Posted on 09/29/2010 3:05:05 PM PDT by zippythepinhead
Atheists and agnostics know more about major world religions than many people of faith, while Mormons can answer more Bible questions than their Catholic and mainline Protestant counterparts.
Those are among the somewhat startling conclusions about religious literacy in America the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life drew after surveying 3,412 Americans.
Some of the multiple-choice questions were relatively simple: Where was Jesus born and who led the exodus from Egypt? What religion was Mother Teresa, what day does the Jewish Sabbath begin and what is the name of Islam’s holy book?
Others were more obscure: What is Indonesia’s dominant religion? Which Christians teach that salvation comes through faith alone?
About half the Protestants (53 percent) couldn’t correctly identify Martin Luther as the person whose writings and actions inspired the Protestant Reformation. Fewer than half of Americans (47 percent) knew the Dalai Lama is Buddhist and only 38 percent correctly associated Vishnu and Shiva with Hinduism.
John Morehead, director of the Western Institute for Intercultural Studies in Salt Lake City, had already noted religious illiteracy in the general population as well as in the evangelical community. But he did not expect Mormons to top them in their biblical fluency.
“Mormons tend to emphasize Mormon scriptures like the Book of Mormon rather than the Bible in their devotional life,” Morehead said in an e-mail.
Even some LDS scholars were surprised to find Mormons at the top.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Oh YEEEEEESSSSSSS
Iz GOOOOOOOOOOOD
High Five...
Daisy Dance...
:)
So I guess Stourme...that thief on the cross got lied to....Bummer for him.
Briggie Young owned slaves...
President Abraham Lincon did not..
In fact Lincoln belonged to a political party that had a platform against what they term the “Two Pillars of Evil” polygamy and slavery...
While Briggy Young practiced both...
Briggy Young was a bigot against both women and blacks...
J. Golden Kimball
Is he or she any relation to the Heber Kimball who sold his 14 year old daughter Helen to the child rapist Joey Smith for a pot of favors and promotion ???
Why didn’t you try for Beast and a Half?
Oh but you mustn’t weigh the behavior of selling a daughter to the peepstone sexual predator, because that person lived so many years ago, when lots of Mormons were doing it, for influence and empowerment don’tchaknow.
Faith...
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen....But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:1, 6
Gosh someone needs to tell God about that need for works thingy...
He didnt get the Memo...
Faith...
What about Abraham...
In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his FAITH.” Galations 3:6
Gosh no works there...
Lets see what Paul says...
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by FAITH in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our FAITH in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by FAITH in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. Galations 2:14-16
Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through FAITH. Galations 3:24
Ok, seriously. I can not see the difference between the blue and green very well. For me they look nearly the same. I notice some very slight difference but it is difficult. My kids think I am color blind, I refuse to admit it but your posts are making me think I have to give in to the fact I am.
LOL
Ah, I see you brought the crayons out again. Pronouns are part of what is being communicated stormy, just as the context of the passage provides insight as to what the writer was actually saying. See, your mormon doctine just cherry picks verses, twists their meanings and regurgates the smithian interpretation - absent solid grounding. Not surprising, since thats all they probably teach you to do in seminary.
1. We are indeed saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. There is no other way into heaven.
2. Jesus will decide who gets His grace by judging our works.
It's a very simple equation. The books of the Bible explain this. The prophets explain it. Evangelicals ignore it.
Tsk, tsk, tsk, and you say I ignore 95% of the bible. Show me where in the bible #2 is explicitly laid out. And while you scramble for a twisted verse, the bible is very clear about works and grace.
Tts 3:5 KJV - Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Eph 2:8 KJV - For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 KJV - Not of works, lest any man should boast.
You should spend less time in that piece of 1830 fiction and more time reading the bible.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
And you fail to define what the 'will of the Father' is stormy. It is -
Jhn 6:39 KJV - And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Jhn 6:40 KJV - And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
By judging their works you shall know them. And only those that *do* the will of my Father shall enter the kingdom of heaven. This is instruction given by Jesus Himself.
Well since Jesus also answered what the WILL of the Father specifically was, lets look at the 'fruits' shall we. What comes first, the fruit or the tree stormy? You don't get apples without an apple tree.
James 2: 17-20
Ah yes, James. Once again, did you bother to read the context stormy. As with the case before - which comes first - faith or works stormy? If the FAITH is true, then one's behavior should show evidence of that true faith. It is faith pulling the train, not works.
Latter-day Saints teach the same doctrine that James taught. Evangelicals ignore it.
Sorry friend, that is further from the truth than you can believe. See stormy, a study of what the whole bible says (and not just references to unnamed prophets, etc) shows that what “works” are understood by James to be the result of salvation: a person does good works because he is saved - not in order to be saved.
