If you think the Book of Mormon was well-written, there is really little left to discuss.
Tom Send a noteboard - 04/10/2011 03:57:08 AM
I will strive to ignore the taste of having thrown up in my mouth and continue, however.
Let's stick to some of the major disputes I have with what you wrote:
1. The fundamental, baseline requirement for being Christian is generally a belief in the Trinity, that God is one being in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that Christ is God made man, who suffered, died and rose from the dead in an act of salvation. If you do not believe that, YOU ARE NOT CHRISTIANS. You can talk about Jesus and feel he's important, but Muslims, Baha'i and other groups like Jehovah's Witnesses do that. It doesn't make you Christian.
2. You believe that God was as man is, and man will be as God is. This directly contradicts Isaiah, where God says there are no other gods. This is a rejection of the Trinity and a rejection of the Bible.
3. You ask where prophecy has been made obsolete. Hebrews 1:1. Furthermore, the Bible tells us to be on watch for false prophets and antichrists, and Joe Smith was definitely a false prophet. False prophets and antichrists deny Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22). We know a false prophet in two ways: (1) he asks us to follow gods other than God (Deuteronomy 13:1) or (2) if any prophecy he makes does not come true (Deuteronomy 18:21). Joe Smith said the US government would collapse before 1900, he said that there were people on the moon and a whole bunch of other things that were lies. He presumed to translate an Egyptian funerary scroll as a "Book of Moses", which was a lie and a fabrication. He also preaches polytheism in a convenient veil of "the Godhead", which is not the same as God the Father, who is not the only God in Joe Smith's little fantasy world. By either of those standards he would have been stoned to death under Biblical law.
4. Your baptism is not a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, which is what the Biblical baptism is all about: "Confessing their sins, they were baptized by [John] in the Jordan River" (Matthew 3:6).
5. The Book of Mormon is a direct contradiction of Galatians 1:9. Not only that, but you have refuted or ignored so much of the Bible that there is almost no point in having it sit next to the Book of Mormon. You should try reading the entire Bible, if only to realize that you are violating almost everything that it says.
6. Joe Smith was dim-witted. His Book of Mormon is a terrible farce of a book, written with no skill, repeating phrases from the King James Bible and garbling nearly all of them, and so riddled with errors and sentence fragments that it's been revised and revised and revised. It doesn't take a genius to write the Book of Mormon. Here, let me show you:
And it came to pass, that Jophim said to Jophiriah, his son, "Take thee thine oxen and scrumbles and cattle and goest thou unto the land of the Morriphi, and when thou arrivest, tell them that the LORD sends His wrath upon them, and take thou then their land from them. And it came to pass that Jophiriah took his oxen and scrumbles and cattle and went up to the land of the Morriphi, and he found there Cordiah, high priest of the Morriphi...
The entire book is bad copies of Jewish names with no etymology underlying them, made-up place names and a history that is a bad copy of some of the "historical" books of the Bible. Seriously, white people in North America with wheeled carts, cows, metal implements and a whole lot of other things that the Indians never had? There is no complexity to the Book of Mor(m)on. It's an awful parody of the Bible, made up by someone who had heard virtually nothing else in his sad life.
7. Joe Smith was a con man, and he did try to make money. He went around with a dowsing rod and a "seeing glass" and told people that he'd find treasure on their property if they paid him money. Later on, he started a bank that was a pyramid scheme. All the way up until a rightly angry mob took justice into their own hands (I think he should have been tried and thrown in jail to rot), he was trying to get rich. He took money from his followers, he took their wives and he lived on other peoples' money. He was a true parasite. You would do well to read Fawn Brodie's No Man Knows My History, which is the biography that all non-Mormons generally agree to be accurate (Mormons usually stick their fingers in their ears and hum loudly to avoid hearing the truth). I also highly recommend The Mormon Mirage, which would confront you with just how far the Mormons have strayed from Christianity.
Let's stick to some of the major disputes I have with what you wrote:
1. The fundamental, baseline requirement for being Christian is generally a belief in the Trinity, that God is one being in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that Christ is God made man, who suffered, died and rose from the dead in an act of salvation. If you do not believe that, YOU ARE NOT CHRISTIANS. You can talk about Jesus and feel he's important, but Muslims, Baha'i and other groups like Jehovah's Witnesses do that. It doesn't make you Christian.
