Sunday, August 31, 2008

More about God…

As Latter-Day-Saints we believe in what we call “The Godhead” We of course are not the only ones to use this term as it is also used in the Bible. (Acts 17:29, Romans 1:20, Col. 2:9)

The Godhead consists of three distinct personages. They are, God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Ghost.

Each is a “God.”

Here are a few examples from the Bible that support this:

When Jesus was baptized three distinct members of the Godhead were present. Jesus himself was being baptized, the Holy Ghost made His presence known with the sign of the Dove, and the Fathers voice was heard from heaven saying “This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”


Later, we find Jesus praying to the Father, Both in the Garden of Gethsemane, (Father if thou be willing take this cup from me) and on the Cross (My God My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?)

Why would Jesus pray in this manner if He is the same person as the Father? The Truth is that He is not the same person. But that doesn’t make Him any less than a God.

It is true that there are some scriptures in the Bible that have been interpreted in the past by well meaning people that there is only one God from that doctrines were formed many years after Jesus (4th century) that tried to come up with an answer about what the actual nature of God is. The Nicene creed was adopted by most Christians as the answer to this question. But the problem with this is that the creed was not based on revelation from God, but instead it was the result of a vote taken.

Ask yourself, can we really vote to decide what the nature of God is? If you would like to see more on the scriptures in the bible that have caused the confusion you might want to read this: http://en.fairmormon.org/Godhead_and_the_Trinity

When Latter-Day-Saints refer to “God” we are sometimes referring to a specific member of the Godhead (Such as the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Ghost). But also many times we are referring to all three or the Godhead. We believe these three are separate, but also “one” in unity and purpose.

The Bible, Book of Mormon and other scriptures support this, but nowhere is it more clearly evident than in the Testimony of the first prophet of this dispensation, Joseph Smith.

I will be discussing Joseph Smith, his testimony, and life at length in another post. But for our purposes in this post I’ll just say that he actually saw God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ at the same time. Jesus was standing next to the Father on His right.

God has been seen in our day. He lives. He has been seen by more than one person at the same time. He has been seen by multiple prophets on different occasions. And most importantly, their testimonies all agree not only with each other, but with the testimonies written down in the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

We don’t base our doctrine on interpretation. We don’t base it on a vote of the people. We base it on actual revelation from Heaven.

I know that God Lives. I know that He loves us. I know that the Godhead is composed of three distinct personages. They are, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

Each plays an essential role in our salvation. Each is needed to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of mankind. (Moses 1:39)

You can know this for yourself. All you need to do is offer a sincere prayer, and ask God yourself, in the name of Jesus Christ if this is true. (Moroni 10:5, James 1: 5-6) If you do, I promise that the Lord will answer your prayer and give you this witness independent of everyone else.

And I say this in the Name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

God

If we are going to talk about religion, faith and that sort of thing, we might as well start with God.

As Latter-Day Saints, we believe that God is a loving Father-in-Heaven. His plan for us gives the opportunity for us to receive a fullness of Joy.

He knows everything. He is all powerful, and He can comprehend everything. He is literally the Father of our Spirits. (Acts 17:24-29) He is perfect (Matthew 5:48) He wants the very best for each and every Man, Woman, and Child.

He made us in His image. In other words, we look like him. (Genesis 1:26-27) He has a body of Flesh and Bone... However it is glorified and perfect unlike our mortal bodies.

He loved us so much that he sent His Son, Jesus Christ to live and die for us. (John 3:16) In the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Jesus Christ, it says "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. " (Mosiah 4:9)

God is indeed great. In fact, everything good comes from Him. As the scripture says, we can’t comprehend what He is able to comprehend. Time isn't measured to him. He can see everything past, present and future all at once from every angle in the universe if he wants. And He can comprehend everything He sees.

And He doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if you are looking for something or someone to put your trust and faith into, your search is over.

Oh and yes, He loves you.

Hello and Welcome!

This site is devoted to the simple truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. My intent is to explain the simple, beautiful, and most important truths of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Although I'm an active member, I do not represent the church, so I'm explaining these truths from my own understanding. I'm not perfect. (far from it) So please don't take my posts as official statements or doctrines of the Church. Each post is based on my Testimony. If you are interested in official statements please visit http://www.mormon.org/ or http://www.lds.org/.

In addition. This site is not an apologetics site. There are indeed amazingly thorough and scholarly sites devoted to this branch of theology for the church. I will be linking to these sites (such as www.fairlds.org, www.fairwiki.org, www.fairblog.org, and also http://farms.byu.edu/) where more info is required.

Most of all... I would like to share my simple testimony and also the testimonies of countless others who have come to know for themselves, that God Really Lives, Jesus is the Christ, the fullness of the gospel has been restored, and you can know for yourself as well.

The main focus here will be to show you how you can find out for yourself, if what we as Latter-day Saints say is really true.

So please feel free to read any post, and ask questions. If you are here just to argue, then you have missed the point. God will never force you to believe anything, but He will and has already given a sure way for you to find out if what we are saying is true.

So please keep your posts clean and respectful. If they are not, they will be removed.

Enjoy!