June 15 – Just who are the persecuted saints? Matt. 5:10; “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.
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Dioko is Greek for persecuted. It means to pursue, to follow after, or to press forward. The LDS people have seen their fair share of injustices. However by and large, the troubles they’ve had in life are self-inflicted which disqualifies them from what Jesus was talking about.
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Gospel Doctrine, p. 46; “Perhaps no people were ever more persecuted than this people would be if it were in the power of the enemy today to persecute us as it was in the power of Nero and the Romans to persecute the Saints in their day…And this is evidence to everyone that God’s Priesthood is here, that many of the Saints are magnifying their calling and honoring the Priesthood and also the Lord, both with their lives and with their substance, which are his. Deseret Weekly News, vol. 24, pp, 708, 1875.” – Joseph F. Smith
He says,”Perhaps no people were ever more persecuted than this people would be…” But don’t the Mormons feel that they still are persecuted today?
Also, does that make them feel special then or feel that they will have the kingdom of heaven to themslves? I’m confused here.
Mormons already feel they’ll have heaven to themselves because everyone else is the “whore of Babylon”. And yes, they still feel they’re persecuted.
I often wonder if they’ve forgotten about the original apostles and the entire 2,000 years of Christianity…
Michelle
The Mormons (and Christians of the Western World) don’t have any idea what persecution is… There have been more Christians killed for their witness around the world in the last 100 years, than the prior 1,900 years. Russia, Africa, and China all come to mind… There are Christians being killed or jailed for their faith right now as I type this. Sure there were some Mormons killed in the beginning of their religion (and there was definatly retaliation by the Mormons as well), but a majority of the persecution back then was they would get kicked out of an area they were “occupying” and finally driven west to Deseret (Utah). The other persecution (as they put it) was that they were breaking the laws in regards to polygamy and the U.S. Gov wouldn’t give them statehood…
They weren’t being persecuted like Christians who are jailed and killed for just having a Bible or for witnessing to others that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ and He is the only Way. The Mormons were preaching another gospel and stating some very blasphemous things about our beloved Savior and the very nature of God. They were also practicing polygamy, which according to the Book of Mormon is an abomination to the Lord. They claimed to have extra-biblical revelation and they also were telling the Christian denominations around them that they were the only true church of Jesus and the supposed Christian’s were all apostate and the whore of Babylon…