Read Me First
About this Board
This section is for EVERYONE interested in Discussing LDS / Mormon Doctrines. Members of the Church as well from other Faiths are welcomed to participate.
Q. How do I get access to the LDS Mature Section of this site?
A. It is now PUBLIC! Please see this thread: Source 1 (It is all PUBLIC now), no special permission required.
Q. Can those who are not Mormons participate in this Board?
A. Yes, so long as your questions / comments are related to the Mormon faith using Mormon sources and not a means to bring in your own Religious beliefs. This rule also exists in the other Religious Boards we have here.
This thread will let you know how to use/know:
1. Messages in the correct threads
2. External links and sources
3. The difference between your opinion and actual doctrine
4. The difference between this forum and official Church sites
5. Quoting and those that you quote
6. Avoid becoming rude, arrogant or distasteful - we do not hesitate to delete Members who cannot Discuss things without become aggressive
7. If you want to learn more about themes or accessing the LDS mature Discussion Board then check here.
A Word Of Caution
Note: This site is NOT an official representation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints nor its mission(S). The content, graphics, and links are the responsibility of the designers and those who have joined the forum.
The views herein are solely the thoughts of those that are part of the forum or the designers. This site seeks to bring together those who are members of the above named Church to discuss the deeper doctrines. For OFFICIAL information please visit: https://www.lds.org
Your OPINION - Not FACT
As you write here get used to adding "In my opinion..." Because MOST times that's what it is unless you are quoting an Official Source of the Church.
Confusion about what is 'deep doctrine':
Many people think that deep doctrine means anti-Mormon rants or things that are questionable. That is not the purpose of this board. This board (Hopefully) deals with common questions of everyday life that affect us. It also deals with situations in the scriptures for which we may not get an answer in a class room setting.
Some people say, "I don't see anything deep enough for me" And I have to wonder about that. Are they so immortalized into the doctrine that they are a Urim and Thummim unto themselves? Even if they are, surely they can 'share' some of that with the rest of us 'new converts'. These people must be really bored in Church, since all that is spoken there is 90% basic principles.
How do we verify what is said here? Make sure to read the scriptures, counsel with knowledgeable Church leaders and ask the Lord in prayer.
Thanks for your input
For the more the versed members we thank you for your input here and thank you for helping other members understand the Gospel. When sharing thoughts it is helpful to quote directly using book names, and pages or sources. Please do not quote from Non-LDS related material unless it is to backup a point in agreement with Church Doctrine.
Remember
That there is more than one page of topics, look to the upper or lower left where it says, 'Page 1, 2, ...'
Links to Other LDS Sites
Please link only to Official Sources here and only as a reference. New Members do not have the ability to link at all and therefore should not attempt to do so. For words of the Prophets or other Historical page quotes simply put the Book name, page, etc.
Posting in the right place
To avoid giving extra work to the moderators and admin please make sure your post fits this section;
1. This board is for LDS based doctrine only! If you want to talk about books, spiritual men or other theories that are not part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints then please use the Religious Beliefs and Traditions board.
2. Thinking of starting a new thread? To avoid posing the same topic over and over again please do a search. Click on search, enter the words you are looking for, check the box for this board, set how far back you want to search: 1 to 150 days and then click 'search'. A better way would also to be to visit each of the pages within this board.
Thanks for your co-operation.
Using material from LDS authors and others
In order to keep this board as free from the non-essential controversies that surrounds some speculative ideas about the Gospel I thought it best to put the following into action, I hope you can share in fulfilling it:
1. Non-LDS Books - Quoting from the Quran and other religious texts to prove a point is good for the board called, 'Religious Beliefs, Traditions and Languages' board.
2. LDS Authors who were not /are not Apostles should be used with caution. When quoting from such books we should put name of the book, author and status of the author (if active/excommunicated now, BYU proffessor, etc). It is helpful to also use words like... 'According to the opinion of...' or 'Based on some personal research of...' and 'Not substantiated by the Church, but just for thought...'.
3. Standard Works and Books of the Church should be used liberally, but you should still note the author, place and page that you got it from.
Thanks for helping in this. New members visiting this board may become confussed with what is standard doctrine and just opinion if we do not make that clear in our writings.
I could not say it better myself!
"Let us not become so intense in our zeal to do good by winning arguments or by our pure intention in disputing doctrine that we go beyond good sense and manners, thereby promoting contention, or say and do imprudent things, invoke cynicism, or ridicule with flippancy. In this manner, our good motives become so misdirected that we lose friends and, even more serious, we come under the influence of the devil. I recently heard in a special place, "Your criticism may be worse than the conduct you are trying to correct."
-- Ensign, November 1987, P35, James E. Faust
In consequence of members constantly posting links to external sites I would like to emphasize this again and will being deleting threads that do not follow the guidelines above:
I am concerned about the placing of external links (which seems to happen nearly on every post) on these LDS boards without regards for the rules set forth on the READ ME thread. This is a secluded board, but we do not want to lead anyone astray nor do we want to encourage anyone in sarcasm of sacred events that may not have even happened in their life yet. Let us take for example a link to an external site going through the endowment... it may have some good information, but also some bad/misleading info and suppose I was not endowed yet? I am not saying a member or anyone else for that matter cannot find this info available from the net, but I do not think we ought to be party to it without FIRST explaining links and their backgrounds so users can be prepared. Links to external sites should be for reference only and not the main basis for any post. In most cases it is better to get the good and then fill us in... if members so desire then they can pursue the referenced link. Thanks.
Possibly one of the most important things you must understand as you read other's opinions of the Gospel is this:
"In the process of accepting and rejecting information in the search for light, truth, and knowledge, almost everyone has--at one time or another-- some private questions. That is part of the learning process. Sustaining faith can be the ultimate comfort in life. All of us must find our own testimonies."
(James E. Faust, "Lord, I Believe; Help Thou Mine Unbelief," Ensign, Nov. 2003, 19)
Simplified Discussion
For those of you who may be looking for more simplified Discussion then you can feel free to check out our LDS Only site at: https://www.bordeglobal.com/foruminv/index.php?showforum=120 where there are many things related to LDS only. The actual Discussion Forum is here.