Church, Faith, Mormon

The Mormonizing of America: Mormon Beliefs in Plain Language – Part 2

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Houston templeHere is Part 2 of my series explaining, correcting, and expanding on (to the best of my knowledge) the points made in Stephen Mansfield’s book The Mormonizing of America. You can read Part 1 here. You can buy the book here.
6 – The God of this planet, usually referred to as “Heavenly Father”, was once a man. He now leads a family that rules earth with him. They are spiritual beings but since they are a purer form of spirit, they have an elevated type of physical body. Jesus and Lucifer are brothers, both sons of Heavenly Father. There is also a Heavenly Mother.

The Book of Mormon doesn’t say anything about God having once been a man. Joseph Smith taught that God has a body of flesh and bone but from what I can find, he never said anything about God having once been a man. Lorenzo Snow said that he was though.

As man now is, God once was. As God now is, man may be.

-Lorenzo Snow

I don’t believe it’s doctrine, though. Maybe deep doctrine. The way the missionaries explained it to me was that Jesus Christ laid the blueprint for us and so we will eventually have to do all that He did and that He had to do all that God did. So by that logic, God is a resurrected and exalted man. That leads to the “does God have a God” question and I won’t get into that right now. I personally don’t know about the “purer form of spirit” point but maybe the author meant they’re exalted. In which case, he’s right that they have a perfected physical body. But we all get those when we die and are resurrected.

A lot of people try to use the fact that members believe that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers as a sort of “gotcha”. But what they either fail to realize or ignore is that members believe that everyone, including Jesus and Lucifer, was a spirit formed by God in the premortal life and so we are all spirit brothers and sisters. There is not much known about Heavenly Mother. There’s no doctrine on her and she’s rarely mentioned by any modern day prophets. It’s widely believed that she exists, though, and that she gives birth to all God’s spirit children. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me considering the scriptures say He “formed” us from intelligent matter. Did He put us together and then put us in Heavenly Mother to bake and then be born? I’ve never gotten a sufficient description of Heavenly Mother or why she’s rarely if ever mentioned by anyone in the Church.

7 – When Heavenly Father was devising a plan for populating the earth, Jesus and Lucifer both offered proposals. Jesus’ plan was chosen and Lucifer’s was rejected. Lucifer rebelled and a third of the premortal spirits followed him. There was a great war in the heavens. Jesus was then sent to earth as a loving savior. Mary became pregnant with Jesus as a result of Heavenly Father having physical intercourse with her.

I’ll take this one step-by-step because the logic of it sort of confuses me. Jesus and Lucifer did both offer plans on how best to save mankind and get them back to Heavenly Father after their time on Earth was through. Jesus’ plan was to give us agency (or freewill) to choose right or choose wrong. He knew none of us would choose the right 100% of the time so He offered Himself as a sacrifice to atone for our sins. Lucifer’s plan was good in spirit. He wanted to send everyone to Earth without freewill. He wanted our return to be guaranteed but we wouldn’t have learned anything. And knowledge is important to members. The Scriptures say we will bring our knowledge with us after we die and we will continue to learn. Like Mansfield said, Jesus’ plan was accepted and Lucifer’s was rejected. This is where it gets murky for me,

Because of this rejection, Lucifer rebelled and was followed by a third of the spirits, resulting in a great war in Heaven. But if Lucifer didn’t rebel, mankind wouldn’t have needed a plan because there wouldn’t have been anyone there to tempt them to sin. He only rebelled because a plan he was proposing to defeat himself was rejected and that plan was being proposed because of his upcoming rebellion which would come as a result of the rejection.

The last sentence is throwing me off. Maybe some Saints believe that God had physical intercourse with Mary. It seems that there are some quotes from Brigham Young, Bruce R. McConkie, and others that make it sound this way. And maybe that’s the way they intended it. But to me it wouldn’t make sense. This will probably take a whole other blog post but I’ll just make a few points. Saints believe that marriage is the most important institution established by God and that it was put in place since the beginning. Marriage is between one man and one woman. If God is married to Heavenly Mother, that’s one man and one woman in a relationship. So He’d be cheating on Heavenly Mother if he had sex with Mary. Also, it was taught to me that we live in the terrestrial world because we are imperfect. And since no unclean thing can enter the presence of God, He cannot come down to our world. That’s why He sent Jesus. So how could He come down in the flesh and have sex with Mary? Jesus was born to a virgin. If God had sex with her, that would make her not a virgin. Those are some of my thoughts on that.

8 – Adam and Eve were actually gods who made a heroic choice in eating the forbidden fruit. Their choice made mortal life possible which then gave all preexistent spirits an opportunity to live on earth and qualify for celestial glory.

