Posted on 04/04/2013 6:51:33 PM PDT by Colofornian
On this day – April 4, 1981 (32 years ago) – Mormon church president-”prophet” Spencer W. Kimball made an announcement about what the three-fold MISSION was of the Mormon church.
In other words, these three things were not “minor fair,” and the first two were not surprising for any given “church” (proclaim the gospel, and perfect the saints).
What was the third part?
Per Kimball, it was to “redeem the dead.” (Source: On This Day in the Church: An Illustrated Almanac of the Latter-day Saints, Eagle Gate Publishing, Salt Lake City, 2000, p. 65)
A previous string of Mormon “prophets” – John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Joseph F. Smith and Joseph Fielding Smith -- certainly heavily inculcated the idea among Mormons that “saviors” of the dead were plural...In other words, they weren’t talking about Jesus Christ as being “THE” Savior of the dead!
And, unlike the Bible, which places a definitive “THE” before Jesus Christ as THE Savior (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14), Mormon “prophets” have long and consistently preached that the Mormon churches produces “saviors” – plural! (Lds often cite Obadiah 21, which the KJV renders as "saviors"; the NIV makes it clear that these "deliverers" are there to govern the mountains of Esau; not become proxy saviors taking Jesus' role as Savior of the World!)
Lds “prophet” John Taylor: " ...we are the only people that know how to save our progenitors, how to save ourselves, and how to save our posterity in the celestial kingdom of God;...we in fact are the saviours of the world..." (Lds "prophet" John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol.6, p.163)
Taylor: "We know something about our progenitors, and God has taught us how to be saviors for them by being baptized for them in the flesh, that they may live according to God in the Spirit” (LDS "prophet" John Taylor, March 20,1870, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 14, 3/20/1870)
Lds “prophet” Wilford Woodruff: “…YOU will be recognized as Saviors upon Mount Zion…” (Teachings of Presidents: Wilford Woodruff, p. 189, 2004)
Woodruff: “WE become saviors on Mount Zion as we build temples and receive saving ordinances on behalf of the dead.” (Teachings of Presidents: Wilford Woodruff, p. 187)
Lds “prophet” Joseph Fielding Smith: “... mortals have to be saviors on Mount Zion, acting by proxy for the dead." (LDS "prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, p. 325)
Lds “prophet” Joseph F. Smith: “Teach your children and let yourselves be taught the fact that it is necessary for you to become saviors upon Mount Zion…” (Joseph F. Smith, Teachings of Presidents: Joseph F. Smith, p. 412, 1998)
Lds “prophet” Joseph F. Smith: “…WE have a certain work to do in order to liberate…they…are unprepared for eternal life: we have to open the door for them, by performing ordinances which they cannot perform for themselves, and which are essential to their release from the ‘prison-house,’…” (Joseph F. Smith, Ibid, p. 410)
The Christian counterclaim is that Jesus Christ has already done that, minus any ritual mumbo-jumbo performed in a man-made temple. Jesus said His personal temple – one that would zero in on death – and the only real temple worth anything regarding salvation – was the temple of His body (John 2:19-21). That body was laid on the cross. He liberated us and opened the door; we are free to walk out of the “prison-house” of our sin nature, bondage to this world, bondage to Satan, bondage to a fear of death, etc!
Lds “prophet” Joseph F. Smith emphasized that not only do Lds need to perform “every law and every requirement of the (Mormon) gospel” for themselves, but for the dead as well:
“No man can enter into the Kingdom of God but by the door and through the means that Jesus Christ has offered to the children of men. … Not a soul that has ever lived and died from off the face of this earth shall escape a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they receive it and obey it, the ordinances of the gospel will be performed for and in their behalf, by their kindred, or their posterity in some generation of time after them, so that every law and every requirement of the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be carried out, and the promises and requirements fulfilled for the salvation of the living and also for the salvation of the dead.” (Teachings of Presidents: Joseph F. Smith, p. 307, 1998; original source “Latter-day Saints Follow Teachings of the Savior,” Scrap Book of Mormon Literature, 2 vols. 2:561-562).
In other words, Jesus’ proxy blood didn’t fulfill the “requirements” and debt-payments and falling short of fulfilling the law. Mormon proxy sweat labor has to fulfill that. And for how many of the dead of history?
“The work of saving the dead has practically been reserved for the dispensation of the fullness of times, when the Lord shall restore all things. It is, therefore, the duty of the Latter-day Saints to see that it is accomplished. WE cannot do it all at once, but will have the 1,000 years of the millennium to do it in. In that time the work must be done in behalf of the dead of the previous 6,000 years, for all who need it.” (Lds “prophet” Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 2:166)
Since I’m not a Mormon...do I still get my own planet?
I’d like some in the temperate to tropical...beaches and nice lagoons.
Mark W. Hofmann, left, and LDS Church leaders N. Eldon Tanner, Spencer W. Kimball, Marion G. Romney, Boyd K. Packer and Gordon B. Hinckley examine the Anthon transcript April 22, 1980.
