5 Great Things About the Mormon Church!

"If you could tell me 5 reasons to consider this convert to Mormon, what would they be?"

A great lady I was teaching on Facebook yesterday asked me this question.  It was the best question I've been asked in the last week.  Thrilled to answer, I gave the following items

1. Makes it so your family can be sealed in the temple to be together for ever.
2. You get extra guidance from the Holy Ghost to give you warnings and directions when you're lost.
3. Guidance from Christ through modern prophets to help you make sure you're living so you can have the holy ghost, and also be warned of worldwide problems.
4. Richer understanding of why Christ's sacrifice is so important and how it Adam's fall help us become like our Father in heaven.
5. Having a church family to support and help your own family.

She topped my answers by giving me a good one of her own.

"I love that this religion believes babies are born pure and if they passed before baptism, they would still enter heaven."

If you were asked for five reasons to become a Mormon and be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, what would they be?  What should mine be?  Don't be afraid to comment if you've only got one idea or a question about mine.

Testify of Christ: Second Session

As shared in my last post, the primary purpose of modern prophets and apostles is to testify of Christ and stand as witnesses of him and his resurrection.  This morning I studied my notes from the April 2011 LDS General Conference and gathered up what was shared about Christ as these prophets and apostles filled this role.

Testify of Christ

Over the last weekend was the 181st annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As is typical for any General Conference, the messages focused on our Savior Jesus Christ.  Every speaker related his or her topic to Christ and finished with a testimony of him, his divinity, his resurrection from the dead, or his sacrifice for us.  This fulfilled their special calling from God to act as a special witness of Jesus Christ, "...for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." [Revelation 19:10]

I'm spending this morning reviewing my notes from the first session of conference shown above.  The first thing I'd like to do before I can read the transcript is search through my notes for some of the things that were taught about Jesus Christ, especially things that were new to me.

Christ's Church

Many people today try to argue that Jesus Christ did not establish a church and was merely a great philosopher.  As I help individuals on Mormon.org chat learn about the Lord's reestablished church, it then is often called into question whether he established a church to begin with.
First of all, we learn from the word Christ's apostles chose to use when they translated Christ's teachings to find out something about Christ's Church.  I've learned that in the New Testament, they described it with the word ekklesia.  According to Strong's Bible Concordance, the word ekklesia, means "a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both):--assembly, church."
It is apparent from this definition, that ekklesia or church in the New Testament was the congregation, assembly or community itself, rather than an administration or building.  That community is lead by Christ [Eph 1:22] and he set up and organized leaders over it:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; [Eph 4:11-14]

As stated in those verses, those leaders and the organization are there to help us become perfect.  It's a place to teach others [1 Cor 14:19] and care for the needy [1 Tim 5:16].  As long as we are imperfect and struggle with our weaknesses we will still need that organization Christ established to help us through it.
The Church of Christ, guided by his prophets and apostles, properly answers inquiries about the doctrine in a lawful assembly (Acts 19:39), or General Conference as we call it today. It offers strength and support to families and individuals.
Throughout the New Testament, and in his church today, there are many examples that the church is not exactly what many imagine the word church to mean.  Christ's church is a well-organized body of his followers.  I've been in places where the reestablished church was just a few Saints worshiping together in a home or office building.  Despite the circumstances, there was authority, and modern directions passed down from Jesus Christ through his modern Apostles, for administering his sacrament and uplifting one another.