I'm starting this thread in an effort to locate other church members who are awake and based. I discovered that there are two based members here at GAW by the user names of Angela84 and DeplorableMimi that posted in this thread.
I am so very happy and relieved that they spoke up and let it be known which church they attend. Up until tonight, I thought I was the only awake church member in the whole church. Yes, seriously.
I've been a long time member of the church. I have been struggling with frustration ever since the covid fiasco started. I have been filled with silent anger with the church leadership for allowing the government to enforce social distancing practices and masks inside our church buildings.
For a long time I didn't go to church because of that anger. I kept thinking if the church prophets were real prophets, why didn't they inform the church members of the truth? Why did the church leadership allow the government to dictate to us what we do in our own church? There's supposed to be a separation of church and state yet the government was forcing us to abide by social distancing practices and wearing masks.
Why didn't the church president come out and tell us the truth? Why did the church president allow the church to be pushed around by the government that is so corrupted with evil? These are the questions I was struggling with for two years and I still struggle with today. I keep wishing and wishing my fellow church members would just wake up! By the shear numbers of us, we could be a strong force against this evil we're living under if we were all awake. So today during sacrament meeting and elders quorum meeting, I sat there silently like I usually do. After elders quorum meeting was over, I quietly walked to my car like I usually do and went home.
I hope very much that the moderators don't delete this thread. I'm just trying to locate more people like myself so that I don't have to feel so alone all the time. I keep wishing I could find brothers and sisters who are awake like me.
ThankYou. I've always liked tanks since I was a kid. I had a small collection of die cast metal tanks with real rubber treads. I used to get them from a place called Arthur's Toys in Fresno California. So one day a long time ago I wanted to join a forum but couldn't think of a username. I just so happened to be watching YouTube videos about tanks. So I chose that username out of convenience.
It's cool what you feel religiously. I don't expect everybody to believe what we believe. People think that we are not Christians because we have another book we carry along with the Bible. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are all very much Christians and believe in the King James version of the Bible. The Book of Mormon is about a family that escaped out of Jerusalem when the Babylonians were invading Israel. That is all it is. It is just an extension of the Bible. We refer to it as another testament of Jesus Christ.
Its not that Christians don’t have to follow the old law. It’s not that we have to either. The law is the law but we need to understand the purpose of the law. Think of the law as a mirror. When you stand before it it shows you your sin. That is it’s only purpose. To show you your sin. It cannot save you anymore than you can follow it. We are sinful beings by our very nature. That is why we need Jesus. That is why Jesus came to fulfill the law on our behalf.
Now back to that we don’t have to follow the law stuff. The thief on the cross did not follow the law. He did nothing but recognize Jesus as his savior with faith in his heart. Yet Jesus told him he will see him in paradise. That is an example of not having to follow the law because we are saved by faith and not our works, aka the law. God, being a just god, does not hold us to a standard that is impossible for us to uphold. That would not fall in line with his attributes of being fair and just. So his standard is our faith in Him.
Having faith encompasses everything, including the law. So while it’s impossible for us to fulfill the law we still strive to fulfill it because our goal is to be like Christ. That is why when we give our lives to Christ His Spirit takes over and we want to follow the law. Something that is impossible if we follow our flesh but something we strive for when living in the Spirit.
The law applies to His chosen people, Jews. They are a works based religion. Their sin must be atoned for over and over with blood of animals in failure because they don’t have faith hence they don’t live in the Spirit. They are not saved by the blood of Christ. At least not until they choose to be.
In short, it is our faith that saves us and our faith that wants to fulfill the law. This why someone on death row can be saved just before they get executed. It’s there faith in Jesus that saves them. Only God can know a person’s heart. He is a personal God.
This is also why one cannot just say the law doesn’t apply anymore decide to steal, rape, and murder with the premeditated thought of, I will just ask forgiveness and everything will be fine. I can do what I want and just ask forgiveness afterward. That is living in the flesh and not in the Spirit. As James says, faith without works is dead. Not because works are required but because it’s our faith, living in the Spirit, that inspires the works.
Do you want to do good and do you feel bad when you sin and then ask forgiveness with the intent of trying not to do it again? If so, it’s because you have faith and you care about pleasing God by trying to uphold the law. You won’t be able to do it and it can’t save you but you will never stop trying anyway. Because you have faith Christ.
Don’t fall into the trap of expecting everything to be perfectly stated to your understanding. That is a fool’s errand. The never speaks about scientific thing’s directly using modern terms but the concepts are all there in words of the time.
Many question what’s included in the Bible and what’s left out. How can we trust it? God’s sovereignty over it. That’s how. What God are you believing in if His message can be ruined by the very man He created and gave it to? Are you worshiping creation of the the Creator? Plus the translations are proven, aside from minor variations, to be correct due to the many different copies that can be compared. Plus the some books that cover the same events but from different points of view.
Faith is believing in something not seen but understood. You cannot see the atoms that make up the mass of things but you understand they are there. The air is invisible but you trust it to hold your jet airliner in the sky. Where is your faith? Rhetorically speaking?
Hopefully this helps. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
What does this mean? What is the relationship between Jesus’ teaching and the Old Testament? Three ideas require definition here.
The phrase “the Law or the Prophets” is a common way of referring to the Old Testament, Israel’s Bible in Jesus’ day. The “Law” comprised the first five books of the OT, and the “Prophets” captured the rest (see also Luke 24:27).
The word “abolish” means “invalidate.” Jesus did not come to “do away with” or “repeal” the OT. Jesus respected the authority of the Law and the Prophets.
The word “fulfill” is the hinge on which the meaning of this verse turns. While it’s tempting to read this as a reference to Jesus’ obedience to the law, the verb translated “fulfill” did not mean “obey.” Rather, the word “fulfill” meant to bring to a designed goal, to fill up and complete, to bring to full expression. Jesus was declaring that he fulfilled the prophecies and even the patterns of Scripture; he showed forth their true meaning.
Luke 24:44 - And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses…
Only perfection could fulfill perfect law. It had to be God Himself that fulfilled His law. Seems logical.