curtishouse

I just placed an order over at amazon.com to get a quadruple book with the Bible, BofM, D&C, and POGP. After I placed the order, I looked down and they show you all the books you might be interested in. Almost every single one of them was a knock against the LDS church such as "Mormonism Explained" which I have already created a thread about, "Out of Mormonism: A true woman's story", the infamous "God Makers", "Mormonism Unmasked", and a book called "Why would anyone join the Mormon church" which I am unfamiliar with. Of course, at the top, it says amazon.com thanks you...Are they trying to be funny? LOL I guess there's a lot more money in trying to defame the church rather than explain it.

The good days definitely never existed for the LDS church. I find it ironic that one of the main reasons they settled in America was to avoid religious persecution and it wasn't long after that they were doing the exact same thing that they demonized England for before they left.

Can't let intellectual honesty get in the way of a good bashing with Shawn. What I find remarkable are the "problems" found in the Book of Mormon are also prevalent in the Bible. When you point this out, I've discovered that many I've encountered wonder why you have to "change the subject" and start "mocking the Word of God." What would this world be without irony?

Awesome passage! It makes so much sense when you read it from the LDS position. :)

It isn't in so much that you must be a certain sect to be saved. It all comes down to your doctrine. Some say that there are those saved in denominations they do not agree with but, the only way that is possible is if they disagree with the doctrines of their current church and align themselves in thought with the denomination that feels all practicing members of that faith are going to Hell. For example let's say somebody attends a church of Christ but they do not agree that works (on top of faith) are necessary for salvation. They only believe that faith alone saves. From a baptist point of view, that person would be saved (and thus be a TRUE Christian in their eyes) in the midst of all those others who are "destined for Hell" unless they changed their viewpoint to that of Baptist beliefs as well.

Thank you both for your quick responses. A translation issue definitely does make a lot of sense as the gold plates were being translated from reformed Egyptian into Joseph Smith's current dialect. Just calling them "books" would do a grave disservice to the Bible I believe and I can't think of another word that would come as close to describe the Bible than the word used. Another question though? Are all writings from the Bible coming from Jewish authors? I'm aware that everything in the OT is but what about the writings from the NT?

I just saw a passage through one of my Mormon groups on FaceBook and they mentioned this verse. It confused me though. When was the Second Book of Nephi originally written? I know the term "Bible" couldn't even have come about until the 300s AD since that is when the Bible was canonized after all. Let's just get to the Scripture and maybe someone can help me understand it a bit more. Thanks! "And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible." - 2Nephi 29:3

I'm not here to debate and its up to you what you believe. It's interesting to note in that wiki article (which isn't a solid source imo), even it admits that it has never been observed in nature. You can continue to believe that were here from a "blind watchmaker" (as I would surmise from posting that link) but I KNOW that we come from a creator who loves us and his love is written on the hearts of all who believe.

That's wonderful! I'm meeting with missionaries later this week and hope to be baptized very soon as well! Good to have you here. God bless. Curtis

I believe that evolution is true based solely on scientific fact and I do feel that it fits perfectly in with our faith as well. Our spirits were around long before creation and have actually been around longer than time itself. What helped me realize that quite a while ago is that anything that has a beginning has an end. Our souls do not have an end and so they couldn't have had a beginning either. It doesn't matter to me if God created our earthly bodies in one second, six days, or 4.5 billion years. My feeling on it is this. In Genesis, there was an immense amount of time that accounted for evolution. Once we progressed into the image of God, then God turned our bodies into living souls. Just a little theory that makes sense to me.

I'm guessing that's more of a hypothetical question rather than one seeking an answer. I'm gonna answer it anyway though. It seems to be more natural to focus on the negatives in our lives instead of the tremendous blessings we all possess. I'm not sure that's why. Maybe it's what happens when one focuses on themselves instead of on the Heavenly Father and others around us. I like your optimism! God bless. Curtis

Glad to have you here. I'm in the process of becoming a member myself even though I'm VERY far removed from a minor LOL I should be contacted by the missionaries sometime this week. I hope you enjoy your visits here and there are a lot of wonderful people here! God bless! Curtis

Not to my knowledge but now you really don't even need Netflix. If you have On Demand or whatever on your cable system, you usually can rent the videos that come out the same day they're supposed to hit video stores. I'm just wondering when the hammer is gonna drop on movie theatres.

