Time to revamp Mormonism

[Seeking ET]

Look, I am LDS, I have read the scriptures, and know the teachings of the church.  Fact of the matter is, I think it's time to stop taking all of the scriptures literally.  They are judgemental, close minded, separatist and fearful.... all the things that God isn't.  It's time to start thinking for yourselves, and not blindly trusting what the leaders of the   church tells you is "the way", just because it's their way.  Forget not that some of these leaders are in fact thieves, cheaters, and sexual deviants.  Probably less than 1%, but it's flawed just as any other religion is, and if you don't open your eyes to the way things really are then you will always be in the dark.  If there is a scripture that just doesn't feel right to you... DON'T LIVE BY IT!  Don't fear hell or damnation from our loving and all knowing Lord, it won't come.  Let Him show you the way.  Know this, all humans make mistakes, and all leaders are but human!

[Mydral]

Someone is starting to see the bigger picture, well part of it anyway 

Now how to convince the rest of the world haha

[Jelal67]

Convincing the self is the first step...

[James S]

Convincing the self is the first step...

Probably more like the second step. Awareness is the first.

Seeking ET,
That's big, and many of us here will be very proud of you for coming to this place of understanding. Big thumbs up there! 
You're absolutely right. This is NOT what God is about, not by a long shot. It is however, what many humans are about. Once you understand this it becomes easy to see how many religions have 'fashioned' their Gods according to human traits and personalities.

[SpiritWings]

Whatever floats your boat.  The scriptures of the LDS church contain lots of unique teachings, and DO feel right to me.  I don't just go by the leaders, and in fact am pretty inactive, but I think Joseph Smith was a prophet.  Now I don't pretend to like everything about what has happened since 1830, but I still think what he taught was true.   I personally got into astral practices because the same "spiritualism is of the devil" stuff had gotten into it, which is 100% against what Joseph Smith was all about -- ie personal revelation, etc.  He invited members to have experiences, and try the spirits for themselves, even setting some "guidelines" in certain scriptures. 

I believe in a being known in the scriptures as Satan, Lucifer, the devil, etc.; but don't think he runs such a vast and fruitful realm of spiritual experiences.   I don't even think God himself "runs" it.  It's just part of the nature of "intelligences" and the universe in general, of things that exceed even the Gods, or higher beings. 

One question for those who think God is a happy-happy hippy-like being or something:  why do humans have such emotions as hate, aggression, etc., if they are "made in God's image" in every regard?  You'd have to attribute these to some fluke flaw in design, since, they aren't perfect to the prototype.  Yes, even some Mormons have this idea that God has no capacity for controlled retaliation, even when scriptures talk about the "wrath of God", "vengeance is mine", etc.

Christian and LDS (somehow not 'Christian' to some...) Scriptures, as far as I understand them, paint God as a complete being (with a physical body, BTW), with a full range of emotions, passions, and desires.  The only real difference from humans is (besides many powers beyond most human fathoming), he has a vastly superior amount of control over these passions.  Just because he can love doesn't mean he can't show emotions that would lead to just vengeance or retribution.  As proverbs says (paraphrased), "there is a time for everything under the sun".

In a word, God wishes to always be nice and friendly, but some commit injustices worthy of authoritative  punishment, and sometimes a pie in the sky life, like in the case of the Job story, isn't always what this mortal life is for.  It's mostly for teaching and growth, not being handed rosy situations where you're always going to forced to be happy.

One last thing:  If you hate the church, quit going.  It has as much right to practice as any other denomination.  If you like some of it's doctrines, but don't like the rest, that's why there's this thing called freedom of religion, where you can start your own, or abandon religion altogether.  Mormons, at 12 million (generous) members, are hardly going to take over the world any time soon.

The world could fall into much worse hands...

[SpiritWings]

Probably more like the second step. Awareness is the first.

