Blainer) I wrote a post about Joseph Smith having been commanded to practice plural marriage (I do not accept your term "womanizing" )--it had some good ideas in it. Did you read it? Here it is again, in case you missed it.
DavidM wrote: > 5. Do you agree that Joseph Smith lied to his wife and children > about his > polygamous life style? Blainer) I do not agree he deceived them. But even if he did, he was justified. Stop and think about it. On the one hand, he received a commandment to practice polygamy. On the other hand, his wife and others were not as full of faith as he was, so he knew they would have a difficult time accepting his going forward with keeping this new commandment. This was to be the ultimate test of his faith and obedience. It was very similar to the test God gave to Abraham, when he was commanded to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's ONLY son. How do you think Sarah would have received this if she had been openly informed? Abraham kept Sarah in the dark on this, and the implication in the scriptures is that she only found out about it after-the-fact. When she did learn about it, it apparently contributed to her death!! This was, as with JS and polygamy, the classic double-bind situation. There is no greater test of obedience and faith than a double-bind situation where you are in a no-win situation. Adam and Eve were given the same test. They were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth, yet were also commanded not to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was simply no way they could keep both commandments. Either way, they would lose. But they had to CHOOSE. This is reminiscent of many real-life situations. We often find ourselves between a rock and a hard place, so to speak, do we not? There is no clear black and white answer to some problems. One simply has to CHOOSE, and in doing so, seals his fate to being subjected to whatever negative and /or positive consequence the choice brings. > On Tue, 15 Oct 2002 00:19:57 EDT [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > <PRE>Blaine Forget the accusations of drunkeness, brawling, etc, > How do you > reconcile the womanizing and occult practices? I still have trouble > with his > character. I could not follow him. Laura > ---------- > "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you > may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) > http://www.InnGlory.org > > If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you > have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed. > ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
