The church today is much different than it was 150 years ago. The most common feature known about our church back then was the practice of Plural marriage. That was later done away with. More recently, in 1978 a change in policy allowed all worth male members of the church to hold the priesthood. I remember growing up in the church, I never would have thought that policy to change in my lifetime. I'm sure saints living in 1875 would never have thought Polygamy would be outlawed.
A question to ponder....Looking forward 50 years or so, what changes do you see coming? Something we consider as church doctrine today, part of what we teach that may be done away with. is it possible? It must be if it has happened in the past. Or have we now reached a point where we finally have everything right?
Could we maybe someday accept gay people in full church fellowship? Maybe the Prophet will someday get a revelation that some people are born gay, it was part of God's plan...a test to see if we would learn to be accepting and tolerant of someone different than us.
Maybe some day a policy change could allow non members to enter the temple to witness a wedding in the family.
maybe church meetings will be reduced to an hour or two each Sunday, or maybe we will meet only occasionaly and each family will be responsible on Sunday to hold their own meetings.
Possibly new doctrine will be revealed that overrides old doctrine or policies. Any other ideas out there?
There are policy changes all the time. I remember when we were told to pass the sacrament only with the right hand, now you can use any hand.
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Could we maybe someday accept gay people in full church fellowship? |
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Maybe some day a policy change could allow non members to enter the temple to witness a wedding in the family. |
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I was told that this is allowed now, people with no recommends, family only, can attend the sealing of their loved ones. |
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I didn't ask if all of them were members of the church |
Yes, I am sure they were members and with recommends, this has been actually around for as long as I can remember, but you do not see it unless you are invited to the sealing where it is happening. If however you are right and those people were nonmembers I will definitely call the mission president right now to verify and ask 'What the heck is going on?'.
To the original question, I have to say that I sincerely hope, and pray, that the trend will be more to the opposite direction - that we will regain the important, even vital, doctrines and practices.
Since Joseph Smith's death, we have given up many incredible, vital doctrines, practices, even offices within the priesthood.
I took the time to list quite a few of these, but then deleted them, partly because this is not in the mature LDS section, also because I am not sure that anyone even wants to consider how many things have changed.
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I took the time to list quite a few of these, but then deleted them, partly because this is not in the mature LDS section |