I take anti-depressants. They are definitely a blessing. A big reason I take them is because depression is a side effect from my Epilepsy medication but I also have struggled with depression long before I started taking my Epilepsy pills. Maybe someday I'll be happy enough to be able to function without them. Only God can make that happen I think. :)

Actually the Catholic church accepts baptisms as long as its "In the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Ghost." All you have to do is show proof of the baptism (usually through a certificate from your previous church) and they consider it valid. I've never heard of a Christian church that believes that members of the LDS church are "truly Christian." It always comes down to the fact in our differences regarding the Trinity. If you have heard of a church that feels that way, I would love to hear what denomination you are referring to.

I guess it all just comes down to the secular definition of an elder. You think of the adage that we are supposed to show respect to our elders. I've just never thought of an elder as a young kid who is close to 15 years my junior. A good example of this, though, is Timothy in the Bible. He was a young kid as well but he knew his stuff like no other and I believe it was Paul that wrote the letter and had a discussion pretty much like this one. Even though he is young, don't treat him any different. When they show up, I will be listening with an open heart even though I'm on board with the faith already. I sent in my request last night and I am supposed to hear from them in the next few days according to mormon.org.

Faith is always a struggle especially when there are so many haters out there. I have searched through all sects of Christianity from the Catholic church to the Baptist to non-denominational and all areas in between. No church has the fullness of the Gospel like the LDS church. When you have doubts, there is nothing to worry about. Just do not let the doubts consume you. It all comes down to this. Either the Book of Mormon is true and the LDS church is the restored faith of Jesus Christ or it isn't true and were following a false gospel. I suggest for you to read the Book of Mormon daily. It's amazing how doubts creep in when you don't read the Word of God on a daily basis. Read, pray, make sure you have removed all sin from your life and pray and read some more :) Your faith will be built up. I can guarantee that from personal experience.

I was just about to put in a request for missionaries to contact me from over at mormon.org and just a pretty insignificant question entered my mind but still wanted to know if anybody could shed some light on it. Why are some Elders so young? It would seem that Elders would be in their latter years but over at the missionaries page, one of the missionaries pictured says Elder so and so on his name tag and he can't be more than 23. Thoughts? Also I will keep all of you updated on how my meetings with the missionaries go this week as well. God bless. Curtis

Within the first few pages, he also felt the need to resort to ad hominem attacks saying that members of the LDS faith have a "persecution complex" and that missionaries and leaders of the church aren't biblically and theologically sound. I'm just glad I checked this book out instead of buying it. From now on, I think I'll just stick to books that are approved by the church. I know I shouldn't be getting upset about a book but seeing such falsehoods, insulting the church, and denying the visions of Joseph Smith really get to me from someone who is supposed to be "explaining Mormonism"...

I bet he didn't make any friends with Joseph, Moses, Joshua or any other prophet found in the Bible.

I just went to the library and checked out this book called Mormonism Explained by Andrew Jackson. I've only been through the first ten pages or so and he stated at the beginning that he was writing this book to "explain" Mormonism instead of refuting it but that is just an all-out lie. Then he started speaking about Joseph Smith and his visions with a biased lean of course. I noticed that he had plenty of footnotes so I decided to check one out assuming it would be sources as most footnotes lead towards. To my surprise, it was just speculation such as this "gem"...Footnote 17 from page 19..."Joseph Smith Sr. probably had a strong influence on Joseph Smith Jr., since it is recorded that he had numerous visions before and after Joseph Smith Jr.'s First Vision experience." Has anybody else read this book? If so, what is your take on it?

Sweet! Thanks for that clickey! LOL

I was wondering myself which LDS online store they were referring to.

It's amazing how much atheists love to learn about and try their hardest to disprove those that believe in God. It's almost like they're trying to convince themselves...That couldn't be it, could it?

When it came to the thorn in the flesh, I was biased and thought he had Epilepsy because I do as well. I guess we can just all identify with Paul because we all have our own.