NOM

Blashyrkh wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2019 7:26 am I never could comprehend the idea that in order for God to help you, you must first figure out the secret order or the celestial puzzle. God didn't help you? Well you didn't pray enough. Or sincerely enough. Or long enough. Or in the correct position. Or your tithes weren't enough. Or you didn't fast enough. Or bear your testimony enough. Because God didn't help you couldn't be because there is no God. Oh no! It was because of some sort of failure on your part in figuring out just exactly what God wants of you and when he wants it. God wants to bless you, oh yes he does. But first your must complete these five quests that he has created. You must slay the three headed dragon with only your raised right hand. On a Tuesday, before noon, while wearing a special suit of cotton, after fasting for three days. Don't forget the password to enter the dragons crypt. Which can only be deciphered by removing every third vowel from the BOA. Backwards. If you do this, God will indeed bless you...maybe.

And this is the problem....


"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated — And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

On the surface the above seems SO logical and reasonable. It appears fine to the naive or the non-critical thinker. It's the way the NATURAL world operates. But they forget that the Lord's ways are not the ways of the natural world.

Isaiah 55

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

God doesn't operate according to the understanding of men. He "causes his sun to shine and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust". This answers the age old question of why the wicked sometimes prosper and are successful. And why many times the righteous (who are living the law) are unsuccessful and do poorly. Obeying the law is no guarantee of a carefree and happy life here on Earth.

So the D&C doctrine that Joseph teaches is actually a false doctrine geared to subject the innocent and naive to a dictatorship masquerading as a religion.

In essence they say, "We are the arbiters of the law. We are the mediators between God and man. We give the law. YOU obey the law. If you don't get the desired and promised blessing it's your fault. You've screwed up. Just keep obeying us and eventually it will work. Just keep OBEYING. Keep obeying......"

Like most other NOMers here, I was never looking for reasons to cease to believe the faith of my youth. I also never felt the need for more evidence- I just wanted strength to walk uprightly and live a life acceptable to the Lord.

What I never anticipated was the vast amount of physical evidence that directly or indirectly contradicts Church teachings. From the point of view of scientific evidence, the Church has nothing going for it. Once you see that, if truth matters to you at all at all -and I understand now that for many people, truth is secondary - the conclusion is unavoidable. It may be possible to live two lives for awhile as I did, one life that of a believer and the other the person who thinks facts matter, but it's not a stable living arrangement. At least it wasn't for me.

Hagoth started his "one liner" thread some months ago. For me, the one-liner that captures my disbelief is "Science disproves Mormonism". I no longer feel compelled to couch it in terms of holding onto or losing something, or in terms of states of mind. In the lab, or on the witness stand, the story falls apart.

Keewon wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2019 3:33 pm In the lab, or on the witness stand, the story falls apart.

This may be the best one-liner yet.