Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. --Matthew 5:15-16

Sunday, August 13, 2006

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.

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9 Comments:

Blogger Heather R. said...

Side note: On three separate occasions I did pray and ask God if the BoM is true (because the Mormon Missionaries asked me to. So I asked them if they want me to pray, could they also ask God who He is and whether the Mormon claims were true) and I got no "feeling" or response whatsoever.

On the other hand, I also prayed to God to help me understand who He was better, and about 30 minutes later a serious revelation hit me: Jesus was actually God and that understanding Jesus better helped me understand God better--something I never realized until then. I realized I had been focusing too much on Jesus' humanity and not enough on Jesus' deity. Quite an interesting contrast between both prayers!

8/13/2006 11:12 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great post!

8/14/2006 10:53 PM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

wow. yeah, idk how id respond....id agree with Daniel [CornerStone Ninja]. and btw, the "great post!" comment was me testing and trying to help Daniel figure out how to post w/o being a member.

8/15/2006 6:52 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

Hey! :) Glad to see you all on here! I was out of town for a couple days, but now I'm back.

Just an FYI, you don't have to be a member in order to post (that's why I changed the settings to the "choose an identity: blogger, other, anonymous" options... trying to reduce this to as few hoops to jump through as possible while preventing spam as much as possible.

And welcome Ms. Brittaney~Effect (Oh great fluttery influential one!) and Samurai Ninja (Stealth incognito master!)

8/16/2006 2:01 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

Hey GF, yes, thank you for letting me know. I will write to him and let him know this is Cornerstone Youth Group only.

Please, for everyone else that might read this blog, this blog is intended as a discussion group for our youth group and leaders only. If you wish, you may discuss any issues with me privately via email at illuminatelv AT yahoo DOT com. All Non-Cornerstone posts will be deleted. (This is also why I need to know all the identities of participants of this blog... which, at this current time, I do. Thank you all!)

Thank you for your understanding.

8/16/2006 2:21 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

Hey Kyle, thanks for asking. There are many, many reasons why it was decided for this blog to start off as something for Cornerstone Youth only. I'll just mention a few of those reasons...

*there are plenty of places on the web where people can debate people from other belief systems & religions, but hardly any forums for just Christian youth to discuss and learn about different issues; this forum is intended to discuss, not debate.
*Many public and well-publicized Christian forums tend to have harassers--some have been taken over by harassers.
*I don't really want to come to a point of wondering "is this person really interested in having a productive discussion or are they really aiming to create problems?"
*In having a Christian-only forum, we can skip over some of the basics and get to more meaty stuff. In discussing with people from other religions, often you have to get back to defining words, some play a semantics-game (which is very easy trap to fall into--I have), and people will create "rabbit trails" (also known as "red herrings"), etc. Also there are others who love to argue for the sake of the false "win", but learn nothing substantial from it--thus they really win nothing.
*Lastly, when people get into debates, it's easy for insults (direct or very indirect) to fly. I don't even want to risk that.

Later, when we're ready, perhaps we can all decide whether to allow this to be an open forum for anyone, but not yet.

I'll provide some more feedback on your entry on Mormonism a bit later.

8/18/2006 2:46 PM

 
Blogger the-wonder-bucket said...

DANIEL AND BRITTANEY HAVE ARRIVED!!!! ^,^

i think that sometimes... SOMETIMES.... you can tell that something is right because of a feeling, because god will do that. its called a conscience most fo the time. (sp?)

but to believe in something so big adn important, not to mention influential, in your life (religion) just because of a feeling is ridiculous to me. I grew up christian, in a christian home wiht christian freinds n etc.... but god has proved over and over that he is real through different experiences that i've had and that christianity is the way for me to stay. I can 100% back up my religion because i've always had proof that it was real... and i'm kind of sad for those people who base the entirety of their faith off of one feeling, not fully knowing whether something is true or not.

8/18/2006 7:01 PM

 
Blogger Heather R. said...

WB, I totally agree with your last statement... especially since Jesus told us what the most important commandments are: we are to love the Lord with all our heart (feelings of adoration and yearning for Him), soul (the very depths of our very being/existence/who we fundamentally are), mind (this is where this discussion board comes into play! =P ), and strength (our daily actions)(and the other commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself).

Many people focus on the heart and strength and tend to somewhat downplay the others... at least that's what I've noticed. As I'm sure you all have noticed about me, I'm really gung-ho about loving God with our mind... but sometimes I over-emphasize that and de-emphasize the others. It's a hard balance to keep, I think.

8/18/2006 10:23 PM

 
Blogger the-wonder-bucket said...

*is nodding in agreement*'



~~~~Hey, HR: i updated my blog too if you what to checks it out. i've no comments. :( *sniffles*

8/19/2006 11:23 AM

 

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