Whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

Up until a few weeks ago I believed that Mormons believed this as well. However I recently ran into a Mormon who seemed to think that it would be Joseph Smith who would be doing the Judging. As if as the Reinstate of the ‘truth’ he was more important then Jesus himself.

Wail I am not ready to say that this is church doctrine, and I am very sure it is not. But if it were, I would not be surprised. Jesus may have been the oldest son but the only difference between him and all the other spirit children of the world is his birth order. So to say that the man who was able to reinstate the truth would now be judge is not that surprising in light of the equality we share with Christ. For there we are all same substance as Christ.

Poem 1

Though The Window

Inside it is dark
And it is cold.

The people gather closely around the empty fire
Yet they say there is

I stand at the window
I am surrounded with light
And warmth

Out here the sun shines down
Chasing away the bitterness of the night

I talk often to them
Most days about nothing
Other days I venture to ask the question
Why do you stay in the dark?
In the cold?

They then say that it is not dark
It is not cold
And ask me why I do not come in
Why I stay away form the warmth of their imaginary fire?

The truth is they don’t like it when I come inside
When I come in they are uncomfortable
They feel as thought something is wrong

They feel what warmth really is
They see what light really is
But they can not comprehend it

They know like
It is the darkness they live in

They know warmth
It is what comes from their imaginary fire

Light and warmth being
What they don’t know it to be
Is inconceivable

So they only let me at the window
Always on the outside

For I refuse to give up the light and warmth I have
And exchange it for the darkness and cold that they live in

Burning

Mormonism is based on a emotional high. a Burning in the bussom. And over and over again i have been told by well meaning family members and missionaries to pray and ask, like james says to ask without being double minded.

I always hate it when i hear this. because one it assumes that everyone must have the exact same kind of emotional reaction, and this is the basis, the foundation of the average LDS. and two because it tells people that they don't have enough or the right kind of faith when they get a different answer.

this is like when Job's friends told him that he must have done something wrong or he wouldn't have been suffering. or like telling some one with cancer of Diabeties that if they just have faith God will heal them. so when they die it means they did not have enough faith to be healed.

any I lost count of the multiple times i have been told pray and God will tell you it is true. I have I truly wanted to know that if mormonism was the turth. I thirst for truth, but when i go to the author of turth he tells me the same thing over and over again, "this is not of me."

and when i tell this to the missionary or my multiple relatives they simply say i must have had in my mind the answeri wanted to hear. And that hurts, questions my sinsarity and my intergrity.

He ascended into heaven

Now although Mormons do believe that Jesus ascended into heaven eventually. First he made a trip over to the Americas to talk to the Jews who were there. And there of course would be where the book of Mormon comes into play

The third day He arose again from the dead.

This point is another easy one. Mormons agree that he rose from the grave and met with the disciples. Their belief simply adds that after Jesus spent time with his disciples he went to the Americas and had a similar ministry over there with the people there.

Whether or not this happened historically is not the point of this series and will be addressed in another blog.

marrage

one of the things i hate most about about the culture surounding mormonism is the marrage issue.

I was at a family reuinioun and me and the other Single causins were talking about the M word, (not mormon but marage) and the other Girl cousin, H, was talking about how this Guy she had met before she had gone on her mission was getting very serious. (needless to say all the aunts and uncles were teasing her about him) she told us how she did not want to get married right away, or get married because of the fact that now she is back form her mission she has to get married.
so H. made me and the other cousin agree to not get married for a wail. which we did.

heres the thing though two weeks after the family get together, a whole month after she got back form her mission she gets her self inagaed. a few months latter she is Mrs. so and so. I was not very happy.

Because the other cousin has also gotten married (a year after our agreement whichdoesn't matter sence H voided it.) I am now the oldest unmarried cousin....actually i am the oldest unmarried person in the family because the one single aunt finely got married.

I am a little tired with people saying that my life sence it does not inclued a husben or looking for a husben must not be fulfilling.

He descended into hell

This statement makes it clear that Christians believe in hell. This is a teaching that is key to Christianity, because there is punishment for sin and the judgment of God. It is not necessarily the lake of fire that is often used to describe hell. It is a place of punishment and of separation form God.

The Mormons do not believe in hell quite as the Christians do. First they have what is called spirit prison which is the equivalent of the catholic belief in purgatory; in that someone who is in spirit prison is one who was not baptized by a bishop of the Mormon Church. Now those who were baptized by a bishop of the Mormon Church are in paradise and they can come down and minister to those in spirit prison. So those in spirit prison can accept the Mormon faith and someone can be baptized for them in this life. Which the purpose is of baptized for the dead.
Second for the Mormons hell could be the outer darkness. This however is reserved for those who during the war in haven who joined forces with Lucifer to try and dethrone God. So this is much like the lake of fire talked about when God destroys the world in Revelation. This is only a punishment for those who before life turned against God those called the sons of perdition.

Third possibility for Hell would be the lowest level of heaven the Telestial kingdom.
This level or kingdom of heaven is for those who were not so good people, and evil people. It is probably the place for those who commit the seven deadly sins. But it is still called a level of heaven.

Marc A. Schindler says in chapter twelve of FAIR says:

We teach that all inhabitants of kingdoms of glory-let us remember that even the Telestial Kingdom is a mansion of Heaven-receive salvation by dint of the universal atonement of our Savior. The Telestial Kingdom is sometimes referred to by LDS as "hell" but only in the sense that neither Christ nor the Father will be there.

However it is important to know that Angels do minister to people in the Telestial kingdom. So even though God and Christ have no physical presents in the lowest level of heaven they are able to send ministering angles to the people.

The Christian view of hell is complete separation of God, a place that is ruled by Lucifer and his minions. There is no presents of God or Christ or the holy spirit.