Origin
The church founded by Smith Yue Se in 183 did not have a formal name, and it represented the most primitive church established by the apostles of Jesus Christ in the 1st century, so it was generally called' Christian Church', and it was officially called' church of jesus christ of latter-day saints' on April 26th, 1838. This official name has been extended to this day.
The newly established Mormon Church was persecuted by the mainstream religion Christianity (Protestantism) in the United States at that time, and then Smith Yue Se was killed. Young Brigham led the followers to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah in the central United States, and it developed steadily there in 1847, so the church headquarters was located in Salt Lake City. In fact, Salt Lake City is a city built by the early members of this church with their faith in God. This is extremely rare and special in the history of urban development all over the world. The members of the church are now all over the world. According to the latest figures released by the church, the number of believers has reached more than 12 million, and more than half of them live outside North America.
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City has become a city founded by the pioneers of this church with confidence and their own beliefs. At present, more than half of the local people are Mormons, making Salt Lake City the largest city with the lowest crime rate and divorce rate in the United States.
Doctrine
"church of jesus christ of latter-day saints" calls itself Christianity because it also believes that Jesus Christ is the only son of God and the Christ and Messiah predicted by the prophets in the Old Testament. And centered on the teaching and redemption of Jesus Christ. Since the members are disciples of Jesus Christ, the name of the church is also named after Jesus Christ. In addition to the Bible used by ordinary Christian churches, the standard classics of the church also include the Book of Mormon, which is another Covenant book to witness Jesus Christ. For this reason, many people call "church of jesus christ of latter-day saints" and his followers by other names, such as "Mormon", "Mormon" or "Mormon".
the creed of the church
1. We believe in the eternal father God, his son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
2. We believe that people are punished for their sins, not for Adam's disobedience.
3. We believe that due to the atonement of Christ, all mankind can be saved by obeying the laws and ordinances of the gospel.
4. We believe that the first principles and teachings of the gospel are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; Second, repent; Third, immersion baptism for forgiveness of sins; Fourth, lay hands on the gift of the Holy Spirit.
5. We believe that people can preach the gospel and carry out its ordinances only when they are called by God through prophecy and the laying of hands by people with authority.
6. We believe in the same organizations that existed in the primitive church, namely: apostles, prophets, priests, teachers, well-wishers, etc.
7. We believe in speaking dialects, prophecies, revelations, visions, treating diseases and translating dialects.
8. We believe that the correct translation of the Bible is the word of God; We also believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.
9. We believe all that God has revealed and all that he has revealed now, and we also believe that he will still reveal many important things about the kingdom of God.
1. We believe in the real gathering of Israel and the revival of ten tribes; Zion (New Jerusalem) will be established on the American continent; Christ will personally rule on the earth; And the earth will be renewed and won the glory of paradise.
11. We demand the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the guidance of our own conscience, and allow all people to have the same privilege, so that they can choose the way, place or object of worship.
12. We believe that we are subordinate to kings, presidents, rulers and judicial officers, and we should obey, respect and uphold the law.
13. We believe that we should be honest, sincere, chaste, kind and kind, and do useful things for all people; In fact, we can say that we are following Paul's advice-we believe in everything and hope for everything. We have put up with many things and hope to put up with everything. Anything kind, beautiful, good reputation, or commendable, we all pursue it.
Influence on overseas
church of jesus christ of latter-day saints encourages believers to preach their religion, and young missionaries who volunteer to preach in local languages all over the world, thus indirectly bringing about language and cultural exchanges.
the evolution of Chinese translation
in Chinese names, "Latter-Day Saints" are also translated as "Doomsday Saints" (Chinese translation of Japanese today) or "Doomsday Saints" (old translation of Chinese). The meaning of the word "eschatology" in Chinese is easy to be misinterpreted, so in about 2 BC, the church always translated Chinese into "Latter-Day", as mentioned above, in order to be different from the most primitive church of Jesus Christ, but it clearly shows that this church is a primitive church that was revived and inherited from the missionary period of Jesus.
