Over the years, I've had people ask me questions about what I believe as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so I decided to lay out some basic doctrines of what we believe. Although I deleted the original sources from quotes, they are easily searchable on the Church's website. Almost everything was pulled from student manuals. There will be 13 posts on this topic total. Enjoy! 2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.President James E. Faust (1920–2007) of the First Presidency explained: “Because of their transgression, Adam and Eve, having chosen to leave their state of innocence, were banished from the presence of God. This is referred to in Christendom as the Fall, or Adam’s transgression. It is a spiritual death because Adam and Eve were separated from the presence of God and given agency ‘to act for themselves and not to be acted upon. They were also given the great power of procreation, so that they could keep the commandment to ‘multiply, and replenish the earth’ and have joy in their posterity. “All of their posterity were likewise banished from the presence of God. However, the posterity of Adam and Eve were innocent of the original sin because they had no part in it. It was therefore unfair for all of humanity to suffer eternally for the transgressions of our first parents, Adam and Eve. It became necessary to settle this injustice; hence the need for the atoning sacrifice of Jesus in His role as the Savior and Redeemer. Because of the transcendent act of the Atonement, it is possible for every soul to obtain forgiveness of sins, to have them washed away and be forgotten.” Elder Dallin H. Oaks said: “In order to lay claim upon our Savior’s life-giving triumph over the spiritual death we suffer because of our own sins, we must follow the conditions he has prescribed. As he has told us in modern revelation, ‘I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent. “‘But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I.’” Elder Bruce R. McConkie said: “If there was ever a false doctrine that runs counter to the whole concept of the fall and the atonement, this is it (that all are subject to original guilt or birth-sin, and they will automatically be damned because Adam fell). Personal accountability for sin lies at the very root of the plan of salvation. Every man is accountable for his own sins, not those for another. Men are judged for the deeds they do in the flesh, not for those of another. Men work out their own salvation, not the salvation of another. This is what the plan of salvation is all about—every man being judged according to his own works and every man being awarded his own place in the kingdoms that are prepared. As to man's freedom from the transgression of Adam, the Lord said to the first man: ‘behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden.’ Adam himself was forgiven of this transgression; It no longer rested upon him, let alone upon any of his posterity. ‘Hence came the saying abroad among the people,’ the scripture continues, ‘that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.’” (Moses 6: 53-54) Why agency is important:Elder James E. Talmage said: “The Church teaches as a strictly scriptural doctrine, that man has inherited among the inalienable rights conferred upon him by his divine Father, freedom to choose the good or the evil in life, to obey or disobey the Lord’s commands, as he may elect. This right cannot be guarded with more jealous care than is bestowed upon it by God Himself; for in all His dealings with man He has left the mortal creature free to choose and to act.” Doctrinal points on agency:Agency is the eternal right of independent choice.
Satan seeks to destroy our agency.
We are accountable to God for the use of our agency.
Our eternal destiny is determined by the use or misuse of our agency.
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AuthorI am a proud member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am not a gospel scholar, but I hope to be one someday. While I’m learning and growing, I hope you join me on my journey for further light and knowledge. Archives
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