Post by BrentKoivopolo888 on Mar 3, 2022 22:18:16 GMT -6
CHAPTER ONE
Once, there was a boy named Sam. His parents raised him right. They prepared him for life as a man as he was growing up. When he turned 18, he moved into an apartment. But he was an atheist; he forgot the God of his youth. His parents had been Anglican, or Episcopalian, but had converted to Lutheranism, then Catholicism. They had become Catholic when he was 9 years old, and had taught him about all the Catholic doctrine and had made him become a catehuman, then he had been rebaptized, or sprinkled, at age 10. His mother died of cancer when he was 17 and he blamed God and began to deny his existence. By the time he got to his apartment, he had gone from drinking a little Communion wine each Sunday to drinking a can of beer a day. But he had no other bad habits or addictions, and still read his Catholic Bible with the Apocrypha to find all the so-called ridiculous and erroneous things in it. And in his mind there was plenty, and he blogged about it and raged against God on all forms of social media.
He worked at a convenience store bagging groceries.
It is in these circumstances that he was in when he met Allen. Allen was a Priest in the Community of Christ church, formerly RLDS.
Allen had been baptized and confirmed in 1985 by three men. Allen did not believe in women in the priesthood or open Communion. He always had a Seventy from the JCRB privately perform ordinances to him such as administration and Communion at his apartment and never partook of Communion at church or performed ordinances with men whom he knew had not been duly authorized to do so, or with women. He did not believe in any of the human innovations to the Gospel introduced by the hierarchy. But he had a lot of family and friends in the CoC and he stayed in because he wanted to (and did) reach out to them. Already some he had convinced, God helping him, to leave the CoC and join the Independent Restoration Branch Movement.
On the day he saw Sam at the library reading a Bible Commentary, he walked up to him and said, "you look like you are learning a lot."
"Yeah," Sam said. "Just how stupid Christians are. They think they know about the Bible but it's just vain speculation. They show their ignorance by what they write about it in their commentaries."
"Oh?" Sam said. "Explain."
"Like in this passage in Hebrews about Jesus being a High Priest. They think Jesus is the only Priest in existence and everyone else is laity. Jesus Christ is the one and only Priest and His followers are all kings and Priests with no other distinctions than that. It's so stupid."
"I would tend to agree with that," Allen said.
But what do you mean by Christians are stupid? I'm a Christian and I agree with you."
"Well you're the only sensible Christian I've met so far. And I've talked to a lot of them. I'm Sam by the way."
"Allen."
They shook hands.
"So what church do you go to? Definitely not Baptist. Catholic?," Sam asked.
"No, but I believe that I am an Original Catholic."
"Really? Explain."
"I am part of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth. So were the Catholics, before the Apostasy in 570 AD."
"Hm. I was raised in three different churches. I'm an atheist."
"I figured that. Atheists are very smart people. Have you been to college?"
"No, and I don't wish to start it. Waste of time. I learn truth through the study of books. Got a library at home of books of every subject, and not a few about religion and Christianity. Surprised?"
"Not at all. I also have quite an extensive library at my place. Maybe we can hang out and learn from each other."
"That sounds great. I drink. Do you mind?"
"As long as you don't offer me any. Just have some soda ready and we're good to go."
"I will. You're cool in my book. I think I could learn a lot from you."
"And I from you, Sam."
Sam got a piece of paper and a pencil. He wrote on it.
"Here is my address. Show up any time from 2 p.m.-7 p.m. tomorrow and I should be home barring anything unexpected."
Sam gave it to Allen. He took it.
"Well, I'll go back to my studying and you can go back to yours, and I'll be there around 4."
"Cool. See you later."
When Sam got home from the library, he turned on his laptop and Googled the words "Apostasy" and "570 AD".
He soon found out that this was a claim commonly made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, and other sects of the Restoration, of which he studied about and learned about quite a few, including the Community of Christ and Restoration Branches Movement before he had to go to work at 5 PM.
All through work, during his breaks he thought and pondered on the things he had learned. He knew about Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists and Scientologists but until today he had been totally clueless about Mormonism. They were so different than Catholics. They seemed fresher, yet more ancient. He had seen everything Utah Mormons claim to believe on YouTube and on Wikipedia. He was very impressed with the claim that not only did God speak today and not only were miracles for today (the Catholics had that to a degree and so did Pentecostals), not only was there a Priesthood (the Catholics had that), but so many more ordinances and Priesthood offices, and bolder claims than Catholics ever made. And no statue or Mary worship, no Rosaries. Some of them believed in multiple Gods. Some of them believed in One God. Some both. Some believed women should be in the Priesthood and homosex u als should be married, and some didn't, both in the Utah Mormon church and in the CoC. Some believed in baptism for the dead. Some didn't. So delinear in a way that Jehovah's Witnesses were not, in a way Catholics were not. Such variety. Everyone except maybe the Utah and Fundamentalist Mormons encouraged to believe as they felt their God was leading them without being told what to believe by their leaders. Such a free people! Never a freer brand of Christianity had he ever encountered. And this Book of Mormon. Despite his atheism, he had a curiosity, more like a strong desire to read it. When he got home from work, he was going to see if there was a copy to read online, but he wanted one to own s he decided he was going to ask Allen for one sometime.
That night he was so tired he just decided to just go to bed.
