1. ABOUT GOD..

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
There are at least three distinct personages who are each a separate God with specific and united roles in fulfilling the primary God’s (Heavenly Father) plan of salvation for his family.
God the Father is a physical man, a human being, who has progressed, by his faithful obedience to his Heavenly Father, to become the exalted God of his own family kingdom. Heavenly Father, together with his wife have fathered billions of spirit children with a plan for them to have physical bodies so they could progress to be exactly like their Heavenly Father and Mother.
God the Son is the first born son of Heavenly Father and thus Jesus Christ is the elder brother of all Heavenly Father's children. Obeying his Father’s plan, Jesus Christ volunteered to be the Savior of his brothers and sisters by coming to earth, living a perfect example and being the sacrifice for our sin. Jesus Christ was Jehovah God of the Old Testament and helped God the Father organize creation.
God the Holy Ghost is the third person of the Godhead who does not have a body but is a spiritual being. I have not heard how the Holy Ghost came into existence or became a God since having a body is necessary for exaltation. The Holy Ghost is given to us at our baptism and as we are faithful, He helps us continue being true to the faith. The Holy Ghost reveals truth by personal revelation to sincere seekers.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
I believe there is One God who describes Himself and behaves as three distinct Persons ("Us" in Genesis 1). Each Divine Person serves specific and separate roles in the accomplishing of their unified and singular purpose of displaying and sharing their unique glory with all creation.
God is a self-existent spiritual being, without beginning or end. God exists both outside of and within all that He created. He is all-sufficient and all-capable in every dimension of His being. There is nothing God cannot do that His perfections plan or desire. God created mankind for the purpose of sharing Himself with them. As people respond to God, He responds with righteousness in both judgement and rescue.
God the Father, is the Leader of the GodHead. He leads and sends God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to accomplish their cooperative will in everything.
God the Son, became a real human man when conceived as the Holy Spirit miraculously "overshadowed" Mary his mother. While remaining God, the Son (Jesus Christ) became a human in order to pay the death penalty that we all deserve for our sin. In doing so, Jesus, became the Savior of all people willing to accept His substitute death and resurrection. The gift of eternal life is given to all who truly believe who Jesus is and what he did for us.
God the Holy Spirit, works to communicate and enable the accomplishment of God's will in everything. The Holy Spirit works to direct attention to the great rescuing character and works of both God the Father and God The Son.
Each person of the GodHead participates in their activities to bring Glory to each other as One God, they together work out their perfect plan for judgment of evil and blessing of those who accept His rescue.

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2- ABOUT OUR PAST...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
Before anyone was born on this earth they were all spirit children of their physical Father God and Mother. There are billions of literal brothers and sisters. When they proved their faithfulness each spirit child was sent to earth where they were given to their earthly parents in order to have physical bodies and to have the opportunity to further prove their faithfulness in order to one day return to the presence of Heavenly Father and Mother and live fully like them with their own families in eternal happiness. All these past life experiences are hidden from a persons memory.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
While the Bible says that God knew us before we were born, I believe that refers to God's sovereign, all-knowing knowledge of all things of all times, not to a pre-this-life existence. I believe each of us came into actual existence when we were conceived by our earthly parents in fulfillment of God's sovereign plan and design. This is the explanation of our creation clearly described in Genesis.

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3- ABOUT MAN...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
Heavenly Father wants his children to experience all the happiness he does as an exalted man. In order for that to happen each spirit child needs to have a physical body and experience the challenges of earth in order to have the opportunity to further obey the commands of Heavenly Father. Human beings are in the physical and moral image of their Heavenly Father. As such all human beings are born good and only need to faithfully progress in worthiness to return to live with and live like Heavenly Father for eternity.
Some people fail to hear or accept Heavenly Father’s instructions and thus they live unrighteously. These people will have another chance to believe and demonstrate their worthiness in a waiting place after they die. All people will live for eternity in one of three kingdoms depending on the level of their obedience to Heavenly Father’s commands.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
God created mankind in His Image, meaning that He created them with attributes sufficiently compatible (spirit and soul) with God's attributes to make fellowship possible. Our bodies make our relationships with each other uniquely tangible. While God created everything in perfection, He, in His own perfections, allowed rebellion and disobedience to occur for the eventual display of His own Gracious Glory. Tempted by the first rebel, the Devil, Adam and Eve disobeyed and as a result all of their children, you and I, were born as disobedient rebels (sinners) needing to be rescued from the deserved judgment of God.

