In the Visiting Teaching Message for March you’ll find a continuation of the LDS series, ‘The Attributes of Christ’ and this time its focus was about ‘long suffering and patient’. Dieter Uchtdorf (LDS apostle) defined patience as ‘active waiting’, ‘staying with something’ and enduring whatever God ‘inflicts’ upon us – Mosiah 3:19. Here in part is what he had to say –
“Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something … even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”
If that was a standalone comment, I might be impressed with the author’s insight. However, knowing the background on this statement and from where it came…not so much…In light of the comment I’m wondering why the founder of this church didn’t take heed.
Why was Joe Smith in such a hurry to dismiss the word of God and proclaim the Bible doesn’t contain all that man needs to know to gain a full salvation? For the record, they listed Mosiah 3:19 which is a sad, sad predicament for every Mormon –
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”
Keep in mind Mosiah supposedly lived c. BC 124. Between Uchtdorf’s admonition to endure everything in life and Mosiah 3:19, Mormons are given the impression God is an unreachable, unknowable god who’s ready to zap people with unknown trauma. Take note that Mosiah’s talking about Jesus’ death before he even lived…
All that aside, let’s see if it lines up with what God says so here we go! Remember, this was supposed to be about Jesus’ attributes.
The LDS apostle continued on by saying;
“In our premortal life, our Heavenly Father prepared a plan for us—His spirit children—and we shouted for joy at the opportunity to come to earth (see Job 38:7). As we choose to align our will with His during our earthly life, He “will make an instrument of [us] in [His] hands unto the salvation of many souls” (Alma 17:11).”
Instead of taking the opportunity to teach about the attributes of Jesus and bringing Him glory, this lesson turned into another account of telling Mormons how they should behave, the LDS pre-existence & our approval of God’s proposed plan for life on earth. While it’s important for us to emulate Jesus, the most important rule is to observe and uphold the proper interpretation of who He is and who we are.
Using Job 38:7 as an apology for the false teaching of a pre-mortal life is flagrantly wrong. The prideful hearts of these men are a wonder. Here’s what it says in Job –
Job 38:7; “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
The proper transliteration of ‘sons’ of God here is the Hebrew word ‘bēn’ which in this case is actually a miscellaneous translation of the word. Of the 4,900+ times it shows up, the interpretation of a literal son accounts for 2,978 times. The remaining times the Bible uses this word it’s done so as a loose interpretation of people in general and/or angels. The example in Job is just such a case.
Mr. Uchtdorf then went on to remind people they have to accept what they can’t change in life, which to me, sounded a lot like the makings of an AA meeting.
The next phase of this lesson focused on Luke’s gospel and the woman with a 12 year bleeding issue. We must always remember that it’s important for us to incorporate godly behavior into our daily lives and I would never want to intimate otherwise. The problem here is what they’ve historically taught about Jesus, the power He has, and how they’ve maligned God’s word.
If you’re LDS there’s a really good chance you wouldn’t believe the biblical account about the woman based on a healthy mistrust of God’s word. Sadly, not believing the Bible prevents you from placing yourself in the shoes of those they’ve used as an example.
Result: you don’t trust the story in the Bible and you don’t trust Jesus because the lies about Him have driven a wedge between you and the Lord. How can you relate to someone you don’t know, don’t understand and don’t trust?
They used Luke 8:43–48 as ‘an example of patience and faith’ and nothing else with it to describe what was going on at the time, where Jesus was at or what it said about His character.
“43 ¶And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
44 Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
45 And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
46 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
47 And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
At the end of their lesson we read;
“Like her, we can find blessings and comfort, and even healing, as we reach out to Jesus Christ—whose Atonement can heal us.”
How can someone find comfort like the woman in the Bible if we didn’t learn anything about Jesus? All we heard is another example of how they misused the word atonement.
Think about it…
Jesus healed the woman before He was crucified so what does the atonement have to do with this?
At the beginning of this Visiting Teaching Lesson the Church asked:
“How will understanding the life and roles of the Savior increase your faith in Him and bless those you watch over through visiting teaching?”
This Visiting Teaching Message didn’t address one single thing about Jesus as a person, nor did it address the specific attribute the lesson was to focus on which was supposed to be Jesus’ patience.
