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To: Reaganesque

If you’re going to criticize, at least have a basic idea of what we actually believe.
***I was meeting with mormons 30 years ago. They drew the line at the divinity of Christ. Same thing happened 20 years ago, 10 years ago, and 2 years ago when some missionaries came to my door. I have no desire to go to the LDS website.

This is an important topic. I’m inclined to open a vanity thread on it, but, I have stayed away from religious threads for a decade. And this topic has all the potential to spiral down into a religious thread. I see it blasted all over evangelical christendom that mormonism is a cult.

So how do we resolve this? What is the accepted common ground from both sides of this debate? For instance, I cannot accept anything developed from the book of mormon, because it does not have archaeological support.

Here are a few hits from the church I go to, and one hit that included Stedman & seemed suitable as a place to start.

http://www.basicchristian.net/downloads/BasicChristian.pdf

http://www.pbc.org/library/files/html/WAEF_06.html
Then there was Rose, a lovely young woman of Mormon back-ground, even related to some branch of the Brigham Young family. She found the joy and liberty of knowing Christ, and as a young Christian a few months old in the faith stood up against the local Mormon bishop with the testimony of a new life in Christ, standing on the Word of God. She confuted his attack so well that he got mad and said, “Stop quoting the Bible to me. That’s a dead book”’ She was ultimately accorded the honor of suffering for Christ’s sake by being excommunicated from the Mormon church. All this she experienced as a young believer-—and facing the hurt of not being understood by family and friends.

http://www.pbc.org/library/files/html/0171.html
How different the Bible is, for instance, from the Book of Mormon. Here is another book that claims to be history. It claims to record historical evidence of a pre-American race that once lived on these continents. But every archaeological excavation in the Americas denies flatly the Book of Mormon. If you walk through these lands you can see that the civilizations that are being dug up by the archaeologists’ spade are completely and entirely different from that recorded in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon mentions, for instance, the existence of cattle, sheep, camels, horses, and elephants, yet every archaeological excavation confirms the fact that not one of these animals were known on the American continent in the days of the Mayan, Incan and Aztec empires.

The Book of Mormon speaks of wars that were fought with metal weapons of brass, iron and steel. but not one of these metals were employed as weapons of war in the Americas. The Book of Mormon speaks of chariots with wheels but they didn’t even know the use of the wheel in the American continent except for toys for children, but they had no wheeled carriages and no wheeled vehicles of any kind. Everywhere you look there is a denial, from the evidence of the earth itself of these strange and spurious claims of the Book of Mormon.

http://www.pbc.org/library/files/html/3775.html

Another widespread myth in our day, one that is winning increasing status on every side, is the doctrines of Mormonism. Mormonism is based upon foolish myths about early American history that do not have a semblance, a shred of evidence from archaeology, to support them. Archaeologists have tried to find any evidence whatsoever for the strange story the Book of Mormon tells, about an early American civilization that flourished here before Columbus came. They can find nothing that confirms it in any degree. Instead, everything they find is absolutely contrary to the picture drawn in the Book of Mormon. But how many believe this nonsense, and how widely it is being accepted and even gaining a position of prominence among us! I am not talking about Mormons. Many of them are wonderful, dear people. Merely because people are lost is no sign they are worthless. Mormons are often marvelous people, but their teachings are in error. We ought to understand that and not give ourselves to godless and silly myths.


42 posted on 10/18/2007 6:00:52 PM PDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq— via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.))
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To: Kevmo

47 posted on 10/18/2007 7:27:20 PM PDT by TheDon (The DemocRAT party is the party of TREASON! Overthrow the terrorist's congress!)
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To: Kevmo
For instance, I cannot accept anything developed from the book of mormon, because it does not have archaeological support.

A little something to help you out on that score:
Newly Found Altars from Nahom

Of course, I wouldn't recommend archaeological evidence as a guide as to the authenticity of the Bible or the Book of Mormon, but rather a witness from God.

48 posted on 10/18/2007 7:44:00 PM PDT by TheDon (The DemocRAT party is the party of TREASON! Overthrow the terrorist's congress!)
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To: Kevmo

Kevmo, you have asked how we can resolve this. You might start by acknowledging that you were in error about your claim about Romney that “He seems to have trouble with the Deity of Christ”. I have seen no factual support for that assertion. Earlier I posted the excerpt from the title page to the Book of Mormon stating that its purpose is “to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God”. The Book of Mormon was first published in 1830 and is binding and authoritative scripture for a believing Latter-day Saint. Its pages are filled with references to the deity of Christ. As a Mormon missionary, and later a lay leader within the Mormon Church, Mitt Romney would have spent serious time studying the Book of Mormon’s doctrinal teachings on the deity of Christ—and he would have personally taught those doctrines. It is inconceivable that he would “have trouble with the Deity of Christ”. Please enlighten us if you have evidence otherwise.


49 posted on 10/18/2007 9:00:48 PM PDT by Safford
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To: Kevmo

Well, you could get into a religious argument over it.

Or you could just admit that you were wrong when you claimed that if Romney stood in a Mormon “church” and said he believed Jesus was God, he’d be “excommunicated”.

If you then want to argue that you would never vote for a person who wasn’t a Christian as you believe that term, that’s fine, but you should refrain from telling other people what OTHER other people believe when you don’t understand their belief, or know them.

I’m fine with you arguing that the Mormon faith is not Christian. I’ve seen people argue that Catholic Church is not Christian.

But that doesn’t mean that individuals in the Catholic Church, or the Mormon Church, could not have experienced the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ, even if they still cling to what most people would consider invalid theological beliefs.

Nothing in the Bible guarantees that once you are saved, you will have perfect knowledge in this life.


89 posted on 10/23/2007 9:29:03 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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