Figuring out blog stuff

I'm trying to figure out how to expand and collapse this blog so it's easier for you to select which posts you want to read... so things may look a bit funny for this evening. Don't get freaked out! :)

Creating a Blogroll

How about I create a "blogroll" in the sidebar for links to your blogs, myspaces, websites, etc.? Even if you're not really commenting on the blog in general but still want people to see your site, submit your links in the comments here and I'll create the list! :)

Losing their faith in college

I came across an article that discusses how many students, when they go on to college, end up giving up their faith in college. I'm thinking this is sooooo important for anyone who is in our youth group (or any youth group for that matter) to read.

If you have the email of any of the seniors that are going off to college, let them know about this. They need to know this. And I'd like them to know that when they encounter the storm, they can always contact us, any of the people at Cornerstone, and we'll help them! If we can't answer your questions, let me know and I promise I'll do my best to find someone who can! I do have a list of some very smart Christian professors that can help be a refuge for students in a storm. The difficulty is that at some universities, Christian professors are harder to find simply because, truth be told, some university departments are more "hostile" to Christianity than others... and some universities as a whole are less Christian-friendly than others. So at a university it's possible that only 5-10% of the professors to be strong Christians (as opposed to Christian by name only), but at other universities you might find 20% to be strong Christians.

After reading this graph, hopefully you'll see why I'm so passionate about helping others strengthening their minds. If it's hard to read the graph, you can click on the title of this blog entry or click here and it'll take you to the article where I got this graph.

Also do keep in mind that these statistics may not be wholly accurate... there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes when statistics are calculated. There's a popular phrase among staticians: "There are three types of lies: lies, d*** lies, and statistics." (I omitted the d-word. I don't consider it a cuss word, but others might.)

So here's the question: why do you think so many students lose their faith in college?... or even in high school?

Discussing Mormonism: How would you reply?

Here's a question I have for everyone...

When confronted with significant evidence opposing Mormonism, or when they don't know what else to say, Mormons will often say, "I believe the Book of Mormon is true because I prayed about it and received a peace about it." Then they would often urge me or even ask me to promise to pray and ask God if the Book of Mormon ("BoM") is true. They will tell and re-tell their "testimony" about how much they believe the BoM is true. How would you respond to that?

Side note: From what I understand, the BoM isn't even really central to their religious practices--the Doctrine and Covenants ("D&C") is more central because it lists the do's and don't's. However, the D&C has a lot of things in it that are very problematic so they don't pass out D&C's. You can find it online though.


A Greater Understanding for the Word "Lord"

I hope to make this post a bit short, but I mentioned in one of my recent comments that I would explain how the Romans 10:8-13 verses show that Jesus is the same God of the Old Testament. But before doing that, we have to understand a couple things about the word, "Lord".

I hope you find this interesting... it's a VERY useful piece of information when talking with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other claim-to-be-Christian-but-not-really-Christian groups. And please please please, if there is anything confusing about what I write, please ask! Write it in the comments or email me. If you want to skip the detailed stuff, just go to the last sentence of this entry.

The name of God that Moses received from God was YHWH (that's what most English-speaking scholars will use in place of the Hebrew letters, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey), for "I AM". Why no vowels? Because the Jews strongly believe that the name of God is so holy that it ought not be spoken, so to do this, they have no vowels. Also, historically, no vowels were written when writing and copying the scriptures. (The vowels generally are a series of dots and lines underneath the consonants. None of the Hebrew "letters" are vowels.)

So, the name God gave to Moses in Hebrew was YHWH. Instead of saying this word in prayer, the Jews would replace it with the word, "Adonai" which means LORD. In conversation, they may use the word Ha'Shem which also means LORD.

How about the New Testament, then? It was written in Greek, not Hebrew. The Greek word for Lord is Kurios/Kurion/Kuriou, depending on how it's used in a sentence. So when people said "Lord" at that time period, we have good reason to believe this: most likely people were saying "Adonai" or "Ha'Shem" and the New Testament writers translated that as "Kurio_"

How did the words "Yahweh" and "Jehovah" come about? Are they the same thing? Yes, they are the same word originating from YHWH. You can see how "Yahweh" came from YHWH.

How did "Jehovah" come about? In Old English, etc., the "J" was pronounced like a "Y" ("yuh") and the "V" was pronounced like a "W" (From what I remember). So that's how they got the consonants JHVH. It is believed the vowels came from "Adonai". So from that we get Jahovaih. With enough centuries passing by, that's how we eventually got "Jehovah".

So now with that big language lesson there, we can see that the words used for God's name can be written as YHWH, Adonai, Ha'Shem, Yahweh, Jehovah, Lord, I AM, and ego eimi (Greek for "I am").

Kyle's Post on Mormonism

I thought Kyle's post on Mormonism was very good and he said I can post it as a blog entry. So now since we're all back, we can discuss this in more detail if you'd like. There are a couple things I'll add in the comments section of this entry.
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Berry suggested I put this on here... we should start a post about this subject: Christianity vs. Mormonism
I sent this reply to someone asking the difference between Christianity and Mormonism and is thinking of converting from the former to the latter. Enjoy.