2. You believe that God was as man is, and man will be as God is. This directly contradicts Isaiah, where God says there are no other gods. This is a rejection of the Trinity and a rejection of the Bible.
3. You ask where prophecy has been made obsolete. Hebrews 1:1. Furthermore, the Bible tells us to be on watch for false prophets and antichrists, and Joe Smith was definitely a false prophet. False prophets and antichrists deny Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22). We know a false prophet in two ways: (1) he asks us to follow gods other than God (Deuteronomy 13:1) or (2) if any prophecy he makes does not come true (Deuteronomy 18:21). Joe Smith said the US government would collapse before 1900, he said that there were people on the moon and a whole bunch of other things that were lies. He presumed to translate an Egyptian funerary scroll as a "Book of Moses", which was a lie and a fabrication. He also preaches polytheism in a convenient veil of "the Godhead", which is not the same as God the Father, who is not the only God in Joe Smith's little fantasy world. By either of those standards he would have been stoned to death under Biblical law.
4. Your baptism is not a baptism for the forgiveness of sins, which is what the Biblical baptism is all about: "Confessing their sins, they were baptized by [John] in the Jordan River" (Matthew 3:6).
5. The Book of Mormon is a direct contradiction of Galatians 1:9. Not only that, but you have refuted or ignored so much of the Bible that there is almost no point in having it sit next to the Book of Mormon. You should try reading the entire Bible, if only to realize that you are violating almost everything that it says.
6. Joe Smith was dim-witted. His Book of Mormon is a terrible farce of a book, written with no skill, repeating phrases from the King James Bible and garbling nearly all of them, and so riddled with errors and sentence fragments that it's been revised and revised and revised. It doesn't take a genius to write the Book of Mormon. Here, let me show you:
And it came to pass, that Jophim said to Jophiriah, his son, "Take thee thine oxen and scrumbles and cattle and goest thou unto the land of the Morriphi, and when thou arrivest, tell them that the LORD sends His wrath upon them, and take thou then their land from them. And it came to pass that Jophiriah took his oxen and scrumbles and cattle and went up to the land of the Morriphi, and he found there Cordiah, high priest of the Morriphi...
The entire book is bad copies of Jewish names with no etymology underlying them, made-up place names and a history that is a bad copy of some of the "historical" books of the Bible. Seriously, white people in North America with wheeled carts, cows, metal implements and a whole lot of other things that the Indians never had? There is no complexity to the Book of Mor(m)on. It's an awful parody of the Bible, made up by someone who had heard virtually nothing else in his sad life.
7. Joe Smith was a con man, and he did try to make money. He went around with a dowsing rod and a "seeing glass" and told people that he'd find treasure on their property if they paid him money. Later on, he started a bank that was a pyramid scheme. All the way up until a rightly angry mob took justice into their own hands (I think he should have been tried and thrown in jail to rot), he was trying to get rich. He took money from his followers, he took their wives and he lived on other peoples' money. He was a true parasite. You would do well to read Fawn Brodie's No Man Knows My History, which is the biography that all non-Mormons generally agree to be accurate (Mormons usually stick their fingers in their ears and hum loudly to avoid hearing the truth). I also highly recommend The Mormon Mirage, which would confront you with just how far the Mormons have strayed from Christianity.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
Mormons
03/10/2011 05:46:10 AM
- 2362 Views
Questions.
03/10/2011 11:13:25 AM
- 1115 Views
Re: Questions.
03/10/2011 01:28:28 PM
- 1078 Views
I don't understand why they would be called drinks, if they were not meant to be drunk.
03/10/2011 03:28:48 PM
- 1014 Views
Why did I look up what Quorn is? I didn't need to know that. *NM*
03/10/2011 02:04:20 PM
- 628 Views
....did we just get door-to-door'd...ONLINE?!?! *NM*
03/10/2011 11:34:19 AM
- 573 Views
Nope.
