So my family is not mostly LDS. Actually, a fair amount of my family is Jewish (mother's side) but my uncle is the only one who didn't convert to Christianity. He is a fairly orthodox Jew, and he has a late-in-life daughter (my cousin) who I am very fond of. She is really closer to my niece, just because she is so much younger than I am. She's in Junior High.

Anyway, for her elective class this year she took World Religion. For their end of the year project they have to do a report on any faith they want. Knowing I am a former Mormon she chose the LDS religion. After she probed me for a few hours, she went to the "Chat with a missionary" website. She wanted to hear from all the sources she could. However, instead of being educated she was left in stitches laughing and called me to read some of her conversation with the missionary.

The first question she asked was about the Bible. She asked which parts of the Bible were incorrectly translated. The answer she got was that "since the Bible was translated from Hebrew to English, they had no way of knowing what was left out" To which she pointed out that the Old Testament was essentially the same in Hebrew (Tanakh) as it is in English, the main differences were the organization of the OT. So she asked him again "which parts are incorrectly translated? I've got an English OT and a Hebrew version, tell me which ones and I can find them!" Poor mishy seemed confused. (Unfortunately i've never learned anything about my Jewish heritage so I just have to assume she's correct)

She also asked why Mormons baptized Hitler. The missionary insisted that it was a HOAX and that nobody ever did his temple work. She asked him how he knew it was fake, and he said that (lol) nobody could access temple work online. She asked him several times "are you SURE that nobody can see those records?" He insisted that no one could.

THEN when asked "why do Mormons baptize Jews who died in the Holocaust" he pulled a Hinkley and said "I don't know that we do that."

So. Ridiculous. It makes me wonder if he was really that ill-informed or if he was "lying for the Lard"

Her report aught to be an interesting one.

After all, she's always reporting on ordinance work.

Runforthehills wrote: Unfortunately i've never learned anything about my Jewish heritage so I just have to assume she's correct (about English and Hebrew Bibles).

Yes, of course she is correct. The work of translating the Bible from Hebrew (and the New Testament from Greek) is based on thorough learning and studies.

The KJV has lots of translation errors, and some of them made it across to the BoM.

The KJV NT is based on the Textus Receptus, a compilation made in the 16th century using 12th century manuscripts. The Textus Receptus is one of the more inaccurate manuscripts that we have.

If Mormons really cared about "translated correctly," then they would probably switch to the NASB, AB, NRSV, or some other modern translation. It would also be useful to use a modern translation so that we don't have to wonder whether our understanding of the archaic English was "translated correctly."

That way, when they say: "I don't know that we do that" they'd be telling the truth. ;o))

Now that we've proven Hitler's ordinance, were other dictators ordained after death? How about Joseph Stalin, Mao ZeDong, Syngman Rhee, Kim Il Sung, Fransisco Franco, Anastasio Somoza, Pol Pot, or the Shah of Iran? Just curious.

http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html

There is an agreement that the LDS cease and desist necro-dunking of jews. The LDS is being monitored very carefully to see if they attempt this again.

Longout Wrote:
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> http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
>
> There is an agreement that the LDS cease and desist necro-dunking of jews. The LDS is being monitored very carefully to see if they attempt this again.

Yet it continues.

It seems to me that the LDS church would have no problem baptizing Hitler (and many other dictators) even if he were alive today.

The LDS Church's stance on Nazi Germany at the time appears to have been one of at least tacit support.

It's not like they would brand him a murderer, any more than they would brand Nephi a murderer, or the perpetrators of the MMM murderers.

So, given all of this, it's not like the LDS Church should be embarrassed if Hitler had been dead-dunked. That mishie should have said, "Maybe. So what? We don't believe that he was beyond Christ's grace."

How do we figure that Hebrew is essentially the same as English?

I don't speak Hebrew, but I speak a lot of other languages and translations always leave things out.

If you are wondering about ancient hebrew or Aramaic, the language spoken in the time of Christ, it's doubtful that there are direct translations.

For example, in Navajo, there was no word for "airplane" since they didn't exist until modern times. A word was developed (and used by the code-talkers but that's a whole nother story)

Modern spoken and written hebrew has evolved. One of my professors went to Israel to teach biology for a semester. When he started lecturing in biblical hebrew (all he knew), the students fell out their seats laughing. It took the whole semester of their tutoring him to get his language skills up to date and modernized. If you watch Ziva on NCIS, she has trouble with contractions and some idioms. "Cut him some slacks!" etc..

"Hebrew is essentially the same as English?" Huh? You lost me.
Swahili is essentially the same as Athabascan?
What is your reference?

Joe Smith had a hebrew tutor who apparently tought him enough basic terms that Joe could consider himself a scholar of some sort. The term "Gentile" comes to mind.

A Gentile is a NON-JEW. Only in Joe Smith-land (close to Disneyland) would this purely hebrew word be bastardized to mean "non-mormon." When Joe invented his religion he used any religious references he could find (and the Masonic ones)
Smith was absorbing terms from every religion available to him in his day and incorporating these words and concepts into the BoM. It made him appear educated and having revelations. Mimicking the KJB in his wording was a good con-method. It attracted people, plus, it was the language he heard nightly from his father, with possibly no outside influence.

When people argue that this uneducated man managed to interprate complex golden plates (which only a prophet could have done),they ignore that he had been bombarded by this type of language (Bible) and lacked any other literary forms in his life. He made it up. He mimicked the bible. He loved certain phrases "It came to pass" and the rest was religious-sounding
bizarre fiction.Cureloms? Nephites? Possibly the man was seriously deranged but though himself to be greatly intelligent.
Joe stuck his face in a hat and translated a long and strange novel.

A Canticle for Leibowitz.
(monks come upon a grocery list and develop it into a gospel.

You quoted me as saying that "Hebrew is essentially the same as English." I really think you somehow missed my message. I was clearly questioning that assertion.

I'm not sure where you are going with the rest of everything, but I do believe we are saying the same thing.

Thanks for your concerns. I've calmed down down now.
No lds would want to knock on my door on an angry day he he.

Larry.