Visiting my kids' families I have noticed their family scripture reading is limited to the BOM. They even said Nelson will be a great church president because he admonishes the members to read the BOM. They seem to avoid the Bible like the plague and only read the New Testament at Christmas. Brainwashing from the top.

Justin, my impression has been that in general, Mormons tend to spend more time with the Book of Mormon than they do with the Bible. I don't know why that is, but perhaps it could be because Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book and that the Bible has not always been translated properly. And that many plain and precious things have been removed from it.

Some of the Mormon missionaries I've known, however, have told me of reading the Bible, or at least the New Testament, while on their missions, even though many will say they spend even more time reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. And apparently the Bible is part of the curriculum covered in the Seminary classes that Mormon teenagers attend.

I avoid both like the plague, and I'm not brainwashed...:)

I did read the bible a lot on my mission. For two reasons. One, it was easier reading than the BoM ("...and it came to pass..." gets real old real quick). Two, we'd occasionally run into competing JW evangelizers, and I was one who wanted to be ready to point out why their bible interpretations were so badly in error (ignoring all the mormon interpretations, of course!).

I am curious how many ,"and it came to pass" there are now in the BoM. Maybe you can turn it into a drinking game, probably get completely drunk after the first chapter.

The phrase “and it came to pass” occurs in the English translation of the Book of Mormon 1,381 times. Add to this derivatives of the phrase such as “Now it came to pass”, “For behold it came to pass”, “But behold it came to pass” and “and it shall come to pass”, and it adds up to over 1500 times.

And yeah, you'd be drunk before the end of 1 Nephi. :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2018 05:48PM by ificouldhietokolob.

ificouldhietokolob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I did read the bible a lot on my mission.

Brother Kolob, when you were reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon on your mission, were you bothered by any questions that might have arisen about the content of these books? Or was it mostly an inspiring exercise in gaining more knowledge of the truth?

commongentile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Brother Kolob, when you were reading the Bible and
> the Book of Mormon on your mission, were you
> bothered by any questions that might have arisen
> about the content of these books? Or was it mostly
> an inspiring exercise in gaining more knowledge of
> the truth?

At first, I was looking for "gotcha" verses that I could throw in the face of JWs and investigators when they challenged mormon doctrine. And I found plenty of them...as long as you "interpret" them in a mormonly-fashion, which as a newly-minted missionary I was wont to do.

As my 2 years progressed, and I tired of tossing "gotchas" around (no small feat -- somebody in the mission who can do that really well is praised and adored by the less studious missionaries -- I got no small amount of peer admiration for my skill in quoting from memory bible verses that "proved" mormonism!), I started to notice that there was a lot in the bible that didn't make sense within mormonism. And a lot in the bible that flat-out didn't make sense in any context.

You know that list of 101 bible contradictions on the 'net (http://www.answering-christianity.com/101_bible_contradictions.htm)?
I noticed all of those -- and then some -- in my reading.
And the really fun part: I'd ask other missionaries, and the MP, and church members, and local Catholic priests, and people from other religions about them. And I'd get answers all over the place, ranging from made-up but long-winded "explanations" (most of which were really silly) to simple condemnations ("reading the bible to find contradictions is letting Satan control you!"), usually from the people who had no apologetic answers ready, and who weren't creative enough to make something up.

More stuff on the shelf, which came crashing down hard just before I went home from the mission.

Since then, I've always told people that the best way to become an atheist is to actually read and study the bible. :)

ificouldhietokolob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> You know that list of 101 bible contradictions on
> the 'net
> (http://www.answering-christianity.com/101_bible_c
> ontradictions.htm)?
> I noticed all of those -- and then some -- in my
> reading.

New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman has said that a reason many people do not notice the contradictions among the New Testament gospels is that they tend to read the gospels in a "vertical" manner rather than in a "horizontal" manner. In other words, someone deciding to read the four gospels often starts at the beginning of Matthew and reads to the end, then does the same with Mark, Luke, and John. Readers doing this often do not pick up on the contradictions. Whereas readers reading "horizontally," -- taking one story and following it through each of the gospels will more readily find contradictions when he or she sees what is essentially the same story as told by different writers. Many mainstream scholars believe that the gospel writers felt free to modify earlier oral or written traditions about Jesus they had access to in order to support their own "takes" on Jesus.

I didn't think mormons even acknowledged the bible, at least for reading purposes they hardly touch the thing.

I think it depends where they are in the 4 year cycle rotation of scripture, if they still follow that plan.

What year are they in now? The BoM? I think last year was church history?

Edit to add: I looked. The curriculum for 2018 in Sunday school is the Old Testament



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2018 05:48PM by angela.

Gordon Hinckley said that the LDS church ‘is a biblical church’
https://ldsquotes.com/lds-quotes-by-author/gordon-b-hinckley-quotes/we-are-a-biblical-church/

However, this was Plain Palp:

1. What EXACTLY are the 'plain & precious parts' of Christ's gospel that LDS claim* were Left Out of the Bible, making the BoMormon 'necessary'?

I find that Honesty, Kindness, Respect for others, are easily located in the New Testament! (Yes Mormons, they're there!!)

2. The LDS DON'T FOLLOW THE BIBLE, notably on the subject of Divorce, which happens to be the Biggest threat to LDS & other families!!!

same - sex marriages: How are they a threat to LDS marriages?

same thing with homosexuality in general!

*https://www.lds.org/ensign/2006/10/plain-and-precious-truths-restored?lang=eng



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2018 07:30PM by GNPE.