Have Miracles Ceased?

In this day and age we live in, God ministering to men through visions, dreams, or even in physical manifestations, seem to be all, but believable. A person is usually ridiculed and thought of as a lunatic if they make a claim similar to these. The sadder part is most of these persecutors would be ones who come from a Theological based faith. So this is the question I will pose, if we believe that there is a God in Heaven, why would He not be a God of Miracles?


No man or woman can pull down miracles from heaven unless they truly believe and have faith that it will happen. In the story I'm about to post; a man's son that is possessed by a demon is brought before the Savior and He is asked to cure the child. He is informed that His very own disciples could not cast out this devil, but Jesus cast out the devil immediately. The disciples saw this and they wondered why it was that they could not cast out the demon. They had cast out demons before and the would cast out demons after, but I want you to look for the reasons why the Savior tells them they were unable to administer to the child.


"...There came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perversegeneration, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."
(Matthew 17:14-21)


In conclusion I'm going to quote a prophet from the Book of Mormon who simply answers this question, "And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles. And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust." (Mormon 9:19-20) As an additional testimony that these scriptures are accurate and true, Jesus Christ did not perform miracles in Nazereth because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58).  Brothers and sister, we must believe. We must. If we do not we will not be privileged to the things which could have been ours if we had, but believed. True belief. I invite you to search within your hearts and commit to follow Christ by keeping His commandments, diligently seek to know Him and understand who He is by reading the Word of God, and by emulating His example in kindness, love, and patience.

Are Mormon's Christian? Part II

So as I explained in Are Mormon's Christian blog post, the 2 reasons modern Christianity does not accept us as Christians is;
1.) We do not believe in the Trinity.
2.) We claim that God continues to speak and that the Bible is not the sole authority on Deity.

Elijah and the priests of Baal.

Today I will be explaining the second and similar to my previous post I'm not going to bash on people who do believe that the Bible is the sole authority, I'm just going to explain ourselves and why we believe that God has continued to reach out in love to His children by calling Prophets to the Earth today.


Well, taking a general look at religion should assure you that, we absolutely need a prophet. The Lord says, "he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets," (Amos 3:7) So tell me with the confusion and strife that exist between Christians churches would God reveal His secrets and will to help them be unified? Once again, yes! In fact Paul clearly says that the whole purpose for prophets and apostles is, "for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith..." (Ephesians 4:12-13)

God revealing Himself to the prophet Joseph Smith.

Okay, so maybe we do need prophet's, but what in the world classifies someone as a prophet? In the Bible we read, "If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision..." (Numbers 12:6) The Lord is quite clear here about how He will make a prophet truly known. We also read, "thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord..." (Ezekiel 3:27) Here it clearly says that a prophet will speak with power and authority given to him from the Lord. So now we know some of the many characteristics and qualities that a prophet must have. And finally in concluding the Sermon on the Mount the Lord says that not just anyone who claims these things will be a prophet, He strictly warns them that there will be several false prophets, but He gives the way to identify between the two, "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" (Matthew 7:16) 


I have heard plenty of times that this scripture is saying that there will be no "real" prophets in the last days because Jesus says their will only be false ones. Well I say, if there was only going to be false ones why would He give a way to differentiate between the two? Because there are going to be real prophets in the last days. God has always worked with His children by calling prophets, if you don't believe that God calls prophets to help His children then, quite honestly, you don't believe the Bible. The Bible is a combination of sacred texts written by whom? The prophets. 

Are Mormon's Christian?

This question seems to be coming up quite a bit and I feel that I might address it a little more fully. In today's religious world, the general population of Christians who don't believe that Mormon's are Christians believe this for mainly 2 reasons.


1.) We do not believe in the Trinity.
2.) We claim that God continues to speak and that the Bible is not the sole authority on Deity.


I'm going to focus on topic #1 in this blog and I'll post later about #2. instead. I'm also not going to explain why we don't believe in the Trinity, but rather explain why we believe that "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit..." (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22) 

The Appearance of The Father and The Son.

We believe that God, our Heavenly Father, is the literal Father of our Spirit's.  Hebrews 12:9 refers to Him as the "Father of spirits...", Romans 8:16 refers to us as the "offspring of God" and in John 20:17 Jesus identifies the Father not only as His Father, but "our Father" as well. We believe He has a physical body, but unlike ours His is Immortal, Glorious, and Perfect. 


We believe that Jesus Christ when He was resurrected received a body exactly like our Father in Heaven's and that Jesus Christ still has His body at this very moment. Several times throughout the New Testament His Apostles testified to thousands that He was risen and that He has physical body of flesh and bone at this very moment. The Savior Himself testifies of this in Luke 24:36-39. He appears to His apostles and they are scared because they think He is a ghost, a personage of Spirit, but he calms them and says, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."


We believe that the Holy Ghost doesn't have a body, but He is a Spirit. We believe that He touches the hearts of many people and that He bears witness of the truth to all who seek for it.


Well, I can testify that Jesus Christ lives and that His kingdom is on the Earth today and it is being led by a Prophet of God. I have received that witness of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Ghost.

God's Plan For You: Why On Earth Am I Here?

Believe it or not there is an answer to this question. There are specifically 2 reason's for us being here on Earth. Both of them deal with where we came from and where we are going, so if you haven't checked out my blog, "God's Plan For You:We Lived Before This" it will help you understand this blog. So the first reason I will explain for us being here is the objective to get a body.

You may wonder, why would getting a body be a reason for us being here, well if we remember God has a corporeal body, or a tangible physical body. And we wanted, in the pre-earth life, to be like our Father and get a body just like His. So He prepared a way for that to happen. Adam and Eve were introduced to the world and with their transgression those spirit's from Heaven were now able to receive their bodies. We have our bodies here on Earth and they will be with us in the next life because of Jesus Christ's Atonement.

The other reason we are here is to progress in righteousness. We are here to be tested and to see if we will obey God's commandments at all costs. We are faced with trials and obstacles everyday so that we can become stronger in our faith and our relationship with God. God said to Jesus Christ after creating the Earth," And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them..." Unfortunately we all mess up and make mistakes, hence the Roman's scripture,"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:" Clearly we all have fallen short of the glory of God and are not qualified to enter into the presence of God and abide with Him through all eternities, but there is hope and help that would allow us to overcome sin and death. And that is... through the atoning blood of the Good Shepherd, even Jesus Christ.