"If you truly believe the Bible, then you must obey it's instructions. If you believe the Bible, you will put the Book of Mormon to the test and get an answer, not just a guilty feeling." How many times have I written the post that explains I did 'put your Smithian "scriptures" to the test' and got a strong admonishment for doubting God to ask such a demonic question as you servants of the most low cajole others to partake. Your test is a twisted plea to doubt God and demand God respond to your demon's half-truths. Will you now use your Mormonism training to lie and tell us you forgot the previous posting responses to this demonic plea? Are you so drowned in the heresies that you now practice deceit openly, without guilt? There was a time when you were only deceived, but now you are a deceiver at your core.
on October 10th on a thread titled "Mormon ousted as an apostate", Post # 628, you said, and I quote:Have you ever prayed, asking if the Book of Mormon is true? I have, more than two decades ago, because my closest friend wanted me to. I was sincere, but the only answer I got immediately was to suddenly, coincidentally, meet a Bible teacher. I told him I was reading the Book of Mormon and had prayed to know if the thing was true scripture from God. His only response was a smile and a 'good luck, I'll pray for you to get your answer.' That's all. His name was Paul Wert, a pilot for a firm in B'ham AL.I quoted, and linked just so so lurkers will know that I am not making this up.
That very night when I opened the B of M to read, a sense of doing something I should not be doing came over me ... a lump in the throat type of guilt feeling! With that, I closed the book and put it on the shelf. Two or three weeks later, I had occasion to talk with Paul more directly concerning the Book of Mormon, when I joined his in-home Bible study. When I told him about the sense of guilt at reading the B of M, asking for a sign, he explain the wrongness of seeking after a sign where it concerns a likely conflict with what God has already told us ... 'never ask of God doubting that He has already provided', was Paul's admonition as best I can recall it. He then told me the specifics of what he prayed for me. I'm going to be using that prayer tonight, to pray for Christopher Hitchens.
I have kept that lesson in my heart as a reminder to not try and tempt God for signs and wonders. I still have Paul's copy of Fawn Brodie's No Man Knows My History, first edition, which he had leant to me a few weeks later during the Bible study at his home. He was killed in a plane crash and when I went to return it to his widow, Peggy told me to keep it, that Paul would want me to have it for reference in future Bible studies I would teach ... a word of prophecy, I believe, because at the time I was not teaching anyone anything about the Bible since I was such a new Christian myself.
It is interesting that Mormons will tell someone to 'pray and ask God if the Book of Mormon ...' (since there are passages from the Bible, the thing isn't wholly false, is it!), yet if you tell them you got a negative answer --not just no answer, a negative answer-- they will make some excuse and then tell you about their witness when they asked. Thankfully, some have come out from under the spell of Mormonism. Sadly, some have come out and gone into atheism or agnosticism.
I asked questions, like what did your best friend say when you told him, and are you still in touch with him after all these years? You declined to answer, instead berating me for questioning your anti-testimony.
Later, on another thread, you posted this:I have prayed the faulty prayer dictated to me by Mormon missionaries more than two decades ago, then I began reading the B of M. I got an 'answer' all right, a very negative one; not an answer directly tied to the truth or falsehood of the B of M, a very clear rebuke for asking something that has at its root the implication that God has not provided sufficiently for me a new faither in Christ Jesus. Satan used that trick with Eve, implying that God had left out something vital to Eve and Adam. It took a mature Christian to explain to me why I got a rebuke. Thankfully, he was there to guide me at a time when confusion was growing. Again I declare, at the root of Mormonism is the demonic lie that that which Jesus said would not be defeated by the gates of hell, was actually defeated for a season of approx. 1700 years, and in need of 'restoration' with a lying, adulterous, treasure divining false prophet who fabricated materials he claimed were 'from God' and even rewrote the Bible to try and fabricate prophesies of his 'coming in these latter days.' THAT great heresy that God has lost or left off something vital is the same lie sown by Satan in the Garden!When I asked if it was the Missionaries, or your best friend who gave you the book. You got mad at me and proceeded to accuse me of being a liar. I asked for clarification between the two stories, and you stopped talking to me. Here is the post, and here is what I said:So you kept going to talk to "Paul", but did not communicate with your closest friend. Paul tells you you had been seeking a sign and you believe him over the request of your closest friend. This sounds a bit strange to me, you were willing to to call me a liar with less to go on, but I will just ask, what did your closest friend say when you told him what had happened?I will of course point out what I did before, there is no prayer dictated by Missionaries, there is a form to use for those who have never prayed before Investigators (those investigating the Gospel) are encouraged to use their own words and thought ins prayer as soon as they are comfortable, I was a missionary, I know. this.
Second can a man trick God? God is perfectly capable of telling you if part of a book is true, which parts, or if the whole thing is false, he is all powerful.
God has commanded us in many places in the Bible to ask him for that which we most desire. "Ask and ye shall receive", "Knock and it shall be opened unto you." And my favorite: First John 4:1-31 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.I like this particular quotation because in the same chapter, in context with the command to "ask" and "try the spirits", is a prescription for knowing if a spirit is of God. MHG, many times you have told me that Joseph saw the devil appearing as an angel of light, you have also told me that my witness came from the devil answering my prayer and not God. When I prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true, I received a witness of it, and of the Savior as my personal savior who came in the flesh. This means the Bible says It is of God. Neither of your stories includes a testimony of Jesus, indeed your posts here do not include such a testimony, thus I have to ask the lurkers, who is here, really representing God, the poster who testifies of him? or the poster who testifies of the power of the Devil? You decide.
2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
U Said: Your test is a twisted plea to doubt God and demand God respond to your demon's half-truths.
No one who encourages you to pray to God can deceive for long, for once God answers the prayer of faith, truth reigns.
U Said: Will you now use your Mormonism training to lie and tell us you forgot the previous posting responses to this demonic plea? Are you so drowned in the heresies that you now practice deceit openly, without guilt?
I have not denied your prior posts, but linked to them. I have not striven to deceive. Deceit takes intent. If I am wrong, it is an honest mistake. I hope that your mistakes here are also honest mistakes for I would hate to impute base motives to a fellow Conservative, a fellow Christian without cause.
U Said: There was a time when you were only deceived, but now you are a deceiver at your core.
Lets test this out, shall we?
I testify that Jesus is the Christ, that he came down to the earth, and was born of a virgin to live and die for my sins, in him only have I hope of salvation. I know this to be true for it was testified to me by God in answer to a prayer about the Book of Mormon, I received this testimony at the same time that God told me the Book of Mormon is true. Thus, I know this message is of God for the Bible tells me so. (See First John 4:1-3)
My fondest hope is that everyone will have the experience of receiving a testimony from God about Jesus, the best way I know for people to know is for them to pray about the Book of Mormon and ask God for a testimony of both. That is why I post, that is why I take the slings and arrows of mine adversaries with as much mildness as I can muster, for I am about my saviors business.
Lurkers, feel free to decide who represents who here, OK?
God bless you all, may God testify to you of all his truths and warn you of all Satan's lies. Amen.