So we can have a civil, constructive conversation about Heavenly Mother I am restricting this thread to 7up and me.
ETA: Actually this is open to any other LDS who happen to come here, there just don't seem to be any others except occasionally Carbon Dioxide.
7up, some questions for you:
1. How does Heavenly Mother fit into the Trinity? Or Heavenly Grandfather? Why even continue to use the word "Trinity," which implies three and only three divine Persons?
2. If men and women have to be married to be exalted, are the Holy Spirit and Jesus married? Were they or Heavenly Father ever divine but single?
3. We are supposed to know God/Heavenly Father. There are numerous verses that talk about God making his name known, about the need to evangelize, etc. Why, then, is there no mention until Smith of Heavenly Mother, Heavenly Grandfather, etc?
Wouldn't knowing more about Heavenly Mother and being able to pray to her be of particular benefit to LDS women? If they're equal to men and can be exalted too, why don't they have access to their spiritual mother and divine role model?
The silence seems especially strange as the LDS church emphasizes the importance of mothers staying home to rear their children. Why does Heavenly Father discipline us, teach us, comfort us, etc. while Heavenly Mother does nothing? Why the total lack of communication between Latter-Day Saints and their Heavenly Mother, as if HF and HM were in a particularly nasty divorce and HF no longer even mentions HM?
4. Is there more than one Heavenly Mother? If so, are Christians really half-brothers and half-sisters?
5. Why is God described as a mother and the one who comforts us, if there is a separate Heavenly Mother who is supposedly equally divine? E.g. Isaiah 66:13, Rev 21:3-4.
6. "For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever." (Heb 7:1-3) So how does Melchizedek fit into your theology, where everyone has a father and mother, even God?
7. How does Jesus fit into creation, specifically the creation of people and inhabitants of heaven?
"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." (Col 1:16)
"All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3)
So how were people created in LDS theology? Some part of them pre-existed; some part of them was created by Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother; some part of them Jesus had a hand in creating. What part did Jesus do? How did Jesus get here, if he plays some role in the creation of HF and HM's offspring, and he himself is their offspring?
8. Why/how is Jesus the only Son of God (e.g. John 1:14), if all people are the offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother?
ETA: Actually this is open to any other LDS who happen to come here, there just don't seem to be any others except occasionally Carbon Dioxide.
7up, some questions for you:
1. How does Heavenly Mother fit into the Trinity? Or Heavenly Grandfather? Why even continue to use the word "Trinity," which implies three and only three divine Persons?
2. If men and women have to be married to be exalted, are the Holy Spirit and Jesus married? Were they or Heavenly Father ever divine but single?
3. We are supposed to know God/Heavenly Father. There are numerous verses that talk about God making his name known, about the need to evangelize, etc. Why, then, is there no mention until Smith of Heavenly Mother, Heavenly Grandfather, etc?
Wouldn't knowing more about Heavenly Mother and being able to pray to her be of particular benefit to LDS women? If they're equal to men and can be exalted too, why don't they have access to their spiritual mother and divine role model?
The silence seems especially strange as the LDS church emphasizes the importance of mothers staying home to rear their children. Why does Heavenly Father discipline us, teach us, comfort us, etc. while Heavenly Mother does nothing? Why the total lack of communication between Latter-Day Saints and their Heavenly Mother, as if HF and HM were in a particularly nasty divorce and HF no longer even mentions HM?
4. Is there more than one Heavenly Mother? If so, are Christians really half-brothers and half-sisters?
5. Why is God described as a mother and the one who comforts us, if there is a separate Heavenly Mother who is supposedly equally divine? E.g. Isaiah 66:13, Rev 21:3-4.
6. "For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever." (Heb 7:1-3) So how does Melchizedek fit into your theology, where everyone has a father and mother, even God?
7. How does Jesus fit into creation, specifically the creation of people and inhabitants of heaven?
"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." (Col 1:16)
"All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3)
So how were people created in LDS theology? Some part of them pre-existed; some part of them was created by Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother; some part of them Jesus had a hand in creating. What part did Jesus do? How did Jesus get here, if he plays some role in the creation of HF and HM's offspring, and he himself is their offspring?
8. Why/how is Jesus the only Son of God (e.g. John 1:14), if all people are the offspring of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother?
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