My comments interspersed below.
PREDESTINATION
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rejects the belief in predestination–that God predetermines the salvation and damnation of every individual. The gospel teaches that genuine human freedom and genuine responsibility–individual agency in both thought and action–are crucial in both the development and the outcome of a person’s life.
And so just like the apostle Paul’s objector in Romans 9:19, God cannot find fault if God causes/controls all actions and thoughts of men. The Mormon (just like the objector in Romans 9:19) reasons that responsibility IMPLIES freedom. Wrong. Man is responsible because God sovereignly holds him responsible.
Man IS responsible because he is NOT free. In contrast to this, God IS NOT responsible because He IS free. By responsibility, I mean that no man — who is apparently “wonderfully confused” about the Creator/creature distinction — can say to God “why have you made me like this?” as if God were responsible to His creature man. Interestingly enough, what the Mormon, the Arminian, and most Calvinists object to is the exact same thing Paul’s objector in Romans nine objects to.
Church doctrine rejects the strict dual option providing only heaven and hell as an outcome, since people vary widely in their levels of spiritual attainment.
This statement kind of reminds me of the tolerant Calvinist teaching that says there cannot be a strict dual option in saying that a given person (e.g., Mormon, Arminian, Muslim, Hindu) is either presently regenerate or unregenerate, since people vary widely in their levels of spiritual attainment.
At the same time, Latter-day Saints recognize both the indispensable need for the grace of God manifested through Jesus Christ and the effective spiritual guidance that comes through divine foreordination.
This so-called “grace” is only needed insofar as a person needs to progress further in his spiritual attainment to what the LDS call “godhood.”
The LDS position is based in part on the teachings of Paul that God “will render to every man according to his deeds” and that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Rom. 2:6, 11). These two principles provide a basis for understanding Paul’s use of the term “predestination.” The term apparently connoted “to be ordained beforehand for godly labor.” In the sense that one’s potential or calling has been recognized and declared, this interpretation conforms with the Greek term Paul used, proorizo, and does not denote an irreversible or irresistible predetermination.
Any and every salvation conditioned on the sinner religion is a respecter of persons religion. This person shows their wonderfully confused blindness in the above paragraph.
Latter-day Saints are to “look unto God in every thought” (D&C 6:36), because no person can save himself. But neither can God redeem anyone without that person’s effort and collaboration. All are free to accept or reject God’s help and powers of redemption. It is clearly taught in scripture that with his help both justification and sanctification will be “just and true” (D&C 20:30). “But there is a possibility that man may fall from grace and depart from the living God; therefore let the church take heed, and pray always, lest they fall into temptation; yea, and even let those who are sanctified take heed also” (D&C 20:32, 33). [written by Richard D. Draper]
This paragraph is asinine. The author talks of man not being able to save himself. I then ask: Save himself from WHAT?
PREMORTAL LIFE [only some excerpts from article–CD]
Prior to mortal birth individuals existed as men and women in a spirit state and thus coexisted with both the Father and the Son. That period of life is also referred to as the FIRST ESTATE or PREEXISTENCE.
As proof Mormons cites such passages as Jeremiah 1:5, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Alma 13:3, and Job 38:4-7.
“There is indeed indication that the INTELLIGENCE dwelling in each person is coeternal with God. It always existed and never was created or made (D&C 93:29). In due time that intelligence was given a SPIRIT BODY, becoming the spirit child of God the Eternal Father and his beloved companion, the MOTHER IN HEAVEN. This spirit, inhabited by the eternal intelligence, took the form of its creators and is in their image” (Ballard, p. 140).
“Intelligences were organized before the world was, and among these were many great and noble ones, such as Abraham and Moses. God stood in their midst, saw that they were good, and chose them for responsibilities on earth and throughout eternity” (Abr. 3:21-23).
“Thus, to Latter-day Saints premortal life is characterized by individuality, agency, intelligence, and opportunity for ETERNAL PROGRESSION. It is a central doctrine of the theology of the Church and provides understanding to the age-old question “Whence cometh man?” (written by Gayle Oblad Brown)
Joseph Smith taught that somehow “God” found himself in the midst of all these intelligences with a body of flesh and bones. And since he was more intelligent than the rest of these intelligences he saw fit to give them all the opportunity to become like himself. So somehow this “god” puts these intelligences into spirit bodies and then these spirit bodies eventually will inhabit infant bodies in the wombs of women down on planet earth. Something like that. Mormonism can be really confusing so if you ever meet a particular Mormon do NOT assume that they believe all this weird stuff about intelligences. As we know, all false religions are essentially the same. Don’t get sidetracked too much by things that a particular false religionist may not even believe. That said, most Mormons that I had talked to when I was back in Utah do believe basically the same things regarding man’s freedom, their “christ” dying for all men without exception.
Agrammatos 