I'm going to segue from the original topic I was going to comment on today, that of eternal marriage, and comment instead on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Warren Jeffs made the newspaper and USATODAY online today, so I thought it would be a good time to comment on the FLDS, as Warren Jeffs followers are known. Warren Jeffs is the leader of this polygamists sect who has made recent headlines with his conviction of two counts of rape as an accomplice, and could face up to life in prison.
The FLDS church is no more a part of the LDS church as the Protestant church is part of the Roman Catholic church. I am not a scholar by any stretch of the imagination, but I do believe that the majority of the different churches and denominations in the world today evolved from some other mother church....except for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is what I believe as a Mormon. Jesus Christ organized His church during the latter part of His life on this earth, and just before He ascended into heaven, He left Peter, James, and John as the "head" and gave them the "keys" of divine authority and designated other Apostles also as leaders of His church.
A few years later, all the Apostles were persecuted and killed. At this time, the "Apostasy" of the church started, and the "Apostasy" became complete under the reign of the pagan Emperor Constantine. Constantine adopted the idea of Christ and the cross and mixed in some pagan rituals and doctrines when he developed a state church for the Roman Empire that was under the direct control of the Emperor. This church later split, and now we have all kinds of churches out there. The Protestant Reformation was actually a break off of the Roman Catholic Church, and from the Protestant Reformation came the Lutherans, the Church of England, Methodists, Baptists, and the list goes on. The only church that I know of that does not fall into this category is the LDS church. Why? Because the LDS church is the restored church of Jesus Christ. God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith and restored all the keys and ordinances. The LDS church is not a break off of any other church, but the restored church of Jesus Christ in these latter days. This was foretold in the Bible, but that is another topic.
The FLDS church is a break off of the true church of Jesus Christ, and a very informative web site on Fundamentalism can be found here: http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com
Warren Jeffs is not a prophet of God. He said so himself on Jan. 24 in telephone calls to his family, and said, quote, "the Lord had revealed to him that he was a wicked man". But the paper says that Jeffs abandoned his statements about not being a prophet and said that he had experienced a great spiritual test. This abandonment came about in February after his health improved. Hey, I'm just quoting from The Seattle Times newspaper dated November 1, 2007.
Bottom line? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints usually makes the news media whenever Warren Jeffs and the RLDS church makes the news media..........most of the time because the media gets confused and think that the RLDS church is part of the church based in Salt Lake City, Utah. But that is ok with me, because we of the Mormon faith simply get more exposure, and with more exposure, I feel we get more converts. IMHO.
