Simple, Jesus and God the Father appeared to him and they were separate personages, thus Joseph Smith knew just as Stephen knew that God the father and Jesus were separate beings.
Why does the BIBLE describe what you have written as EVIL?
NIV Galatians 1:6-9
6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--
7. which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
9. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
ANYBODY???
Like this fine looking fellow???
2 Corinthians 11:12-15
12. And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.
13. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
14. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
15. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
Like THESE guys??
17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
Ephesians 2:1-2
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Why does the BIBLE describe what you have written as EVIL?
Simple, it does not...
NIV Galatians 1:6-9 6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--
7. which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
9. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
It says nothing there about accurately reporting a vision of God.
When the Bible was written the Trinity was not a doctrine, the Godhead was. An impartial reading of the bible reveals that God and Christ are separate beings who are one in heart might mind and strength. many of the Buddhists I met in Taiwan who had already read the bible, came to this conclusion and rejected "Christian" churches on the basis that they were not following their own Bible.
In short, the change Paul was warning about happened in 325 AD, it was called the changing of the Doctrine of God and Christ to the doctrine of God/Christ, that is the doctrine that is accursed.
You make fun of us, and hey, I can understand that, we make fun of ourselves too. (it's because we are secure) yet you do not understand the point, because you refuse to admit that we have one. and that just makes you look silly.
Yeah yeah, Satan can masquerade as an angel of light, except he does not answer prayers as "God" because God is "answering" and not letting Satan take his place, how do we know that? Simple God promised to answer a prayer of faith, not only that, but (and you had to know I was going to Go here) in
First John 4:1-3 it tells us how to know if a messenger is of God or of the Devil:
1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
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.
Thus, I who have read the Book of Mormon, and asked God according to the promises in the Bible received a witness direct from God that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are both his word, and at the same time that I was receiving a testimony of the Book of Mormon, I received a witness that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he died fro my sins, and that only through his grace can I possibly be saved.
This exactly and completely is what the Bible promises if an answer is of God.
what do you have?
You have a bunch of carefully edited quotations, you have mis-interpretations that ignore our statements that they are mis-stating our beliefs, you have documents like the salamander letter that are proven forgeries, yet are still prominent on anti Mormon web sites. You have colorful graphics and fonts. You have the company of those who believe that the ends will justify their means, when Christianity would teach you that the means must always justify themselves to God.
You have everything on your side but the truth, and God on your side, therefore you have nothing.
Elsie, I hope and pray the you will develop the faith to actually ask and believe the answer that God will ever place before you, I hope you listen to his voice above the howling of the world's "Wisdom".
