269,000 words given from God
Dictated in 60-65 working days with no resources or extensive edits
Perfect consistency
Many observable writing styles by different people
Stunning theological discourses that clarify and witness of Christ
Explain it away for me
Is this meant to be an argument or just a list of things you think sound weird? 😂
"Mormons make stuff up"
*lists a slew of lies*
Let's get into it...
"Magic underwear"? That's the intellectual level we're operating at? Religious garments exist in numerous faiths. Calling them "magic underwear" isn't a refutation; it's playground mockery.
"Golden plates and a seer stone." Correct. Joseph Smith claimed revelation through unusual means. Christians believe God spoke through a burning bush, a donkey, dreams, visions, angels, and a resurrected corpse. If your standard is "sounds unusual," Christianity fails before Mormonism does.
"God was once a man" and "humans can become gods." You apparently don't know that deification is a historic Christian doctrine. The idea that humans can participate in divine life predates Mormonism by centuries. The disagreement is about the nature and extent of exaltation, not whether the concept exists.
"Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers." This is one of the favorite anti-Mormon talking points because it sounds shocking until you think about it for ten seconds. Traditional Christianity teaches Satan is a created being who derives his existence from God. LDS theology teaches Christ is the divine Son and Satan is a fallen being. The point isn't that they're equals. They aren't.
"No Trinity." Correct. Latter-day Saints reject the Nicene formulation. That's a theological disagreement, not evidence of fraud. You actually have to argue why the Nicene model is correct instead of pretending its truth is self-evident.
"Total apostasy." The New Testament repeatedly warns of apostasy, false teachers, corruption, and falling away. You can disagree with the LDS interpretation, but acting as if the idea appeared from nowhere only advertises ignorance of the texts.
"Kolob." The Book of Abraham doesn't say God lives on Kolob. Critics repeat this because they know most people won't check.
"Humans get their own planet." Not official doctrine. Again, critics repeat it because it gets laughs.
"Baptism for the dead." Paul literally mentions people being baptized for the dead in 1 Corinthians 15:29. You may reject the LDS interpretation, but the practice is rooted in a biblical text, not thin air.
Every religious worldview can be made to sound absurd through hostile wording.
"Christians believe in eating the body of their God - they're a cannibalistic death cult."
See how easy that is?
I don’t need anyone to tell me whether The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a Christian church.
I’ve lived it for 48 years.
We worship Christ. We follow Christ. We study Christ.
We fall short and ask for his grace.
The Book of Mormon testifies of Him on every page.
The strangest thing about all this discourse is that I’m realizing a lot of Christians seem to think we hate or have an unfavorable opinion of them, but that just isn’t true.
In fact, we don’t view any religion negatively, even though we are the most negatively viewed religion.
Children in my church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—know this song, “I Will Walk With Jesus”
Pay attention to the words
If this isn’t emblematic of Christian faith, I don’t know what is
For a religion that teaches that God cannot be measured, localized, or contained, they sure do get mad when you suggest He could have visited more than just Judea.
@qboomer17@ThoughtfulSaint That’s what they said when they nailed Jesus to the cross.
They were wrong. He wasn’t blaspheming. He spoke the truth as I do.
If I were wrong then yes it would be blasphemy.
How sad it is that of Al those that strive sincerely to follow the Lord so few are willing to hear His voice when He speaks to them.
We must strive more diligently and charitably.