LDS are these authoritative texts?

[Ironhold]

And yet your are one of the lds who hides behind the "it's not doctrine" curtain anything outside of your standard works is brought up. There's a word for that...

"Knowledgeable."

Take a look at the works listed on the website. Get back to me about what works are *not* there yet keep getting quoted by critics as if they were.

 

[REBEL CRUSADER]

If it claims to be scripture, and it wasn't authored by a Jew, I'd toss it. That's just my own rule of thumb.

 

[Open Heart]

[staff edited]
Why should anyone believe that the Book of Mormon is any less inspired or authoritative than the New Testament is?

Because it is invented and we know who invented it and why.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

LDS.org is the official church website, so why shouldn't we take material on there as official?

It'd be like if your denomination had an official website that was used to communicate and archive information.

You're exactly right! So mormons take more than just their scriptures as authoritative texts! Why not just say so?

 

[fatboys]

You're exactly right! So mormons take more than just their scriptures as authoritative texts! Why not just say so?

Boy you just don't get it. I personally do not know any better way to try and explain it. What power do you think authoritive will is?

 

[ArmenianJohn]

Boy you just don't get it. I personally do not know any better way to try and explain it. What power do you think authoritive will is?

Perhaps I "just don't get it" - that very well may be. And that is what mormons are always accusing Christians of on this forum.

What's more telling is that you and the other mormons "do not know any better way to try and explain it". Makes me think that you are explaining it fine but it just doesn't make sense at its core, which is how we have always seen the mormon (and all occultic) religion. Occultism is foreign to Christians because we don't believe in hiding anything.

 

[BigDaddy4]

"Knowledgeable."

Take a look at the works listed on the website. Get back to me about what works are *not* there yet keep getting quoted by critics as if they were.

bzzz. Wrong answer, but thanks for playing.

 

[KevinSim]

I'm surprised that you ask. It could result in a response longer than the original OP. Not too many folks stay tuned that long.

Latter-day Saints, generally speaking, are not timid people. They believe, firmly and without apology, that the way to find out if God considers a book scripture, is to ask God if He considers it scripture, and that really has the effect of leveling the playing field.

 

[KevinSim]

If BY, taught one thing one day and something off the mark the next day, then there is no reason to believe any of the LDS prophets are true because such doctrine changes would not come from an eternal God.

John 11:4 says, "When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." John 11:14 says, "Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead."

So now, if Jesus Christ taught one thing one day and something off the mark about an hour later on that same day, then there is no reason to believe ... oh wait, He did teach one thing one day and the complete opposite about ten minutes to an hour later. Either Lazarus' sickness was unto death or it was not. So what do we conclude about Jesus Christ?

 

[KevinSim]

Because it is invented and we know who invented it and why.

Open Heart, which one are you talking about, the Book of Mormon or the New Testament?

 

[KevinSim]

If it claims to be scripture, and it wasn't authored by a Jew, I'd toss it. That's just my own rule of thumb.

Whoops! There goes the Torah! REBEL CRUSADER, were you aware that that rule of thumb just eliminated the first five books of the Bible?

 

[ArmenianJohn]

Latter-day Saints, generally speaking, are not timid people. They believe, firmly and without apology, that the way to find out if God considers a book scripture, is to ask God if He considers it scripture, and that really has the effect of leveling the playing field.

Not really, because people can be deceived by asking God and then being deceived by a feeling or a devil. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

 

[REBEL CRUSADER]

Whoops! There goes the Torah! REBEL CRUSADER, were you aware that that rule of thumb just eliminated the first five books of the Bible?

The first five books are mainly accredited to Moses (a Jew). Even if it wasn't him that wrote the first five books, don't waste my time arguing semantics and splitting hairs. I'm talking about the Hebrews.

 

[withwonderingawe]

LDS.org contains a lot of things like the Church magazine clear back to 1971, do I think everything in those magazines is a "Thus saith the Lord" no, not by a long shot.

As an example in the January 71 issue there is a rather short article on the restoration, it's not detailed at all and since that time the Church has had all of Joseph Smith's papers digitized with tons of new information is to be had.

