Vruskophile

[Vruskophile @Vruskophile]

@anniewe3 @NicoleAuerbach @BYU @byuROC Apples-to-oranges comparison. Students WANT to go to BYU games.

[Laura Fryer @realLauraFryer]

Original Halo: 185 people. Full game.
Halo Remake: 2,183 people. Campaign only.

You said it isn’t just HR, it’s also the invisible layers. Producers, managers, leads of leads, people who are supposed to support the makers but instead add meetings and dilute ownership. It doesn’t have to be this way.

https://t.co/KYpew49vD7

[Kirk Rollins @nicoraytruth]

What do I believe is true about the Book of Mormon after 20+ years of reading it?

The Book of Mormon is the only scripture on earth written by the losers of one American apocalypse to the finalists of the next.

The cycle is running on schedule, record markets and tent cities under the freeway, wages rot, a generation priced out of houses and told to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow the stock market rises.

3 Nephi 7 is not ancient history, it is present reality. America broken into tribes, two nations under one flag, each with its own chiefs, its own news, its own truth, and no court left that both sides will obey.

The Gadianton robbers did not stay in the text. they run lobbying shops and cartels, they settle their crimes in court as a cost of doing business, opioid fortunes and dark money and men whose names appear on no ballot.

Moroni said when you see them among you your situation is awful, and we see them everywhere.

We adorn ourselves with that which hath no life more literally than any people in history.

The churches Mormon saw are broadcast every Sunday, stadium lights and smoke machines and sermons that never mention sin, prosperity preached to a nation drowning in it, all is well in Zion while Zion stops having children.

A country too rich to afford a baby, too busy for a second child, sacrificing maternity to quarterly output and calling the sacrifice freedom.

So when Moroni says I speak unto you as if ye were present, ye that love money and your substance and your fine apparel more than ye love the poor, he is not describing Nephites, there are no Nephites left, he is describing the one nation on this land that holds his book.

America is the first civilization ever handed the full transcript of its own trial in advance.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

A pantomine horse isn’t a horse.
An open secret isn’t a secret.
A hot dog isn’t a dog.
A shrinking violet isn’t a violet.
Crow’s feet aren’t feet.
Fair game’s not a game.
Trans women aren’t women.

[Vruskophile @Vruskophile]

@SandyofCthulhu He was also the best Frodo

[Vruskophile @Vruskophile]

@LDS_Dems Classic Millennial. Stereotyping people older than you just like the Boomers did.

[Nate Alder @AlderNate]

Can we see the Ark of the Covenant?

Can we see the stone tablets Moses brought down from Sinai?

Can we see the original manuscripts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?

Can we see the cross Jesus was crucified on?

Can we see the empty tomb?

Can we see the resurrected Christ?

Can we see the miracles He performed?

Can we see the Garden of Eden?

Can we see Noah's Ark?

Can we see the burning bush?

Can we see the rod of Aaron that budded?

Can we see the manna preserved from the wilderness?

Can we see the angel Gabriel?

Can we see the Mount of Transfiguration event?

Can we see Pentecost?

Yet Christians accept all of those things based on witness testimony and faith.

The irony is that the Book of Mormon actually has more direct witnesses than many biblical events. Eleven men publicly testified they saw or handled the plates, and several maintained that testimony even after leaving Joseph Smith and the Church.

The question isn't whether you can see the plates today. The question is whether the witnesses were telling the truth.

[LEGO Joseph Smith @Mormonger]

You say Joseph Smith declared other churches corrupt and apostate. So did the Protestant Reformers. Martin Luther accused the medieval church of corruption, false doctrine, and apostasy. Was he therefore "separating himself from Christianity"? Or do you only apply that standard when discussing Latter-day Saints?

The irony is that you assume Christianity belongs exclusively to your theological tradition. Latter-day Saints don't need your permission to believe in Jesus Christ. We worship Christ, pray in His name, are baptized in His name, and believe He is the risen Lord and Savior of the world. Your disagreement with LDS theology doesn't magically make Jesus disappear from Mormonism.

As for calling Mormonism "false, fake, and stupid," that's what people say when they have outrage instead of evidence. Anyone can throw insults. The question is whether you can actually defend your claims. Can you demonstrate that Joseph Smith never had revelations? Can you disprove the Restoration? Can you establish that God is incapable of calling prophets after the New Testament? Simply shouting "cult" and "demonic" isn't an argument.

The most revealing part of your comment is your confidence that Joseph Smith is in hell. You don't know that. You can't know that. You're placing yourself in God's judgment seat and pretending to have access to information God has not given you.