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4- ABOUT SIN...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS TEACHES ...
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve courageously disobeyed God’s command to not eat a certain fruit. The primary result of that free moral choice was good. It gave them the opportunity to have children, and to demonstrate their faithfulness as they progressed to be fully like their Heavenly Father. All descendants of Adam and Eve have the same free choices to disobey or obey to prove their own faithfulness to Heavenly Father's plan for happiness. Individuals become accountable for their own sin when they reach an age of clear awareness of disobedience and unfaithfulness. At that time they are responsible to repent and fully forsake sin in order to be forgiven by Heavenly Father’s grace. Their fallen condition makes it necessary for every person to faithfully progress out of this temporary life and back to an eternal physical and exalted life with Heavenly Father and their family.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
Sin is anything and everything that misses the standard of God's Holy character. Satan first sinned when he said: "I will be like the Most High." That selfish attitude became his behavior. It was with those attitudes the Serpent tempted Adam and Eve. Our first parents chose to miss the mark of submission to God's character and commands. Thus, every one of us have naturally followed their example of selfishness. Sin is fundamentally a condition of our character that works out in our behavior. Sin not only deserves but has earned the spiritual and physical death sentence that God predicted from the beginning. Death is the only thing that can satisfy the wrath of God toward our selfish disregard of Himself. Our sin requires a rescue which we try but can never accomplish ourselves.

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5- ABOUT OUR LIFE ON EARTH...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
There are difficult and distracting things while living a mortal life on earth, but Heavenly Father’s plan is for his children to learn, prepare and work on their progression to eternal life. In living a mortal life on earth every person has the opportunity to prove that they will use their free will to choose to obey all of Heavenly Father's commands. This could not have been done without physical bodies. This process of personal progression is the Gospel that Heavenly Father restored in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints so that all human beings would have the opportunity to live in the happiness of eternal life according to Heavenly Father’s plan.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES...
Sin corrupted not only our own "image of God" but also God's perfect design for all the things He created. Thus, conflict and disharmony is in and around us. Sin tweaks everything to be varying degrees off from what God designed. Humanity tries all sorts of self-centered religious ideas that always fall short of perfection and everyone experiences the disappointments of even our best efforts. Thankfully, God is present everywhere to graciously restrain sin so it is not as bad as it could be. He is here to transform willing lives to be His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self-control in a hostile world. This glorifies God as we experience and display His powerful grace. These things bring true hope to a seemingly hopeless world.

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6- ABOUT AFTER WE DIE...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
When a persons physical body dies it goes to the spirit world. to wait for the Resurrection. People who have been worthy by obedience to the Gospel will be happy sharing gospel principles with people who died without hearing or believing them. Those who have, by proxy, been baptized and sealed in earthly Latter Day Saint Temples will have the opportunity to accept those ordinances done on their behalf. At the Resurrection everyone will be reunited with their body.
Jesus Christ will judge each person’s obedience to Heavenly Father’s plan. Jesus’ judgment will determine the level of glory they will receive. The highest level is Celestial where those who have been most faithful to all the commands will live in Glory with Heavenly Father and with Jesus Christ. People who were good yet did not respond obediently to The Father and the Son will live in the second level called Terrestrial where they will live with moderate glory. The lowest level is Telestial where unrighteous people will live with minimal glory. There is place of suffering and punishment reserved for the most evil persons like the Devil and his followers like Hitler.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES...
Jesus said to one of the men hanging on a cross beside Him: "Today you will be with me in paradise." Three men died that day. Jesus and the believing man went to paradise. It does not say where the other man went. But in other places Jesus described an afterlife reality of either Heaven or Hell.
The Bible describes that after death comes a judgment of the nature of our life attitudes, actions and our relationship with Jesus Christ. The result of that judgment will be either rebelliously (sinfully) living in eternal suffering and separation from God, or sinlessly living eternally in His glorious presence in a new Heaven of God's making.