* Mormonism missionary methods
a Business
Mormonism is based in Utah, USA, with huge real estate, workshops and farms. All management, trading and application are under the unified management of the church, and its huge profits are used for church administration, investment, construction, missionary and other expenses.
b Build a tall and splendid church
Mormons spend a lot of money to build a huge and dazzling church, which not only has a meeting hall, but also has an exhibition room and an audio-visual room to promote Mormonism. Its project is huge, even more so than some Catholic churches. There are ten famous churches, and the last one was built in Los Angeles in 1956. At that time, the construction cost was 6 million US dollars, and the church was 257 feet high.
c visits at home
Mormons are somewhat like Jehovah's Witnesses in their indomitable spirit of visiting. Every Mormon youth must devote one to two years to missionary work, either at home or abroad, just like military service. During the period of service, the church will take care of all other expenses except food and accommodation.
In many big cities, you can see two well-dressed young people knocking at the door, carrying small bags or riding bicycles, claiming that they are disciples of God and willing to talk to you about the gospel of Jesus Christ. For these people, we must not be careless. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus said: "... travel all over the sea and land, seduce a person into religion, and make him a son of hell!" Introduction to Buddhism
Buddhism, together with Christianity and Islam, is called the three major religions in the world. Buddhism is the education of the Buddha. To say that Buddhism is a religion is just a popular expedient and convenient way to say it. In fact, it breaks ignorance troubles and achieves Bodhi (enlightenment) with the wisdom of Prajna. Buddhism has made indelible contributions to the spread of world culture in history and still deeply affects many people in the world. But at the same time, Buddhism also has a good influence on the humanistic society.
the definition of Buddha
"Buddha" is the general meaning of infinite buddhas, and it is broad. I try to define "Buddha" as follows: "Buddha" is a personality whose reason, emotion and ability all reach the most satisfactory state at the same time. Let me repeat: "Buddha" is a personality whose reason, emotion and ability have reached the most satisfactory state at the same time. In other words, Buddha is a person with great wisdom, great compassion (or all wisdom and all compassion) and great power. Please pay attention to the difference between Buddhism and other religions: Buddha is not omnipotent, and he can't give us liberation. He can only teach us, and we still have to rely on our own efforts to get liberation. Buddha can't make us go to heaven or condemn us to hell. It is not an easy task to define "Buddha". To put it simply, Buddha is "Awakened One" and "Awakened One". "Awakened One" is transliterated from Sanskrit as pagoda, Buddha, etc. Buddha is the abbreviation of Buddha. Perhaps more clearly, it should be said that Buddha is a person who has a thorough understanding of the fundamental principles of life in the universe. There is also a concise definition, which is generally accepted by ordinary people, that is to say, Buddha is a person who consciously realizes him and realizes perfection. In other words, a Buddha is a person who has realized himself, and can realize it even if he helps others further, and this kind of consciousness (awareness) and awareness of his work (behavior) have reached the most satisfactory state at the same time
The spirit and characteristics of Buddhism
If we compare Buddhism with other existing religions in the world, it is obvious that there are many differences between Buddhism and them. For the convenience of explanation, I
The first Buddha is a man, not a god
Looking at all religions in the world, except Buddhism, there is no religious leader who does not pretend to be a superman. This god can call the wind and rain, turn stone into gold; He dominates the fortunes of mankind, and it manipulates the life, death, honor and disgrace of all things. Only when human beings prostrate themselves before him, praise and eulogize, and attribute all achievements and glory to Almighty God, can they go to heaven if they believe in him. Those who oppose him only fall into hell, and there is no room for defense and appeal. The founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, said in his first sentence when he came to the world:' Heaven and the world are the only ones.' What readers should pay attention to here is that the word "I" of "I am the only one" does not refer only to Sakyamuni itself, but to everyone in all mankind. The correct interpretation of this sentence should be: man is indomitable in the universe, and everyone is his own master and decides his own destiny, without having to obey anyone or any god beyond him. Sakyamuni attributed his consciousness, achievements and accomplishments to people's own efforts and talents. Sakyamuni believes that a person's good or bad fortune, success or failure, honor or disgrace depends on his own behavior, good or evil and hard work. No one can promote me to heaven and no one can push me to hell. Praise and eulogy can't be happy without suffering. Only by down-to-earth cultivation can we purify and sublimate our personality and enjoy the happiness of peace of mind. Sakyamuni can't turn stone into gold like a political reform. He advocates that' people should plant what they want to harvest first.' He can't make a lotus tree grow apples. If you want to harvest apples, you must sow the seeds of apples first. Sakyamuni just tells you how to cultivate it so that you can have a rich harvest in the future, but you still have to do the cultivation yourself. Didn't Mr. Liang Qichao make such a metaphor in his article "The Interest of Learning"? He said that it is comfortable to bask in the sun in winter, but' although the sun is good, you always have to bask in it yourself, but others can't bask in it for you.' Sakyamuni said that for 49 years, he talked about more than 3 meetings (times), which was nothing more than pointing out a' way to become a Buddha' for us-to create the most complete wisdom and personality by himself. But this road is to walk it by perseverance, wisdom and perseverance. So the Buddha said,' You have to do the work yourself, because I only teach you the way to go.' There is no shortcut to becoming a Buddha, and practice is a little bit of effort.' How can plum blossoms smell fragrant without some cold bones?'
