Just want to point out that the substance of your post is to say that having the C&E blessing is essentially meaningless and valueless. What you are saying is that it doesn't matter whether you have it or not.EdGoble wrote: ↑June 1st, 2017, 12:39 pmThere is nothing minimalized in the Church about enduring to the end. You will never get calling and election unless the Lord knows you are willing and intend and currently engaged in enduring to the end with or without it, and that you would continue to endure with it, and not think that you were just given a "free pass." That's what it means when it says you are willing to serve him "at all hazards," up to and including the prospect of not getting calling and election in life. That you are willing to do what it takes with or without calling and election, and that calling and election would just be some nice added bonus to the fact that you will endure well to the end anyway, and that your course will never change even if you never get it. And so, there is nothing tragically minimized about the necessity for enduring to the end with or without calling and election. Seeking for calling and election with the idea that you are then exempt or blessed in some way different from what you would be called to pass through otherwise is actually where you are going beyond the mark. That is what is tragic. The Lord only gives it to those who he knows will endure anyway, which is why Mormon remnant types don't actually get it, who leave the Church. That is the express definition of not enduring to the end: to go astray.JaredBees wrote: ↑May 28th, 2017, 11:12 pm My sweet 3 months away from being 4 year old girl --I had to help her read the scripture in primary today. In asking what scripture she was assigned-- they said you pick the one you want". So I picked something sweet and simple yet beautiful and profound... "where your heart is there your treasure will be also" I promptly made my way to Sunday school after this satisfying little experience to learn that the lesson was on D&C 76 .As we got to the point where they were talking about Celestial Kingdom requirements--- a very faithful ward member, probably in her mid-sixties, made the statement that when she was a young adult there was consistent emphasis placed / taught in the church about receiving your calling and election and laying hold upon the deeper things in the Kingdom. This sister expressed her gratitude on what has been taught for the last little while in church (the past 4 decades) about Just having to endure to the end. Comments were flying around in agreeance about how we should not look beyond the mark etc. It was such a struggle and challenge for me to hear all this. More than anything it was very sad for me to realize that this is and has been where we are at in the church for some time... the more I read and truly understand the scriptures the more sad I am by the narrative in church that suggest a different type of hungering and thirsting and obtaining then what holy writ and the Prophet Joseph Smith etc admonised... There is so much treasure to lay hold upon . Is it safe to say hearts have and are waxing cold in our desire and understanding in the necessity of obtaining these **salvational truths**? These "said" most important truths have been and are tragically minimized in Church.
The doctrine of Calling and Election as it is popularly taught among the Mormon Remnant is actually a doctrine that has distracted many from their duty and provided for them an excuse to go astray.
This isn't true. It does matter and you are blessed in a different way than if you didn't have it. It is worth seeking after.
-Finrock