This month there is an article on anxiety. It's full of good ideas to help people with this problem, is it a 'Thus saith the Lord', no! Two months from now someone will come up with a pill to cure it and the information will change.

There's a list of upcoming events, if something gets canceled are you going to have a heart attack because something authoritative got changed?

There are youth programs to help them be more spiritual, next month someone will come up with another good idea.

Under the Church News section there is an article about getting enough spiritual light or spiritual vitamin D. Is it authoritative? Well there is nothing in there false but it's just a suggestion to look at our lives. It quotes Dumbledore: “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” He's sure not authoritative or even real but it's a good thought.

There are articles within LDS.org which are authoritative, the scriptures can be accessed through there. There are the Testimonies of the different Apostles and Prophets. I think all the General Conference talks are pretty much authoritative but what do you expect to find in them? You can go here to read through last Octobers conference.

www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

 

[KevinSim]

Not really, because people can be deceived by asking God and then being deceived by a feeling or a devil. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Well, if you can't rely on method A to find out the will of God because a devil or one's own personal feeling might deceive you, then what can you rely on to find out the will of God? There isn't any way to find out the will of God that leaves you completely free from the possibility of deception.

When someone realizes that without God's help that someone can never hope to have any chance of finding out God's will in that someone's life, and goes to God in prayer to ask him for a kernel of truth that someone can use as a certain foundation for her/his own personal theology, God cannot help but realize that if He doesn't directly provide that someone with the kernel of truth s/he needs, then that someone will never have any way of knowing His will in her/his life. That being the case, why wouldn't God provide that kernel of truth? In fact, what is there we can be more certain of that God would do, than provide that someone that kernel of truth? In such a case, if the someone gets one answer, s/he knows it must have come from God; if the someone gets two answers, then s/he can wrestle with the problem of which answer came from God and which came from the Devil.

 

[KevinSim]

The first five books are mainly accredited to Moses (a Jew).

Moses was a Jew! Wow, and all this time I thought he was a Levite. Hmm, I wonder how I could have gotten it so wrong. Oh, I know; it's because the Bible said he was a Levite.

 

[fatboys]

Moses was a Jew! Wow, and all this time I thought he was a Levite. Hmm, I wonder how I could have gotten it so wrong. Oh, I know; it's because the Bible said he was a Levite.

He wasn't a Jew. So was Jesus a Jew and why would they call him a Jew? I thought he came through the tribe of Judah.

 

[REBEL CRUSADER]

Moses was a Jew! Wow, and all this time I thought he was a Levite. Hmm, I wonder how I could have gotten it so wrong. Oh, I know; it's because the Bible said he was a Levite.

The Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Israel, called to be the priests of Israel. Their religion is referred to as Judaism. A Jew is a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham. Levites are Jews. Moses was a Jew.

 

[fatboys]

The Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Israel, called to be the priests of Israel. Their religion is referred to as Judaism. A Jew is a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham. Levites are Jews. Moses was a Jew.

Judah was just one twelfth of the house of Israel. Judaism comes from one tribe and then was shortened to Jew. At one time there was two kingdoms the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. Ephraim was the northern kingdom which had most of the other tribes within them. The southern kingdom was mainly from the house of Judah with a smattering of other tribes which escaped being carried off with the northern kingdom. I believe that the tribes of Benjamin one twelfth of the levites were part of the southern kingdom. Since most we from the tribe of Judah they called all that lived there Jews even though they were not from that tribe.

 

[KevinSim]

The Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Israel, called to be the priests of Israel. Their religion is referred to as Judaism. A Jew is a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham. Levites are Jews. Moses was a Jew.

REBEL CRUSADER, maybe you should ask some Jews if they consider Moses to be a Jew. There very definitely were Levites among the Jews, and perhaps with time they came to be considered Jews. But you're wrong about Jews being anyone who traced "their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham." There were descendants of Reuben who never considered themselves Jews, and descendants of Naphtali who never considered themselves Jews. To be a Jew you had to trace your origins through Judah, and then his father Israel and then to Abraham. Moses never fit that description. Moses never lived in Judaea. Moses was not a Jew.