The second Buddha is a true egalitarian
When I say that the Buddha is a true egalitarian, I don't mean to talk nonsense. Let's first observe the social background of India at that time: everyone knows that in the era of Sakyamuni, India was divided into four classes: Brahman, noble, civilian and slave. Seeing the irrationality of social classes, Sakyamuni, the noble prince, resolutely raised the banner of equality and advocated the abolition of class opposition and the equality of all beings. Please think about it carefully. All revolutions in history have demanded' improvement' from the lowly class and class equality from the noble class. There is absolutely no one like Sakyamuni who is willing to' lower' his status as a prince and be equal to civilians and slaves. Because of his selfless and inaction style, I say he is a true egalitarian. At the same time, Buddhism advocates "no mercy" and "great compassion with the same body", and pushes the meaning of equality to a further level. I think there must be some students who don't know the meaning of "without mercy" and "with great compassion". I should briefly describe it here: (1) without mercy: Buddhism advocates not only kindness to people who are related to themselves, such as their parents, relatives and friends; At the same time, I should be kind to people who have no relatives or friends with me, such as people who have never been in contact with me or have never met each other, and care for them as well. In the words of Confucianism,' no mercy' means:' old people and old people; Young people and young people. " That is to say,' not only the relatives, but also the sons and sons,' as the great book of Li Yun said. Meaning of. (2) Compassion with the same body: Compassion with the same body is a kind of spirit that people are hungry for themselves and people are drowning for themselves, and all beings in the universe are regarded as one person and I, sharing weal and woe with the same flesh and blood. Confucianism says:' and yet, while China holds our friendship, and heaven remains our neighbourhood.' He also said,' All men are brothers within the four seas.' It can show the mind of' same body and great sorrow'. And the earth treasure king bodhisattva' I don't go to hell, who goes to hell?' A deep desire for sorrow is the ultimate in the same body's great sorrow. Finally, I want to explain that the person who can best show the spirit of "true equality" in Buddhism is the person who does not limit the concept of equality to the spirit of all things. Buddhism opposes the argument that all animals except human beings are created to feed people. The wailing and wailing of all animals when they are dying is really terrible, so unbearable to hear, even Mencius will say,' I can't bear to eat its meat when I hear its voice.' Buddhism further affirms that these animals which are indiscriminately hunted and killed by human beings who claim to be the spirit of all things all have Buddha nature-a potential to become a Buddha in the future. Even though people are different from other animals in form and wisdom, they are equal in the right to survive. Just like a vicious or ignorant person, he also has "humanity". We should treat him with "humanity" and educate and influence him with "humanity". The ancients said,' Heaven has the virtue of good life.' And he said,' Everything is born with me.' It is an equal thought that regards everything as one. It's just not as thorough as Buddhism says.
The third Buddha is not born knowing
Sakyamuni is an ordinary man. His surname is Gautama, and his name is Siddhartha. He was born in North India in the 6th century BC, that is, today, it is adjacent to the southern border of Nepal, about 2 kilometers away from Cadman. At the age of 29, he gave up the throne that he was about to inherit, became a monk, and sought a way to get rid of his life's troubles. Six years later, at the age of 35, Sakyamuni gained enlightenment under the bodhi tree beside the Nyirenchan River, and correctly and thoroughly realized the fundamental truth of cosmic life. Since then, people have called Sakyamuni the Buddha, or simply the Buddha. Meaning: the awakening of truth; Or simply do: the awakened one. The main purpose of my brief introduction to the Buddha's practice is to tell you that Sakyamuni, like us, is an ordinary man, who can realize the Tao through practice, and all the millions of human beings in Qian Qian can follow suit and practice according to the teaching methods he showed. Sakyamuni-He is only one of the countless prophecies of mankind, and we are the ones who know later and feel later. The difference between Buddha and us is not in personality and status, but in a sense.