Excellent post. Keep it up!

Sorry I misunderstood your statement from your earlier post and enjoyed your thoughts from your last post. In regards to Romney, I don’t know if there was anything Romney could have said in regards to religion, that would have satisfied the minds of those who said they would never vote for a Mormon president. It was amazing to see all the newly created anti- Romney websites, most of which were because of his faith. When you have local pastors ( who were supporters of Huckabee) telling their congregations to visit these sites and get the word out was just sad and un-American. I think the only way Romney could have won over these people, most of which are from the south, was to have prominent conservatives from within the Republican establishment getting behind him and endorsing him. I guess that would be a hard thing to do when Romney said Washington was broken from top to bottom and they were getting nothing done. Which by the way, could not be more true. Talk radio finally got behind him, including Michael Savage who is an independent conservative and rarely endorses anyone. Unfortunately, I never thought in a million years McCain would be representing the republican party based upon his stances on all the key issues. It is sad to see where the direction of that party has gone to. I agree, I would have loved to be working for Romney’s campaign right now.

In regards to monotheism vs. polytheism. We do not believe our religion to be polytheism. Meaning we don’t believe and worship several gods. We believe the God head to consist of God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Though they are three seperate personages, they are one with the same purpose, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of mankind. The way I understand polytheism, is that your worship several god’s and usually those god’s serve different purposes. For example the Aztec and Incan nations of old. I can see though why you would think that our religion would be a polytheistic faith based upon my earlier post with Dust. It is amazing how many faiths are in the world today. I think the underlying message is good is good and evil is evil. Though you may be of a faith that preaches to love God and love your neighbor, does not mean you believe and live those teachings. This is why there are so many great people in the world from so many different faiths who have one common purpose, peace and love. And vice versa, which explains why there is so much hatred for their fellow brother.

I disagree with people who say to never talk about politics and religion, because they are usually the two most passionate things people believe in. It is amazing how the two coincide with each other and at times they have nothing to do with each other. By the way, I do like your sarcastic sense of humor. If you could not tell from my earlier post, I am the same way.

As I quite agree, I was referring facetiously to the counterproductive pontificating from upstream in this blog of despond. The stuff that told us we were not to discuss religion, when at that very moment the nation was engaged in a more purposeful discussion of religion than it has had in generations; and also the stuff that announced the political irrelevance of Mitt Romney, from whom, as it happened, we had not heard the last. I don’t know why people come onto a blog and then presume to foreclose lines of discussion, but they do. Perhaps there are more homeroom teachers in the world than I’d thought.

I read with pleasure and interest the very decent discussion you and Dust enjoyed—I think, for our benefit. Frankly it was lovely. In fact I tried—perhaps others did also—to weigh in after the second day of your conversation, but there is some glitchy filter on this blog that kicks out a post on the pretext that you already have posted it. (Perhaps it works on keywords, like the scanning programs of NSA and its fellow travellers NeuStar & AT&T.)

I should think that the nub of the difference between your beliefs and Dust’s is monotheism v. polytheism, in light of LDS construal of our Lord Jesus Christ as the greatest thing since sliced bread but still other than the One True God. The difference, of course, is owing to Christian orthodoxy’s understanding that Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth taught monotheism and also said that He was It. To my eyes it’s wonderful to see orthodox Christians and Mormons simply differing, and finding and acknowledging the differences. It breaks a kind of glass ceiling more akin to a glass wall.

I still maintain that had Mr. Romney simply done that, he’d still be in the running. And I’d now have the pleasure of working for his election. He is much the better exemplar than Mike Huckabee of Christian doctrine. Ironic, but true.

But then we mustn’t discuss religion here, nor the irrelevant Mike Huckabee. Those topics are out. Did you not get the memo?

