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Does the holy spirit manifest itself to someone in different ways for the truthfullness of this church? I was watching The Work and the Glory yesterday and I cried throughout most of the movie. I actually found myself believing in Joseph Smith again. Here it is almost 24 hours later and I still find myself believing. What does this all mean for me?

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I would imagine the Holy Spirit will use "whatever it takes" (movies, books, songs) to open your heart and "bring you Home".

"The Work and Glory" books and movies started me on my investigation of the Church. I'm not a member yet, (because I have a male housemate and that's against the rules, even tho we're just friends and both seniors), but I LOVE the Church and I truly believe that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet and the Restoration is an amazing Gift to this world.

I am SO grateful that the Holy Spirit uses everything and ANYthing that will bring us closer to God. Miracles are ALL around us EVERY moment!!!

God Bless!

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I think because God knows us each individually and intimately, He will send custom fit answers for us. I had a friend tell me once that he received an answer in a dream about basketball -- a language he could really understand. Sometimes I think He gives one big answer and others lots of little confirmations. It is my experience that even though it has been many years since my "big" answer on the JSmith question, that little confirmations still come to me. And they come during hymns and talks and movies and personal study. Some are thoughts....others are feelings.....and even some are ideas I never thought of before.

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I felt the spirit once... when I was watching Lord Of The Rings. Was it true ?

Sometimes the Spirit will confirm truths that come from interesting sources. I've felt the Spirit while watching The Lion King, and it didn't cause me to have a Testimony in the truthfulness of Mufasa. What it was Testifying to me was the truth being spoken by Mufasa when he was speaking to Simba. "You have forgotten me, and so have forgotten who you are. You are more than what you have become," It was Witnessed to me at that time that I had "forgotten" my identity as a daughter of God, and as such was far below the potential my Father in Heaven knew I could reach. The Spirit was urging me to remember who I was, and become "more".

The Lord works in mysterious ways. :) There are no limits on when, where, or how He will reveal His Truth to us.

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Does the holy spirit manifest itself to someone in different ways for the truthfullness of this church? I was watching The Work and the Glory yesterday and I cried throughout most of the movie. I actually found myself believing in Joseph Smith again. Here it is almost 24 hours later and I still find myself believing. What does this all mean for me?

Hi there, Sometimes we do get a strong kick up the backside when we least expect it from the Holy Ghost, Look what its done to you. Bet when you sat down and got all comfy you wasn't expecting to get a visit, and you have now recieved a testimony as to Josephs Authenticity, congratulations, thats great, hang onto it.

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A favorite time for me to feel the Spirit is when I'm reading the Scriptures.

As I said in a thread a few months ago, I prayed and asked the Holy Ghost for the confirmation again that the BoM was true, and the next day an antimormon relative called and chewed me out calling me a Satanist, neo-nazi, etc. telling me I'm going to Hell. During that time the Spirit spoke comfort to my heart and let me know that the person yelling at me was miserable and was the way she was because she didn't have the Spirit. I suddenly had the Spirit's witness and a deep feeling of comfort and appreciation for what I have. So, the Spirit can truly use a variety of things to give us the confirmation we pray for.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Does the holy spirit manifest itself to someone in different ways for the truthfullness of this church? I was watching The Work and the Glory yesterday and I cried throughout most of the movie. I actually found myself believing in Joseph Smith again. Here it is almost 24 hours later and I still find myself believing. What does this all mean for me?

I believe that movie is the trilogy that came out some time ago depicting the early Mormons. I have only seen the second film in the series. As I recall, that was an emotional movie. It is normal to cry during emotional movies but that does not necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit was speaking to you. You know that the Holy Spirit is not speaking to you, if what you are hearing contradicts the Bible. In the Articles of the Faith, the Bible is affirmed to be the word of God only insofar as it has been correctly translated. Apparently, 'correctly translated' includes the meaning 'correctly transcribed.'

Now, through textual criticism we may (actually, the scholars have done it for us) reconstruct more or less what the original Bible said. Those parts that are open to debate do not affect important doctrines at all. Now, if I were a Mormon and I saw something in the KJV that contradicted what I believe as a Mormon (the uniquely Mormon beliefs, I mean) then I would suppose that that was something which was incorrectly translated or incorrectly transcribed. I would say that it was a plain and precious truth removed from Scripture.

Because of textual criticism, however, it seems to me, I would be unjustified in such a claim. In other words, I myself would say that it is possible to know what the original Bible said and to compare it with LDS theology. Though there is a strong sense of the compatability of the Bible and the other standard works within LDS circles (and, of course, there is copius quotation of the Bible in them), it is very difficult for me, as an evangelical, to see how this claim is tenable. At least if the Bible is taken as fully reliable (and a text critical Bible is fully reliable) and all of the verses are taken in context. If I am correct, in my views, and it could be that I am mistaken, then we may say that the Holy Spirit was not telling you to rejoin the Mormon Church.

You may wish to read the book of Romans in the Bible. The first 12 chapters, or so, spell out the gospel as it was believed in the first century Church. As I interpret it, the gospel is by grace alone (though the meaning of this phrase throughout Protestant history seems to be misunderstood by Mormons). In any case, according to my understanding, the gospel as explained in Romans is very different from the gospel that the LDS claim was the original one. We want to make sure we get the gospel right because Paul pronounced a curse on the proclaimers and/or followers of a false gospel.

By the way, when James says "faith without works is dead" he was not contradicting Romans. Faith alone saves us, according to my view, but not faith that is alone. We believe, I would say, and are saved so it is not 'after all we can do.' God makes us good, as I understand James, while we have saving faith. If we don't have the works, we don't have the faith. Thus our faith is dead. But this is very different from saying that our works in any way contribute to our salvation.

At any rate, this may be food for your thought. If you do not have a Bible of your own, and you wish to read Romans, you may find a King James version at "lds.org". The KJV is not a text critical Bible but it is close enough to one (as I said before, textual variants do not significantly effect doctrine). If you have any questions for me personally (perhaps to clarify something I have said here) then I suggest you send me a private message. It is not that I desire to have a clandestine conversation with you, or anything like that. Rather, I simply may not check back here again if I do not hear from you. I try to post to many different threads and it is hard to keep track of them. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I wish no ill will to any individual Mormon, or to Mormons as a collective group. I am merely showing you, here, the Scripture as I understand it. I think it is a sound interpretation too. Goodbye for now.

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