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Where in the Bible does it say that God created our spirits at the moment of our birth rather than prior to our birth? As far as I know, the Bible is silent on the timing of when our spirits were created (although I do know of several places in which the Bible hints at the pre-mortal life of man).
I believe this is a reference to the physical body and not to the human spirit.
I agree that God wants all of us to search for truth and once we believe we've found it, to live in accordance with what the Holy Spirit has confirmed to us is true. Having said that, I believe that when we stand before God to be judged, He's going to have no problem at all correcting any of our misunderstandings and misinterpretations of doctrine. Even He, though, isn't going to be able to change the way in which we lived our lives and treated our fellow human beings. That's going to end up being on us.
Well, for starters, the name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint. It is not The Church of Joseph Smith. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God and the only means by which mankind may ultimately reconciled to God. Joseph Smith taught, "The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it." There are over 3900 references to Jesus Christ in The Book of Mormon. It's central purpose, as stated on the title page is, “to the convincing of Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God.”
"Scripture" is the sacred writings of a religion. Jews have scripture; Muslims have scripture; Baha'is have scripture and Christians have scripture. Protestants do not accept the Apocrypha as scripture and yet the Catholics do. What is or is not "scripture" is based on the beliefs of the group using the writings.
Hmmm. Where does the Bible tell us this? I'm unaware of God having ever put a gag order on Himself. If God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, it stands to reason that He would love us enough today to continue to keep in touch.
I believe they contradict your own interpretation of those teachings.
I'll be damned. I guess I'm not very honest then.
Does Islam claim that Jesus Christ is God's Only Begotten Son and that we can be reconciled to God only through Christ's Atonement? I think not.
People all over the world - despite their religion - are abused physically, sexually and financially.
How am I "too deep"? Because I seem to know more about Mormons than you do and lack a chip on my shoulder?
That's a good start. But you really get into trinitarianism when you ask what that means, especially the word Godhead.
You realize, of course, that nobody prior to 325 AD can be said to be a Trinitarian. As a matter of fact, you of all people should realize that to a first-century Jewish convert to Christianity, the concept of two persons being either "homoousios" or "homoiousios" would have been completely meaningless. Do you have any evidence whatsoever that any of Jesus' Apostles believed He was "of the same essence" as His Father? And why on earth are you so hung up on the idea that one must believe in the God of the 4th- and 5th-century creeds in order to be a Christian? There is absolutely nothing in the New Testament that implies as much. When you get right down to it, the only criterion that Jesus Christ Himself mentioned in explaining how people would be able to recognize His followers was that they were loving towards one another.
That pretty much sums it up. But don't assume Watchmen knows nothing about Mormonism. He used to be LDS himself. He knows LDS doctrine. He just likes to present it in such a way that non-Mormons find it distasteful. You know, a little tweaking here and there can make a world of difference in how teachings are likely to be perceived. Once upon a time (long before he developed shoulder problems), he was actually a pretty nice guy.
I’m not Mormon or Christian. But I know the Jesus that Mormons believe in is not the Jesus of the Trinity. Mormons expressway REJECT the Trinity. Were you aware of that?
I base my understanding on Trinitariarnism on what the church councils determined. In my experience, the average Christian has a very poor understandinng of the doctrine, exactly for the opposite reason -- they have not studied it in a scholarly fasion (I'm a nerd, but mosty people are not) and have a simplistic understanding.
I agree that Trinitarianism slowly became the doctrine of the church, and that 325 was a critical year, although you are oversimplifying it. For example, you had Tertullian campaigning against Modalism and in favor of a primitive version of Trinitarianism in the 2nd Century. But as a sweeping generalization, I suppose I can accept what you said.
Here’s an official Mormon source. The second sentence literally says they don’t believe in the Trinity.
Abraham had two wives and engaged in battle. No bother there, really.