After having a reference to a quad of scriptures, how to you look at the "extra scriptures" that the mainstream christian churches don't use? How do you handle the references to Christ in the Book of Mormon now? Is it difficult to have just the old and new testaments as scripture?

I don't know, but I guess it takes time for christians to get used to it.

I use the Book of Mormon as fiction stories or sermons which can illustrate a point. The Pearl of Great Price and Joseph Smith "Translation" are worthless. The Doctrine and Covenants has a few good verses. The rest is utter nonsense.

I don't put a lot of stock in the Old Testament. I don't really care if the stories are true or not- but can find good in many of them.

I like most of the New Testament and love Romans. I stay pretty focused on the "Good News" and the rest is trivial pursuit knowledge IMO.

I still like some stuff in the bofm- "opposition in all things" and still think Ammon is pretty cool even though he is a cartoon character...

Topping...would like more opinions please....

Topping...would like more opinions please....

really hard to read / follow. DC was the best of a very sad grouping of stories/writing.

I guess to converts it may be different, but it's really hard to stay on track with what I was reading.

Also all the "it came to pass" was a little embarrassing to keep running into.

I didn't have the problem with the Bible or Koran, but even with them I tended to look at them like I did with Aesop's fables. Storied that usually had a point, some true, some trying to illustrate a point.

My daughter was brought up Christian and converted to Mormonism. (sigh)....I always wondered how she adjusted to the quad.....like what is in there that would be so needed from what she knew growing up? The B of M???? Seriously???? Anyhow, I would think that giving up the other three once you are out of the LDS faith would be fairly easy once you truly focused on the Bible which I understand Mormons don't do and for sure they don't focus on Jesus.

His 'scriptures' become a non-issue.

out

I completely disregard the other scriptures, they are fiction and meaningless.

I got a new bible, King James is hard to read and historically its not as good as other translations. I like the New Living Translation if I just want to read through it easily. I use the New American Standard Bible for a more literal translation.

The history of how the bible was put together is pretty incredible. Especially with the new testament there have been hundreds of copies that are extremely old found all over the world which show us that they have been translated and copied correctly.

Amazingly the more I study the bible, the more and more it makes sense, Christianity makes sense, and God makes sense. The exact opposite of how I felt with Mormonism, where the more I studied the less all those things made sense.

In my experience Mormons tried to down play the bible and make it seem incorrect and incomplete. They do this to elevate the Book of Mormon and the words of the LDS church presidents. That way when Mormonism doesn't match up which the bible (and it often doesn't) They can say the bible is flawed.

How ever I want you to know when you compare the bible to other ancient manuscripts it is amazing how many copies there are how much evidence there is that it is true to the original authors. (Many ancient documents we base our history books on only have a few copies.) Also as you study the bible the same themes, lessons, and theology is present throughout the old and new testament. The Mormon claims, that people changed the bible and that it was mistranslated, are not based on any actual evidence. I hope you can deprogram your mind from their baseless attacks and learn to understand the bible for what it is, not what Mormons claim it to be.

I highly recommend you through away your quad, get a good study bible, and joining a bible study to help you learn what the word of God actually says.

ItsGettingBetter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
... there have been hundreds of copies that
> are extremely old found all over the world which
> show us that they have been translated and copied
> correctly...

> How ever I want you to know when you compare the
> bible to other ancient manuscripts it is amazing
> how many copies there are how much evidence there
> is that it is true to the original authors.

The problem is, we don't know if the copies we have are true to the original authors because we don't have the original authors manuscripts to compare them to. We only have copies written several hundred years later. Comparing later copies to each other really is useless. All that proves is that more recent copies are true to copies written in the 4th century AD. We don't really know if these earlier copies are accurate either.

I was a convert and originally raised as a Bible believing Christian. Switching back to only the Bible has been a breeze. I love that I can choose my own Bible translation. It simplifies my life!

Love "ItsGettingBetter's" post. They are MEANINGLESS. I was raised Protestant and still believe along those lines.

I threw away my quad and went back to the Bible with a clean sheet of paper and basically rebuilt my beliefs from scratch.

I've always thought most of Genesis was on par with mythology, but that's ok. Every religion has a "where we came from" slant and they serve a purpose. I do not believe in literal word-for-word truth at all. But I do know the Bible has some degree of historical accuracy.

I was happy that I was able to rebuild my belief around the Trinity. The Bible gives me great assurance, encouragement, and hope.

There is in existence a full text of the Gospel of John that is carbon dated to aproximately 100 AD. St. John lived to be 100 or more years old. So this is pretty darn near to the time it was written and it is even possible that it may be the original.

I didn't read the Bible/BoM for years after I stopped going to the LDS church. I didn't pray, I was confused and didn't know what to believe. To make a long story short I had an AMAZING spiritual experience in which God literally took the mormon blinders off my eyes and Chritian beliefs all made complete sense to me (back when I was mormon, Christian beliefs were very confusing to me).

I've had no problem at all tossing my LDS scriptures and getting myself a new non-LDS Bible. I still remember as a mormon coming across a Bible scripture that didn't fit into LDS beliefs and instead of questioning, making up an excuse of why it didn't make sense (and of course it was always ME).

I feel that my life has been simplified now. It's like going through your overcrowded closet and throwing out bags and bags of unneeded clothes and keeping just the articles you know you actually wear and need. It feels refreshing, less cluttered and confusing!

And oh by the way, it feels INCREDIBLE to have those mormon blinders off!!