What's especially odd is that Christ taught people to love their enemies, avoid self-righteous judgment, and judge righteous judgment. Yet your comment consists almost entirely of contempt, insults, and declarations about who is damned. If that's your strongest case against Mormonism, you've done more to demonstrate hostility than you've done to demonstrate truth.

If Mormonism is false, prove it. If Joseph Smith was a false prophet, make the case. But rage, mockery, and pronouncements about hell are not evidence. They're substitutes for evidence.

[Justin Hart @justin_hart]

It's funny.

My fellow Christians (who deny me that same title) love to cite the thief on the cross whom Christ seems to forgive at that fateful moment. I wonder if that man secretly whispered his position on homoousios and the Son being consubstantial with the Father before he got the nod into Paradise?

But somehow my simple declaration that Christ is my Savior is insufficient to acknowledge that I am a Christian.

go figure.

[LEGO Joseph Smith @Mormonger]

How many more tweets are you gonna post about Mormon caricatures instead of Mormon facts? 😂

First, Latter-day Saints do not teach that God lives on a planet called Kolob. Kolob isn't described as God's planet. If you're going to attack a religion, at least learn what it actually teaches before repeating internet memes.

Second, the "get your own planet" line is another tired anti-Mormon slogan. It isn't official LDS doctrine. Critics repeat it because it's easier than engaging what Latter-day Saints actually teach about exaltation.

Third, saying Latter-day Saints believe in a Heavenly Mother or that humans can become like God doesn't make them non-Christian. The early Church Fathers taught forms of deification long before Joseph Smith. You may disagree with LDS theology, but disagreement is not an argument.

Finally, the claim that Latter-day Saints aren't Christians...
Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God, believe He died for humanity's sins, rose from the dead, and is the only source of salvation. The real issue isn't whether Latter-day Saints believe in Christ. The issue is that they reject post-biblical creeds as the final authority.

Again, you are free to argue that LDS theology is false. What you are not free to do is replace argument with distortions and then congratulate yourself for defeating a position nobody actually holds.

[Senator John Curtis @SenJohnCurtis]

Latter-day Saints are among the most patriotic, service-oriented individuals in our country. They are also unequivocally Christian—just look at who is in the name of the Church.

It is unacceptable for a government entity to characterize a faith in a manner that contradicts the religion’s own foundational tenets. I am working now to ensure a correction is made.

[LEGO Joseph Smith @Mormonger]

Your argument only works if you quietly smuggle the Nicene Creed into the definition of Christianity and then pretend you've proven something from the Bible.

You say Latter-day Saints aren't Christian because they reject later creedal theology. Fine. Then stop pretending your standard is "the Bible." Your actual standard is fourth-century Greek metaphysics.

Show me where the Bible teaches that God is "one being in three co-equal, co-eternal persons sharing one indivisible essence." Not a creed. Not a church council. A verse.

You can't.

You cite Deuteronomy 6:4 and Matthew 28:19, but neither passage teaches the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is an inference constructed centuries later. Latter-day Saints reject that inference. That's not the same thing as rejecting Christ.

You also claim Mormons believe in a "different Jesus." That's rhetoric, not an argument.

Do Latter-day Saints believe Jesus is the divine Son of God? Yes.

Do they believe He created the world? Yes.

Do they believe He was born of Mary, performed miracles, atoned for sin, died on the cross, rose bodily from the dead, and will return in glory? Yes.

Those are not minor details. Those are the central claims of Christianity.

What you really mean is that Latter-day Saints reject later theological developments concerning the nature of God. That's a much narrower claim than "they worship a different Jesus."

The "spirit brother of Lucifer" line is especially weak. It's usually deployed because critics know it sounds shocking, not because it proves anything. In LDS theology, Christ is the divine Son of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. Repeating "spirit brother of Lucifer" doesn't refute any of that. It's just polemics.

Your claim about salvation is equally misleading. Latter-day Saints do not believe they can earn salvation apart from Christ. They believe Christ's grace is necessary and indispensable. The disagreement concerns the relationship between faith, covenant, discipleship, and transformation��not whether Christ saves.

As for Galatians 1 and 2 Corinthians 11, quoting "another gospel" doesn't magically settle the debate. Every Christian tradition has used those verses against rival traditions. The question is whether Joseph Smith restored authentic Christianity. Quoting Paul's warning simply assumes your conclusion.

And the census argument is frankly irrelevant. Governments classify groups for demographic purposes, not theological ones. If tomorrow a census listed Baptists separately from evangelicals, that wouldn't determine who is or isn't Christian.

At bottom, your position is not "Mormons aren't Christian because of the Bible." Your position is "Mormons aren't Christian because they reject post-biblical creeds that I consider authoritative."

You're entitled to that definition. What you're not entitled to do is pretend that the definition came directly from Scripture when the very doctrines you're using as tests of Christianity were formulated centuries after the New Testament was written.

