On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:59:22 -0700, Chambers wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> What if God told them it was their mission to correct the Church?  Then
>> the Church's response would be to throw them out as a heretic.
> 
> If God spoke to you tomorrow, and told you to go correct the Mormon
> church, I would assume that He also tried to speak to the current
> leaders of the Mormon church.  An action as drastic as asking you to
> correct them must mean that they aren't listening to Him anymore.

It certainly could happen.  Leaders often make mistakes or go on a "power 
trip" when given authority.  Look at the history of monarchies where the 
power the monarch received was "granted by God".  I don't see this as all 
that different.

> Assuming that God wants the Mormon church corrected enough to ask you to
> do it, I would also expect Him to empower you to achieve that end.

Perhaps, though the struggle/journey may have benefit as well for the 
long term.  That's the problem with trying to second-guess God's 
motivations, too.  There may be a reason why he might put someone on a 
collision course with the Church leadership that isn't apparent to anyone.

I was raised Lutheran myself, though - though I identify as non-Christian 
now (I'd probably say mostly agnostic to be honest - don't know if 
there's a God or not, don't really care, I guess I may find out at some 
point.  I just try to live a good life as best I can).  The idea of a God 
who meddles in earthy affairs bothers me, though.  Assuming the creation 
story happened in a way that's perhaps vaguely similar to the story in 
Genesis, it seems likely that if there is a God, he may have defined the 
parameters of the Universe (physics, for example) and set things in 
motion.  But once the rules for how things interact in the universe were 
set, they can't be changed.

Assuming there is a God of course. :)

There was a very interesting Asmiov short story along these lines, but 
"God" was a child playing with a model, and he got bored with it after a 
while and just walked away from it.  The idea's been used in other 
stories (there even is a Simpson's Halloween special that played with the 
idea IIRC - I think Lisa was their "god" figure), and Asimov may've been 
riffing on someone else's idea.

Jim

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