I pray there won't be any snakes on the plane! I'm leaving for New Orleans Sunday. Not to preach though, I'm going to help clean up from Katrina. I would like to be a missionary some day though. I'm not a preacher but I hope I can help make a difference in some lives. So I guess we won't be seeing you here for two years? Or will you take a laptop? I can do without just about everything but laundry soap and my computer. My prayers are with you.
Thanks so much, good luck to you. And no, I cannot bring or use a computer while I am down there. I MIGHT have the chance to email my family every once in a while and maybe send them some pictures, but thats it. I get to use good ol' snail mail from now on to communicate with the world
Some professor wrote a whole book on the mormon contradictions, I'll try and find it.. Here are a few: http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/bibleandbomcontradictions.htm Couple more: http://www.irr.org/mit/WDIST/wdist-contradictions.html Short PDF: http://www.equip.org/free/CP0302.pdf Detailed PDF: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/drkey/BOM-LightofScience.pdf Ah, and by the way, I "like" the way you guys think that native Americans have darker skin due to God marking them..
I have to go real quick so I'll get back to you on this later. But upon first glance, this site seems to be full of content fished way too deeply for with little or no meaning. Take for example the first point... "The Bible plainly states that the gospel, with its inclusion of Gentiles, was not fully revealed until after Christ's death." The quote from the Bible talks about revelations given to prophets during and after Christs death. The so-called "contradicting" scriptures from the BoM talk about the coming of Christ. If this is contradictory to the Bible, then the Bible contradicts itself in the Old Testament when prophets talk of His coming. How does prophesying of Christs coming have anything to do with the scripture given fro the Bible? The other 2 BoM references have absolutely NOTHING to do with the topic... They talk about repentance and baptism. These topics have nothing to do with the original Bible verse. Well anyways, like I said, I have to go for a bit so Ill discuss this more later
Greatten, you may know, the relationship between Spanish and Portuguese is now failry distant - today's spoken Spanish, and Portuguese (born of Galician) differ in many ways. And Brazilian portuguese is its own bird to boot. I'm afraid I only learned to say "good day," "thank you," "that was a great play!" and "I want some more cachaça" while at Berkeley, taken under the wing by some incredibly fun Brazilian co-grad students. Afraid though I wouldn't agree with Brum's usage, I have to agree with the sentiment. I think we have done enough to indigenous people's worldwide, well intentioned or not. Leave them be, in peace.
Im actually back now BRUm so ill tell you about why that site you linked needs some better info... i was laughing hard at some of them lol northpointaiki: Actually from the spanish I know, I can read a large portion of written portuguese without any previous knowledge of the language. I just hope speaking it will be as easy And about the indiginous people thing, the city of Belem is a huge port city with hotels and casinos and everything else a major city would have. I doubt preaching to those people is going to have a huge impact on their indiginous culture
Greatten: I am also a Latter-day Saint! Congrats on your mission call! (You and me both are the only ones here at DP, though...) Check your PM.
You didn't find them yourself? Interesting. Obviously you have never read the Book of Mormon? If not, then you have no place in trying to disprove it when you don't even know what's in it. (Regardless of what others have said - how can you trust them? Why would you be ignorant about what's in it when you can know every single thing we do?) Heck, how can you trust the reliability of any website that tries to disprove something for little more reason than to draw people away from the Church and destroy their lives? That's Satan's work at hand. And when he's workin, there's a loophole somewhere. If you hate/"feel pity" for us, you must REALLY hate/"feel pity" for Muslims, because there's .... several hundred million of them, I believe.
Yes, the two share similar (though only similar) syntax and structure. Speaking it, though, will be another matter - have you ever spoken to a Brazilian? I find it a beautiful language - incredibly musical, inflective, containing deep emotion in the nuances. Regarding Belem - apologies. I spoke ignorantly and without all my facts. I also betray my bias against religion generally. Let me rephrase - it is my view that hotel guests, casino players, and longshoremen and women could also live fully well without the aid of religion being preached to them. But this is my viewpoint. Many of my family are Mormon, and I have no particular dislike of the religion - all religion simply needs to retire, in my book. I do think you might find it a tough sell - the Brazilians I have known are absolutely free spirits, and don't take all that well to prescriptive codes of behavior. But this is my belief, and this has nothing to do with what you wish to do. I hope you find it a rich experience.
