Some Conclusions from Reading the Bible:
Jesus is the Son of God
Jesus died for our sins
Faith in Jesus and His atonement is vital for salvation
Works are vital for salvation (Luke 10, James 2, Revelation 20, etc)
The New Testament pictures God’s intention of one true community of believers being built up into the body of Christ, with apostles and prophets, teachers and evangelists being main means God has chosen to build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4)
The New Testament (and to a lesser extent the Old Testament) also predicts a falling away from the truth and a need for the true community of believers to be re-established upon the Earth (Amos 8:11; Matthew 13:25, Acts 20:29, 2 Peter 2:1, 1 John 2, 4, etc, etc)
On the basis of number six alone (which I think history corroborates), all historical faiths are disqualified for me (Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox – basically everything before the Reformation), leaving (outside of the LDS Church) only the Protestant faiths, which I consider to be disqualified by numbers four and five (I think even based on the 20th century alone, even on my lifetime, it is easy to see Protestantism splintering again and again, the end result being a privatized almost lone-gunman faith when it comes to doctrinal decisions. I consider this to be the natural and inevitable fruits of the Reformation principle of ‘sola scriptura’ and the ‘priesthood of all believers’). Pretty much, the LDS church is the only one left standing, at least to present it simply from one perspective (there are about a dozen others). For the sake of simplicity, though, here are just six conclusions I’ve made from reading the Bible carefully and considerately.
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