As you know, both Mr. Kimball (cited as an authority in your article) and Mr. Hinckley were named as presidents, prophets, seers and revelators to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
ALL: IN case you don't know who Mark W. Hofmann, he's the Mormon forger mad bomber-murderer whose forgeries fooled these supposed "seers" of the Mormon church! Boyd Packer is STILL an Lds "apostle".
Ask the Apostle Paul who said: “what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” 1 Corinthians 15:29.
Here’s what I don’t understand: Why don’t you just leave us Mormons alone? If you don’t believe it, that’s fine with us.
You suck at searching.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2857636/posts?page=24#24
Sorry...but ya gotta pay 10% plus of your lifetime income; jump thru the hoops of a Mormon bishop to pay the tune of temple access (a temple recommend card). Oh, and you HAVE to be married.
Oh, and speaking of spouses, since the Mormons shut down its OPEN polygamy factory about a couple generations in, you can still climb aboard the Mormon eternal polygamy train. But ya gotta marry them one at a time, waiting for the previous one to die.
I know that can take some time getting the # up to the Muslim virgin number for Islamic terrorist martyrs, but be patient.
Baptism by proxy.
You then linked to a comment where you wrote: "Oh yeah, Team Obama (Obama,DNC,MSM)Media who refused to cover Jeremiah Wright, WILL cover all manner of Mormon weirdness, 24/7 once Bishop Rome-ny gets the nod. Rome-ny’s approval will be in the 30’s by October."
'Twas a shot @ the MSM & how it portrays Mormonism...hardly even a "softball" shot.
We're left to conclude: Either (a) You suck at researching your own posts; or (b) I was right!
(Where's your comments on baptisms of the Jewish dead, again?)
You are right. We Mormons have been instructed to only baptize our own dead relatives. We are not to baptize any others.
The way this works, by the way, is very interesting, and spiritual for us. When a living person wishes to be baptized, they are baptized by full immersion “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost”. It’s beautiful. Baptizing for the dead is where someone stands in proxy for the dead person and is baptized “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost”. It’s very sacred and beautiful.
It’s OK if you don’t believe; but we do with all our hearts and wish to be left alone to practice our faith and give you the same opportunity. Thanks.
Every few years this comes up. Jews object, Mormons promise to quit doing it, things calm down for a few years and then the Mormons are back at it, baptizing dead Jews, who according to Mormons, are really gentiles, on and on and on.
“There is only ONE Savior and He was NOT a mormon.”
Jesus belongs to us all - we are His. He is the Head of the Church. John 3:16. He suffered and died for Mormons, too.
The LDS Church has apologized for offending Jews and has instructed that this practice be stopped. Those Mormons who did baptize dead Jews were not intending to do anything wrong. They did these baptisms out of love. They did not mean to do harm. Please forgive.
“and then the Mormons are back at it,”
You are wrong about that. The leadership of our Church has made it abundantly clear that the practice is abolished - in no uncertain terms.
(All as perhaps a MILLION Mormon researchers scan every past record imaginable about OUR "gone on beyond" relatives; scan every tombstone of OUR "gone on beyond" relatives; ... and District 13 preaches leaving living Mormons alone...when they can't leave the dead alone?)
The leaders of the LDS faith are good men and women striving to be good examples and do the right things. The Church is perfect but the people are not.
You mean the Salamander Letter was a forgery? The letter that proclaimed that Joseph Smith received his First Vision from an elf in the form of a white (as in white magic) salamander? The same letter that was pronounced genuine by the above same leaders? That letter?
Or is it one of the other 47 documents that the LDS Church purchased from Hofmann and accepted as genuine? Or was it all of the above?
You need to be more specific!
This would be like a Christian saying, "Yes the Gospel of Jesus Christ saves. Jews, too. But since the Gospel of Jesus Christ offends Jews, we will no longer share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We share the Gospel out of love, not harm. Please forgive us for sharing the Gospel with Jews."
(Can you get more inconsistent than thatm District?)
You are wrong about that. The leadership of our Church has made it abundantly clear that the practice is abolished - in no uncertain terms. [Mormon District 13 to Graybeard58]
Wait a minute, District. If "the leadership of our [Mormon] church...made it abundantly clear" (in 1995?) "that the practice" of necro-baptizing Jews "is abolished"...then please explain this February 2012 headline from the AP/Washington Post:
Mormons apologize for posthumous baptism of parents of Jewish rights advocate Wiesenthal
“Ask the Apostle Paul who said: “what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” 1 Corinthians 15:29.”
Notice it says “they,” not “us”. Just north of Corinth the pagans practiced proxy baptisms for the dead. It is not a Christian practice.
“Here’s what I don’t understand: Why don’t you just leave us Mormons alone? “
Okay, but please stop all missionary activity first,stop twisting the scriptures, stop spreading your blasphemous and silly dogmas invented by a polygamist con-man with 30 wives, 12 of whom were still married to other men, and some as young as 14 years old.
Thanks.
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