CV75

I carry two perspectives in this world: 1) He is the only God I have ever known. 2) I am one of numberless souls He has ever known, and whose lives He has personally and perfectly experienced from start (fallen mortality) to finish (exalted gods). In this way, He has simultaneously always been and became God. This "simultaniety" is a function of atonement and applied agency, and is therefore viewed from the observer's frame of reference (referred to as "reckoning" in the Book of Abraham). I can only view things from my mortal perspective except when my understanding is spiritually "quickened" by God.

Why do they expect Mormonism to be provable by secular tools when Christianity itself isn't? Bias. If God wanted us to believe because of proof, wouldn’t He have left a very different set of scriptures? No; He wouldn't have left scriptures. How do you respond when someone says they no longer believe because of historical problems? I attempt a root cause analysis to arrive at the the number one reason. Have you ever felt the Spirit confirm something that your mind didn’t fully understand? Yes; that is a testimony, and we grow into it until we comprehend even God. Why do you think God designed faith to require the Spirit instead of allowing clear, universal proof? A minor point, but faith does not require the Spirit. It requires the light of Christ which eventually leads to pondering and praying and then a confirmation by the Spirit, which is clear, universal proof to the one receiving it. But unless this spiritual knowledge grows, it will at some point lack clarity, universality and other attributes of good proof (e.g., relevance, sufficiency, applicability upon scrutiny). I think the reason it works this way is that the jump from what can be done with the light of Christ to what can be done with a covenant relationship with Him requires His holy priesthood and grace, which are things we cannot properly, rightly or effectively use on our own (we would screw it up, just like we do secularly and "sectarianly" with the light of Christ!). We use the light light of Christ all the time for all kinds of discovery and improved knowledge, but we cannot use the priesthood (make and keep the covenants) or assume we can access His grace for perfection and sanctification (Moroni 10:32-33) on our own. 32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God [priesthood, sanctification by the Holy Spirit of promise]. 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins [perfection], that ye become holy, without spot [sanctification].

I think an "absolute answer that is independent of time and place and culture" is, on that basis, is equally conditional and contextual, just on other terms. The sources you mention (prophets, scripture) point to a covenant, worship-love relationship with Christ which serves as a reliable absolute for what we need to do in our gift of mortal time, place and culture (Acts 17: 26 - 28). Grace, so evident int eh worship-love relationship, covers all the deviations we might think of, especially for others.

Q1: these are always raised into the Father’s kingdom (see verse 52 also). Q2: I see verse 5 as providing a description (eternal life in addition to immortality, which resurrection occurs prior to judgement), not delineating a sequential process. Q3: I think “crowning” is a ceremony (ordinance or rite) as well as figurative; in either case it is just as good.