Oooh... well, the Mormon religion is, at face value, Christianity. However, strong Cristians everywhere, including myself, see obvious major differences between the two. Even Mormons claim to be Christians when they really are not... Here's why:

Both Christians and Mormons believe the Holy Bible to be the inspired word of God, both Old and New Testaments. They both believe a man named "Jesus" came down to earth to die on the cross and save people from sin. They also believe that doing good deeds and not sinning is central to faith. From there, similarities start to fade.

Christians believe that Jesus is one with God. There's something called the trinity... (I'm sure you've heard of some of this, so just bear with me. =P) God is of three parts, yet all in one: The Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit. Mormonism teaches that these three are separate beings and that Jesus is a separate God from God the Father. I believe this directly contradicts The Bible because in 1 Timothy 2, The Bible says "5 For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus." [NLT]. This kinda brings me to my next point.

There is only one Bible, but there are many translations of it. The Bible was written in several languages including Greek and Hebrew. If you ask anyone who speaks Hebrew, they will tell you that it translations from it into English vary. For example, one hebrew word can translate into land, continent, or planet. It's broad, but the general meanings of the words are kept. Despite this fact, Mormons claim the only "legitimate" translation of The Bible is the King James Version. This is because it was the first officially canonized english translation of the Catholic church in the 1600s and it was the translation Joseph Smith, the founder of the religion, studied. There is, however, no reason to believe any other standard translation is flawed. I prefer the New Living Translation, and my church uses The Message or the New International Version. In fact, many copies of The Bible have been printed with two or three translations side by side so one can gather a better understanding of the original meaning of the scripture.

Speaking of scripture, the Latter Day Saints have many other doctrines besides The Bible. The most notable is The Book of Mormon. This volume tells that Jesus came back to earth, more specifically the americas, and preached the same messages he did in the middle east to the native americans. There are several things, though, that make The Book of Mormon suspicious.

1) The Bible was written by over 60 different people over the course of hundreds of years. God did not give his word directly to the authors, but the authors had a strong relationship with God, and they based their writings off of that. To show that God did, in fact, inspire all of these authors, there are no major inconsistancies within The Bible, both New and Old testament. On the contrary, The Book of Mormon was presented on gold tablets by the angel Nephi to Joseph Smith while he was praying. It was writtin in Egyptian symbols. Joseph translated the entire scripture and published the book. Strangely, the tablets have not been seen by anyone but Smith - ever. The Bible can be found on 1st through 3rd copies of the originals, if not the originals themselves.

2) Entire chapters of The Book of Mormon appear to be copied directly out of the KJV of The Bible. I stumbled upon this randomly... luck, I guess. =P Take a look at Matthew Ch. 7 and 3 Nephi Ch. 14. [Both links are to scripture on the LDS.org website for consistancy.] Almost every verse is word for word exactly the same. The question I asked is this: How can a book that was buried in 21 A.D. [BoM] have the exact same dialect as a translation that was made in the 1600s A.D.? The answer I've always recieved was, "Jesus taught the same things in both The Bible and in the Book of Mormon." However, the chances of that occurring, especially when the two scriptures are being translated by two different people/groups of people from different time periods and from two very different original languages, are virtually impossible. There were also several major changes made to the BoM after its initial publication. I'm not sure of the exact details on these changes, but changing "holy word" seems a bit strange, especially since "Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)

3) The Book of Mormon has things that contradict The Bible directly. For example, The Bible consistantly says that Jesus was born in Bethlahem, whilein the BoM says he was born in Jerusalem (Alma 7:10). Other beliefs (to which I don't know the references to right now) contradict what Jesus taught. One being baptism of the dead. Mormons believe that if they baptize (in a way, I'm not sure how) a dead non-Mormon, they can have a second chance at believing in the religion before they enter heaven. (The Heavens are different too, btw. I'll save that for another time. =P) This belief defeats the purpose of beliving in a particular religion while on earth in the first place. I thought about the idea for a while, then came to this conclusion. If I die and, being a Christian, come before Heaven and am told that Mormonism is the way, there's no way I'm not going to believe it. It's obvious at that point! In theory, everyone who has died, regardless of religion, will choose to go to the Mormon heaven. It makes no sense.

This is getting kinda long since I'm spilling everything I know about everything... =P I'll say this last part. ;]

Jesus taught that the only way to get to heaven is through [belief in] him. A story was told where a man died and came before the judgement seat. He had done many charitable deeds, but he didn't truly believe in Jesus. God told him to leave his sight - he never knew him. The Mormons believe that doing good works and not sinning is central to going to heaven. This is simply not the case. They are basing that belief on the scripture that says "Faith without works is dead." The literal meaning of this verse contradicts everything else Jesus said about going to Heaven. The underlaying meaning, though, is that ones faith is not evident to others if one doesn't peform good deeds in the name of the Lord. One of our purposes on earth is to share our faith in God to others. "Spread the good news to all nations." Thus, that meaning fits. Mormons will tell you that the non-literal implication of that verse is simply wrong. They have no justification for it.