04/10/2011 01:32:43 AM
- 957 Views
there's no real point to it
04/10/2011 02:37:24 AM
- 1958 Views
We could use an evil cackling smilie, we do have some other evil ones
04/10/2011 02:49:12 AM
- 924 Views
Do you ever giggle at the name "Moroni?"
03/10/2011 11:39:55 AM
- 1023 Views
There are Mormon literalists? Seriously? *NM*
03/10/2011 03:02:18 PM
- 564 Views
In fairness, I wonder the same about Christian literalists. *NM*
03/10/2011 07:57:19 PM
- 575 Views
Yeah, but if you're gonna believe absurdities...
03/10/2011 09:02:32 PM
- 1007 Views
Are you trying to suggest that "Reformed" or some other brand of scientology is plausible?
04/10/2011 04:28:40 PM
- 966 Views
Actually, no. It'd be like laughing at... Hosea. Or Nemeiah. It's just an old name.
04/10/2011 12:30:57 AM
- 921 Views
I know they don't have multiple wives anymore, so no misconception there
03/10/2011 01:23:50 PM
- 949 Views
Question: Why are you such a faggot? *NM*
03/10/2011 02:23:45 PM
- 467 Views
Answer: because it's the only way he could return your burning love for him.
03/10/2011 03:24:23 PM
- 694 Views
Better a faggot than a fuckwad. Cheers fuckwad! *NM*
04/10/2011 01:27:20 AM
- 588 Views
Re: You embarrass yourself. *NM*
04/10/2011 01:56:02 AM
- 474 Views
I'll tell you whats embarresing...
04/10/2011 02:08:02 AM
- 798 Views
That is hilarious.
04/10/2011 03:10:50 AM
- 689 Views
Goodness..
04/10/2011 03:20:30 AM
- 632 Views
Re:
04/10/2011 03:28:25 AM
- 664 Views
OK, you need to delete the "Re:" You're using it incorrectly
04/10/2011 01:55:53 PM
- 609 Views
Re: Also.
04/10/2011 02:08:15 PM
- 649 Views
you are still using it incorrectly. *NM*
04/10/2011 02:09:48 PM
- 596 Views
He's doing it on purpose though.
04/10/2011 03:31:39 PM
- 707 Views
Considering that "CaptainHammer" is LDS, I'd rather doubt he's gay.
04/10/2011 02:32:56 AM
- 599 Views
Re: Considering that "CaptainHammer" is LDS, I'd rather doubt he's gay.
04/10/2011 02:37:41 AM
- 621 Views
*sigh* to all of you above....
04/10/2011 03:06:21 AM
- 634 Views
Please explain why you think we should consider you Christians.
03/10/2011 04:33:06 PM
- 1105 Views
you know, that does make me wonder though
03/10/2011 04:58:21 PM
- 997 Views
We're not as immovable as we are sometimes portrayed.
03/10/2011 05:27:17 PM
- 975 Views
That concept is alien to the Christian theological understanding, however.
03/10/2011 10:18:55 PM
- 962 Views
I understand what both you and Danny are saying
04/10/2011 12:19:57 AM
- 915 Views
The absolute best part about your post (plus the best thing about Mo's/LDS's)
03/10/2011 09:02:17 PM
- 939 Views
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all mankind, and the only way back to God.
04/10/2011 01:29:30 AM
- 1030 Views
If you think the Book of Mormon was well-written, there is really little left to discuss.
04/10/2011 03:57:08 AM
- 1189 Views
Re: If you think the Book of Mormon was well-written, there is really little left to discuss.
04/10/2011 07:24:27 AM
- 1169 Views
Woah nelly.
04/10/2011 10:04:33 AM
- 982 Views
I have to "Wow" as well... racist much?
04/10/2011 01:52:48 PM
- 898 Views
Re: I have to "Wow" as well... racist much?
04/10/2011 04:42:47 PM
- 991 Views
oh well that makes it all better...
04/10/2011 04:54:14 PM
- 1014 Views
Yikes. Even for religion, that's more than a little crazy.
04/10/2011 03:47:56 PM
- 984 Views
I don't think there's much of a difference in crazy as opposed to other more mainstream religions.