Outside of the passage in Luke 8:43–48 no other specific teachings about Jesus were offered and as already mentioned, they didn’t address His attributes. The other biblical references they cited were Psalm 40:1; Galatians 5:22–23; 2 Peter 1:6, but again these made no mention of why or how they relate to the subject matter.
As always, we’re asking you pray those who use this lesson will be prompted to open their Bibles and be curious enough to learn the truth about the real Jesus of the Bible!
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
1 Cor 1:18
You are wrong on so many levels. Why do you feel the necessity to attack others’ religions in order to validate your position? Why do you use the Visiting Teaching messages as your “jumping off point”? So many assumptions and misconceptions. So much contention. So sad that you can’t promote the love of the Savior.
“You are wrong on so many levels.”
Where is she wrong??
” Why do you feel the necessity to attack others’
religions in order to validate your position?”
It’s not ‘attacking’ to point out errors from Biblical
Christianity. The Book of Mormon has over 4000 changes
vs. the Bible at zero.
“Why do you use the Visiting Teaching messages as
your “jumping off point”? So many assumptions and
misconceptions. So much contention.”
List the “assumptions”, etc.
“So sad that you can’t promote the love of the
Savior.”
Which savior? The Mormon savior, who is the brother of
Lucifer, and not a ‘real’ savior OR the Savior of the
Bible, who is the Truine God?
Let’s talk!
“Mormons are given the impression God is an unreachable, unknowable god who’s ready to zap people with unknown trauma. Take note that Mosiah’s talking about Jesus’ death before he even lived…”
What??? How did you come up with that?
Unless I yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and put off my natural (wo)man tendencies and become a saint (follower of Christ) through His atonement, and become as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict (ALL attributes of our Savior, who also submitted to HIS father) I am, indeed, an “enemy” to God. In other words, I am His adversary–one who opposes what He hopes and desires for me. Unless I make effort and work at it, particularly in this noisy, busy day and age, it is not an easy thing to hear the voice of the Lord.
“While it’s important for us to emulate Jesus, the most important rule is to observe and uphold the proper interpretation of who He is and who we are.”
You didn’t state what that is. Instead you went on to condemn LDS church leadership and all them prideful. Prideful? Because they interpret scripture differently than you do? Really?
“How can someone find comfort like the woman in the Bible if we didn’t learn anything about Jesus? All we heard is another example of how they misused the word atonement.”
You did not state how “atonement” is misused. And, I, personally, learned a lot about Jesus from those verses of scripture. Do you think the VT message should go on for pages describing what most people who are reading already know? The message is to remind us to be like our Savior and to have patience and be long-suffering even in the midst of affliction. Why are you finding fault with this?
Even if I were not LDS I could not accept a triune God. Trinity? THAT is not biblical. Such philosophy is of man, pure and simple. There are NUMEROUS scriptures to make it clear that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father, and that the Holy Spirit is a separate entity. Search your Bible.
I apologize if I sound angry. I am. I am frustrated by your need to demonize what I hold dear and close to my heart and which hurts no one. And, in spite of what you might think, it doesn’t. We are positive. We teach that we need to be like our Savior, Jesus Christ.
My belief differs from yours. Thankfully I know that our Lord and Savior did not suffer in Gethsemane and then die on a cross for only a choice few. He did it for all of us even if we don’t accept Him. Everyone has a chance. You say we (as Mormons) believe in a god who is ready to zap us with unknown trauma. While that is not even remotely true, I find you, as a “Christian” in the same boat–ready to believe that anyone who doesn’t believe as you do will burn eternally in fire and brimstone. Now THAT is a God I refuse to believe in. I ache for my “Christian” friend who believes she will never see her husband again because he will burn eternally and she has taught her children that. The man (God) Jesus Christ who walked this earth and taught peace and love is not going to subject those He loves to eternal burning. Of that I am certain.
I am saddened at your condemnation of the LDS religion and would hope that you would quit your critical, fussy fault-finding of it and instead focus on what is true and right and teach the gospel as you know it. I like to know what others believe but not when they bash what I believe. Only those who are discontent and negative will listen to you and that is evident in the comments I’ve read elsewhere on the site…some very distasteful and hurtful.