Where I live, today is a big day.
In the common human experience of life, all will die. The funeral service exposes theology of the person, the preacher, and the more.
I do not embrace Mormon doctrine as orthodox in any way and hold that the Mormon religion is a cult.
This does not diminish the real common human experience of all of humanity; death. Real people are sad, real people are hoping, real people are mourning. I will watch the funeral service online and update some observations of the theology of Mormonism as the service for the late president Thomas S. Monson unfolds.
I don’t mean any disrespect in my observation. It is purely a look at the theology of a professing “church” that is not really the church.
Visual observation:
- Choir – as always, the best face of the Mormon religion is the musical skill, talent and beauty of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. If there is a matter that creates greater confusion of Mormonism it is this talent that God has given for the worship and glory of the true God, allows praise of this skill to another. This may actually be one of the most complicated matters to reconcile. Like the Piano Guys, talented, skilled, enjoyable to the ear, the Jesus of the Mormon religion is not the Jesus of the Bible; there is no way to reconcile or argue that they are the same at all.
- The video shots of the crowd look as though the building is full, but a few shots show large sections in the back completely empty.
- The face of conservative and wholesomeness can not be ascertained by appearance only.
- That massive pipe organ.
Examination of the speakers:
- Language (words and phrases): Testimony, God, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, Well done thou good and faithful servant, heaven, blessings, prayer, Courage, Comfort, angels, family, atonement, Seal, eternal family, prophet… (nearly everyone of these words and phrases require study for clarity in what Mormon theology means and what the Bible teaches.
- Quotes from: the Bible, Doctrine and Covenant,
- Emotions: joy, sorrow, tears, laughter, calculated
- Props: reading from teleprompters, flowers, plants
- president of the quorum of the 12 gave the final message; president Russell Nelson. (clearly reading from a teleprompter)
I reserve my observation of the speaking until a further date. But let me express this in my overall observation. I must preach the gospel at the funerals I officiate over. The biblical gospel of the nature of God, the sin of men, the wrath satisfying atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, and the transforming from mortal man to immortality by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Bible believing followers of the Lord Jesus Christ as described by the Holy Bible alone, be careful of wolves in sheep’s clothing.