R.I.P. Gordon B. Hinckley

A great man of our times passed away in January. The man touched many lives, including mine. He was a strength, a guide, and a wonderful example. He was an instrument in the Lord's hands and was able to accomplish many wonderful and beautiful accomplishments. He was a father, a grandfather and great grandfather. Not only was he a family man, but a man of the Church. He had faith and a strong testimony which many people could hold on to for support. I saw him once, pretty up close, and he was so happy. He was such a joyful man. His name was Gordon B. Hinckely. the 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was not afraid to talk with the media or talk about our religion openly. He encouraged it, if anything else. He encouraged the education of women, and loved the youth. I will miss this man, but he is in eternity with his wife, whom he loved and missed dearly. He is at peace, with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

God Head

one of the most controversial parts of Mormonism, beside the plural wives thing, is the First Vision, as we "cult" members call it. So, as we believe it happend, from a first hand writting of it, was that Joseph Smith (the founder of the religion) had questions about religion (and not to offend anyone here) he went into the woods to pray to God because of a scripture that he had read in James 1:5: if any man lacks widsom, let him ask of God. So Joseph, who was only about 14 at the time, went to ask God about religion. he wanted to know which church to join, which I think shows a lot of maturiy.
The contraversial part comes in the next part: Joseph claims that he personally saw not only Jesus Christ, but also God the Father. this totally debuncks the whole trinity theory of the Catholic, along with the "God is love" theory. This (if believed, of course) shows that God has a body and that He and Jesus Christ are two different personages. If this is not believed by people, then the whole religion seems like a cult, or a scam. I believe it. and here are some reasons of why I believe it:
Prophets of old, such as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, were able to talk face to face with God, if the Bible is to be believed. It is also said in the scriptures that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and forever. so, if he is so constant, then why would he change this basic principle of having not only a prophet, or a leader, on the earth, but one that He personally talks to and gives direction to.
Another reason is during Jesus Christ's baptism, how can God the Father talk from Heaven and be in the form of a dove AND be present as Jesus Christ all at once? That would be defying the laws of nature, and since God created the laws of nature He also has to abide by them.

In the Beginning...

I'm kinda tired of all the anti-Mormon stuff coming out with Mitt Romney running for the Republican nomination. So Mormons, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (LDS for short, not to be confused with lsd) have to defend themselves in public circles and clearify to people that "no, we are not a cult. we do not worship Joseph Smith. We do believe in Jesus Christ, it is kinda in our name. We are Christian, hence beliving in Christ." There is so much anti- stuff out there, and even if people do do their research, they will get stuff about how LDS do not believe in Christ or take our beliefs and twist them around to make them sound really bad.
So, with this blog, Im going to try and clearify some of the misconceptions that there are about the LDS religion. Cause, yes we are a religion, not a cult. Even when you look up 'cult' in the dictionary, you get a lot of different definitions, one being "the members of such a religion or sect" (dicionary.com) so from that definition, then everyone who belongs to a religion is part of a cult. that would include just about 1/2 of the human population probably. But other ones do say that a cult is a group of people, normally a religion or sect, that are isolated basically from society and do things that are not genearlly accepted conventional society. Well, I am pretty sure that LDS are not isolate. well, not in the present day at least. In the early days of the LDS Church, they moved over to Utah, not to purposly isolate themselves, but because the rest of the United States kinda pushed us out of all the rest of the states. Yeah, I can see how that could be called 'exculsive.' I really do not understand why LDS is considered a cult. Just cause LDS are not as public with their religion does not mean that we are all secrets. Just ask, and I am sure someone (an LDS someone) will fill you in.