How can I liken the events of the apostasy and restoration to my life?
What does the word Apostasy mean?
It is almost always used in a religious context
It means, "the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief"
But isn't it really just a fancy way of saying someone got new information or their convictions changed and they decided to do something different?
As a missionary, I asked many Catholics and Evangelicals to apostatize from their religious beliefs and convictions
What does the word Dogma mean?
"a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true"
Then read a Dr. Seuss book to the class: The Sneetches and The Zax
What were the convictions or beliefs of the Sneetches and Zax?
Did some change their mind? Some Sneetches did, but the Zax did not.
Did any of it matter? (not really, in fact the whole thing is laughable and sad. The one dude made a ton of money off of the ridiculousness of the Sneetches wanting to be "right", while the Zax - that is just sad.)
What is the relationship between Apostasy and Dr. Seuss?
What beliefs and dogmas did the Sneetches and Zax have?
Did the Sneetches apostatize? Did the Zax?
At some point, you have to ask yourself if your beliefs and dogmas (or what you're being told to believe), really matters or not. Then you have to decide: what really matters in this life?
Let's look at a few examples:
What are core beliefs of Islam?
- Belief in Allah as the one and only God
- Belief in angels
- Belief in holy books
- Belief in the prophets (Adam, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus)
- Belief in Judgement Day
- Belief in Predestination
What are core beliefs of Judaism?
- God exists; is one and unique; and is incorporeal (no body); is eternal
- Pray to God and no other
- Belief in the Prophets
- The Written Torah (first five books of Bible) - there is or will not be any other Torah
- God knows the thoughts and deeds of men
- God will reward the good and punish the wicked
- The Messiah will come
- The dead will be resurrected
What are the core beliefs of Christianity?
- Belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of Go and the Holy Spirit
- The death, descent into hell, resurrection and ascension of Christ
- The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints
- Christ's second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful
Even within Christianity; there is a fundamental dispute about the nature of God, along with other topics.
So you have to ask yourself a few questions:
1. Does belief in a dogma matter?
a. Some people think it is all spaghetti (see CotFSM)
b. Some become agnostic or atheist
c. For others, it is important to belief in a dogma
2. If so, then you are faced with a decision about which one?
3. Are they all correct? Are they all incorrect? Is there just one that is endorsed by God? Or are there two, three?
What does Apostasy mean in the Mormon context?
After Christianity was established, Mormons believe the power, beliefs and traditions of the Apostles were lost. Catholics believe it was never lost - power went to Peter and down through the Popes.
All through the time of the Apostles and down through the many hundreds and thousands of years, it was just the Catholic church with a few deviations.
Watch this 26 minute video, which I think, does a pretty good job explaining how we got here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH79F0Hn56U … focus on the explanation. Towards the end, he reveals his opinion and you can decide to agree or disagree.
Then a guy by the name of Martin Luther came along and protested against the Catholic church - thus started the Reformation as well as Protestant Religions.
As a side note, check out this mind-blowing podcast about Martin Luther and the Muster Rebellion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN8A4ygoEgo / https://player.fm/series/dan-carlins-hardcore-history/show-48-prophets-of-doom)
The bigger new churches / denominations are:
Lutheran (i.e. Martin Luther)
Anglican
Calvinist
Methodist
Baptist
Among this time with all the "new" churches established, a new wave spiritualism / revivalism began in upstate New York. There was so much preaching and debating among the churches there, it was referred to as the Burned Over District (see the Wikipedia entry on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burned-over_district)
It was during this time that Joseph Smith had his own reckoning with religion and would soon introduce the Mormon version of the Restoration of the gospel via the translation of the Book of Mormon, the visitation from John the Baptist for the Aaronic Priesthood and Peter, James and John for the Melchizedek Priesthood. And then temples, Masonic rituals and polygamy were introduced followed by multiple iterations of Mormon beliefs from the 1850s to the present day based on "continuing revelation."
Showing posts with label Apostasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apostasy. Show all posts
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Real Growth in the LDS Church
Today's Elder's Quorums lesson (which I'm teaching) is from Teaching For Our Times with the focus on two talks, both from the April 2012 General Conference:
The Rescue for Real Growth by Bishop Edgley
Was It Worth It? by Elder Evans
These two talks, along with the many other talks from the April and October 2012 General Conferences are in response to the alarming trend of members leaving the Church.
Consider this quote from Elder Marlin K. Jensen, "Maybe since Kirtland, we've never had a period of - I'll call it apostasy, like we're having now." He told this to a group of Utah State students back in January of 2012. This Reuters article summarizes the discussion held between Elder Marlin and the college students: Special Report: Mormonism besieged by the modern age.
For my lesson, which I'm calling REAL GROWTH, I plan on dividing it up into three parts:
1) on the chalk board, write a list of all less-active people in our ward - it is more of an awareness activity for members of the class (i.e. do we know who we should be rescuing?)
2) ideas, comments and discussion from Rescue for Real Growth
3) ideas, comments and discussion from Was It Worth It? which is really a talk about one's personal testimony.
Each of these parts will have a column on the chalk board. Then I'll have a 4th column entitled "Real Growth" and I'll be writing in that column what "real growth" means. Besides comments from the class, I will draw and share ideas from a couple of LDS links: What is Real Growth? and Worldwide Leadership Training Highlights Path to Real Growth.