The only thing I’m not certain on from this point is when he says that members believe Adam and Eve were gods. They were the first spirits to come down to Earth and be given physical bodies. Eating the forbidden fruit did allow them to be able to choose between good and evil and therefore allowed them to sin and stumble and to repent and be forgiven. Without this sacrifice, they would have remained in a perfected state and humanity never would have been able to progress. We would never learn from our mistakes if we never made them.

“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” 2 Nephi 2:25

9 – Life on earth is best understood as a time of testing in order to qualify for eternal exaltation.

This is one of those points about the Church that people misunderstand. They think that qualifying for eternal exaltation is the same thing as being saved. It’s not. Everyone is saved from death by Jesus’ sacrifice. Everyone will be resurrected, gain a perfected body, and stand before God to be judged. But the Scriptures teach that there are three different celestial kingdoms and even three different degrees of the highest kingdom. So how you withstand the tests here on Earth determine which kingdom and degree you end up in, not whether or not you are saved.

10 – The death of Jesus Christ introduces men to Heavenly Father but then men must obey the laws and ordinances of the gospel themselves in order to be saved.

This goes along with what I was saying in the point above. Obeying the laws and ordinance of the gospel doesn’t get you saved. You are automatically saved thanks to Jesus Christ sacrificing His life. You will be resurrected, you will receive a perfected body, and you will stand before God to be judged. Following the ordinances (baptism, endowment, sealing) determine which degree of the Celestial (or highest) kingdom you qualify for. Following the laws makes sure you get to stay there.

Read Part 1 here

Buy The Mormonizing of America here

-Jeston

Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira or on Instagram: @Death.Of.Hemingway

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Faith

The Mormonizing of America: Mormon Beliefs in Plain Language – Part 1

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mormonizing bookI’ve recently started reading Stephen Mansfield’s The Mormonizing of America and I would recommend that all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints take a look at it. The book isn’t perfect but it gives an unbiased look at how the Church grew from a few humble farmers to being interwoven into the very fabric of America. There are some facts in there that Saints might not be familiar with. I know when I was investigating the Church, I brought up a few of them and was met with confusion. Towards the end of the book, there’s a list of 27 points titled Mormon Beliefs in Plain Language. After reading through them, there are a few things I’d like to either expand on or clarify.
1 – Not long after the Christian Church began, the pure teachings of Jesus Christ were lost or perverted. By the early 1800s, all Christian churches had become corrupt, had distorted the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and were an “abomination” to God.

This is accurate. Throughout time there have been multiple periods (called dispensations) where a prophet is called to Earth to teach people what God wants from them, the people listen to him for a while, the message is eventually rejected, the people go back to being wicked, and the whole process starts over again. The word choice (corrupt, distorted, abomination) sounds kind of harsh but it just means that the fulness and purity of the Gospel had been altered in some way, big or small, by the churches on Earth and needed to be restored.

2 – Beginning in 1820, the Prophet Joseph Smith experienced a series of spiritual visitations in which the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods were “restored” and through which the Book of Mormon was recovered and translated.

Members believe that the power of the priesthood (such as the ability to baptize) can only be used by someone with the proper keys or authority. And that authority can only be given to you by someone else who has the authority. Since there was no one on Earth with that authority, Joseph Smith was visited by John the Baptist and given the Aaronic (or lesser) priesthood. There’s not really a specific account that I can find and the Church website states “It is impossible to precisely date this heavenly manifestation from existing sources” but it’s commonly believed that Smith and Oliver Cowdery were visited by the Apostles Peter, James, and John and had the Melchizedek priesthood conferred upon them. It doesn’t seem that the priesthood was required for Joseph Smith to translate the Book of Mormon, though. He started translating in April 1828 and wasn’t given the priesthood until May 1829. During this time, Smith had translated a majority of the Book of Mormon, including the 116 pages that Martin Harris lost.

3 – The Book of Mormon teaches that tribes of Jews settled in the New World first at the time of the Tower of Babel and then again at the time of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, around 600 BC. Jesus Christ visited the descendants of these tribes after his resurrection. His teachings as well as the history of these warring Jewish tribes were recorded on gold plates and buried around AD 400. Guided by the angel Moroni, Joseph Smith recovered these plates and translated them, thus producing the Book of Mormon in the early 1800s.

The Jaredites were the people that made it to the New World around the time of the Tower of Babel. They lived and built up their civilization but were ultimately destroyed as the second “tribe” (Lehi’s family) arrived. Over the years, Lehi’s descendants grew in numbers and split into two warring tribes called the Nephites and the Lamanites. Jesus visited the Nephites when He came to North America. Something this book gets right that most people get wrong is that Joseph Smith didn’t write the Book of Mormon, he translated it. The wording makes it sound like he did this with the help of Moroni, though. He helped Joseph find the plates but he wasn’t involved in the translation process.