04/10/2011 07:08:06 PM
- 962 Views
A difference exists if only in continued unabashed affirmation of a rather distasteful doctrine.
04/10/2011 11:06:51 PM
- 957 Views
Then why can't women be priests? Or enter the altar? The curse on Eve is very much in place. *NM*
05/10/2011 12:27:04 AM
- 524 Views
Right now I am not making an absolute statement but a relative one.
05/10/2011 08:37:50 PM
- 764 Views
Oh, you didn't know? Joe Smith said black people are cursed for following Satan.
05/10/2011 01:10:35 AM
- 931 Views
I guess this is a variation on Hams punishment; Ghav, at least should know better than to be shocked
04/10/2011 04:13:59 PM
- 879 Views
it's not that we're surprised because it's "novel"
04/10/2011 04:19:16 PM
- 927 Views
It is not NECESSARILY racist.
04/10/2011 04:39:33 PM
- 941 Views
Sure, except ...
04/10/2011 04:50:53 PM
- 965 Views
Well, the funny thing is Christian doctrine presupposes everyone, along with their ancestors...
04/10/2011 06:31:13 PM
- 831 Views
It it is nigh impossible to be a "non-Nicene Christian."
04/10/2011 03:12:06 PM
- 973 Views
I think we've had this discussion before.
06/10/2011 05:54:39 PM
- 958 Views
Arianism is a bad comparison for arguing LDS=Christian.
06/10/2011 11:45:36 PM
- 847 Views
Wikipedia confirms what I already thought: you're off base with the monophysitism.
07/10/2011 12:06:40 AM
- 1212 Views
I had not realized it was that late, but used it only as an example of multitudinous controversies.
07/10/2011 01:03:56 AM
- 1320 Views
Monophysites, miaphysites, monothelites, etc. certainly accept the consubstantiality of God/Christ
07/10/2011 11:58:05 AM
- 896 Views
Virtually everyone has a more sound Christology than Mormons.
07/10/2011 06:45:45 PM
- 958 Views
Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
08/10/2011 05:30:38 PM
- 974 Views
I can see that with the Monothelites (can see their appeal, in fact,) but not Monophysites.
07/10/2011 09:43:27 PM
- 871 Views
Tempting as it is to prove Joel wrong (since he so frequently is), I need to take issue with this.
07/10/2011 06:59:13 PM
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I was just saying there were competing views.
07/10/2011 07:49:26 PM
- 1330 Views
Oh, there were definitely competing views, just not competing Christian views.
07/10/2011 09:26:22 PM
- 853 Views
That sounds really nice.
04/10/2011 06:38:29 PM
- 917 Views
Why wait though?
05/10/2011 12:12:21 AM
- 1101 Views
So that Vivien can avoid reading and thinking about the stuff that you just wrote. *NM*
05/10/2011 12:28:23 AM
- 510 Views
I really want an answer from a mormon.
05/10/2011 08:48:49 PM
- 947 Views
Good luck with that; just because I can see no explanation save that I offered does not preclude one
06/10/2011 07:03:50 AM
- 892 Views
Yeah, that's what I thought.
06/10/2011 05:43:57 PM
- 843 Views
Oh no you idn't... *waves finger and weaves head*
04/10/2011 03:53:07 AM
- 767 Views
....i don't know what you look like
04/10/2011 03:54:56 AM
- 905 Views
Shoot, my Mick Jagger strut is way better than my angry hispanic girl head/finger bob and weave. *NM*
05/10/2011 04:58:53 AM
- 642 Views
Off-Topic
05/10/2011 01:14:16 AM
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Hmm
05/10/2011 02:03:13 AM
- 1052 Views
True
05/10/2011 02:13:00 AM
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I think of Protestantism in terms similar to a Xerox copy.
05/10/2011 04:57:42 AM
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Re: Off-Topic
05/10/2011 02:56:50 AM
- 1080 Views
Uhh...
05/10/2011 03:08:49 AM
- 899 Views
The people at the Nicene Council and the other councils were not prophets.
05/10/2011 04:59:50 AM
- 1007 Views
Danny is right, it is a pretty tough crowd, but better tough than weak and whitewashed.
04/10/2011 04:02:16 AM
- 918 Views