A couple of Mormon missionaries I have contact with required that I provide them some one the questions I had for them beforehand. So I submitted the following questions to them. The two did not have the decency to even answer the questions at all. How would you have answered these questions when you were Mormons?

1. According to Mormonism, the Book of Mormon is the most correct book. However, we know that major changes have been made to the Book of Mormon since the 1830 edition. Such changes are not merely made to the punctuation but changes were made to the grammar and the content of the Book of Mormon. How could the Book of Mormon be the most correct book when it has been edited repeatedly?
2. According to Mormons the Book of Mormons was translated from the golden plates using the urim and thummim. However, eye witness accounts indicate that Joseph Smith used a seer stone in a hat and when he grew tired of this setup began dictating it verbatim. While translating the plates were in another room. How does this qualify as having translated the Book of Mormon from the golden plates when nothing which was translated from the golden plates? What was the purpose of the golden plates?
3. The King James translation of the Bible is considered the very worst among the mainstream translations of the Bible as provided by protestant scholars and philologists using a computer algorithm compared with the NANTG text. The Book of Mormon uses verses of the KJV which contain translation errors. Would not Gd have known that these were mistranslations?
4. Gd choses persons of impeccable character as prophet so that no man could impeach the character of the prophet and make him to be a fraud. This is the case with the Jewish major and minor prophets. However, this is not the case with Joseph Smith. There is much evidence which exists to impeach the character of Joseph Smith Jr and his father. Why should one trust Joseph Smith Jr. what there is much evidence against the character of JSJ?
5. Much of the claims made by Jews in the Bible have evidence from archeology and anthropology. We have each of the coins mentioned in the Bible such as the drachma, denarii, temple currency etc. However, in the case of Mormon claims there is no independence collaboration save disproved claims by BYU. If there is no evidence what is the basis of placing one’s faith in Mormon claims? After all, there must be evidence and a reason for faith. Besides coins made of gold or silver will last several thousands of years. Roman silver coinage has been preserved with mere surface oxidation for two thousand years.

The internet is ruining missionary work!

Which is why they are concentrating on poor people in poor countries.

Back in the day we just said everyone was lying, and my senior companion would bear his testimony.

We believed it back then. It was nearly impossible to find the truth from credible sources; even the Tanners were thoroughly demonized. For kids that grew up surrounded by a strong community, Mormonism seemed believable.

Google changed that.

And the availability of information has changed the church, too. It used to be a confident faith, one that encouraged personal spirituality because it represented no threat to the religion. Once the internet put the church on the defensive, the leadership decided to circle the wagons. The result is a frightened, passive-aggressive community that no longer has any doctrine but "obey."

For the church, ignorance was bliss.

Exactly. This is why missionaries have all but disappeared from the streets of western Europe. Brazil and Sub-Sahran Africa are the new'growth markets'.

I always like to ask the following which the sisters and elders are never able to answer-
Has the Prophet Joseph Smith ever communicated with the leaders of the Church since his death? Does a Prophet's revelatory power end with his passing? Or do past and present prophets have the ability to communicate with each other?


The answer is actually yes. According to LDS sources. Brother Joseph is still on the loose in the afterlife-

http://www.ldsliving.com/Wilford-Woodruff-Recounts-Remarkable-Dream-of-Seeing-Joseph-Smith-in-Heaven/s/81610



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2018 06:40PM by perdition.

1. The Book of Mormon is kind of like science; the fact that it changes all the time to reflect to most recent updates and advances is what makes it so trustworthy.
2. The gold plates were blessed by Moroni with the power to emit a rather weak radio signal which was able to be picked up by either the seer stone or the Urim and Thummim. It had to be within the same building, but not necessarily the same room, in order for Joseph to pick up the signal.
3. It is a well-known fact that King James-era English increases a person's capacity to feel the Spirit, which is why the Book of Mormon has all those "thee"s and "thou"s in the first place. When Joseph was translating Nephi's quotations of Isaiah, he was inspired to insert the passages from the Old Testament in lieu of retranslating because people need to have high doses of spiritual insight in order to understand the very literarily-complex words of the prophet Isaiah.
4. Everything bad you've ever heard about Joseph Smith Jr and Sr are lies created by evil men under Satan's influence in an attempt to make them sound less believable. The same thing happened to prophets in earlier dispensations, but we just don't have the records of this ancient slander because the ancient scriptures were preserved by the power of God while the lies and slanders eventually faded in the wind.
5. God specifically allowed archaeological evidence of certain biblical references to be preserved to act as a sort of scaffolding while we develop our testimonies of Jesus Christ. Thus people of other faiths can only have a rudimentary understanding of the gospel because they need to be supported by physical evidence. When you take the next step and join the church that has the fulness of the gospel, you will have no need for physical evidence. The only evidence you need will exist in your heart.
There you have it folks! Being a Mormon just makes sense. ;)

You'll love this-
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2018/02/book-mormon-witnesses-archaeology.html

Mormon missionaries "required" you to provide them questions? They're 18-19 years old. They have no authority over anyone, and can't "require" anything.

And of course they didn't provide any answers; they don't have any, other than "it's all anti-Mormon lies."

But I do take issue with your fourth assertion, "Gd choses persons of impeccable character as prophet so that no man could impeach the character of the prophet and make him to be a fraud. This is the case with the Jewish major and minor prophets."

"Impeccable character" is a wholly subjective claim and not provable. But even so, would a man with "impeccable character" go and do this?