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7- ABOUT SALVATION...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ....
Heavenly Father wants His children to be happy so he has a plan for enabling them to have eternal life by progressing to become perfectly like him. Heavenly Father's spirit children did not have bodies like their Heavenly Father and Mother, so the plan for their salvation included creating the earth where they could come and take on physical bodies, experience mortality, have the opportunity to learn the saving example of Jesus and obey all the teachings of the Gospel. Salvation is the joy of being perfected through freely choosing to follow Heavenly Father’s plan and thus be worthy to live happily in Heavenly Father’s presence forever.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES...
The great and fundamental need of every human being is to be rescued from their sin nature and its eternally deadly consequences. Salvation is God's way of rescuing, "saving" us. We all prove over and over that no matter how hard we try we cannot and do not make our attitudes and behaviors perfectly righteous, which is required for us to live in the presence of the perfectly righteous God. Our salvation is not accomplished by our efforts to make ourselves righteous, but by God's accounting the righteous works of Jesus (sacrificing Himself in payment of our sin) to ourselves. God does that accounting in response to our faith which is demonstrated by our glad (though often inconsistent) obedience. God saves only sinners. God does not save individuals who do not admit they need it. Nor does God save sinners who believe they can earn His forgiveness by trying to make themselves sufficiently righteous to earn God's forgiveness.

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8- ABOUT GRACE, FAITH AND REPENTANCE

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
Grace is what God uses to save us after we have done all the obedient works that we can do.
Faith is working toward a goal a person can not yet see. It involves believing, and living the things God reveals through LDS Scriptures, LDS Prophets and the Holy Ghost. This faith especially involves believing in Jesus Christ and living the restored gospel teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Repentance is the feeling of sorrow for sin that results in sin being forsaken and offenses repaired as far a possible.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
I believe that the Bible teaches that our salvation involves responses of God and ourselves to each other. God would be perfectly just to let the consequences of our sin work out to our death without any intervention on His part. But being a loving God, He is not willing to just let us go. Responding to what sinners need rather than what they deserve is the basic demonstration of God's grace. God's grace initiates the process of our salvation. While faith and repentance are basically the sinners part of salvation, they too are responses prompted by God's grace. God's grace sent Jesus (God the Son) to die in our place. God's grace convicts us of our sin, and opens our eyes and heart to believe the Good News of what God has done to rescue us. Confession admits that we are selfishly wrong and God is right about our sin. Repentance turns from living for self, to living for God. Faith believes what the Bible describes God doing through Jesus' death and resurrection and trusts that God's sacrifice for us really does what it says, namely accomplishes our present and eternal forgiveness and transformation from death to life, from old life to new life.

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9- ABOUT BAPTISM...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ....
The principles of Baptism have been passed down from when Jesus was baptized by immersion by John The Baptist, who was authorized by Heavenly Father to do so. At baptism a person receives the powerful presence of the Holy Ghost. Being baptized by a priest who can trace their authority through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to God is a first required step in the salvation path back to live with Heavenly Father.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
The purpose of water baptism is to focus is on what Jesus Christ accomplished by His death, burial and resurrection. The person being baptized is publicly declaring their total dependence on Jesus Christ for God's forgiveness and eternal life. As far who is involved in a water baptism the Bible has no specific requirements other than when Jesus told His disciple to go into the world an make disciples by teaching and baptizing them. Thus only true followers are to be baptized. Paul was not so much concerned about who did the baptizing, but he was very concerned that water baptism be clearly seen as an outward sign of the inward reality of an individuals identity with Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection.
Actually, the Bible says that before their water baptism, the Holy Spirit has spiritually baptized (identified/linked/united) believers with Jesus Christ. It is this saving union of which water baptism is a visible demonstration.
Jesus commanded water baptism, not for something to do in order to be saved but for something to do to make clear to all the family, friends and observers that it is Jesus' death, burial and resurrection that purchases our salvation.

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10- ABOUT CHURCH MEMBERSHIP...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
At their baptism a person is made a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Their membership is authorized by Church priests and includes being given the Holy Ghost who will be with the new member as long as they keep the commandments of Heavenly Father. Being a faithful church member gives a a person the right and the privilege of being a part of the worship, teaching, encouragement, and serving activities in a local ward. Faithful church membership gives a person the opportunity to be worthy to participate in Temple ordinances.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
It is the Holy Spirit who baptizes (identifies, confirms, unites) a believer into the Body of Christ (His Church) While no human beings are involved in that process, fellow disciples may welcome individuals into their local congregations who demonstrate the beliefs and behaviors of a follower of Jesus Christ. Local congregations commit to God and each other to worship, to work, to teach, to challenge and encourage one another as members of their local church.

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11- ABOUT COVENANTS...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
Heavenly Father and his children have been involved in numerous covenants with God throughout history. The covenants usually consisted of God promising some blessing if the people would obedient to God. In a variety of settings and ceremonies Latter Day Saints make specific covenants, or promises, with the expectation that in response God will fulfill His promises.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
Covenants are contractual agreements between parties. In covenants between God and men, God is the only one who has ever kept his covenants perfectly. Humans have always made promises to God. But very rarely, if ever, do we keep them perfectly. Perhaps some covenants are kept in superficial and partial ways. But if we are honest with God and with ourselves, we tend to make and break promises to God over and over again. Thankfully, because God is a covenant keeping God, He saves and blesses us by His Grace not our covenant keeping.