4 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) was formed on April 6, 1830, with Joseph Smith as its First Elder. Mormons consider it “the only living and true Church” on earth. Today, it is led by a President who is regarded as “prophet, seer, and revelator.” He is aided by Twelve Apostles. There is also a Quorum of the Seventy who help govern the church. These together are called The General Authorities.

There isn’t really anything to add here. This is the basic structure of the church’s higher ups.

5 – All men have existed as spirits before assuming physical bodies on earth. During this “premortality”, families were already formed and destinies determined. The noble spirits in this preexistence become Mormons when they live on earth. The ignoble spirits of preexistence are non-Mormons on earth.

This point is sort of disconnected from what I’ve come to understand about the premortal life. The first sentence is correct in that we all existed before this life as spirits. We lived with our Heavenly Father but couldn’t progress because our world was perfect. So we were sent here to Earth and given physical bodies to experience all the joys and trials of life. To my knowledge, we weren’t already sectioned into families and we don’t subscribe to the belief of “predestination” so I don’t believe that our destinies were already determined. Maybe they were up to the part where we were destined to come to Earth and will return to our Heavenly Father but whatever happens here is up to us. We were given agency or free will.

I don’t think there’s any doctrine to back up the last two sentences but I have heard members make mention of those thoughts. In my understanding, noble spirits would be the ones who sided with Jesus and ignoble spirits would be the ones who didn’t. The ones who didn’t join with Jesus weren’t given the opportunity to come to Earth and gain physical bodies. They will remain spirits. It’s believed that everyone on Earth chose to side with Jesus and come here. So technically we should all be noble which, going by the book entry, means we’d all be Mormons but we know that isn’t true.

-Jeston

Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira or on Instagram: @Death.Of.Hemingway

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Letters to J, Stories

The Dent in My Waterbottle

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Dear J,

A couple years ago I lived in an apartment with some friends in the dirtiest part of town. Someone got murdered a few buildings down from mine one day and I saw their body being bagged up on my way home from work. It was a wild place. I normally wouldn’t mind as long as the nonsense didn’t get too close to my apartment. But eventually it did.

For the first few months of me and my friends living in the apartment, there was nobody below us. Then one day some people started moving in. That’s where the fun began. The smell of weed would permeate my room more often than not. The moans from nightly threesomes kept me awake. The strange men who would bang on my door thinking they were at the apartment below me would make me uneasy.

Not to mention these people were being investigated by the police for selling drugs and prostitution. The situation was made even sadder by the fact that little kids lived in that apartment too. The cops asked me to keep an eye on them. I was basically turned into an informant. I copied down the license plate numbers of all the strange vehicles that would come to visit them. I would report on their comings and goings. I asked the leasing company to do something about it but they said their hands were tied because all the police had were allegations. No hard evidence. And also the workers said they were scared for their safety and refused to talk to my neighbors about their activities.

So I got to live with the weed smoke and the late night orgies and the strange crackheads coming to my door and the shouting about “blowing heads off”. It wasn’t ideal. I was trying to run a state representative campaign at the time. I wasn’t so much worried about my safety as I was of the inconvenience of if we would’ve had to have some kind of shootout.

One day I was having a particularly bad day. I think I was getting burnt out at work and came home during a storm. The wind was howling, rain was coming down, and I was being pelted by hail. The check engine light in my truck came on. Stuff like that. When I got to my door, there was one of those key box locks on the knob. The kind that lets the realtor go in and out whenever they want. That kind of irritated me because I wasn’t told beforehand they’d be doing that.

They can’t even knock on my downstair neighbors’ door but they can just come in and out of my home whenever they want? Whatever.

I tried to ignore it and go inside but the door wouldn’t unlock. The key would just spin round and round but wouldn’t unlock the door. So there I was with a messed up lock getting soaked and pelted with hail. The longer it went on, the angrier I got.

They can’t even knock on their door but they can just come in and out of my home whenever they want?

I thought if I calmed down, the door would unlock. It didn’t work. Probably because I didn’t calm down. Then for some reason the neighbors directly across from my stood outside of their door and watched me struggle. I think they actually had some mental problems. It was all I could stand.

THEY CAN’T EVEN KNOCK ON THEIR DOOR BUT THEY CAN JUST COME IN AND OUT OF MY HOME WHENEVER THEY WANT???

I took my anger out on that lock. Cold and wet and hammered by hail, I picked up my metal waterbottle and bashed that lock over and over. To my surprise, it popped off. My new enemy was vanquished. My waterbottle still bears the scars of a dented bottom. I felt a little better afterwards. I don’t remember what I did with that key box. I think I tossed it. Nobody ever asked about it.

-Jeston

Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira or on Instagram: @Death.Of.Hemingway

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