Two Churches

2007-5-15 06:01:00

My Friends,

I've been contemplating how to proceed as I partially withdraw and decided to work with a different idea than I previously mentioned. Meanwhile, thanks to those who volunteered. I may use you later.

I know most like the idea of learning about laws and principles and there are quite a few more to cover. What I will do is present seed thoughts to the group related to a principle of some kind and then sit back and let the group come up with ideas and thoughts about it. As you are doing this I will inject additional thoughts and questions as needed. Then after the group covers it as much as practical I will give a summary and my thoughts on the subject.

Sterling brought up the subject of two churches a while back and behind this thought are several principles at play.

Here is the scripture from the Book of Mormon to which he was referring:

10  "And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth."

11  "And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people."

12  "And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw."

13  "And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God."
1 Nephi 14:10-13

Now Sterling rightfully pointed out that a misuse of this scripture can create exclusiveness and a separative attitude, but there is a positive and negative interpretation of every scripture written on the planet.

Let us look for the true principle involved and see what we can discover.

Questions:

Most of us realize that no church or teaching is 100 percent true, but perhaps there is a true church from the vantage point of the soul.

What would be the dividing line that separates those who embrace the true church from those who embrace the false church?

Does the member of the church of the lamb, or Christ even have to go to church?

How can one contemplate the principle here without resorting to an exclusive or superior attitude?

  

Global Warming Enlightenment:

But the main problem lies in correctly calculating the effects of clouds. The tops of clouds act as mirrors in the sky, reflecting sunlight back into space -- thus cooling the planet. But the bottom sides keep the heat radiated by the earth from escaping into the atmosphere -- causing temperatures to rise.

Which of the two effects predominates depends primarily on the altitude at which clouds form. Simply put, low clouds tend to promote cooling while high clouds increase warming. So far scientists agree on only one thing, namely that more clouds will form in a greenhouse climate. They just don't know at which altitude.

Not the End of the World as We Know It by Olaf Stampf, May 07, 2007
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,481684,00.html