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12- ABOUT PRIESTHOODS...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
Authority to officiate and confer blessings of the various ordinances are given to men who have been ordained by Church authorities as Aaronic and Melchizedek priests. While these priesthoods have been lost until these latter days when they have been restored by God in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Being ordained as priests is one of the requirements for men to be worthy of eternal life in the highest heaven.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
The Bible says God's people, since the New Testament times, are a kingdom of priests. I do not believe this gives special authorities to carry out religious duties. It is giving us the privilege of coming into the presence of God to fellowship with Him, to learn from Him, to talk and listen to Him and serve each other. We do not need someone with the right credentials or title to be a go-between with God for us. We can go to God any time. We are not priests by our own merit or achievement, but by God's making, because of our being "in Christ Jesus."
It could be said that we are priests in a way similar to being saints. We are such because God says we are. And God says we are because He makes and uses us as priests and saints.

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13- ABOUT MARRIAGE...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
Marriage and family is of supreme importance to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Heavenly Father’s plan for his children involves the eternal privilege and joy of giving physical bodies to his spirit children who then have the opportunity for the happiness of progress toward their own exaltation as part of Heavenly Father’s grand family. Marriage, and thus family can be for now and for eternity when sealed in Temple ceremonies. Temple marriage is a requirement for exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
Biblical Marriage has three primary purposes. The first two are of equal importance. Marriage is for the fellowship, mutual pleasure, encouragement, maturing, and security of a husband and wife. Included in that relationship is the privilege and responsibility of raising children. The third purpose of marriage is the privilege to accurately experience and display the loving, serving, submitting, unified relationship of Jesus Christ and His Church. The Bible says there will be no marriage in Heaven. The Bible is silent on the nature of human relationships in heaven, except to say that they will be joyfully perfect and focused on the Glory of God.

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14- ABOUT COMMANDMENTS...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints seeks to follow numerous laws or commandments that Heavenly Father has given to all men. Obeying Heavenly Father’s laws proves the quality of their devotion to him. Obedience gains earthly blessings from Heavenly Father and also promises heavenly blessings as they faithfully progress in their worthiness for salvation.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
Commandments have been a fundamental part of our relationship with God from the beginning when God told Adam and Eve to not eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It is important to note that God's commandments, whether restrictive or prescribing, have always been intended by God for our good. Further, all humans have disobeyed every command. God's commands always first address, and reveal, our heart attitude toward God. It has been, and is, our human nature to attempt to keep God's commands with our hands and feet while violating them with our heart. And in that attempt we almost always work at redefining God's commands to suit our own self-satisfying agendas. One of the main mistakes we make is thinking that the main reasons for keeping God's laws is so that we may gain God's favor. We interpret God's "if you will," or "if you will not" as an employment contract. In so doing we make God's commandments all about our performance, rather than about God's love and wisdom. It could be said that keeping God's commands is never primarily about "doing" them but about the "heart and mind" with which they are done. Do I obey God to benefit myself or to honor and Glorify God. If I seek first to benefit myself, I am not really keeping the commandments and certainly not glorifying God. But if I seek first to honor God, I glorify Him and receive His blessing as well. This is a subtle distinction about which our human nature is easily deceived.

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15- ABOUT TEMPLES

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ....
LDS Temples are very important and greatly loved by their members. They love their temples because they believe God has commanded they be built and regularly entered for worshipping God in various sacred ceremonies. They are encouraged to go to their temples for baptisms, weddings, sealings, endowments, covenants, and teachings. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints also meets regularly in wards (their local church buildings) for worship and learning. Anyone is welcome to attend their ward meetings, but only members who qualify through interviews regarding their personal worthiness are allowed to enter and participate in Temple ceremonies.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
The Bible teaches that God desires to meet with, indeed be with, His people. The Old Testament Tabernacle and Temple were places where God was literally present. It was at the Tabernacle, then the Temple where the people, through the priests, made their sacrifices for their sins. There was scripture reading and worship. When Jesus was crucified, the veil in the Temple was destroyed and he Holy of Holies no longer hidden or necessary. But God's desire to be present with His people remained. The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed about 40 years later. When Jesus ascended to Heaven God the Holy Spirit came to live inside each of God's people. Thus the purpose of the Jerusalem Temple was fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within His people. So the Bible says our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We no longer need to go to a Holy place to meet with God for He is ever present with us. It is a sobering and joyfully comforting thought that God goes with us wherever we go. We are the Temple of God, not because of our own faithfulness but because of the faithfulness of Jesus in sacrificing Himself in our place. And the Holy Spirit living in us.