Rescue For Real Growth
- one of the most meaningful and important ways to establish real growth in the Church is to reach out and rescue those who have been baptized yet are wandering in a less-active state.
- story of visiting a ward as stake president; bishop wanted to split ward; he interviewed and called a less-active member to be a stake missionary w/o knowing she was less-active
- from this he learned:
* many less-actives have loved one praying for them
* it's not easy for less-actives to just walk back into church
* some less-actives are trying and willing to come back
* many less-actives will hold callings if asked
* less-actives deserve to be treated as an equal (to an active) and to be viewed as a child of god
- we should see less-actives not only as a single child of god, but as generations of blessed lives (story of older member who fell away, came back, but now laments the inactivity of all his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.)
Was It Worth It?
- our most important work is always within our own home and family. it is within families that the church is established and real growth occurs
- attending church, fhe, prayer, scripture study, fulfill callings, visit the sick and lonely, teach, share testimony, write letters to missionaries and military service personnel, show love and forgiveness
- share the gospel with others; naturally and normally
- story of Dave; his friend was in college, returning to activity, invited Dave to the next interview with his bishop; was later baptized, married and sealed in temple.
- story of Eileen who felt inspired to send her less-active friend a book. Eileen later learned from her friend that she too felt inspired to send a letter to the same less-active friend
- seek the spirit in inviting others; "never delay a prompting"
REAL GROWTH
- growth in the number of active members
- increased faithfulness of members (daily prayer, scripture study, fhe, love at home, personal experiences with the atonement
- receive the temple blessings and covenants
- achieving the end goal of eternal life and exaltation for all of god's children requires real growth in our homes and wards
- whole families = real growth
- the making and keeping of temple covenants
- 'real growth is a constant effort, and it is a blessing that comes when we are able to save and help one another, particularly one by one.'
- we aren't just trying to get people back to church, but rather, to the temple
- real growth comes as we apply gospel principles in our daily lives
direct link to talks from 2012 Worldwide Leadership Training
The Rescue for Real Growth by Bishop Edgley
Was It Worth It? by Elder Evans
These two talks, along with the many other talks from the April and October 2012 General Conferences are in response to the alarming trend of members leaving the Church.
Consider this quote from Elder Marlin K. Jensen, "Maybe since Kirtland, we've never had a period of - I'll call it apostasy, like we're having now." He told this to a group of Utah State students back in January of 2012. This Reuters article summarizes the discussion held between Elder Marlin and the college students: Special Report: Mormonism besieged by the modern age.
For my lesson, which I'm calling REAL GROWTH, I plan on dividing it up into three parts:
1) on the chalk board, write a list of all less-active people in our ward - it is more of an awareness activity for members of the class (i.e. do we know who we should be rescuing?)
2) ideas, comments and discussion from Rescue for Real Growth
3) ideas, comments and discussion from Was It Worth It? which is really a talk about one's personal testimony.
Each of these parts will have a column on the chalk board. Then I'll have a 4th column entitled "Real Growth" and I'll be writing in that column what "real growth" means. Besides comments from the class, I will draw and share ideas from a couple of LDS links: What is Real Growth? and Worldwide Leadership Training Highlights Path to Real Growth.
Rescue For Real Growth
- one of the most meaningful and important ways to establish real growth in the Church is to reach out and rescue those who have been baptized yet are wandering in a less-active state.
- story of visiting a ward as stake president; bishop wanted to split ward; he interviewed and called a less-active member to be a stake missionary w/o knowing she was less-active
- from this he learned:
* many less-actives have loved one praying for them
* it's not easy for less-actives to just walk back into church
* some less-actives are trying and willing to come back
* many less-actives will hold callings if asked
* less-actives deserve to be treated as an equal (to an active) and to be viewed as a child of god
- we should see less-actives not only as a single child of god, but as generations of blessed lives (story of older member who fell away, came back, but now laments the inactivity of all his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.)
Was It Worth It?
- our most important work is always within our own home and family. it is within families that the church is established and real growth occurs
- attending church, fhe, prayer, scripture study, fulfill callings, visit the sick and lonely, teach, share testimony, write letters to missionaries and military service personnel, show love and forgiveness
- share the gospel with others; naturally and normally
- story of Dave; his friend was in college, returning to activity, invited Dave to the next interview with his bishop; was later baptized, married and sealed in temple.
- story of Eileen who felt inspired to send her less-active friend a book. Eileen later learned from her friend that she too felt inspired to send a letter to the same less-active friend
- seek the spirit in inviting others; "never delay a prompting"
REAL GROWTH
- growth in the number of active members
- increased faithfulness of members (daily prayer, scripture study, fhe, love at home, personal experiences with the atonement
- receive the temple blessings and covenants
- achieving the end goal of eternal life and exaltation for all of god's children requires real growth in our homes and wards
- whole families = real growth
- the making and keeping of temple covenants
- 'real growth is a constant effort, and it is a blessing that comes when we are able to save and help one another, particularly one by one.'
- we aren't just trying to get people back to church, but rather, to the temple
- real growth comes as we apply gospel principles in our daily lives
direct link to talks from 2012 Worldwide Leadership Training
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