"rasqual" <scott.marquardt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:13rs4f0af66qg03@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Feb 16, 10:13=A0am, "Curmudgeon" <gfuller1...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> Are you LDS? Why should I tell you, if indeed you are? Why do you have
to
>> ask if you are not? Or Prophets told us that black people of African
>> ancestry should not be ordained. They hold that authority.
>
> And it coincidentally turns out that their prophetic views happened to
> have been consistent with, and found expression in terms of,
> prevailing myths of the mark of Cain and such.
>
> It's kind of crazy. Mormonism refuses to accept the most sane aspects
> of orthodox theology, but ratifies the most ridiculous myths to arise
> from a Christian mileau (the mark of Cain thing).
>
> I mean, really. That asymmetry is really, really odd.
>
> - S
What is more odd is that our prophets may, and our common members often
do,
try to explain in human terms the exact reason that God commands or allows
the things He does. The mark placed upon Cain was never explicitly
explained
was it? And accoding to the story in the Book of Genesis it was not in
itself a curse, but a blessing. The curse is explained in Genesis 4:12
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee
her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
The next two verses show that Cain understood what the curse actually was.
He also told God that this was unfair.
13 ¶ And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment [is] greater than I can
bear.
14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth;
and
from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in
the earth; and it shall come to pass, [that] every one that findeth me
shall
slay me.
As a result God asssured Cain that He would give him protection of a sort,
although he would still be a fugitive and a vagabond.
15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance
shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest
any
finding him should kill him.
If we continue reading we find that Cain left and went to another land
east
of Eden.
So if all we have is the Genesis narrative, we know that God created man,
then created a garden "eastward in Eden" in which the man should live, and
then later, Cain went to Nod which was further east, east of Eden.
Now if any Latter-day Saint, Prophet or not, believed that the Mark of
Cain
was the curse that God put upon him was a dark skin, he did not get it
from
the Book of Genesis.I can't say i never bought into that myth, but I can
say
that at the age of 78, I truly cannot remember that I ever had any such
belief.
How does God make His will known to you, Scott?
Gene
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