Speaking of visions. As I mentioned in my earlier post, we believe that Christ called Joseph Smith to be a prophet of God and instructed him how to restore the same Church Christ had established while he was on the earth. It all started when Christ and Heavenly Father appeared to him. They appeared to him outside his home in a near by grove of trees in up-state New York in a small town called Palmyra. This was in the year 1820 when he was just 14 years old. During that time their was much religious excitement in regards to Christianity. Their were churches at every corner telling their members that there’s was the only one true church and were the only ones that interpreted the scriptures correctly. Joseph and his family would visit the different churches. Joseph was confused as to which one of these churches he should join and was the true church of Christ,. The one that was established by Christ in the New Testament. Through much contemplation and studying of the scriptures he came across a scripture in James 1:5. It reads ” If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” He knew that the only way to receive his answer was to ask God and knew that the Lord would not scorn or upbraideth him. So that is when he went to the near by grove of trees and pray to know which of all those churches he should join. That is when Heavely Father and Christ appeared to him and told him to join none of the churches, though there were truths in all of them, none of them contained the fullness of the Church that Christ had established. That through him they would restore their Church here again on the earth.

I share this with you so you have a backround of how it all started. The thing I always found interesting was that this very experience tells us the nature of God and how it coincides with the Bible. Joseph said that he saw two personages ( Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ) and that they had glorified bodies of flesh and bone.

If you read in Luke Chapter 24:33-43, this is after Christ death and his resurrection. It reads “33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, 34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. 35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. 36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? 42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. 43 And he took it, and did eat before them.

Here we learn that Christ has a glorified body of flesh and bone with a glorified spirit. The apostles were afraid because they had thought they had seen a ghost or a spirit. Then after Christ comforted them, showed them his hands and feet and told them to feel for themselves. He then told them that a spirit does not have flesh and bones, but that he does have a body of flesh and bones. He even began to eat with them. We know that Christ is God and took upon him a mortal tabernacle of blood, flesh, and bone. We know that he was eventually crucified and resurrected to his mortal body without blood, but with flesh and bone. This is important because most Christian denominations and Christianity in general believes that God is a spirit and Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one in the same. This is derived from the Nicene Creed that was formed at the council of Nicea in Rome. It was formed by religious leaders and other noble men of that day. I believe it was around 400 A.D. Anyway, this is where the trinity doctrine was formed that God does not have a body but is a spirit. However, we learn in Luke that the Resurrected Jesus does have a body and if he was God in the Flesh before his crucifiction, than he is also God in the Flesh after his resurrection with a body of flesh and bone without blood. Therefore if Christ is God, than God does have a glorified spirit with a glorified body with flesh and bones. We do also believe that Heavenly Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are One. They are One in purpose. To bring to pass the imortality and Eternal life of mankind.

Blood represents life and death. Without it we can not live. Through Christ resurrection he conquered death. Because of his resurrection all man kind will be resurrected. But, in order to overcome spiritual death and live with him in the Kingdom of God, we must be made clean. This is why Christ payed the price for our sins and is the mediator between us and God. Only through him can we be made clean. This is why we must always repent of our wrong doings and do our best to be obedient to all of Gods commandments. Even then, we will still fall short of perfection. This is why Christ grace is so important. It is the only bridge that can fill the space between unperfection and perfection. We can only receive this grace through faith and obedience to all of God’s commandments. This is why James states that faith without works is dead. Faith can not save us alone. I am so grateful for repentance because without out in we would remain unclean.

My main point is that Christ did nothing but what he saw his Father do, as we read in the New Testament. Thus we know that Joseph was correct in regards to the nature of God. That Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do have separate glorified and perfected bodies and spirits. That the Holy Ghost is a separate personage of Spirit without flesh and bone and is to comfort,guide, and testify of Heavenly Father and Christ.

I apologize and was wrong about Paul, it was the men that were traveling with him what I meant. If you turn to Acts 9:7 ( King James Version) it reads ” And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.” Obviously the voice they heard was that of the Lord, but they did not see the person in which it came from. However, in Acts 22:9 it reads ” And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.” So according to Paul the men saw the same light Paul saw, but did not hear the voice of the Lord. Again this is a clear contridiction, but is done by men that translated it. I guarantee you if we walked side by side with Paul during his ministry, his experience would have always been the same.