Well I don't have time to respond to every point made here so I will try and explain the ones I can without having to do too much research... this is going to be a long post lol. For that first link you gave me, ill start with point 4 since I already discussed point 1. It states "The Holy Ghost was bestowed on the Christians at the time of Pentecost." This is not true, there are numerous examples of people being filled with with the Holy Ghost before this point. The examples given merely state that people were FILLED with the Holy Ghost, not given it for the first time. Point 6: "The Old Testament teaches that the first born of the flocks were to be given automatically to the Lord. Sacrifices were to be made from their remaining animals." If the person that wrote this had done any research, they would have known that the firstling of the flock was always used in sacrifice in similitude of Christs death. Only the most pure, male sheep were used. This is what was done in the BoM example. Point 8: I thought this one was hilarious. "The Bible prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. However, the Book of Mormon said he would be born at Jerusalem." In the time of Jesus, Jerusalem was a large area and Bethlehem a part of that area, like a city in a state or country for example. Bethlehem is 5 miles south of the city of Jerusalem (hence why Mary was able to walk the distance while pregnant) For the second link you gave me I'll start with point 2: It says the original teaching was that Adam was not made of dust then gives the quote "The Priesthood was first given to Adam; ... He is Michael the Archangel, spoken of in the Scriptures. Then to Noah, who is Gabriel: he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood" I'm still trying to figure out what that has to do with him being made of the dust of this earth... Point 3: The reference of Joseph Smith going like a lamb to the slaughter like Jesus comes from the fact that he was summoned to Carthage Jail, not physically forced there. He knew he was going to die if he went. All of those men did. He went willingly, therefore he went like Jesus did, like a lamb to the slaughter. Point 4: The resource this cites is not official church doctrine and is a third party source. So the point of "This edition has all the above parts edited out of this section, and they are replaced with new wording that reflects the 1978 revelation that allowed blacks to hold the LDS priesthood." is invalid and irrelivent. Third article (short PDF) Point 1: He states that James 1:5 is solely about temptations and afflictions. Read the passage yourself and see: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing waivering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." I dont see anything about temptations or afflictions in there do you? Point 2: This guy says Gods answer to praying about the Book of Mormon has already been given in the Bible but doesn't state where... great point lol. He says to point out passages that say to test things by the word of God rather than praying about it. If you would rather not pray about the BoM and want biblical references to it, then read passages such as Ezekiel 37:15-17 where it talks about the stick of Judah (the Bible) and the stick of Joseph (the BoM) or read in John 10:16 where Jesus says that when he leaves (after the resurrection) he is going to his "other sheep... which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." Point 3: He says you are saved by grace alone (Eph. 2:8-10), in which case the bible contradicts itself. If you are still in James 1:5 turn the page to James 2:17-18. "Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone. Yeah a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works" or look in Acts 14:26 or Romans 11:16 and ask yourself this question... What is the point of EVERYTHING in the bible (commandments, teachings of Jesus, and the prophets, etc.) if all you have to do is say you accept Jesus into your heart and you are saved...? It just doesnt make any sense. I'd love to be able to say that then go out and break every one of Gods commandments while having fun and still be saved, but thats not the way it works. It makes sense to me that some effort is required to be saved. Sorry, but I've already spent like 2 hours writing this so I'm not even gonna touch that 70 page pdf you linked to me. I hope this clears some things up and makes you think a little better of the Mormon religion. Thanks for listening
"The Bible prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. However, the Book of Mormon said he would be born at Jerusalem." I'm curious as to why people follow religions that someone else made up from the Bible. Isn't the Bible good enough? Mohammad made the Quran, Jimmy Jones had his own book, David Koresh, Catholics... All I need is one book. Otherwise it seems to get all complicated.
In fact, not just Bethlehem but Bethlehem Ephrathah as foretold by Micah(Micah 5:2) and the prophecy was fulfilled as per Matthew (Matthew 2:1). At the time of Jesus’ birth, there were two towns in Israel that were named Bethlehem. One was situated near Nazareth in the northern region of the country, and the other, near Jerusalem in Judah. Bethlehem near Jerusalem was formerly called Ephrathah. Jesus was born in that town, exactly as the prophecy foretold! Col
First of all, the Book of Mormon isnt "made up from the Bible", second of all, it compliments the Bible's teachings. It teaches the same principles, just adds a little more content. Third, can you imagine how great it would be believing that Christ not only visited the people in the Bible, but the native's in the America's also? It answers so many questions such as the topic of "Quetzequatl" the story believed by the majority of all indian tribes in both north and south america of the visiting of a white, bearded male god coming and promising to return, or all the historical, physical evidence of the Book of Mormon found in south america of tablets with the names of dozens of people from it as obscure as "alma" and "lehi" and visions matching those written of in the book also. This is what I believe in, and it brings me happiness. There are great messages of peace and joy in this book, and if you dont want to read it, that is your choice. All I know is, it makes me a better and happier person
Greatten, How long have you been a mormon? Are your parents mormon too, are they the ones who took you to the mormon church?
Nope, because there's SO MUCH MORE for us to know! Why we're here, where we came from and where we're going, the plan of salvation - etc. None of this in detail is explained in the Bible. And with so many translations and loss of original texts, it's difficult to know if even THAT is accurate. Yo-yo, I know where you're going with this. NO we are not brainwashed into the religion. (Greatten: you'll have to get to know Yo-yo, always insisting we are brainwashed conservatives in most debates, or are so closed-minded we won't accept the truth... when really it's the other way around. You'll get used to it, hopefully before your mission.) Why would we spend our whole 19 years saving up to leave for 2 years away from home and likely out of country to preach something that we were simply brainwashed into? Do you think we travel the world to spread what we don't believe in? Lies?
Why does the Bible suit you, suitsme? Okay, to my point: to tell you honestly, I think the Bible alone leaves a lot more questions than answers. It's a *lot* easier to understand with the Book of Mormon complementing it.