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“When they teach Christians to evangelize they teach us to speak the truth of the Bible, God and of course Jesus with love.”

Correcting error is by necessity a negative. The Apostles, God the Father and Jesus all did exactly that.

“Speaking with love softens hearts. Speak with anger or a heavy hand hardens hearts. Of course its not a simple exercise when faced with non-believers or people with lots of anger in their hearts.”

Speaking truth with love is the combination. Assuming there is no love just because error is identified and corrected is a false choice.

John the Baptist called both the Pharisees and Sadducees “a generation of Vipers” (snakes) (Matt. 3:7), he rebuked Herod the king. It was necessary to tell the truth - not just for their sake, but even more importantly to the others listening.

Paul continues this same instruction to warn believers about false teaching by writing: “”The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron...If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed” (1 Timothy 4:1-2,6)”

Paul corrected Peter to his face, calling him a hypocrite.

Paul wrote that if anyone presents a different Gospel, that he should be accursed.

The Apostle John wrote, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting”

The Apostle Paul tells us what to do an why: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

To end here, Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of prophecy by God the Father, made a whip and cleaned out those who turned the Temple into a marketplace.

There are a number of former mormons on FR who now know Christ because of these discussions.

How many mormons have you led to faith in Christ?

Speaking with love softens hearts. Speak with anger or a heavy hand hardens hearts.

Matthew 15:16
"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.

Matthew 23

1. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
2. "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
3. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
4. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5. "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
6. they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
7. they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them `Rabbi.'
8. "But you are not to be called `Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
9. And do not call anyone on earth `father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
10. Nor are you to be called `teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
11. The greatest among you will be your servant.
12. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
15. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
16. "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, `If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.'
17. You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
18. You also say, `If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.'
19. You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20. Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
21. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
22. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
23. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
24. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
28. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
30. And you say, `If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
31. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
33. "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
34. Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
35. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
36. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
37. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
38. Look, your house is left to you desolate.
39. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

Mark 7:26-27
26. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27. "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

Speaking with love softens hearts. Speak with anger or a heavy hand hardens hearts. Of course its not a simple exercise when faced with non-believers or people with lots of anger in their hearts.

Well, indeed speaking with love softens hearts...but not ALL hearts. Otherwise, God, the Perfect Lover & Perfect Speaker would have already converted about everybody to Him. (Right?)

If you were to "lecture" or "scold" a parent of a teen whose going thru either substance abuse or out-of-control neglect of most/all boundaries in life, your "Ya know, honey, speaking with luuuuuuuvvvvvv is guaranteed to soften the heart of that hormonal-laced rebel, ya know" comes across as sweep & syrupy & not actually very helpful in that given situation.

Whether you want to concede it or not, parents of such teens need to engage in "tough love." Heavenly Father often had to take a "tough love" approach in dealing with awol Israel.

As far as "anger" goes...#1...many of those who frequent these threads aren't X-Mormon...and therefore don't have oft' assumed "bitterness" motives. (I don't) I have been treated rather well by all the Mormon family/relatives in my life. I love them; they love me. And we get along rather sweetly.

For you to assume anger is involved is judging the inner person, which Scripture warns vs. doing (see 1 Samuel 16:7, for example).

You: "Speak with...a heavy hand hardens hearts."

Yet another assumption on your part. If you had a friend reaching out to someone in bondage to alcohol, drugs, lust, or pick your poison, and for you to come along and counsel them by saying: "Speak with...a heavy hand locks people in bondage" would be ludicrous. They would look at you with a look on their face like, "Haven't you got a clue? This person I'm trying to reach is ALREADY locked in bondage!!!"

You see, you're making an assumption that the heart being targeted isn't hard already! (May I suggest you start going thru the book of Acts -- say Acts 17, 18, 19 -- to see how Paul & Apollos witnessed the stiff religious Jews of their day in the synagogues?) That becomes the model for those who are stuck in their surface religious activity, yet don't know the One True God.