LDS- Why all the ‘trappings’?
Many of you say you are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.WHy do you make it all so complicated with some of your beliefs that are so beyond grace, eg holy garments, temple practices, 3 levels of heaven, marriage expectations, ruling planets, baptism of the dead etc,
I’ve learned a lot about Mormonism.
Why not just accept the pure gospel of Jesus which really has it all and doesn’t bind you up with so much legalism?
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Tagged with: baptism • Bind • faith • garments • heaven • jesus christ • lds • marriage • marriage expectations • mormonism • ruling planets • Trappings
Filed under: How To Save A Marriage
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The simple answer is: because this is what was revealed to us by Jesus Christ himself.
Saved by grace does not mean that you are saved and need to do nothing "we are saved by grace after all we can do" keep in mind that we are not the judges in the end it will be Christ who judges what all we can do means. Ours is a gospel of grace that understands the relationship between actions and faith, I know nothing I can do will save me it is the grace of Christ, but I don’t believe Christ wants me to sit around all day and do nothing. At the judgement bar I will be founding wanting and that is when Christ will step in and I will be saved by Grace. This is what is taught in our general conferences to 13 million members semiannually.
Holy Garments: these are a sacred practice that we don’t talk a lot about, and I don’t know a lot about so as to why I do this I’ll just say "I know not save the Lord hath commanded it." And it encourages modesty.
Temple practices are biblical practices, every people who has ever served God on the earth in scripture has had temple practices, even the people who served followed Christ in the New Testament.
Christ taught that there are many mansions in His father’s house. "If it were not so I would have told you." It is a complicated doctrine to believe that every one will be rewarded according to what they do. And there is a whole spectrum of how righteous people are. The interesting part about knowing about degrees of glory is that we are not taught how to qualify for lesser degrees because that’s not the goal. I haven’t the slightest idea how to qualify for the terestrial kingdom.
I don’t know what you mean by marriage expectations. My mission president told me to marry above myself. I did, we’re happy.
Ruling planets is not a doctrine that we know a lot about, we are encouraged to stick to the doctrines of the gospel that are essential to are salvation such as faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us in our lives. In general conference no speakers even mentioned Kolob or whether Adam had a belly button or not.
Baptism for the dead was taught in the New Testament, if it were not for this doctrine the standard doctrine taught by most other churches is that every one who has ever lived on the earth and died without ever hearing the name of Christ is damned to hell without question or opportunity. How is that just? How can you have faith is a God who is a respecter of persons?
We do practice the pure gospel of Christ. The only legalism is a cultural phenomenon we shouldn’t have, such as the age old argument about drinking caffeinated Coke. We need to stop judging each other about it and move on.
It is hard to take seriously a religion that believes in magic underwear.
Amen ask them to define who Jesus is too! Because they believe he is the spiritual brother of Satan! I agree with you 100 percent!
they consider it the pure way to live their life with all the rules and complications. if you don’t, then the life is too easy and you wont get saved and go to the highest heaven (celestial kingdom) Also they need something to judge others for, and therefore ALL the good normal things that people do like drink coffee, are considered bad and against the rules. Jesus is not who they really believe in, it is technically "God’ and Joseph Smith the ‘prophet of god’ Jesus falls on the sidelines. My answer might be a bit biased bc I live in utah and have to deal with this crap every day lol
This is an honest attempt to help you find an answer to your question. Many if not most of the LDS members were born into it and raised around it. To them, it is normal. Just like to you, needing to be forgiven for you sins and claiming not just belief, but knowledge of God is just as binding and burdensome. If there is a God, I think he would know each of us, and it wouldn’t matter what religion we were raised under, or which God we were taught to praise, but rather what is in our hearts. I don’t believe in any religion. Nor have any of the Gods I’ve read about hold up to scrutiny. Of the Gods I have not read about, I can make no comment.
Ah, haven’t seen a "my Jesus is better than your Jesus" question in quite a while. Why can’t you all just get along?
I’m with jp – saved by Grace doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything for the Lord.
If it were easy, everyone would do it. Oh wait, what a simple way to deceive the children of men, get them to believe that they really don’t have to DO anything, just believe, and see how many fall away. Wonder who thought of that?????
You go ahead and believe in your faith as you like, I will live my faith and show my faith by my works.
God Bless
Mormons believe that we are saved by Grace *after all that we can do*. We do not rely on "trappings". What we do, the service we render to our fellow man and to our honored dead, we willingly offer as a grateful sacrifice to a loving and beloved Savior. If our willingness to serve God offends you perhaps the fault is not ours but in your heart?
I dunno, ask God. We just do what he tells us to.
I was wondering when you were going to go on the attack.
Matt. 7: 3-5
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Luke 6: 41-42
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
You’re staring at each individual ordinance so closely that you’re losing the big picture. These are covenants we make with Christ to help us become better people. Why would you want to criticize something like that? To us this is the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ that has it all. You’re just looking at it from a different output than the rest of us. First, seek to understand us and from what point of view we’re coming from.
There is no legalism. There are only those things that help us to follow the gospel and learn more about it. To progress and grow and keept he spirit with us at all times.
"Trappings" – I like that one. Great question. I only wish that you were sincere in your query and that you would read the responses from LDS in a respectful manner – seeking to understand and know the truth.
JP has given you a detailed response to your question and I commend it to you. I ask of you how can anyone "just accept the pure gospel of Jesus Christ" if it is not the full gospel? We do not try to take any truth from anyone, but to add to the truth they have by giving them the Truth of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.
You didn’t learn the important thing about our religion. What matters most is loving God and serving our fellow man.
The Bible tells us that the "trappings" are an essential part of the God’s blessings for his children. If you don’t seek after this things, that is your right.
Revelation 2:1 And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
First off, LDS theology is beleiieved to be a restoration of what Christ and the apostles taught. Serious students of Christianity’s roots know that the current tradtional Christianity is the outgrowth of the schools of Alexandria in the fourth and fifth centuries. The Greek philosphers were thier touchstones. They considered the unschooled and illeterate Christianity of the early first century Chrisitans to be silly and without merit and the learned teachers and students of those schools as intellectually superior and more in tune with the “it has to make sense” approach to religion. Thier aim was to sync the two schools of thought in order to protect the church from its enemies. The dominant relgion to come out of that was the Roman Catholic version which held sway. Thereafter, they had the power to enforce those views. There were no schools that taught the first century Christian understnading and traditons that Christ taught. Chief among the simple things that was absent was the authority to recieve revelation and authority to speak in God’s name. Origen, the principle authjority in the Alexndrian school, acknowledges the missing elements and in fact laments thier loss. Today’s modern Christianity is the legacy of those times.
That is kind of the long way around to explain why LDS theology is different from tradtional Christanity. It is the fulfillment of prophecy that talks about a restoration of the gospel. Now you know that and why it was necessary.