Meaning of Words
Some claim that the LDS have changed the meaning of many scriptural words. I admit that some of our disagreements with other Christians are due to the different meaning LDS and Orthodox attatch to words. However, LDS do not use words differently to be dishonest. Because of the Apostasy, Satan changed the meaning of many words. With the restoration, LDS are restoring words to their origional scriptural meaning. Here are a few examples.
1. Faith
False Meaning: If I just believe strong enough I can change the mind and will of God.
True Meaning: I will accept and trust the mind and will of God, even if its not what I want.
2. Hope
False Meaning: What you feel when you buy a lottery ticket.
True Meaning: The assurance you feel that you got 100% on your test because you put in the effort (thanks to God) to study and prepare sufficently.
3. Charity
False Meaning: A gift a man gives to the poor.
True Meaning: The true love of Christ that God gives in the heart of one who has faith and a hope in Chirst (best develped by serving the poor).
4. Salvation
False Meaning: Not going to Hell
True Meaning: Being saved from physical death and separation from your body as well as being saved from spiritual death which is a separation from God the Father.
5. Eternal Life and Exaltation
False Meaning: Living with God circling His throne forever.
True Meaning: Knowing God, Living like God, sitting in God's throne with Him, and enjoying eternal progression, learning, and the ability to join with God in His work of creation forever.
6. Damnation
False Meaning: Going to Hell
True Meaning: To stop ones progress or loosing the ability for eternal progression. Therefore, salvation without exaltation = damnation.
7. Worship
False Meaning: Praise God with your mouth
True Meaning: Praise God with your actions (obedience and service)
8. Blasphemy
False Meaning: Elevating the worth of man by claiming that man can be exalted
True Meaning: Denying the power of God to exalt man
9. Pride
False Meaning: Elevating the worth of man by claiming that man can be sanctified and perfected in this world by the Holy Ghost
True Meaning: Rejecting the will of God by denying the Holy Ghost
10. Love of God
False Meaning: Man is worthless and nothing, but God will save us anyways so as to have more worthless creatures circling His throne worshipping Him with our mouths only for eternity.
True Meaning: Man is nothing without God, but with God man has infinite potential. God's greatest desire is to give everything He has to His children who he has promised will sit with Him in his throne, and worship Him by participating in His work of creation abd worshipping Him with our whole bodies for eternity.
5 comments:
It seems to me, that you have proved the thesis quite well. I agree with Faith. Hope, not so much. It is a confident expectation, not based on works, but based on the promises of God. It excludes doubt all together. Charity? Really? Not a word that I would worry about, since Love is what Paul is talking about, contrary to the KJVO's. Salvation is deliverance from sin and death, but not does include prevention of physical death or separation from the Body. Salvation means that you are accepted before God and their is no sin-debt on you.
Eternal life? Sitting in God's throne? That is purely a Mormon thought.
Damnation is the eternal separation from God.
Again, the LDS has changed the meanings of words. That is easily seen.
Sitting on Gods throne, a Mormon idea? Actually, it comes from John the Revelator.
Rev 3:21: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."
3. Charity
True Meaning: The true love of Christ that God gives in the heart of one who has faith and a hope in Chirst that results in service to those less fortunate (i.e., A gift a man gives to the poor).
I agree with that, I just was trying to stress that Charity has more to do with what is in the heart of the person giving that the thing that is given. But giving is a great way to develop/receive charity.
Nicely done, David B. I came across your blog while cross referencing archeological information at Serabit el-Khadim from 1904 on. Your many-topic coverage is delightful. Your exactness and factual expression is refreshing. Your precision in siting the Bible is gratifying. I grew up LDS in Iowa in the 1970s and have moved around in life. It never ceases to amaze me how much energy people put into 'proving' my religion wrong and that it is cultish. It has been happening for over 180 years. And as the latest academic and science theories shift, so must the arguments. As I have learned to love the diverse, God loving neighbors around me (and good atheists and agnostics), appreciating them for their goodness and positive contributions to society, I understand it is what they are that is most important. I will never convince some people of some things. But many of them are good. I love them. It drives some people crazy that core 'Mormonism' produces intelligent, well balanced, peaceful contributors to society, even when the believe such 'bizarre' doctrines. I love LDS doctrine. It is detailed, reasonable, and satisfies my life questions. If naysayers applied the same rigor of criticism to their own positions, they would find their 'truth' with many more unanswered questions. Even further, if you look at their personal lives, it has been my experience that there are often issues there too. (Being objective about important things in life also provides the skill to properly eject the harmful philosophies of the world. By their fruits ye shall know them?) I ramble. Thanks again.
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