Marlin said:
There is no "second resurrection." There is one physical resurrection, and there is one assignment into one of the three kingdoms (but the latter is not viewed as a "resurrection" per se).
So you say some will stay resurrected (in one of the three kingdoms), and others will return to hell. I agree that there would only be this one resurrection for those who believe in Christ: "the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them" (Rev. 20:5); and Jesus likewise said:
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." (John 5:24-25)
Revelation confirms this:
Rev. 21:6-7 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Rev. 20:15) If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
(Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. - 1 John 5:5)
Now you're getting into the grace/faith/works issue. Mormons believe that we are saved by grace through faith (which requires good works or it is dead). Without works, we cannot be saved; however, it is grace which ultimately saves us.
I hope you can spot the contradiction. By
definition, grace has nothing to do with works, but still you say "without works, we cannot be saved".
Without the works to prove it we do not really have faith in Christ,
who saves us. Without his salvation, we remain in our condemned state where we have only our own deeds.
Christ can be said to be that vehicle, yes, but the Church is also a vehicle (as opposed to an end in itself). Without the saving ordinances of the Church (i.e., baptism, endowments, and celestial marriage for time and all eternity), we could not enter the highest kingdom of God (the Celestial Kingdom).
If you say so. But for my part, I'd rather hold on to Christ himself, who said "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." In obedience and gratitude to Him I have been baptized in his triune name, was incorporated into his body of believers (the only true church) to whom He gave His spirit as a deposit that guarantees what is to come (2 Cor. 1:22). So I serve only:
God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Tim. 1)
I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
I don't understand your question here. We make a covenant with God at baptism, and renew that covenant by taking the Sacrament (Mormon word for "communion") every week in Church, that we will always remember Him, that we will take upon ourselves His name, that we may have His spirit to be with us. It is by this covenant that God works with us in exalting us eventually. Baptism is the gateway into this covenant between God and man, so that is where we come in. Both God and man are the "acting parties" in our salvatory process.
We make no covenant, God already made it - He made the first one, and the new one that consumes it. You are evading the whole text of Galatians I gave you. If we believe it, it leaves no further place for our input: it says God sent His son, redeeming those under the law (of works), giving them the right to be sons by His Spirit, thereby making them heirs with Christ. There is no covenant to be made in all of this, since it describes what God did for us, according to His
promise to Abraham. "In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring" (Rom. 9:8).
Hebrews 9:15
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
The sacraments only confirm this covenant of what God already did. That's why we are able to
testify to it (as opposed to being busy achieving it). We participate in
Him, not in a new version of the old law.
1 Corinthians 10:16
Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
Read the rest of Galatians 4. It describes the difference between a covenant that relies on bloodlines and hereditary priesthoods, and one that comes by faith in a promise.