James also teaches in the passage that a person inherits the kingdom only by faith (James 2:5) and that Abraham was justified by faith (2:23). Hmmmm, too bad they didn't teach contextural reading in seminary huh stormy.
This is one of the many reasons I left evangelical christianity. If God truly was working through evangelicals He would be giving them greater insight into His kingdom and greater insight into His truths.
Yet in order for you to do this, you need to check you brain at the temple door and without questioning accept the words of a self-called 'prophet'. BTW, you didn't give me your favorite prophecies from monson. I'm dissapointed, but then he's still kinda a noob on the job. Maybe you have some favorite prophecies from hinkley then.
By claiming that adhering to laws, ordinances and works provides the means earning grace for salvation, James 2:10 is even more applicable to mormon legalism. How well are you earning your salvation stormy?
Because you embrace works, your life must be kept perfectly blameless before God, and failure to do so results in that you will not have eternal life (ALMA 5:27-31).
You must be perfect in denying ALL ungodliness too, right stormy - maintaining a perfectly sinless life. ONLY after you do this does God's grace apply to you (MORONI 10:32)
How successful are you in maintaining your perfectly sinless life and 100% keeping of ALL your covanants, laws and ordinances stormy? According to your doctrines, one sin will cause ALL of the previous sins to be placed against you again (DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 82:7).
How do we know you've repented in mormonism stormy - you completely forsake those sins (DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 58:43).
So, do you end up at your sacrament meetings having to renew your covanants again and again stormy? Of course you do - what does that make you? Doesn’t this make you an unrepentant covenant breaker? After all, if you truly did repent the first time by forsaking your sins, you wouldn’t need to continually repent again and again, would you?
Your God will not cut you any slack because of your sins will he (ALMA 45:16 and DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 1:31-32). In fact, as a sinner (and I'm sure you cannot get through even part of a day without sinning) as a result MORONI 10:32 doesn't help since you can't get grace while in sin. In fact, your doctrine teaches that you cannot be saved in your sins (ALMA 11:37).
So where does your mormonism leave you stormy?
Since “ye cannot be saved in your sins,” (ALMA 11:37) and you have not repented of ALL of your sins because you have not stopped breaking the commandments, how can the Jesus of Mormonism save you? If Mormonism cannot promise you forgiveness, what does your Church have to offer me?
That is the truth that you have adopted stormy. It is not what the bible teaches. It is why pronouns are important. It is why smith is a false prophet.
I sleep VERY well at night knowing that my sins are forgiven and that if I were to die right now I'd be in heavenly Father's eternal presence. Can you say the same based upon your doctrine presented above.
Mormon dictionary: Grace is something that has to be earned.
Real Dictionary: Grace is something that is unmerited (unearned)
Feel really sorry for mormon kids at smithmas time - having to work for the gifts they receive under the smithmas tree
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[ejonsie22 states]
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[Stourme responds]
Nah... I used to be a Southern Baptist.
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[ejonsie22 correctly states]
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[Stourme congratulates]
You're absolutely correct! Awesome! And that's the beauty of it. We want to do good works to glorify God because we have Christ in our hearts. That means that keeping the commandment of doing good works becomes easy.
1. The eternal laws that govern the judgment were put in place before the world was created.
2. God is no respecter of persons, therefore everyone is subject to the same laws and the same judgment.
3. John was allowed to see how the judgment will be carried out and he wrote his vision down.
4. The books of our life are opened and our works are judged by Christ. If we are judged to have followed His commandments, -His words not mine,-then we receive his Grace and are saved into His Father's kingdom. It is by the Grace of Christ that we are saved.
You can cry Lord!, Lord! all day long and it doesn't mean a thing unless you do the will of Father in Heaven.
You confuse ridicule for flattery.
Yes yes yes this feeble explanation is all over the evangelical apologetics sites. More quibbling over pronouns.
Try a substantive response. Exactly, why is it "feeble"? You know that the explanation is all over the place because most people find it compelling. You might label it as "quibbling" because you don't like the conclusion.
Evangelicals are pulling a Bill Clinton.. it depends on what is, is....
Besides the obvious logical fallacy (which if a Mormon critic would have done, DU would been all over it), those are two different situations. Just because Bill Clinton's argument over semantics was specious, doesn't mean that all arguments over the precision of words are wrong. The pronoun usage is clear in English and more importantly, in the underlying Greek.
The real influence the pagans had on the Christians of Corinth was that they began to deny the resurrection. So it doesn't make sense that Paul would then reference that influence as part of his correction when trying to correct the doctrine.
There are several problems with this but the most obvious is the underlying assumption that the views of the pagans were monolithic.
LOL
Snoopy and the rabbits
:)
Actually I should have call it “Happy Dance”
Yeah the ol’ everyone-was-doin-it syndrome...
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