[LEGO Joseph Smith @Mormonger]

If your God damns people to Hell for not believing a doctrine they couldn't make sense of - then your God is a piece of 💩

[LEGO Joseph Smith @Mormonger]

Notice that you didn't actually argue anything. You mocked a set of beliefs, distorted several of them, and then declared victory.

"God lives on Kolob."

No, that's not LDS doctrine.

"God of your own planet."

Not LDS doctrine.

"Celestial space babies."

Not LDS doctrine.

So right out of the gate, you're attacking beliefs that Latter-day Saints don't even officially hold.

More importantly, your entire argument assumes that the Nicene Creed gets to define Christianity. That's the very point under dispute.

The apostles were Christians before Nicaea existed.

The New Testament existed before Nicaea existed.

Christianity existed before Nicaea existed.

So merely shouting "You reject the creeds!" doesn't prove someone isn't Christian. It proves they reject the creeds.

You also conveniently ignore the fact that Latter-day Saints affirm that Jesus is the Christ, the divine Son of God, the Savior of the world, the risen Lord, and the only source of salvation.

If worshiping Jesus, praying in His name, being baptized in His name, preaching His gospel, and centering your entire religion on Him doesn't make someone Christian, then your definition of Christianity is "whoever agrees with my fourth-century metaphysics."

And that's the real issue.

You're not defending Christianity. You're defending a particular version of Christianity and pretending it's synonymous with Christianity itself.

The irony is that your argument boils down to:

"You don't believe exactly what I believe about God, therefore you're not Christian."

That's not an argument. That's a boundary marker.

The question isn't whether Latter-day Saints differ from creedal Christianity. They obviously do.

The question is why a council held centuries after Christ gets to determine who counts as a follower of Christ.

And that's the question critics like you usually avoid because it's much easier to make jokes about 'space babies' than to defend the authority of Nicaea without begging the question.

[Dem Saints @LDS_Dems]

Something genuinely wrong with your belief system if you think Donald Trump is a Christian and Mitt Romney isn't.

[LEGO Joseph Smith @Mormonger]

This is exactly the kind of argument people make when they get their information about Mormonism from anti-Mormon memes instead of actual LDS beliefs.

Let's separate fact from fiction...

"Jesus was a created being like us."

Not what Latter-day Saints teach. We teach that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, the Creator of the world, the Savior of mankind. You may disagree with LDS views about premortal existence, but pretending Mormons view Jesus as merely another human is either ignorance or dishonesty.

"We can become gods."

LDS theology teaches exaltation through Christ. Ironically, the idea that humans can become partakers of the divine nature has existed in Christianity for centuries. The real debate is what that means, not whether Christians have ever taught it.

"Good Mormon men get a planet full of virgins."

This isn't doctrine. It's anti-Mormon folklore. If you have to attack a religion by inventing beliefs it doesn't actually teach, you've already conceded you can't win on the facts.

"Jesus and Lucifer are brothers."

Latter-day Saints teach that all beings ultimately derive from God. But trying to equate Jesus and Lucifer because both are God's children is like saying Michael Jordan and Charles Manson are basically the same because they're both human. One is the divine Creator and Redeemer; the other is a rebel. The comparison is intentionally misleading.

"Jesus came back to America."

Correct. That's an actual LDS belief.

"Native Americans are the true Israelites."

No. The Church does not teach that all Native Americans are Israelites. That's a caricature of a much more nuanced position.

As for "Mormons aren't Christians":

Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We believe He was born of Mary, performed miracles, died for our sins, rose from the dead, and is the only source of salvation.

What critics usually mean is not "Mormons aren't Christians."

What they mean is, "Mormons aren't Nicene Christians."

Those are not the same claim.

You can argue that LDS theology is wrong. You can argue that the creeds are right. But if your case depends on repeating internet myths about planets, virgins, and other nonsense, you're not defending Christianity - you're just spouting 🐂💩

[BYU Men's Golf @BYUmgolf]

We are grateful that the NCAA accommodates BYU policy not to compete on Sunday.

They gave us the opportunity to play our Sunday round on Thursday. We will join the other teams for the official round 1 tomorrow.

[Vruskophile @Vruskophile]

@gamestop So, I'm just a nobody on X, but, should you see this, I strongly advise you to avoid giving your money to @gamestop .com. If you do, caveat emptor. (9/9)

[Vruskophile @Vruskophile]

@gamestop Again, no responses from @gamestop .com. After 2 more weeks, on 5/28, today, I again asked for an update since the order status still says "in progress". The response that I received was that my earlier request (from weeks ago, now) is "currently being reviewed" (8/9)