I wanted to punch this elder so bad! (page 6)

steve2

One thing for sure. If you had of punched him he won't go to the police. They'd rather suffer in silence than have a police/media report saying there was a fist fight at a Jehovah's Witnesses kingdom hall between members.

I don't know where you got this idea from. I would say they would make haste to report it to the Police because the witnesses have a very well-developed way of seeing any violence as carried out by disaffected members who are no longer "in the truth".

Besides, once anyone crosses the line from having an urge to punch to acting on that urge, they deserve the full weight of the law. That the OP shows how he controlled his urge is a credit to him.

Cold Steel

“When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan — it is God’s plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy. God works in no other way. To think otherwise, without immediate repentance, may cost one his faith, may destroy his testimony, and leave him a stranger to the kingdom of God.” (LDS Improvement Era 1945)

Whenever anyone or any organization tells you to stop using your “God-given” brain to think, you know you are in the presence of a cult.

Being LDS myself, I find our apologetics arm and our theological arm to be filled with some of the greatest theologians and thinker on the Earth. And unlike the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the LDS faith is allegedly based on apostles, prophets and revelation. If these claims are correct, then of course to choose a different path than one revealed from Heaven would be foolhardy. If our claims are bogus, we’re a cult big time.

Jesus claimed to be the way, the truth and the light. None, He said, could come to the Father save through Him. He, too, demanded obedience to his laws and doctrines for salvation and He submitted as well. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. (Hebrews 5:8-9)

John writes that all men will be judged according to their “works” (see Rev. 20:12-13). If their works are in accordance with the will of God, they will experience salvation; but if their works are in accordance with their own thoughts, their own morality and their own will, it will lead to destruction. “Why do ye call me, Lord, Lord, if ye do not what I say?” Jesus asked. (see Luke 6:46)

Neither Jesus nor the church admonishes people not to think. What they warn about is thinking one’s way out of obeying God’s will — of teaching for commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but lacking the power thereof.

Again, God confers authority on His people, but if that authority has not been conferred, then one is presuming to have the power of God when, in fact, they do not.

biometrics

I don't know where you got this idea from. I would say they would make haste to report it to the Police because the witnesses have a very well-developed way of seeing any violence as carried out by disaffected members who are no longer "in the truth". Besides, once anyone crosses the line from having an urge to punch to acting on that urge, they deserve the full weight of the law. That the OP shows how he controlled his urge is a credit to him.

Ooops. My bad. I forgot, it's only child sexual molestation cases where they don't involve authorities.

thecrushed

Wow. I would have punched him slashed his tires and given him a good swirly in the toilet. Not really but that is what he deserves.

darth frosty

as bad as it may seem to you, as an elder appointed by Holy Spirit it is my business!"

Right there he would've lost every front teefus in his mouth!

return of parakeet

Cold Steel: " ... the LDS faith is allegedly based on apostles, prophets and revelation. If these claims are correct, then of course to choose a different path than one revealed from Heaven would be foolhardy. If our claims are bogus, we’re a cult big time. "

That is indeed the problem.

Amen, Brother Steel. Amen.

Qcmbr

Cold Steel - the biggest challenge , in hindsight, I had whilst a member was not in knowing what made the church right (its easy to find evidence for a belief) but in knowing what, for me , would be conclusive evidence that it was untrue. Having no boundaries on my unbelief level allowed me to accept many things that, in hindsight, are plainly untrue about the LDS faith. For example , what evidence would it take to prove the BoM untrue? Answer that and we know the strength of your commitment - the fluffier the answer the fluffier the trust in it.

Just to labour the point. Had I accepted that the BoM is a 100% literal historical record and agreed (with myself) that finding evidence of impossible situations would invalidate it I would be compelled to reject it from any of the following samples:

1 - Anachronistic window

Jaredites - "... from perhaps 3250 to 2800 B.C." http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/transcripts/?id=28 Ether 2: 23 And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire.

The Romans were the first known to use glass for windows. In Alexandria ca. 100 AD, cast glass windows, albeit with poor optical properties, began to appear. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window)

2 - Very complex Sericulture (making silk) reliant upon Mulberry plant not available

Alma 1:29 (roughly 90 BC - Americas) And now, because of the steadiness of the church they began to be exceedingly rich, having abundance of all things whatsoever they stood in need—an abundance of flocks and herds, and fatlings of every kind, and also abundance of grain, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things, and abundance of silk and fine-twined linen, and all manner of good homely cloth.

http://www.insects.org/ced1/seric.html - history of sericulture showing almost impossibiliy of it being in Americas before European colonisation.

3 - Simple writing errors

2 Nephi 5

15 And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.

16 And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple.

Shrugs - that's before we even leap into the real problems.

I wanted to punch this elder so bad!