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16- ABOUT CHURCH...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is today restored to be just like the church Jesus Christ established when he was on earth in Jerusalem. After the first Apostles died the leaders of the church strayed from Jesus’ teaching. Though they claimed to be Christians, they became apostate and both lost and removed many of the teachings from the Bible. In the early 1800’s Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him, through revelation, the instructions and authority to restore Jesus’s Church on earth. Thus, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the one true Church of Jesus Christ with authority to administer all the ordinances that enable Heavenly Father’s children to prepare to go home to live with their families in eternal happiness.

WHAT I BELIEVE THE BIBLE TEACHES ...
I believe the Church is the spiritual body of Jesus Christ made up of individuals who have been added to that body by the Holy Spirit. The members of Jesus Christ's Church meet in local congregations in different times and places all around the world. Local churches have both "sheep" and "goats." "Sheep" are individuals who have a genuine relationship with Jesus. "Goats" are those people to whom Jesus will say: "depart from Me I never knew you." The final decision regarding who are sheep and who are goats belongs to Jesus alone.
Jesus, and the Bible gave quite general directions for the functioning of His church. The one clear thing is that Jesus Himself is the Head of the Church and all the members are parts that play vital roles according to the gifts they are given by the Holy Spirit. The primary purpose of Jesus' Church, and thus His local congregations is to be in the world helping people become followers of Jesus by applying the teachings of the Bible to their daily attitudes and behaviors. Our tendency is to seek to draw attention to our buildings, and the things we do in them rather than what should be our chief aim, namely to represent Jesus Christ accurately while spreading the good message of Who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us.

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17- ABOUT WHERE BELIEFS COME FROM...

MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS ...
LDS beliefs, come from three basic sources: written Scriptures, Prophetic Revelations, and Personal Revelations or Testimonies.
Their written Scriptures are: The King James Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. Latter Day Saints believe the Bible is true as far as it is interpreted correctly. They believe the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ which affirms and adds to the teachings of the Bible. They believe the Doctrines and Covenants are the authoritative written revelations of various past Apostles of The Church. They believe the Pearl of Great Price is additional Scripture translated from ancient Egyptian texts. My understanding is that they believe these later writings have clarified and restored some of the things that the apostate church lost or removed from the Bible and Christian teachings during the first centuries after Jesus Christ left Jerusalem.
The continuing Apostolic Revelations of the Prophets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are authoritative truth given by Heavenly Father as he reveals more and more about himself and his plans and directions for his Church.
Latter Day Saints beliefs in both written Scriptures and Apostolic Revelations are based on revelations they personally receive from the Holy Ghost regarding their authenticity. Individuals have asked for and received a deeply heartfelt conviction from the Holy Ghost that these things are true. They believe the Holy Ghost guides them personally in their life decisions through this deep heartfelt conviction.

WHY I WANT THE BIBLE TO BE THE SOURCE OF MY BELIEFS ...
My desire and my intention is to get my beliefs from the Bible. This desire is often sidetracked by my human tendency to believe what the people I am around believe and tell me. Even more influential than other people are my own self-confident feelings, impressions and conclusions. Too often I believe things simply because I believe them, for all sorts of quite often questionable reasons. It does not take much repetition for beliefs to naturally move from welcome impressions to strong convictions that are not easy to reconsider.

I believe that the Bible itself is the standard of real truth to which I long to conform my beliefs and my behaviors. I believe the Bible has most accurately described the real world and the people in it for decades, centuries and even millennia. I recognize that I, and anyone else can easily misinterpret or misapply the Bible. This is precisely the reason it is so vitally important to read and ponder the Bible texts over and over and over again. One of the great benefits of being the Temple of God is that the Holy Spirit is present in us to teach, train and correct us. He does so using the Bible that God gave us.

I must be clear that what I believe is not the standard of truth. I believe the Bible is the standard of truth for all mankind. I recognize that other people consider other things to be the standard for truth. It seems to me that we should all be willing to question how accurately our truth source actually represents the the world we see all around and within us. Our conclusions really do have eternal consequences.

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