“See if you catch the contradiction in the following Mormonism syllogism: “The real test is to study the doctrine and ask God if it is not true. If you do so will [sic - ‘with’] real intent, God will show you the truth.””
Talk about trying to make one an offender for a word!
Consider the sentence: ‘Is it not true?’. You can look at it as ‘Is it (not true)?’ (asking if it is false) or ‘Is it not (true)’ (asking if (perhaps even implying) it is true).
If you really to split semantical hairs by those rules, apply that rule to the Bible as well. Consider:
1 Cor. 10: 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
The only problem here is with old English phraseology parsed incorrectly.
Even accepting that kind of parsing, I fail to see any problem. If you read the BoM, ponder it sincerely and honestly think it’s fake, I would still say pray to God, tell him that that is what you think of it, and ask if your conclusion is correct or not. The verse is not there to assert it is true or not true, the intention is to encourage you to pray and find out from God.
“Asking if something is untrue is a way to exclude God answering directly.”
That is your own idea, I don’t limit God’s ability to answer prayers like that and see no reason in scripture to do so.
“Notice how James doesn’t say ‘ask if something is untrue’ or ‘ask if it is not true.’ Wisdom is not ‘delineating what is untruth’; wisdom is knowing The Truth for to know The Truth you are freed from the untruth because it cannot stand in the light of Truth.”
Is there wisdom in not knowing that something false is false? Is there wisdom in not knowing that something true is true? It makes no difference whatsoever to ask if something is true or if something is not true. God is perfectly willing and able to answer either, and in either case his answer will impart wisdom.
“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.”
Yet James says when God answers he ‘upbraideth not’.
“I have yet to read a Mormonism Apologist explain to me the difference between fruit of the spirit and fruit of the striving flesh.”
The fruits of the spirit are given to your spirit by the Holy Spirit, they are not something you can see externally, they are something you feel in your soul. By recognizing their presence you can identify when the Holy Spirit is present, and the Holy Spirit will not be present when false doctrines are being taught, rather it is his job to be there when true doctrines are taught so that people are lead to belive them. Look at what happened on the Day of Pentecost, those who heard were ‘pricked in their hearts’, they felt the confirming witness of the Holy Ghost.
Now Christ said ‘by their fruits ye shall now them’ and this clearly refers to externally visible results. Now if you are going to just brush off those kind of results as just ‘the fruit of the striving flesh’ and hence something to be ignored, then you are also saying Christ was handing out some really useless advice.
Now you have a point that those external results are brought about by human effort, but why is that effort made? What is it that motivates such effort? All human effort stems from faith, and so when someone had faith in something true, they will exert effort as that faith directs, and the results of that effort will be good fruit. If someone has faith in something false, they will exert effort as that faith directs and the results will not be good fruit.
The results of living the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints results in good fruit. Trying to find a way to claim that we are a thorn bush that produces grapes sets aside the word of Christ.
“It makes no difference whatsoever to ask if something is true or if something is not true.” It is a blindspot that those caught up in Mormonism cannot see beyond. If I stack up 98 monopoly dollar bills and include two real dollar bills in the stack, sticking out so they are plainly visible, (1)is that a stack of fake money? (2)Is that a stack of real money? (3)Is that a stack with spending potential of two dollars? How one asks a question of God sets the attitude of the asker ... God does not deal in untruths and half truths; 98% untruths are untruths ... the stack has two dollars worth; questions (1) and (2) are meaningless for the truth. What will follow now for many posts from the Apologists of this cult will be parsing to avoid The Truth.
1 Cor. 10: 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?