He was kind of excited about the visit he would receive at 4 and fell asleep thinking about it.
Once, there was a boy named Sam. His parents raised him right. They prepared him for life as a man as he was growing up. When he turned 18, he moved into an apartment. But he was an atheist; he forgot the God of his youth. His parents had been Anglican, or Episcopalian, but had converted to Lutheranism, then Catholicism. They had become Catholic when he was 9 years old, and had taught him about all the Catholic doctrine and had made him become a catehuman, then he had been rebaptized, or sprinkled, at age 10. His mother died of cancer when he was 17 and he blamed God and began to deny his existence. By the time he got to his apartment, he had gone from drinking a little Communion wine each Sunday to drinking a can of beer a day. But he had no other bad habits or addictions, and still read his Catholic Bible with the Apocrypha to find all the so-called ridiculous and erroneous things in it. And in his mind there was plenty, and he blogged about it and raged against God on all forms of social media.
He worked at a convenience store bagging groceries.
It is in these circumstances that he was in when he met Allen. Allen was a Priest in the Community of Christ church, formerly RLDS.
Allen had been baptized and confirmed in 1985 by three men. Allen did not believe in women in the priesthood or open Communion. He always had a Seventy from the JCRB privately perform ordinances to him such as administration and Communion at his apartment and never partook of Communion at church or performed ordinances with men whom he knew had not been duly authorized to do so, or with women. He did not believe in any of the human innovations to the Gospel introduced by the hierarchy. But he had a lot of family and friends in the CoC and he stayed in because he wanted to (and did) reach out to them. Already some he had convinced, God helping him, to leave the CoC and join the Independent Restoration Branch Movement.
On the day he saw Sam at the library reading a Bible Commentary, he walked up to him and said, "you look like you are learning a lot."
"Yeah," Sam said. "Just how stupid Christians are. They think they know about the Bible but it's just vain speculation. They show their ignorance by what they write about it in their commentaries."
"Oh?" Sam said. "Explain."
"Like in this passage in Hebrews about Jesus being a High Priest. They think Jesus is the only Priest in existence and everyone else is laity. Jesus Christ is the one and only Priest and His followers are all kings and Priests with no other distinctions than that. It's so stupid."
"I would tend to agree with that," Allen said.
But what do you mean by Christians are stupid? I'm a Christian and I agree with you."
"Well you're the only sensible Christian I've met so far. And I've talked to a lot of them. I'm Sam by the way."
"Allen."
They shook hands.
"So what church do you go to? Definitely not Baptist. Catholic?," Sam asked.
"No, but I believe that I am an Original Catholic."
"Really? Explain."
"I am part of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth. So were the Catholics, before the Apostasy in 570 AD."
"Hm. I was raised in three different churches. I'm an atheist."
"I figured that. Atheists are very smart people. Have you been to college?"
"No, and I don't wish to start it. Waste of time. I learn truth through the study of books. Got a library at home of books of every subject, and not a few about religion and Christianity. Surprised?"
"Not at all. I also have quite an extensive library at my place. Maybe we can hang out and learn from each other."
"That sounds great. I drink. Do you mind?"
"As long as you don't offer me any. Just have some soda ready and we're good to go."
"I will. You're cool in my book. I think I could learn a lot from you."
"And I from you, Sam."
Sam got a piece of paper and a pencil. He wrote on it.
"Here is my address. Show up any time from 2 p.m.-7 p.m. tomorrow and I should be home barring anything unexpected."
Sam gave it to Allen. He took it.
"Well, I'll go back to my studying and you can go back to yours, and I'll be there around 4."
"Cool. See you later."
When Sam got home from the library, he turned on his laptop and Googled the words "Apostasy" and "570 AD".
He soon found out that this was a claim commonly made by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, and other sects of the Restoration, of which he studied about and learned about quite a few, including the Community of Christ and Restoration Branches Movement before he had to go to work at 5 PM.
All through work, during his breaks he thought and pondered on the things he had learned. He knew about Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists and Scientologists but until today he had been totally clueless about Mormonism. They were so different than Catholics. They seemed fresher, yet more ancient. He had seen everything Utah Mormons claim to believe on YouTube and on Wikipedia. He was very impressed with the claim that not only did God speak today and not only were miracles for today (the Catholics had that to a degree and so did Pentecostals), not only was there a Priesthood (the Catholics had that), but so many more ordinances and Priesthood offices, and bolder claims than Catholics ever made. And no statue or Mary worship, no Rosaries. Some of them believed in multiple Gods. Some of them believed in One God. Some both. Some believed women should be in the Priesthood and homosex u als should be married, and some didn't, both in the Utah Mormon church and in the CoC. Some believed in baptism for the dead. Some didn't. So delinear in a way that Jehovah's Witnesses were not, in a way Catholics were not. Such variety. Everyone except maybe the Utah and Fundamentalist Mormons encouraged to believe as they felt their God was leading them without being told what to believe by their leaders. Such a free people! Never a freer brand of Christianity had he ever encountered. And this Book of Mormon. Despite his atheism, he had a curiosity, more like a strong desire to read it. When he got home from work, he was going to see if there was a copy to read online, but he wanted one to own s he decided he was going to ask Allen for one sometime.
That night he was so tired he just decided to just go to bed.
He was kind of excited about the visit he would receive at 4 and fell asleep thinking about it.