Okay Bill we agree on point one. You say,
1. “Okay, let's clear the air. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the "preexisting" eternal God as we are told in John 1:1 -- that He is God, that He has always existed and was not created?”
On to point two. You ask’
2. “Do you believe John 4:24, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" or, is this Scripture verse not true?
Or, do you believe Joseph Smith, who wrote:
"God himself was one as we are now, and is an exalted man. . . I say to you, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form. . . like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man. . . He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on earth"(Joseph Smith, "History of the Church" - vol 6, page 305).”
Here we disagree. In John 4: 23 and 24 it says,
23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
God communicates to us through his spirit. You yourself said you believe they (The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost) are as one. I agree they are as One. One in purpose, One in Power and Authority. But are three different individuals. The Holy Spirit is our communication source to The Father and His Son. God is a Spirit but he is also Flesh and Bones. Again I ask you if God created us in His Image.
Again Genesis 1:26 and 27
26. ¶And God said, Let
usmakeman in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27. So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Why again I ask YOU, are we created in his Image? Why is he in the form of this Image with Hands and Feet? A nose and a mouth. Ears? What purpose is our Image to a God that can create with the power of his Priesthood? He needs no hands, no feet, no eyes, ears, nor a nose. Why Bill, Why? Yes God Created this Universe and is Immortal as we will be after our resurrection. He(God ) may or may not have been man at one time in a different Universe, I don’t know positively, nor do you.
On to point three. Then you say,
3. “And, maybe you believe that YOU can be a god, as Joseph Smith wrote:
"Here then is eternal life. . . to know the only wise and true God, and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you. . . To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of God"
(Joseph Smith, "History of the Church" - vol 6, page 306).
So, what is it, Skippy, do you agree with the Bible that God: Father, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit -- is our preexisting deity, who always was, and will always be -- the one and only God?”
I believe that will never be a God. I have only One God The Father, One God The Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit(Ghost) as their intermediate between Deity and Man. The Father is Eternal as is His Son Jesus Christ. They in Harmony with the Elements Created the Universe. Again I have no other Gods.
I do not take everything that Christ’s Prophets have said in their lives on this Earth as Gospel unless it was committed to Holy Scripture. They were just Men and had their own views on many things that were not of God. The History of the Church is not Gospel. And as far as what Joseph said about God being Man on Earth, I know for a fact if this is so it was a different earth in a Universe he didn’t create.
On to point four.
Bill you say,
4. “Or, do you believe Mormonism that there is not one God; but, that there are many gods -- who were all, at one time, men -- just like you and me -- who became exalted, then, became gods?
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the preexisting deity, God the Son, who has existed eternally -- or is He a created being, born of sexual flesh between one of your Mormon gods and the virgin Mary?"
Jesus was born of Mary, Fact. Jesus was of Flesh and Blood, Fact. Joseph was not the Biological Father, Fact. Jesus was born in this World in the Image of His Father in Heaven as was every Man and Women upon this Earth, Fact. Jesus was not conceived by a sexual act, get your mind out of the sewer. Jesus was Conceived by the Holy Spirit of the Father. Jesus was born as a boy and grew to a Man. He was God and Man while he was upon this Earth. He now along with his Father fully God with a Glorified Body of Flesh and Bones. No Blood as we know it.
There is no Mormonism except in your own mind. My Church is The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter day Saints. Not Mormonism. I have two Gods, The Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The Creators of the Universe. Where God originally came from, I nor you know. It doesn’t say where our Creator comes from in the Bible or the Book of Mormon.
These Scriptures are for man to live by and are what we need to know, nothing more. As far as your final spill below the Bible and the Book of Mormon do not clash, they are complementary to each other. The Bible was about the Lord’s Ministry in the Holy Land.
The Book of Mormon is About his Ministry to the American Continents. Why would God not send his Son to both sides of the Earth? Now Dance free respond and follow up on direct questions I ask without Dancing around and changing the subject. And Again Where in the Holy Bible does it state no rain before Noah? I mean Really can you esplain this one? The great mist? Esplain!
Skippy