"Those Crazy Mormons" is a blog series dedicated to answering common questions about Mormon beliefs, culture, and history. If you have further questions, please feel free to email me at brooklynjolley@hotmail.com.
Who is God?
We believe that God is our loving Heavenly Father and we are His children.
What does he look like?
He has a body of flesh and bone that is glorified and perfected. He weeps with us when we suffer and rejoices when we do right.
Does He want to communicate with us?
A resounding yes! we can communicate with Him through sincere prayer.
Why did he put us on earth?
To learn and grow so we can become perfect and glorified like He is and ultimately live like He does. We can show our love for Him through our choices and obedience to His commandments.
Though none of us will live a perfect life, He has provided us a way to be successful in this life so we can return to His presence as even better people than when we left. That way is through His son, Jesus Christ who atoned for our sins and weaknesses.
What is the Atonement?
The atonement was a two-part process, which includes His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane as well as His suffering and death on the cross. Because Christ suffered for our sins, we don't have to IF we choose to repent and accept it.
Scriptures that help us determine the nature of God and Jesus Christ...
Bible
Matthew 5:48
John 3:16-17
Acts 17:27-29
Romans 8:16
Hebrews 12:9
1 John 4:7-9
Book of Mormon
1 Nephi 17:36
2 Nephi 9:6
Mosiah 4:9
3 Nephi 12:48
3 Nephi 14:9-11
3 Nephi 27:13-22
I love this series. It might be a good idea here to also explain the difference between Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as it is a fundamental difference between us and other Christian denominations in terms of viewing God. Well that and God having a body of flesh and bone which you touched on. Lauren at The Best F Words recently wrote a post on the Godhead that is perfect for explaining that.
ReplyDeletehttp://thebestfwordsblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/faith-godhead.html?m=1#.UyGFJsvnbqA
I'm so excited to read these! I'm southern baptist, but I love reading about what other people believe! What do you guys believe about the garden of Gethsemane and it's role in "the atonenment?"
ReplyDeleteOk this is totally because I am a grammar freak but I just wanted to let you know that there isn't a need to use an apostrophe in mormons. It is simply a plural noun, not a possessive.
ReplyDeleteOther than that I appreciate your missionary effort on your blog!
Something I also love about The Atonement is, how Jesus also dead for our sins so we could LIVE with him again! That we are able to be a family together forever! That's a big and marvelous part, a belief that separates us from other religions. (I believe?)
ReplyDeleteNot only are we able to repent for our sins because of Heavenly Father's loving son, but to live with them once again! Maybe you could go more in depth about things like that, since other readers aren't LDS and wouldn't know fully about these scarifies and all the reasons WHY they were made!
"...we can return to His presence as even better people than when we left."
ReplyDeleteI don't understand this sentence, maybe it's just phrasing. Our life begins at conception, and we live on earth until he brings us home...the first time. I might be reading this wrong, though.