Thursday, January 9, 2014

Are Mormons "Saved?"


It is not my practice to teach about or usually even talk about other religions, because I know that now matter how much I feel I know about what they believe or teach, my knowledge is still limited, and invariably, I would end up spreading false rumors. Realizing that that is something that happened to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on a regular basis, and We would prefer that you asked us questions about what we believe instead, I will refrain from putting any specific denomination to the Doctrine of "Salvation". If you want to know what your church or other churches teach about this, ask one of their ministers.

On that note, it suffice me to say that, according to un-named denominations, the requirements for being saved are: 1. Realize that you are a sinner and that you will never be perfect. 2. Realize and confess that the only way you can be forgiven of those sins is because Jesus Christ atoned for them. 3. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ as a witness that you believe in him and his crucifixion.
If I am thus correct in saying so, and that is the definition of "Saved", then I am here to inform you that every single Mormon, or Member of our Church, has been saved.

What do the Mormons believe about being Saved?

We too believe in the three named steps above, but our conception continues on somewhat.
We are all sinners. We sin daily, and because of that, we would be found unclean and unable to enter into the presence of God. By ourselves, there is no way for us to repent of those sins. Knowing this, Heavenly Father sent His son, Jesus Christ to do two very important things for us (He did a lot more than two things while he was on this earth, but for now, I will focus on these two) First, he set the perfect example of how we should be living our lives. Second, He suffered in the garden of Gethsemane, and was crucified so that when we did not succeed at following that perfect example He set, we could repent and try harder. Just as Jesus said, He intends for us to be perfect; as perfect in deed as our human nature will permit, and perfected in him AFTER ALL we can do.

Therefore we follow the admonition of James: "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone" (James Chapter 1 Verse 5). As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we are not trying to work our way into the Kingdom of God, but we are not trying to skate our way in either. The Lord had to suffer for every sin we ever committed. Why would we want to add to those pains by committing easily conquerable sins on top of the ones that we can't avoid?

With that, I leave you with this question to ponder. Repentance is to apologize for a sin. If I were to steal a candy bar from your store, then apologize, would you forgive me? What if I stole another one every day, always apologizing for stealing the previous one before I took the next one? How would that make you feel? Are my apologies helping either of us?
How often is this the relationship we are creating with the Father of our Souls?

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