Friday, August 26, 2011

Why Ask?


Moroni 10:4-5 [BOM]
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would aask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not btrue; and if ye shall ask with a csincere heart, with dreal intent, having efaith in Christ, he will fmanifest the gtruth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may aknow the btruth of all things.

2 Thes. 2:9-11 (ESV)
“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, [10] and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. [11] Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, “
Here we are, at the end. It is done, and it leads to this, ask God if it is true, and if you ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it to you, this by way of the burning of the bosom as they call it, as strong delusion I say.
I get asked by Mormons if I have ever asked God if this is true. If I have ever prayed this prayer it bids me to pray. I answer that God gave me the answer long before I got to this section, and it was in the negative. This is sheer fideism that it espouses. Believe it is true for you. But here is the thing. God impressed upon me the truth of Holy Scripture as it is in the Bible without me having to ask if it was true. There is reason to believe the Gospel according to Holy Apostolic and Canonical Scripture. But there is no reason for one to even entertain the thought concerning the book of Mormon unless they are compelled to for ulterior motives. I suspect the reason most people have for wanting to believe the book of Mormon true has to do with bosoms alright, doubtful they are on fire, but I hear silicone can burn for some time once started.
Geographically, the story doesn’t add up, the cities aren’t where they should be. Archeology has to be ignored completely. Recent discoveries of DNA have shown that native Americans have no relation to the Semitic tribes of the near east. Historically it is untenable. Doctrinally, it is at odds with that which I know to be true by way of the death and resurrection of Christ. Linguistically it shows itself not to be a translation of any language from the near east. This “Reformed Egyptian” is more than highly unlikely. And there are contradiction in the book of Mormon that make put it at odds with itself and the religion Joseph Smith started. Reading the book of Mormon has impressed upon me that Mormon’s don’t believe it. So I have no reason to. I have no reason to even ask. It would be an insult to God to ask, it would be begging for the strong delusion of which he speaks in Second Thessalonians.
God gave me a brain and expects me to use it. He expects you to use yours too. One cannot believe the Bible and the Book of Mormon. They are at odds with each other to an extent that cannot be reconciled, they teach two different Jesus Christ’s.
The Holy Apostolic and Canonical Scriptures though show themselves to be of the utmost reliability. Mormon’s tend to contest that based on 19th century liberal theological thought. But the objections of 19th century liberals to the veracity and reliability of the New Testament documents are no longer tenable with the developments and discoveries of the Twentieth century. For those interested in that I might suggest “Religion on Trial” By Craig Parton, which is the cliff notes to “Tractatus Logico Theologicus” of John Warwick Montgomery. I recommend both books highly. Parton’s is shorter and easier.


2 comments:

mollo said...

I have had lots of mormons ask me if I had prayed about BOM and if I'd had gotten a positive answer yet. Well of course I had prayed about it but I hadn't gotten an answer from God.

I had read lots of the BOM but not the whole thing. Looking back I am amazed that the parts I read weren't as random as I thought, but God was leading me towards all sorts of contradictions. Almost everytime I read some, I could find something wrong.

After a couple of years of not touching it I decided that I needed to read the whole thing. My reasoning was that I just wanted to be thorough person in my studies. I wanted to be able to tell the Mormons that yes, I had read the whole thing. But something else really important was missing. I wanted to be able to tell the Mormons that yes, I'd prayed and I had gotten an answer from God. A very un-Lutheran thing now that I think back but I guess that the Holy Spirit was leading me in my prayers because at that moment, I didn't think it weird at all.

I read a couple pages in Nephi and at the end of my study I said my prayer asking God for an answer that I could telling the missionaries and home teachers. Well, you know they say be careful what you ask God. By the time I was saying "Amen", I was also running to the bathroom praying now that I didn't throw up! My second prayers were answered and my stomach calmed down.

The next night I pulled out my BOM and immeadiatly my stomach went into knots and to the bathroom I ran! At that moment I realized I also had gotten an answer to my first prayers. LOL I took my BOM leather set engraved with my name on it (a wedding gift from inlaws) and threw it away. I've never read it again until I started reading short parts on this website.

Hey missionaries, I'VE GOT A TESTIMONY FOR YA!

Christy said...

When I prayed about it, I got no answer which I took as the answer I knew all along was actually correct...the BOM is not true. The Holy Bible is. I was told that I must not be living a good enough life or I would have gotten that burning. I guess all believing Mormons must lead perfectly pure lives. But really, I believe like you said, that a lot of Mormons don't believe it themselves.