2 Kings 2:23-24, NIV:

23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. "Get out of here, baldy!" they said. "Get out of here, baldy!"

24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

I don't think even Dallin Oaks would do this, and his character isn't even close to "impeccable."

Ask more!

There are thousands of then out there. They don't know - or care - much though. Good luck!

M@t

These are the Jewish major and minor prophets. Keep in mind that the ab beit din were "prophets" (think of these as Jewish popes) but not in the same sense as the sixteen

Major Prophets
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Daniel

Minor Prophets
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

The only Dallin Oaks I know of is a State supreme court justice. Was there a mormon prophet by that same name?

kohan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How would you have answered
> these questions when you were Mormons?

I'm adhering to the spirit of your request, and answering as if I were a mormon...

> 1. According to Mormonism, the Book of Mormon is
> the most correct book. However, we know that
> major changes have been made to the Book of Mormon
> since the 1830 edition. Such changes are not
> merely made to the punctuation but changes were
> made to the grammar and the content of the Book of
> Mormon. How could the Book of Mormon be the most
> correct book when it has been edited repeatedly?

Because other books were corrected/edited MORE times for MORE things than the BoM. Being the "most correct" doesn't mean "perfect," just more correct than any other book. And other books had to have more corrections.

> 2. According to Mormons the Book of Mormons was
> translated from the golden plates using the urim
> and thummim. However, eye witness accounts
> indicate that Joseph Smith used a seer stone in a
> hat and when he grew tired of this setup began
> dictating it verbatim. While translating the
> plates were in another room. How does this
> qualify as having translated the Book of Mormon
> from the golden plates when nothing which was
> translated from the golden plates? What was the
> purpose of the golden plates?

They served as inspiration for Joseph to use his own personal Urim & Thumim (his seer stone, which was the same thing). Once he was spiritual and righteous enough to see the words appearing on the seer stone, he no longer needed the actual plates.


> 3. The King James translation of the Bible is
> considered the very worst among the mainstream
> translations of the Bible as provided by
> protestant scholars and philologists using a
> computer algorithm compared with the NANTG text.
> The Book of Mormon uses verses of the KJV which
> contain translation errors. Would not Gd have
> known that these were mistranslations?

God intentionally used the version people in Joseph's time were familiar with when he gave Joseph the words from "Isaiah" in the BoM on the seer stone. God's purpose there was to show that the Nephites had the same ancient prophecies as the Israelites did. If the translation errors had been corrected, they would have looked like different records.

> 4. Gd choses persons of impeccable character as
> prophet so that no man could impeach the character
> of the prophet and make him to be a fraud. This
> is the case with the Jewish major and minor
> prophets. However, this is not the case with
> Joseph Smith. There is much evidence which exists
> to impeach the character of Joseph Smith Jr and
> his father. Why should one trust Joseph Smith Jr.
> what there is much evidence against the character
> of JSJ?

Where is it written that God chooses people of impeccable character?
For example God chose David. Who slept with one of his soldier's wives, then had the soldier killed so he could take her. Who fooled around with boys. Who did much worse than Joseph Smith ever could have. Yet David was still God's choice, and David is still revered by Jews and Christians alike. Why hold Joseph Smith to a different standard than David?

> 5. Much of the claims made by Jews in the Bible
> have evidence from archeology and anthropology.
> We have each of the coins mentioned in the Bible
> such as the drachma, denarii, temple currency etc.
> However, in the case of Mormon claims there is no
> independence collaboration save disproved claims
> by BYU. If there is no evidence what is the basis
> of placing one’s faith in Mormon claims? After
> all, there must be evidence and a reason for
> faith. Besides coins made of gold or silver will
> last several thousands of years. Roman silver
> coinage has been preserved with mere surface
> oxidation for two thousand years.

Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence.
And there isn't as much "bible evidence" as you seem to think -- we have to take most of the bible stories on "faith." Why hold the BoM to a different standard?

(all of the above are my wording of things mormons have actually said to me!)

Further questions, How would you, if you were a Mormon answer these questions?

6. When exactly did the Catholic Church fall into complete apostasy according to Mormonism? What evidence is there for this claim? Did Christ not know that such a Church would fall into apostasy (according to Mormon claims)?
7. The Mormons claim that the Book of Abraham was translated by Joseph Smith. Since the discovery of the original Egyptian scroll from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Abraham, Egyptologists have been able to read the original Egyptian scroll. Egyptologists are unanimously conclude that the original scroll used by Joseph Smith was a common Egyptian Scroll of Breathing detailing common burial customs. Would this not make the Book of Abraham a hoax?
8. The synagogue did not come into existence until the Babylonian captivity. It was unknown to the Jews until after this period of time. How would the word “synagogue” have entered the vocabulary in the Book of Mormon when it was absent in the vocabulary of the Jews?
9. Reading the Book of Mormon one is struck with the Greek influence in the Book of Mormon even though the Jews of the time had little to no contact with the Greek civilization and the Greeks had no impact on the Hebrew language. Yet. Greek and even Latin words make it into the Book of Mormon. The Roman Civilization was not yet come into existence. How could this be?
10. Every civilization which has use iron has left archeological records of mines, kilns indicating metal work. Certainly the technology required for the manufacture of steel is far more greater. High temperature are required for the crystalline structure of the alloy. There has never been a culture which used steel which does not exist today – none have died out. The native population of the Americas have never used iron much less steel. Why should one believe in the Book of Mormon which makes claims contrary to the historic and archaeological record?

New name for the book of Mormon! It is book of nonsense and rasism