Thanks for allowing me to be part of the forum

[OrangeSeer]

Hello, macpella welcome to this wonderful community, just enjoy your stay and enlighten us with your kind words of wisdom,

 

[Gxg (G²)]

Hi,
Thank you for accepting my registration.
I am LDS, however I didn't see the name of my church in the list so I clicked on the Church Other. I am a Christian, a follower of Christ.
I thought it would be appropriate to list a few of the tenants I adhere to so people would have an idea of my belief system.
1. I have a testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah
2. He is the First begotten of the Father and the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh
3. He, Jesus, made the supreme and infinite sacrifice of placing Himself in our instead to fulfill the law that was broken so mankind can have the chance to go back to the Father if they so choose
4. There is only one way to go to the Father, and that is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way or name through which we can go to our Father which is in Heaven
5. I believe we do, indeed, live in the "realm of grace," as Christ has open arms to receive us. What we need to do is look to Him, the Christ, believe in His word, and repent of ours sins so we can avail ourselves of that loving gift
6. I do believe and have a testimony that the Bible is the word of God
7. I do believe and have a testimony that if we pray to the Father in the name of Christ in all sincerity of heart He will guide us to Him.
8. I do believe and have a testimony that every word that comes out of the mouth of God is scripture, some of which is recorded in sacred books on earth

Greetings!!!!

 

[Gwen-is-new!]

God the Father is God from eternities to eternities. So is His First Begotten Son, God from everlasting to everlasting. Does this answer you question?

Thank you ... I just always hear that LDS believe that God used to be regular man on a planet and was exulted, an Jesus is the son of Lucifer. These definitions of "God" and "Jesus" would not be the same as the bible.. Are you saying that LDS don't believe that ?

 

[Jane_Doe]

Thank you ... I just always hear that LDS believe that God used to be regular man on a planet and was exulted, an Jesus is the son of Lucifer. These definitions of "God" and "Jesus" would not be the same as the bible.. Are you saying that LDS don't believe that ?

This question has a lot of different thoughts going into it, so I'll try to sort them out in a sort post.

The big important points:
Yes, LDS believe that Christ and the Father are both sternal perfect beings, ever righteous. Yes, the we enthusiastically believe in the Bible and what it teaches about the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, Savior of the World. We also believe in the Holy Spirit and Heavenly Father. These three persons are ONE God.

LDS believe this oneness is comes unity. This is different than Creedal Christians, who believe the oneness comes through co-substantiation, as outlined in the Anthanasian Creed.

The lesser points:
-LDS believe that Father that is the Father of all. Christ alone is the Son of God, ever perfect & redeemer. All others are people who have ever lived on this earth (or might have) are sons of God (stress the little 's'). We each fall short of Him, have at one point abandoned Him, and are sinners. Obviously some individuals are more sinful than others, and some will accept Christ and be reborn through Him. The most sinful person ever, who totally abandoned God and sires all lies, and will never be redeemed is obviously Lucifer/Satan. So, technically if you want to call everyone brothers in LDS theology, you could, because everyone as the same Father (even though obviously some totally rebelled), but LDS people don't go about thinking that way.

-The "used to be a regular man" is a misconception on non-doctrinal speculations that aren't ever talked about in LDS church. In fact, most LDS folks in the pews haven't ever heard of such speculations. And of course any LDS person is free to totally disagree with such speculations.

 

[macpella]

Thank you ... I just always hear that LDS believe that God used to be regular man on a planet and was exulted, an Jesus is the son of Lucifer. These definitions of "God" and "Jesus" would not be the same as the bible.. Are you saying that LDS don't believe that ?

One of the main tenants of the LDS Doctrine is a principle called "Eternal Progression." This tenant teaches us that the atonement of Christ made it possible for man to become perfect like He or our Father in Heaven is.
There are many passages in the Bible that will help us to understand this principle. I will quote a couple of them:

Matt 5:48
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Here we can see that Jesus is telling us to be perfect. Obviously, we are not at the moment, but if we follow in His footsteps we can become perfect.
Our Father in Heaven is God, therefore, becoming perfect like Him is to become a god. This is Eternal Progression.

Ephesians 4:10-13
"...Till we all come to the unity of the fatih, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
Here Paul teaches us that we should live the gospel in such a way that we become a "perfect man" like Christ.
Christ is God, therefore becoming a perfect man means to become a god.

The other important LDS tenant connected to this is that men and women were begotten by God the Father as spirits. Hebrews 12:9 tells us that: "...shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits..."
As spirits we could look at God the Father and see his perfection and goodness etc. and we wanted to grow to be like He is. So He created a plan for us to obtain a body (coming to this earth) and prove our faith and progress to the point we could be perfect like He is. That plan included that Jesus would sacrifice for us to fulfill the law we could not fulfill ourselves. Jesus, thus provides a means to repent of our sins to gradually perfect ourselves in Chris and the means to obtain an immortal physical body (ressurection) and eventually become perfect like our Father which is in Heaven.
I hope you make the connection that: As man was made in the image and likeness of God, it means that we are in every aspect like God is, except we are not perfect like Him yet. Therefore if we are in His likeness it means that He was once like we are now and through eternal progression became who He is now.

This is the doctrine that explains what you heard. This is a nutshell, if you need I can elaborate on that.

 

[macpella]

Hello, macpella welcome to this wonderful community, just enjoy your stay and enlighten us with your kind words of wisdom,

Thank you

Hello, macpella welcome to this wonderful community, just enjoy your stay and enlighten us with your kind words of wisdom,

Thank you