Joseph prophet or not

[Anonymous]

Good questions Spock.

Let me rephrase my question as well.

Can the church membership and leaders ever really REJECT the notion that the COJCOLDS is “gods’ one true church on the earth,” and still believe that JS is a true prophet of god?

Is that a better “gray” question, Way?

[Anonymous]

Could they (theorhetically)? Sure. Lots of things have changed dramatically throughout our history.

Can they (practically)? I doubt it. That would be very, very hard, if not impossible.

Should they (ideally)? Probably not. It works for way too many people – and I think it’s as “true” as any other construct we have, given the over-arching theology and not just the dominant church culture.

[Anonymous]

cwald wrote:

Good questions Spock.

Let me rephrase my question as well.

Can the church membership and leaders ever really REJECT the notion that the COJCOLDS is “gods’ one true church on the earth,” and still believe that JS is a true prophet of god?

Is that a better “gray” question, Way?

I actually think that could be done. Would be a good way to answer some of the disaffected concerns, just make the questions go away. Lets assume some leader gets up and says something to the effect “We have been wandering in the wilderness for 150 years. It is time we get back to the church that was founded by God through Joseph Smith”. It is sort of like a reboot. You get to claim divine origin and just wipe away all the stuff for the past century. It to would be some kind of alternate reality that would be created. Sounds cool.

[Anonymous]

Cadence wrote:

cwald wrote:

Good questions Spock.

Let me rephrase my question as well.

Can the church membership and leaders ever really REJECT the notion that the COJCOLDS is “gods’ one true church on the earth,” and still believe that JS is a true prophet of god?

Is that a better “gray” question, Way?

I actually think that could be done. Would be a good way to answer some of the disaffected concerns, just make the questions go away. Lets assume some leader gets up and says something to the effect “We have been wandering in the wilderness for 150 years. It is time we get back to the church that was founded by God through Joseph Smith”. It is sort of like a reboot. You get to claim divine origin and just wipe away all the stuff for the past century. It to would be some kind of alternate reality that would be created. Sounds cool.

I’ve been having the same thoughts, except I might go a bit further. The prophet could get up and reveal that God had been testing us for the past 180 years, and now that we have passed that test, we are mature enough to understand the truth: every bit of speculation about the nature of god, of polygamy, of temples, of blood atonement, of adam-god, of the origin of the book of mormon, the historical accounts in scripture — this is just make-believe — it is all myth, metaphor and allegory, used to convey in symbol that which is not suitable for words. The truth is that Jesus Christ taught in parables — these stories were meant to convey meaning, not be taken literally. The truth is that we are gods NOW when we operate in harmony with the power of god (section 88), and all of us are children of the most high (Psalms 82, John 10). We have divine souls. We can think for ourselves. God speaks to each of us through our divine souls to our minds and to our hearts. We do not need a hierarchy to tell us what to do or to think. Our leaders are in fact our servants, and should not be exalted or thought more worthy than ourselves. Priesthood is open to all members regardless of gender, and provides the means to voluntarily serve one another as Jesus Christ served us all. We have a church to celebrate god’s love together, and to work in harmony toward zion: the pure in heart.

This is what I think would be really cool.

[Anonymous]

wayfarer wrote:

Cadence wrote:

cwald wrote:

Good questions Spock.

Let me rephrase my question as well.

Can the church membership and leaders ever really REJECT the notion that the COJCOLDS is “gods’ one true church on the earth,” and still believe that JS is a true prophet of god?

Is that a better “gray” question, Way?

I actually think that could be done. Would be a good way to answer some of the disaffected concerns, just make the questions go away. Lets assume some leader gets up and says something to the effect “We have been wandering in the wilderness for 150 years. It is time we get back to the church that was founded by God through Joseph Smith”. It is sort of like a reboot. You get to claim divine origin and just wipe away all the stuff for the past century. It to would be some kind of alternate reality that would be created. Sounds cool.

I’ve been having the same thoughts, except I might go a bit further. The prophet could get up and reveal that God had been testing us for the past 180 years, and now that we have passed that test, we are mature enough to understand the truth: every bit of speculation about the nature of god, of polygamy, of temples, of blood atonement, of adam-god, of the origin of the book of mormon, the historical accounts in scripture — this is just make-believe — it is all myth, metaphor and allegory, used to convey in symbol that which is not suitable for words. The truth is that Jesus Christ taught in parables — these stories were meant to convey meaning, not be taken literally. The truth is that we are gods NOW when we operate in harmony with the power of god (section 88), and all of us are children of the most high (Psalms 82, John 10). We have divine souls. We can think for ourselves. God speaks to each of us through our divine souls to our minds and to our hearts. We do not need a hierarchy to tell us what to do or to think. Our leaders are in fact our servants, and should not be exalted or thought more worthy than ourselves. Priesthood is open to all members regardless of gender, and provides the means to voluntarily serve one another as Jesus Christ served us all. We have a church to celebrate god’s love together, and to work in harmony toward zion: the pure in heart.

This is what I think would be really cool.

Now that would be some exciting times.

[Anonymous]

Cadence wrote:

Now that would be some exciting times.

Yes. Yes it would.

[Anonymous]

Such is the Holy Blasphemy that gets the son of God nailed to a cross: The message that you are already gods, and are free.

[Author]

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