My experience with this board

[Tacenda]

On 1/8/2023 at 6:46 PM, 3DOP said:

Pogi. Hi.

In the late 80's I was in a period of religious transition, moving away from what I had begun to believe in my early twenties about the Bible and churches. Even while a minister, I was transitioning toward a less closed view of Christianity. I merged my Baptist Church with another, to form the Berean Bible Church. It was naive to be sure. But we had this idea that there shouldn't be diversity and even the competition for members that appeared to exist on the Evangelical scene. From Scripture, it didn't seem like there should be multiple churches that couldn't fellowship together or embrace the same disciplines in the same region. We should always be striving for spiritual fellowship with those who testify to their belief in Jesus Christ. We reached out to other Christian communities in our area to suggest more merging of churches. If I recall correctly, we only got positive responses from one Lutheran and one Pentecostal church. 

At the same time, someone who has become my best friend began attending our church. The novel thing was that while he suggested that I consider the Catholic faith, he also suggested the CoJCoLDS. He introduced me to the name and teaching, of Bruce McConkie, and shared some of his ideas with me, including his view of the Catholic Church, which you Pogi, have accurately described. Eventually, and especially after frustration with "uniting the Protestants", I came to the place where I was looking for a church that could do what Berean Bible Church could not do. There had to be a way to best promote the unity which we see Christ pray for in John 17. So even before I left Berean Bible in early 1992, so as to go forward in this search, I encountered claims that were unique in comparison to what I was familiar with as a Baptist. Both Salt Lake Mormonism and the Roman Catholic Church gave plausible claims to being the one true visible church on earth. It wasn't until 1995 that we decided for Rome. In the meantime, I retained great respect for the ecclesiology of LDS thought, including Bruce McConkie's position about the Catholic Church. To this day, it seems eminently reasonable to me that any false church that makes the claims that Rome does, might be of Satan. Rome claims either lying wonders performed by the devil, or it is the one true church. Frankly, I have not spoke about this much here, but I have the same thoughts about LDS origins, which I think have elements about it that if they are not supernatural, in the strict sense, were beyond the natural capacity of young Joseph Smith.

Maybe you can see why I might say that it is a compliment then, to be considered as a candidate for a church of the devil. I must admit now, that I have never read any of Bruce McConkie's books. But I always carried a favorable notion of his LDS orthodoxy from my friend. In the early years of my experience of LDS on the internet, it seemed like his name and authority as an apostle were cited favorably by those LDS I interacted with. But I think I perceived a change, maybe only ten or twelve years ago, where even LDS dismissed McConkie's interpretation of the Catholic Church as the Whore of Babylon, as well as perhaps some of his other teachings. Among other problems, such as the outrageous idolatry of wafer worshipping orthodox Catholics, I could probably only be LDS thinking like McConkie about the Catholics. I am completely untroubled about the rationale behind why he took the position he did towards us.

Dan Peterson was known to me from ZLMB and here at MDDB in the early years. I know many didn't, but I loved his quick and sometimes abrasive wit towards LDS critics. But more, I appreciated his patient and amiable assessments of my positions as a Catholic already in the 2000's. His book, Offenders For a Word, has had a lasting influence on my thinking. I cannot call the Church of the Latter-day Saints the true church, but it is as "Christian" as any not true church, (if you will allow me to beg the question from my own perspective). Indeed, I am here because, in a very important sense, I find LDS claims to be the most Christian of any church except my own Roman Catholic Church. 

So shoot, I want spiritual fellowship with you all, along with those Pentecostals and Lutherans we contacted. That Catholic/Universal idea of Christ's Church which began at Berean Bible led me eventually to Rome, and it continues to direct my actions and words here. I am unsatisfied with "unity" where we don't sing the same hymns and kneel, sit, or stand worshiping the same way. We can't have the truly profound spiritual fellowship, the unity for which Christ infallibly prayed for in Jn. 17, unless we believe the same things, and accept the same disciplinary authorities on earth.               

You and Navidad seem to have a lot in common, both very knowledgeable and both really like the Latter-day Saints. And both believe in your own faith too.