Comments on: General Conference April 2014. Priesthood Session, by Bobby Gilpin

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 04:16:22 +0000

Not in any ward or stake I’ve ever attended. Christ is always the focus. I’ve never been to a testimony meeting in England, but give it a count and let us know :-)

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 00:21:41 +0000

Henry,
For clarification, it IS Mormon doctrine (as supported throughout the New Testament and consistently by all LDS prophets) that we, as children of God, have the potential of Godliness (always under the presiding authority of God). (ref: Romans 8:16-17, Matthew 5:48, etc)

President Hinckley was responding to the following question with regards to the “origin of God”:

Question: “…about that, God the Father was once a man as we were. This is something that Christian writers are always addressing. Is this the teaching of the church today, that God the Father was once a man like we are?”

Answer: “I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it. I haven’t heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don’t know. I don’t know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it.

By: Henry Lions

Henry Lions — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 20:23:30 +0000

Michael
You know very well that up until at the very least the mid 1990’s the promise of eventual Godhood was one of the USP’s of the LDS for priesthood holding males. in recent times President Kimball taught it, President Benson Taught it and as a missionary I taught it. However President Hinkley openly denying it on live national TV was a source of confusion at best and outrage at worse for many Mormon and non-Mormon alike.
By all means have the church leaders have another “revelation” as they did in 1978 and change the key doctrines of the church as they have every right to do, nevertheless what they do not have the right to do is lie and try and convince people that what they were taught in the past was never taught, or was misunderstood and that those who still recall being taught it are deluded.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 17:29:51 +0000

Thanks Charles, happy to agree to disagree but its just something that struck me. Its a challenge that I have never had the chance to try, but I have heard that if you count the number of times Joseph Smith is mentioned compared to Jesus on any given testimony sunday, Joseph tends to come out on top, do you think there is some truth to that?

By: Charles Dayton

Charles Dayton — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 17:22:17 +0000

Given that the Priesthood is the power of God given to man to fulfill Christ’s directives – I don’t see how teaching about the Priesthood is at Christ’s expense. These directives include to teach, to heal, and at times perform miracles – all in Christ’s name. I would suppose a talk on baptism would have the word baptism used more than Christ’s name, but that is what the talk would be about.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:27:51 +0000

Bobby, I look forward to the blog on eternal families. In speaking with Christians of varying faiths who jave been happily married and are or have raised children, they all just assume they will be together as a family forever. Im renovating a home recently purchased that appears to have been owned by evangelicals and stenciled on the kitchen wall are the words, “Family, the gift that lasts forever”

By: Bobby

Bobby — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:43:15 +0000

Hey there Michael

You certainly dont have to convince me that the Bible teaches the significance of the family. However my argument is that it does not teach the eternality of the family.

Funnily enough I am scheduled to do a blog post on this very subject this year, watch this space.

By: Bobby

Bobby — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:41:45 +0000

Charles if you listen to a good evangelical talk on grace I would still be very surprised if grace is talked about at the expense of Christ to this degree.

I did a small test to see if I am right in this.

I counted the word Priesthood used 68 times in this talk and the Word Jesus used 4 times.

This is very far from the Apostle Pauls desire to only proclaim Christ and Him crucified. The priesthood is another of the idols in the LDS church that functionally replace Christ in their significance. Not in theory or discussion with evangelicals, but functionally this is the case.

By: Charles Dayton

Charles Dayton — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 16:41:06 +0000

Hello Bobby – a small item. In a Mormon’s mind, priesthood is integral to the power and nature of Christ. It would be analogous for us to criticize a fellow Christian for talking about ‘grace’ rather than Christ. As you know, we believe the Priesthood is after the order of the Son of God. All priesthood blessings are pronounced in the name of Jesus Christ.

Hope all is well with you.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 15:09:57 +0000

3) Here’s some quotes from an Evangelical Church: “The fact that God established the family at the very beginning of creation is an indicator of its importance in God’s plan. God made man, gave him the gift of the woman and then instructed them to procreate and fill the earth with other humans who bore the very image of God (Genesis 1-2). The family provides a beautiful picture of God, the gospel and the church. The relationship between parents and their children is a small but meaningful illustration of the loving relationship that the Father has for the Son. Parent-child relationships teach us by analogy something of the incredible privilege we have in our relationship with God. He is our Heavenly Father who has adopted us and made us His sons and daughters (Ephesians 1:5). The church is called the “family of God” (1 Peter 4:17) or “God’s household” (1 Timothy 3:15). Just as our relationships with our siblings are unbreakable, in a similar manner we are bound to one another as fellow believers because of our union with Christ.”

“God has instituted the family to be the primary means by which children are brought up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). In Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Moses instructs the Israelite parents to teach God’s commands to their children, to talk about their faith and to make it a natural and central part of family life. Psalm 78:1-7 memorably provides parents with the purpose for such ministry:” http://www.clovisevfree.org/family-and-church-in-ministry.php

Maybe you should feature an article about the eternal nature and importance of families from a Mormon? and then you all can comment?:-)