Letting Bygones be bygones -- Mamusz' Restoration Forum

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Date Posted: 19:53:12 03/05/11 Sat
Author: George
Subject: Letting Bygones be bygones

I'm going to save this post this time, to keep from having to rewrite it, because it will not post.

This is what the Junior Member's Manual says about repentance and forgiveness:

Wrongdoing and Forgiveness

God has promised to forgive all our sins. You will find that in spite of your good intentions you will sometimes do things which are unkind or selfish even after you are baptized. These things may make you unhappy, and they make God disappointed. When you7 feel sorry for doing orf saying something, you will try not to do it again. This is called repentance.

You will need to admit to yourself that you have done wrong. Tell god you are sorry and will try not to do this wrong again. If you have hurt someone else also tell that person that you are sorry. Do whatever you can to correct the error. Thnis takes real courage but God will help you. When you have done these things, you will want to promise again to do your very best to be the kind of person Giod wants you to be. God's Spirit will help you keep your promise.

A Guide to Church Fellowship and Your Baptismal Certificate
JUNIOR MEMBER'S MANUAL
Revised Edition
c. 1986
Herald Publishing House.

I find the both the copyright date of this piece and the advice given to be rather ironic.

Nowhere does it say that it is completely unnecessary to make any attempt to correct the error if a long time has passed, or if the other party somehow provoked you to commit the wrong.

When I suggested that the current leadership right the wrongs done post156 by giving the branches back their meetinghouses that were taken away in anger, and reinstating ordinations that were revoked, I was told that it happened a long time ago, and that the people who were hurt provoked the wrongful actions taken against them, so no effort would even be contemplated of correcting these wrongs. That was Matt's message on the subject.

Then Wally told us that "equilibration" meant self-justification by saying that it was o.k. to wrong someone who had wronged us.

This is another one of those "splits" between one teaching and another.

The church is teaching members that if they do wrong, they have to admit that they did it, say that they are sorry, and do everything possible to try to right the wrong. Then promise not to do it again, and try hard not to.

All I have heard is that "It happened a long time ago. The people involved deserved it anyway because of their behavior. The buildings have been sold and they are gone. Let sleeping dogs lie."

Doesn't the response of our CofC participants to my call for repentance by the leadership fit Wally's definition of "equilibration?" Note that the message was split between two different priesthood members, so that the contradictory statements would not come from the same mouth, but it is odd that two priesthood members in good standing with the CofC are spouting these teachigns that are contradictory.

Matt, in effect, told us that the instructions to "do everything you can to correct the error" are invalid in the current situation.

Wally told us that Matt's claim is "equilibration," that when one has done wrong to someone else, one cannot justify it by saying the other person deserved it by not being righteous enough themselves.

And Matt's claim that nothing needs to be done about the the hierachy's reenactment of Sherman's march through Georgia because it was too long ago, which does not jive with what the young adults were being taught about repentance even as late as 1986, when the 156 war started.

George

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