NOM

Is there ANY scripture that shows that Jesus ever smiled? I am happy that a few LDS depictions of the Savior show Him with a mild smile. Happiness is usually humanly translated through smiles. I know that in LDS doctrine, laughter or excessive laughter is considered inappropriate or even evil.
So you made it to the Celestial Kingdom, and you look around, no laughter and no smiles?

BlackMormon wrote: ↑

Fri May 22, 2020 8:21 pm

So you made it to the Celestial Kingdom, and you look around, no laughter and no smiles?

Kinda like the temple?

I think the biggest single problem with religion is that it takes itself too seriously, but I guess that applies to any kind of human hierarchical structure. If people felt like they could smile and laugh at the things that their leaders say the whole thing might unravel pretty quickly. Imagine if Jeffrey Holland gave his Wrong Roads talk in conference and when he got to the punchline about how God gives you the wrong answers so you'll know the right ones when you stumble across them, everyone erupted in howls of laughter that went on for a solid minute.

Hagoth
Imagine if Jeffrey Holland gave his Wrong Roads talk in conference and when he got to the punchline about how God gives you the wrong answers so you'll know the right ones when you stumble across them, everyone erupted in howls of laughter that went on for a solid minute.

We all did, we were just online. And the laughter went on for days and days and still continues....

Max Lucado, who is a really good inspirational writer, not LDS but sold at Deseret book, says he keep a picture of a laughing Jesus in his office to remind him not to take himself too seriously. I have read several of his adult books as I really like his view of God and I think remembering that Jesus Laughed and was human in every way helps keep him grounded.

His most popular book was a children’s book for adults to remember about a society of Wemmics where they passed out gold stars and black dots And our little protagonist who was covered in black dots given to him by others Wemmics who disapproved.

I think Jesus never smiled because he was a tortured soul what with having to face his impending death that was decreed from the beginning, for some reason. I'm sure he had a lot of wtf moments and probably screamed out to his God daddy the closer the doom and suffering approached.

What the hell Dad? Why can't you just forgive these people already and let me enjoy life for christsakes? Everyone is going down to the beach and I have to stay here and speak in nonsensical parables. Who said no unclean thing can enter anyway? Who defines what is clean and what is not? Can't you, you murderous a-hole (I read about what you did in the Old Testament)?

No, Jesus never smiled because his authoritarian dad forced him to die for some unnecessary blood lust reason that perplexes man to this day.

Exiled wrote: ↑

Sun May 24, 2020 9:21 am

Who said no unclean thing can enter anyway? Who defines what is clean and what is not?

Sometimes it's helpful to step back and look at these things with the Mormon filter removed And the Christian filter, for that matter, since Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian.

I suspect Jesus was using entirely different meanings than the common Christian understanding, both when he talked about the Kingdom of Heaven and what it means to be clean. Under the Law of Moses being unclean merely means that you haven't done the rituals that verify you as clean. They didn't have the same concept of guilt as later Christians. You could get fully clean for a whole list of improprieties by delivering an animal to the temple for sacrifice, washing yourself with water, and sitting alone quietly for a day.

I get the impression, as do many Bible scholars, that the Kingdom of Heaven/God may have just referred to a new form of society that Jesus was hoping to usher in during his lifetime.

Religious organizations tend to take ownership for concepts to which they have absolutely no claim, and then start enforcing them with no smile whatsoever.