Why do so many non-LDS Christians tell us Mormons that if we would just read the Bible...?
We would not be Mormon?
I read and study the Bible, before and after I joined the LDS church.
2013-02-05T22:23:28Z
ukguy:
Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 Nephi 14:1 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he turned again to the multitude, and did open his mouth unto them again, saying: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
ratster:
Proverbs 30:6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
This would exclude the entire New Testament.
This says that man cannot add to God's words, but it does not say that God cannot and will not add to His words.
lorddog:
I doubt you have even read the Book of Mormon. Be that as it may, I noticed the opposite of what you claim, that the Protestants/evangelicals are the ones who gloss over what they cannot explain,
2013-02-06T04:14:50Z
Joanne: You are SO far wrong, it's not EVEN funny. It would take months to correct all your misconceptions about us.
Annsan_In_Him2013-02-05T06:20:55Z
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It's not just reading the Bible that is required. You have to accept what it says, despite other writings that disagree. For example, the Bible states that Jesus is uncreated - He is the eternal Word of God who was with God in the beginning, who was God, and who created everything. John 1:1-3. Does Joseph Smith's notations to the KJV at that verse suggest that He was actually 'a god', one of many? Who will you believe? The polytheistic view, or the monotheistic statements of the Bible?
God states in the Bible time and again that He is the only true God. He recognizes no other gods, who are the imaginations of sinners' minds. (Isaiah 45:5-6 & 21) God says He will not share His glory with another - but Jesus shares that glory! (Isaiah 44:6-9 & 24 plus ch 42:8 God says we are to worship no other than Him, but He also commands the angels to worship Jesus (Hebrews 1:6). That's because to worship Christ is to worship God. The same one God who created everything!
The point I'm making is that the Jesus of the LDSs is not the Jesus of the Bible. You have a creature - one who was birthed by a father god and a mother goddess in heaven, before becoming the man Jesus. The Bible has the uncreated Word of God, who is God, and the third person in the Godhead, adding human nature to His divine nature in order to pay the price of sin.
For as long as you speak of a created Jesus, you do not believe what you read in the Bible, because you explain it away to mean something else, according to the teachings of Joseph Smith.
They just write mormonism off in their minds. Because when two men walk up to their house willing to talk about God and Jesus, they wonder why would they carry or quote from any other book than the Bible. It doesn't make sense to them.
I'm not a believer in any religion, and it's incredible when I think of the amount of time that even I have spent combing through religions like Mormonism and Islam and the Jehova's Witnesses, etc...it's no wonder other denominations and religions are just completely writing each other off. Because to those guys that are very biblical, that aren't LDS, they would honestly rather just continue to re-read what they consider scriptures, going through them with a new perspective, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal new ways for a particular scripture to influence their lives. They would rather do this over and over again than spending the time required to read the BoM, D&C, and PoGP to become less ignorant about mormonism. And the more that they study their own scriptures, the more they realize that nothing in the world that is written is more effective at explaining a principle of god than the Bible. And it is hard to combat that biased behavior, but we all do it in our own little ways, somehow finding ways to write off the beliefs of other people so we don't waste years and years reading what our bias has already determined as irrelevance.
They've got the Bible, which explains the beginning, the middle, the end. It explains the law, and it explains the sacrifice, and it explains salvation. And they will continue to read it until death, continuing to learn more of Christ and God the entire time. Even if the Book of Mormon isn't contradictory at all, their bias convinces them that nothing is comparable to the Bible.
Before I joined the Mormon church 38 years ago, I was an active, bible reading protestant. One of the things that drew me to the LDS church is that the LDS church miraculously matches the bible much better then, but different then, mainstream Christianity. Once a person understands Mormonism, many of the doctrines in the bible that appear contradictory (such as the teaching that the Father and Son are one yet they talk to each other) fall away. We have to assume that the many authors in the bible understood the gospel the same and once a person understands what the authors intended to express, there is no longer any conflict. To find a complete doctrine that reconciles all the apparent bible discrepancies is amazing.
There are many things in the bible that do not apply to mainstream Christianity so they are discarded with the assumption that they are no longer valid. These kinds of idea's are embraced by the Mormon church. They include such concepts as sacrifice of self, obedience to commandments, covenants, temples, revelation to church leaders, spiritual gifts, etc. The epistles which are letters to branches of the church all strive to correct false doctrines and important issues that mainstream Christians do not even care about. The early Christian church lived communally and gave all that they had to the church (see Acts 4:32 thru Acts 5:10). Mormons understand the spirit of what they were trying to do. If a group had the same practice today, they would be called a cult. Mormons can identify with the missions of Paul and Peter because we have the same outlook on life and experience the same kinds of things. The kinds of things spoken over the pulpit are the same kinds of things taught by the apostles.
The Pew center did research and found that on average Mormons knew more about the bible than any other religion included in the study.
The Barna group found that on average Mormons spend more time studying the bible than any other religion in their study.
so why do they say it? Because they aren't studied but that's what somebody told them to say.
EDIT - it's sad to see the lack of understanding that some people have. If you have a degree in theology you shouldn't be so ignorant or a large religion.
@seachery - the majority of the LDS church no longer speaks English, and it's only recently that Spanish became the second language to have an LDS translation. Growing up as a son of one of those brethren we read the NT together as a family, but we didn't read out of our personal scriptures, rather non-denominational KJV bibles. Personally I'm fond of the Jerusalem Bible as well.
It's sad that in your attempt to always provide a negative spin to any LDS question that you so frequently veer from the truth and exaggerate minutia and represent it as fact.
You know that the LDS church encourages personal bible study, would it kill you to speak anything positive about the church or would that damage your personal justification?
Speaking as a christian, but not a hardline "your going to hell if you disagree with me" holyer than thou christian.. which seems to be the majority when it comes to the outspoken church functioners..
Mormonism doesnt seem that bad a style for christianity, im not a mormon, i know a few and their nice people, just as any christian, OR NON christian can be. its more about what one does with the knowledge they get and how they use it in their daily lives, than how many bible verses they have memorized to use in an argument with someone else to prove themselves right.
when jesus was asked what of the commandments were the most important, the second most after being faithful to god alone, was to understand and USE and LIVE by the fundamental "do unto others as thou would have done unto you". so its really what you do and what you say and how you treat people, rather than how well youve memorized the bible and how many "non believers" youve beaten in an argument... because if they understood the fundamentals about the bible, they would realize that god doesnt keep score on arguments won with an athiest/different sect of the religion. other than he probably frowns on the arrogant behavior.