.

The Cross not only has a heighth and width, it has a depth of His love for us.

<><

 

[happyinhisgrace]

You probably would have gotten a similar look if you had a tattoo, a beard or long hair.

or if he was a woman wearing pants to church instead of a dress.

 

[happyinhisgrace]

We have a recent convert in our branch that has a huge cross attached to the side of his house. Another new member made a cover sheet for the organ table that had crosses embroidered on it. We politely explained that we couldn't use it in the church because of the crosses so she changed them to crotchets.

.

That right there says volumes of the differences between the LDS church and Christianity.

 

[CrownCaster]

You probably would have gotten a similar look if you had a tattoo, a beard or long hair.

Thats the thing. I do have multiple tattoos on my arms and when I would do baptisms for the dead (me doing the dunking) I would have to raise my arm to the square and mytattoos were not a problem and that even in the temple.

 

[CrownCaster]

or if he was a woman wearing pants to church instead of a dress.

DONT TELL MY SECRETS!!!!! Oh wait, Im not a woman and I dont wear pants.

 

[sobresaliente]

OK, iconoclasts. I'm familiar with that theology. It was a mode of thought in the early church (I think around the 6th to 7th centuries). I guess it's still alive and kicking even after all these years.

Anyway, you actually stated the same mistake of the iconoclasts in your post which I've highlighted. Iconoclast literally means "image breaker" and referred to a movement (inspired by moslem influence) which saw any and all images of human beings as inherently idolic and therefore abominable.

At any rate, in your post, you presume to know the inward intention of someone who kisses a cross. This is the problem. Kissing a cross, or kneeling before an icon in prayer is not worship of the icon. The icon is a sort of visual aid. As a well educated Catholic, I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that religious icons are just that, icons.

Human beings are composite beings. That is to say, we are of spirit and flesh. When we worship, we need to engage both aspects of our being. Simply engaging our minds without the senses is incomplete. Complete immersion in worship and prayer is effected by the sights, and the "smells and bells".

I have certainly never felt the need to kiss, kneel by, or embrace a statue of any supposed image of Jesus, Mary, or any of the myriad of saints Roman Catholic's hold so dear.

I have read about and imagined what some of them may have looked like, but I have never had the need for an actual physical object in front of me. It's probably because I've never prayed to...or I think it's pray through to get to Jesus, right? any of them, save Jesus and I have no need of a 'visual aid'.

Your whole synopsis seems like a very man-centered, sensual interpretation of scripture. Does the use of these icons invoke special favor or make your prayers more powerful?

Just a thought that came to my mind,
Sobresaliente

OH...and also on that same line. Do Mormon's believe that their Jesus was crucified on a cross, or on a stake or something of another nature other than a cross.

 

[Apex]

That right there says volumes of the differences between the LDS church and Christianity.

So now we're evil because we choose not to wear crosses or dispaly them??? And where does it say that one must wear a cross???

 

[Swart]

That right there says volumes of the differences between the LDS church and Christianity.

Non Sequiter.

How? We started from the premise that the LDS church does not endorse with use of crosses.

Since you claim it does speak volumes, what specifically are you referring to?

 

[skylark1]

So now we're evil because we choose not to wear crosses or dispaly them??? And where does it say that one must wear a cross???

"Apex,"

Please calm down. Grace did not say that LDS are evil because they choose not to display or wear crosses. No where does it say that one must wear a cross. But it seems odd to an orthodox Christian that a cross would not be allowed on an organ table cover, especially in light of the following scriptures:

Galatians 6
14May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

1 Corinthians 1
17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

1 Corinthians 1
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

 

[skylark1]

This photo is of a stone that was found near the entrance of a first century catacomb on the Mount of Olives. The cross was used as a symbol by Christians much earlier than some on this thread have claimed.

This article tells more about this recent find:
Jerusalem Burial Cave Reveals: Names, Testimonies of First Christians

 

[CrownCaster]

I guess for me it doesnt matter either way if the LDS wear or display crosses or not but to absolutely forbid them to be displayed is another story altogether. Wearing a cross makes one a Christian about as much as being an imbecile makes you a democrat (hee hee) but to forbid them is strange to me.

 

[happyinhisgrace]

Non Sequiter.

How? We started from the premise that the LDS church does not endorse with use of crosses.

Since you claim it does speak volumes, what specifically are you referring to?

Like I said, the differences. Christianity embraces the cross of Jesus as a symbol of what He did for us. It is a symbol of love, compasion, devotion, selflessness, charity, redemption, and saving Grace.

When LDS will not allow crosses to be used in their churches, that speaks a great deal to me about how lds view the symbol of Christ's atonement for man.

 

[happyinhisgrace]

So now we're evil because we choose not to wear crosses or dispaly them??? And where does it say that one must wear a cross???

I never said you MUST WEAR a cross. Your going to give yourself a heartattack, simmer down little man.

 

[Swart]

Like I said, the differences. Christianity embraces the cross of Jesus as a symbol of what He did for us. It is a symbol of love, compasion, devotion, selflessness, charity, redemption, and saving Grace.

When LDS will not allow crosses to be used in their churches, that speaks a great deal to me about how lds view the symbol of Christ's atonement for man.

Well to me it's two sticks of wood nailed together. The 1C Christians had no problem reverencing Christ with it.

 

[happyinhisgrace]

Well to me it's two sticks of wood nailed together. The 1C Christians had no problem reverencing Christ with it.

Yes, that is what most lds view the cross of Jesus as, if not as a tool of evil. I am not suprized that you feel the same way. It just goes to back up what I said earlier about how the lds beliefs are so different than the Christian beliefs of the cross of Christ.

I agree that the 1 century christians had no problem showing reverence to Christ by using the cross as a symbol, so why do the lds have a problem with it?

 

[Swart]

​

This photo is of a stone that was found near the entrance of a first century catacomb on the Mount of Olives. The cross was used as a symbol by Christians much earlier than some on this thread have claimed.

Interesting site! I shall study this some more.

 

[Apex]

Wearing a cross makes one a Christian about as much as being an imbecile makes you a democrat (hee hee)

lol

 

[JaneKaty13]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I was informed that the undergarments that adult Mormons wear at all times are for the purpose that Mormons dress modestly so as to cover the underwear. But maybe I was misinformed.