[Traveler]

Originally Posted by AnthonyB

Hijolly,

It is the lack of "transcendentalness" in LDS expression that does get me perplexed.

LDS are so concerned in hammering home the manifest that it seems to leave God as a mere "super" man.

I believe in a God, who has revealed that He is always with me, that there is no where I could go to escape Him. A God who knows my innermost thoughts and hearts intentions better then I know them myself. A God who is the ultimate expression of infinite love, mercy, goodness, kindness. God is my "childhood" hero, my perfect examplar. I strive to be hopefully ever more like Him knowing that an eternity of trying would only be the beginning of the journey.

Somehow having Him live on a planet near a star called Kolob, with a real body and as a man who managed to work his way to Godhood leaves Him sounding (to me) as much less divine. I don't comprehend that the things in above paragraph which I hold dear about God would be compatable with the LDS vision of God.

Of course the answer would be Jesus, who was fully God and fully man. However LDS don't appear to have a dual nature Christology and the idea of the limiting/masking divine nature by assuming manhood. Your Father God is permanently incarnate and simultaneously unlimitedly divine.

It seems to me that your expression of Jesus

Jesus, who was fully God and fully man

is:
1. Never expressed in scripture
2. A complete contradiction of itself
3. Meaningless and not connected with reality
4. More closely associated with pagan thought than Christianity.
5. Far more flawed that all your criticism of LDS combined.

I would point out to you your statement:

I strive to be hopefully ever more like Him

is the essence of the LDS doctrine that:

1. We were created to be "like" him.
2. The destiny of man is to be so like him that we are one - which is an ancient term meaning that there is no distinguishable or recognizable difference


The Traveler