How exactly would you define 'wicked'?lundbaek wrote:I am aware of a great many Church members who are definitely not wicked as I understand the word "wicked", but who cannot cope with what the Lord and His prophets and apostles have told us about the US Constitution and the attacks against it and our freedoms. Not only have they ignored the admonitions in their scriptures and from their prophets and apostles to study, uphold, and abide by the principles of the US Constitution, but they have also largely ignored the warnings about secret combinations among them striving to gain control over their government and steal their wealth. But that alone does not qualify anyone for the "wicked" label. In spite of the hellfire and brimstone threats I have heard and read pertaining to members who neglect those responsibilities, I don't envision them shoveling coal down in the eternal boiler room for that neglect alone. But then as I reread this: http://www.connorboyack.com/blog/images/fp_1941.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I have to wonder.
My understanding of the definition has been changing.
Enemy to God = wicked, no?Mosiah 3:19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
D&C 84:50 And by this you may know they are under the bondage of sin, because they come not unto me.[/b]
51 For whoso cometh not unto me is under the bondage of sin.
52 And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me.
53 And by this you may know the righteous from the wicked, and that the whole world groaneth under sin and darkness even now.
So wickedness is defined here by the Lord as an unwillingness or inability to hear and follow the Lord's voice, whether found in scriptures, words of Church leaders, or -especially- through the Holy Ghost, whose job is to testify of truth.
D&C84: 54 And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received—
Although we have the necessary ordinances of the Gospel, we can be just as prone to ignoring the Lord's voice. And anyone else, regardless of religion or other beliefs, can be acquainted with the Lord's voice.