Into the Future

(I am repeating some oportions of my earlier post and my appeal as below)
Dear friends of truth,
If you kindly study the Holy Bible and other Holy Books again (but this time: study with YOUR OWN EYES: i.e. UNBIASED from the promptings of the church/priests/your parents/friends/etc), then alone you will discern the truths about what is a religion, what is its purpose, how often it is revealed, to what type of souls, what was the mission of the past Prophets and what is the true meaning and station of Messengers of God, what was the intensity of their sufferings ?.
Do read about Their sacrifices, Their difficulty-ridden lives they suffered for the sake of humanity, and Their universal message (which is not a mere synthesis of past knowledge or current events, but a holistic way of life of happiness and progress for EVERYONE living in the present and for a specific period of time in future).
I have myself studied these histories, the holy Books 'with my own eyes', and have to conclude that all Messengers of God are true and their guidance is meant for 'Enlightenment for humanity', and their periodic appearance is a true sign of Bounty of God for humanity's spriritual upliftment and material progress.
Take a while and ponder... The Christ (and all other Messengers of God) never wore a golden crown (as some officers /priests of the present churches/ temples/mosques do use), they never wore a gem-studded robe, they never rode in Mercs, they never had a questionable past.
All the Messengers of God were the essence of purity and piousness, and inspite of these sublime qualities, they laid Their lives for the ignorant humanity.
Do study the Unversality of the teachings of Messengers of God with a seekers eye, (with malice towards none) and look into the lives of Messengers of God in known history : viz: Abraham, Moses, Zarathustra, Krishna, Buddha, The Christ , Mohammed, and more recently - in 18th century: in the life and martyrdom of the Bab, and the life and Mission of Bahaullah - founder of the Bahai Faith).
I urge you to study RELIGION as an all-encompassing phenomena, unifying humanity, with a broader and universal point of view, and not merely as an insider of ones faith.
Hoping that you all achieve enlightenment about these Bounties of God someday.

Comment: Posted By: mlfurm @ 01/28/2008 23:52:00

What was stated that would be perceived as anything other than fact to warrant a "Do your research" comment? Don't even get me started, I know my facts.
Absurd blasphemy spoken by a true LDS (Lunatics Disguised as Saints) member.

Who decided that it was OK to tear down our faith? You can almost always count on the LDS people to lead the way in service and love to their fellow men. We consistently see other religions working hard to spread rumors and falsehoods about the church. I would just ask that you talk frankly with a member if you really want to know what we are about. There is nothing to be scared of, we are not scared to explain our faith. The cornerstone of our church is Jesus Christ and we strive to not just 'believe in' him we actually believe him when we read the Bible. Many members have the read the Bible from cover to cover more than once.
If God does choose Thomas S. Monson as prophet the church membership will get a chance to sustain him and I promise that all the members already know this great man very well. We have in many cases seen him in person and if not we have heard him talk hundreds of times.

Prophets are supposed to be 'appointed' by God and not to be 'elected' by mortal humans. Mormons should first educate themselves about the concepts of 'prophethood', rethink about the authenticity of their own faith by studying their own question-riddled history, and stop this blasphemy of creating false prophets forever.

I come from a Mormon family that also happens to be very multi-cultural. A number of people in my extended family have either married bi-racial members of the church, or adopted children from other races. Mormons are very accepting and loving of others. My daughter is bi-racial, (her father is black) and she has never experienced anything even closely resembling racism in our community, (which is about 50% LDS.) I often hear about the fact that until 1978, blacks were not allowed to hold the priesthood, but you never hear about the fact that when Joseph Smith Jr. ran for President of the United States, part of his platform was to abolish slavery before Abraham Lincolm was even in office. (This was one of the things that made him very unpopular among the non-Mormons in Missouri, and may have eventually led to his assassination.) Compared to the sorted history of the Catholic Church, Mormon history is pristine. And I don't condone criticizing the Catholics either...I'm just saying, if you are looking for something to criticize, you are going to find it in any religion.

Google "Elise Soukup". This author is a Mormon and, as expected, writes only the positives about the LDS church which is easy to do for any religion especially if you are a member and careful enough to carve out inconvenient truths such as the Mountain Meadow Massacre. Although Joseph Smith is called a martyr, he died with a pistol in his hand, something reminiscent of Islamic ???martyrs???. Unlike Jesus who died with no sword or club in his hand, Joseph Smith and his trail of followers make no apology for the violent expansion of its religion and clashes with the US government in the 1830s. The reader is encouraged to look up secular historical authors on this religion that are surer to be unbiased and shed truth on a religion based on sweeping its issues under the rug. For more information on the negatives, Google the following: ???Mountain Meadow Massacre???, ???Joseph Smith???, ???Mormon Militia???, and the scandal behind the ???Book of Abraham???.

i'm always amazed at how much non-mormons regard themselves as mormon experts. as a lifelong mormon, i notice huge omissions, falsities and outright lies in "HolyRoller"'s comments. to say that we believe jesus and the devil are brothers is only a partial truth. Mormons believe that Lucifer is a fallen angel, and that he is our brother in the same way that all men are our brothers, in that he was created by God the Father. Mormons do not believe that God was once a man and that there are more powerful God's above him. We believe that there is one true Eternal God and that he is the father of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus is the same Jesus in the Bible. He made the atoning sacrifice that made it possible for all men to be forgiven for their sins. The Trinity ( We call it the Godhead) consists of God the Eteranal Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. We recognize each as a seperate being, but not as God's. And lastly we do not believe that all other churches are the churches of the Devil. Nothing could be further from the truth. We beieve that all churches have some of the truth, but that we are the only ones who have the full truth. We respect other religions and do not teach contempt for an of them, even if some of our membes do feel contempt, it is on a personal basis and not church doctrine.

rybo74@ 6:39, I second that motion, amen and amen!

AH1986, " I can tell that there is a little dislike or perhaps misunderstanding about why women are not allowed to hold the priesthood.as eluded to in this article The answer in my opinion is this. They don't need it. The reason men have the priesthood in addition to allow them to act in the name of Christ, is to teach them qualities that women already possess. Kindness, unconditional love, patience, how to care selflessly day after day for those under their charge. Myself, and as a part of the doctrine of the church, we hold women in the highest regard and honor. "

I like the basis of your theory but I don't buy that it serves as the restriction on women being leaders in the church as priesthood. Jesus would not support that decision, he calls and uses whom ever he wants whenever he wants no boundaries; remember the donkey that spoke to the prophet? No restrictions brother.

im no mormon. they do good works. but they are in gross error as far them thinking the next voted president is endorsed by God. God doesnt choose spiritual offices based on our votes. anyway....whatever u want to know is already in the bible. there is nothing that happened or is bound to happen that is not in the scriptures. no man on earth is ordained by other men and layed hands on to be a prophet. the spiritual office/gift of a prophet is given to a person specifically by Almighty God alone. the mormons may select an adminstrative spiritual overseer to handle the affairs of the executive branch of the denominaytion however.
as far as "last days" there is nothing to "fore" tell. there isnt. we dont need an update on the middle east. we already know the "signs" wil come from that area and no one knows any specifics anway. also who is this character Moroni and what is the background on that character? Joseph Smith was having a bad day being tormented.