Third Hour Posted October 29, 2018 Report Share Posted October 29, 2018 I recently conducted an little experiment. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we're often challenged by other Christians with the question: How do you know The Book of Mormon is true? In my head I sometimes turn the question around: How do you know the Bible is true? Of course, Latter-day Saints believe the Bible is true, but curious about what the average Christian answer might be, I Googled the question. The results (the literal results) were surprising, to say the least. Here are screenshots of the first two pages of results (the purple links are ones I clicked on): The Google results What was surprising There's obviously no shortage of websites willing to give their two cents on the issue. Most of them attempt to show the Bible is true because of the following: The Bible is true because there's lots of archaeological evidence in favor of its historicity. The Bible is true because such an ancient text wouldn't have survived this long otherwise. Before the Bible... View the full article jerome1232 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted October 29, 2018 Report Share Posted October 29, 2018 Great column, @dsnell. Except for the reference to Big. Perverse movie, worthy of being forever forgotten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinwater Posted October 30, 2018 Report Share Posted October 30, 2018 This is a topic of great interest to me, of late. i just finished a biography on Paul of Tarsus by NT Wright. Very interesting listen. Highly recommend. i'm becoming more and more convinced that our religious texts are not unlike the people in religions, or even religions themselves. Imperfect but very powerful tools. And that the tools are *very* easy to misuse. That when we superimpose our modern sensibilities upon words whose meaning has been largely obfuscated by differences in culture and context - and then fed through the translation meat grinder a few times - that maybe we need to be a little more humble in the way we decide what was meant. i don't know that i can look at the bible in a binary true/false way any more. The whole thing came from dozens of difference sources. And those sources were just as confused about how they got their revelation as we are about how we get ours. That there are a lot of theological disagreements running through the text because different people who disagreed with one another wrote different parts - and that we are still confused now, because there wasn't consensus then. Many of the books, we still aren't sure even who wrote them. There is pretty wide consensus from what i've seen that at least some of the letters attributed to Paul (the one we know) - weren't actually written by him. And then it was a rather conflicted group of bickering churchmen that decided which ones should or should not be included in our popular canon. Anyone who struggles with the blood-soaked passages of the OT, i'd highly recommend going through a lot of the history of the books themselves. Lots of difference sources - take no single person's interpretation as fact. It's helped me a lot. i can view the things that just seared my conscience in a much more compassionate light - and see that God was still having to work through some amazing but still deeply flawed people thousands of years ago - just as He has to today. And that many of those flaws made it into the Bible Yes, this is all just my opinion - and of no more worth than any of the other 7 billion plus opinions floating around. Maureen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrShorty Posted October 30, 2018 Report Share Posted October 30, 2018 I am reminded of those occasions on Christian radio where I have heard the "search , ponder, and pray" approach suggested. I don't think it is terribly common in Protestant/Christian circles, but I have heard it suggested occasionally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
person0 Posted October 30, 2018 Report Share Posted October 30, 2018 3 hours ago, Vort said: Except for the reference to Big. I did not notice the reference, is it possible he removed it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted October 30, 2018 Report Share Posted October 30, 2018 5 minutes ago, person0 said: I did not notice the reference, is it possible he removed it? No, it's still there. It's a reference to Zoltar and a link to a Youtube video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 30, 2018 Report Share Posted October 30, 2018 I don't know. I certainly have a testimony that pizza ranks right on up there with kim chee as the food of the gods. And I don't care what Vort says. Pineapple DOES belong on pizzas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
person0 Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 (edited) 13 hours ago, Carborendum said: Pineapple DOES belong on pizzas. Edited October 31, 2018 by person0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 14 hours ago, Carborendum said: And I don't care what Vort says. Pineapple DOES belong on pizzas. Hey, Vort's firmly in your corner on this issue. I acknowledge that pizza has lots of Carbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Scott Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 (edited) Quote As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we're often challenged by other Christians with the question: How do you know The Book of Mormon is true? Quote The results (the literal results) were surprising, to say the least. Along the same lines, I find it more surprising to see the non-LDS answers to the questions "should you pray about the Book of Mormon?". https://www.google.com/search?q=should+you+pray+about+the+book+of+mormon&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&oq=should+you+pray+about+the+book&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j33.9675j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Almost all (maybe even all; I haven't read every source) non-LDS sources say that the answer is no. When I first read that, I was a bit surprised. I thought at least some of them would say that you should pray about it. Edited October 31, 2018 by Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 9 hours ago, Scott said: Along the same lines, I find it more surprising to see the non-LDS answers to the questions "should you pray about the Book of Mormon?". https://www.google.com/search?q=should+you+pray+about+the+book+of+mormon&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&oq=should+you+pray+about+the+book&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j33.9675j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Almost all (maybe even all; I haven't read every source) non-LDS sources say that the answer is no. When I first read that, I was a bit surprised. I thought at least some of them would say that you should pray about it. I've had two people in my life tell me they had read and prayed about it. One felt nothing. The other said he got a "no" answer. I gave them both the 5-question quiz. They couldn't even answer a single question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2018 Report Share Posted October 31, 2018 11 hours ago, person0 said: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
person0 Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 13 hours ago, Carborendum said: I remember showing my dad this bit, then he showed my uncle. I was cracking up the whole time, my dad chuckled a little, and my uncle didn't like it. Clearly he was offended; can't please everyone I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsnell Posted November 1, 2018 Report Share Posted November 1, 2018 On 10/29/2018 at 5:51 PM, Vort said: Great column, @dsnell. Except for the reference to Big. Perverse movie, worthy of being forever forgotten. @Vort , fair criticism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connie Posted November 2, 2018 Report Share Posted November 2, 2018 On 10/31/2018 at 6:14 AM, Carborendum said: I've had two people in my life tell me they had read and prayed about it. One felt nothing. The other said he got a "no" answer. I gave them both the 5-question quiz. They couldn't even answer a single question. What's the 5-question quiz? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 2, 2018 Report Share Posted November 2, 2018 3 hours ago, Connie said: What's the 5-question quiz? https://thirdhour.org/forums/topic/62265-non-mormons-and-the-book-of-mormon/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil Posted November 2, 2018 Report Share Posted November 2, 2018 4 hours ago, Connie said: What's the 5-question quiz? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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