Seeking ET,
That's big, and many of us here will be very proud of you for coming to this place of understanding. Big thumbs up there! 
You're absolutely right. This is NOT what God is about, not by a long shot. It is however, what many humans are about. Once you understand this it becomes easy to see how many religions have 'fashioned' their Gods according to human traits and personalities.

People aren't much different from God.  Sure, it's said "my ways are not yours", but I don't think there's a single emotion or passion that people have that higher beings do not.  God can cry, God can be angry, God can laugh.  Why is this so contradictory to the Christian (and other) scriptures?    At least many non-Christian religions like Islam aren't cursed with this idea that Gods are somehow stripped of anger or some form of emotion.  Just being "robots of consciousness".  Joseph Smith said essentially "to understand ourselves is to understand God".

People are the ones that think there's some being out there that has a constitution and emotional makeup completely different than their own, and they need to shed these "weaknesses" aside.  Maybe all one needs to do is control them and give occasion to each individual passion when the time calls for a just action or motivation.

Paul said "Bridle your passions", not bury them or throw them away.  To bridle means just direct properly and in an orderly fashion. 

[DH]

People aren't much different from God.  Sure, it's said "my ways are not yours", but I don't think there's a single emotion or passion that people have that higher beings do not.  God can cry, God can be angry, God can laugh.  Why is this so contradictory to the Christian (and other) scriptures?    At least many non-Christian religions like Islam aren't cursed with this idea that Gods are somehow stripped of anger or some form of emotion........  Paul said "Bridle your passions", not bury them or throw them away.  To bridle means just direct properly and in an orderly fashion. 

SpiritWings,

The God revealed by Paul in the New Testament would certainly be considered "emotional".  He is described as being "grieved" when his people (Christians) act selfishly and hatefully rather than loving like Jesus loved (Ephesians 4:30).  On the positive side, Jesus and some of his followers are described as being "filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:31, Acts 13:52).  If Jesus somehow reflected the Divine (which I think he did) he showed that God definitely gets angry at religious hypocrisy, religious bigotry and good old fashioned greed in the name of God (Mark 11:15-17, Matthew 23).

I applaud you for taking steps to "think beyond the box" as far as your inherited beliefs go.  Your beliefs need to line up with what is going on inside of you.  Keep searching!   

DH

[DH]

SpiritWings,

The God revealed by Paul in the New Testament would certainly be considered "emotional".  He is described as being "grieved" when his people (Christians) act selfishly and hatefully rather than loving like Jesus loved (Ephesians 4:30).  On the positive side, Jesus and some of his followers are described as being "filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:31, Acts 13:52).  If Jesus somehow reflected the Divine (which I think he did) he showed that God definitely gets angry at religious hypocrisy, religious bigotry and good old fashioned greed in the name of God (Mark 11:15-17, Matthew 23).

I applaud you for taking steps to "think beyond the box" as far as your inherited beliefs go.  Your beliefs need to line up with what is going on inside of you.  Keep searching!   

DH

My apologies to SpiritWings.  I was trying to respond to a quote by Seeking ET.

By the way SpiritWings, I agree that the world could be worse off than to to be in the hands of practicing Mormons.  What would the world be like if all of those who claimed the name "Christian" or "Buddhist" or "Hindu" or whatever, actually lived out the love ethic that underlies their so-called beliefs?

DH

[joycloud]

Joseph Smith was a con man, and was convicted of fraud. He was in jail for a terrorist act when he was killed. The Mormon religion is nothing like JS wanted it to be. The FLDS church is the only branch of the Mormon church living the principle as "given by God" to JS, so according to their own beliefs they aren't living the full gospel.

And the book of Mormon is nothing but JS's own creation.  As is the book of Abraham in the pearl of great price. Which JS "translated" from ancient scrolls. Those translations have proved false. The scrolls were retranslated after we learned to translate hieroglyphs. JS had no idea what he was doing, and I guess he never thought anyone would learn the secret of the Egyptian language to prove him wrong.


I just pulled my brain out of the fire of the Mormon church myself. I came to realize that you don't have to belong to an organized religion to worship God, whom I do believe in.