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! 10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. The Gathering of IsraelSpeaking of the house of Israel in ancient times, Elder James E. Talmage wrote: “The Israelites have been so completely dispersed among the nations as to give to this scattered people a place of importance as a factor in the rise and development of almost every large division of the human family. This work of dispersion was brought about by many stages, and extended through millenniums… “Though smitten of men, a large part of them gone from a knowledge of the world, Israel are not lost unto their God. He knows whither they have been led or driven; toward them His heart still yearns with paternal love; and surely will He bring them forth, in due time and by appointed means, into a condition of blessing and influence befitting His covenant people. … As complete as was the scattering, so shall be the gathering of Israel.” Speaking of the house of Israel today, President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) taught: “Every person who embraces the gospel becomes of the house of Israel. In other words, they become members of the chosen lineage, or Abraham’s children through Isaac and Jacob unto whom the promises were made.” President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) taught: “Now, the gathering of Israel consists of joining the true church and their coming to a knowledge of the true God… Any person, therefore, who has accepted the restored gospel, and who now seeks to worship the Lord in his own tongue and with the Saints in the nations where he lives, has complied with the law of the gathering of Israel and is heir to all of the blessings promised the Saints in these last days.” The Restoration of the Ten TribesElder Bruce R. McConkie explained: “In the coming Millennial day, Israel—which, since the death of Solomon, had been divided into two divisive, warring, rebellious kingdoms: the Kingdom of Israel, with its Ten Tribes, and the Kingdom of Judah, with the residue; two kingdoms long since destroyed and taken captive, with their municipals scattered in all the earth—Israel shall again become one nation, upon the mountains of Israel, in the Palestinian home of their fathers… They shall once again believe the gospel and receive the blessings of baptism, even as these were theirs in the day when the Risen Lord ministered among them. These blessings and the blessings of the temple will be administered to them.”
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) |
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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