It’s not like it’s really going to affect my eternity with Christ. Now baptizing Anne Frank is way out of line, and the Mormon Church has got some ‘splainin’ to do about that one. Read up on it!
Wherefore, confound your enemies; call upon them to meet you both in public and in private; and inasmuch as ye are faithful their shame shall be made manifest. Wherefore, let them bring forth their strong reasons against the Lord. Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you—there is no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; And if any man lift his voice against you he shall be confounded in mine own due time.
Doctrines and Covenants 71:7-10
When talking with Mormons, I have found that they have this terrible habit of clamming up as soon as they “feel the spirit of contention.” Not only does this fly in the face of Jude 1:3, which tells believers everywhere in no uncertain terms to “contend for the faith,”—the Christian life is a contentious one, who knew!—but it also ignores their own Scriptures, quoted above.
The 71:7 challenge is something I am starting. I am calling Mormons everywhere to live up to their faith and engage in debates, conversations, arguments, or whatever you want to call it. Will it get messy? Probably. Will it be worth it? Absolutely.
If you have faith in the word of your god, prove it. Defend your position. I have called for an answer, and the silence has been deafening. If you think you can do better, this is a good place to start.
I’m still taking applications for a live debate. Any takers?
Anonymous asked: You can't just tell someone what they believe. Mormons use the Bible, don't they? Obviously the believe in the same Christ and God. On the B.o.M I believe it says "Another Testament of Jesus Christ", not "The Testament of Jesus Christ".
I’m not telling them what they believe, I’m simply relaying what they believe as they define it in their doctrine. Critical thinking, guys.
Anonymous asked: I believe that those who submit to Christ and believe that he atoned for our sins will be saved from the eternal damnation of Hell. Mormons call upon Christ as their Savior. Orthodox Christians call upon Christ as their Savior. Why do the little differences matter? According to research, Baptists believe in "once saved, always saved". I don't believe that, but I don't think they're going to Hell. Your pointing out little things that really don't matter just to make you look better.
They’re different Christ’s. The nature of Christ is hardly similar to whether or not you agree with “once saved, always saved.” Saying that Mormons believe in Christ so they’re clearly Christian is to presuppose that everyone means the same thing when they say Christ, and Mormon’s do not. Nor do Mormons mean the same thing when they say atonement, salvation, sin, Hell, Satan, God, or Heaven. They don’t worship the same God we do, they don’t serve the same Christ we do, they don’t believe in the same Spirit we do, they don’t believe in the same Gospel we do, they don’t believe in the same Faith, Lord, or Baptism, and they cannot be considered Christians. If the best you can do is say they use vaguely Christian jargon and so must be saved, then please stay out of the pulpit. The world doesn’t need another Joel Osteen.
Anonymous asked: what does it matter if he's the Spirit brother of Satan or not? It's the same salvation. I believe that all who call upon Christ will be saved. And it seems to me that Mormons and Orthodox Christians alike do just that.
Because if he’s the Spirit brother of Satan, then he’s not the same Christ I believe in, which completely negates your earlier point.
What exactly do you mean when you say salvation?
Anonymous asked: Why did you feel the need to add "I'm not a Mormon." to the side of your page? It's not funny, nor did anyone ask if you were. That's just really shallow, and I'm sure it comes across as Christ-like to non-believers, showing that you can't respect another other belief systems other than yours.
I actually used to get asked if I was a Mormon pretty regularly. I’m sorry if it offends you, but at the moment, tumblr is giving me technical difficulties and there’s really nothing I can do about it. As for respecting other belief systems, where did Christ ever say we were supposed to do that? He said we should tell people that they’re sinners in need of repentance and a savior! I’m not out to please people or scratch their backs, I’m out to speak truth. If you don’t like that, I’m sorry.
Anonymous asked: I'm a mormon, and personally I do not believe our Christ is a counterfeit Christ. He is the same one that was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, preached to the gentiles and jews alike, atoned for our sins, was crucified, and resurrected.
Is your Christ the Spirit brother of Satan?
Anonymous asked: So what you're saying, is that because you can't physically see and hold something, means it doesn't exist? Also, have you forgotten about the Council of Nicea where the Clergy pretty much decided what they wanted in their Bible and what they wanted to believe?
No, I’m saying that because very few people ever saw the plates, and we don’t have copies, and we don’t have pictures, and the few pieces of parchment that we do have (bits that are claimed to be the Book of Abraham, in PGP) are actually Egyptian burial documents, that it is quite likely that the plates never existed.
I don’t know why you think Dan Brown novels are a reliable source for history, but Nicaea never said a single word about canon. Nicaea didn’t once speak to the books that would be considered inspired or not. Nicaea was a council called mostly to address the heresy of Arius and help clarify the nature of Christ as divine. They also discussed the date of Easter, and how to deal with Christians who had denounced their faith under persecution. This last bit included addressing the refusal of Meletius of Lycopolis to allow those apostate to return to communion with the Church (which ultimately proved unsuccessful, as the Meletians sided with the Arians and left orthodoxy) as well as the question of whether baptism by a heretic was valid.
The result of the Council was the Nicene creed, which asserted that Christ was “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.” The term finally decided on was homoousios, or “of the same substance.” This term clearly affected Athanasius of Alexandria, who gave us the Athanasian creed, which is, to my knowledge and preference, the best and most extensive definition of the Holy Trinity.
A little research goes a long way, anon. :)
Anonymous asked: Well, if ya wanna get technical. Why are there are over a dozen different translations of the Bible, if it's the complete and perfect Word of God? And why don't we have all the original texts they were translated from? I believe in the Bible as the Word of God, however, that was really a stupid statement to say that the B.o.M has been changed, when the Bible has been too.
You got my hopes up. You said you were going to get technical, and then you weren’t technical at all.
It seems like you’ve confused the idea of translation with transmission. When you get your Bible translation, you get the English equivalent of what the Hebrew and Greek texts say. But I think you’re getting hung up on the idea of transmission: How our Bible got to us from hundreds and thousands of years ago. Most skeptics accuse the Bible of being the end result of a huge game of telephone, but that’s not accurate at all. See, the Bible was copied over and over and over again by scribes. Now, scribes are humans, and humans make mistakes, but here’s the thing: In a room of 40 scribes, they’re not all going to make huge mistakes. Someone might substitute a wrong word, but they won’t all make that same mistake in the same place. And then there are checks and balances. So if this is a game of telephone, its a game in which each player, upon hearing the phrase, repeats it back to the player who told them, then to the player before that, to make sure it’s right. The text of scripture get’s to us quite intact.
The fact that we have dozens of different translations (hundreds, maybe thousands, if you count other languages) doesn’t do a thing to detract from the fact that we have the original texts with a 99.5% accuracy—something that Mormonism cannot claim. The Bible in English is not necessarily perfect, but the original text is accurate to an incredible degree. The variant readings don’t do anything to the foundational doctrines of the Christian Faith. For more on the inerrancy of Scripture, check out the Ehrman Project.
So has the Bible been changed? Not like the Book of Mormon has! And a Christian can always go back to the original text, which the Mormon could never do, because the original text probably never existed!
My life is devoted to preaching the Gospel: That God came bodily in the person of Jesus Christ, to reconcile a sinful world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19; Rom. 3:23). Now, those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead will be saved (Rom. 10:9).
I believe, and confess. You should too.
Please feel free to ask me about anything.
I don't use a thesaurus, and I'm not a Mormon.
