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 ...
Some people show downright stupidity in these threads!
Hold this thought...
Hope you have a VERSE or two to back up your OPINION!
No. There is a difference between knowledge and belief.
Jude 1:3
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
Now then, back to you: HOW do you KNOW something?
LOL!
The Scriptures support LDS beliefs.
The interpretation, and the cherry picking of which Scriptures to read and which to ignore is the art of using Scripture to deny Scripture.
God bless
It makes me wonder why lds are so desperate to be called "Christian" when they have such disdain for them.
Examples:
“Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the Church of the Lamb of God [i.e.. the Mormon Church] and the other is the church of the devil [i.e.. the Christian Church]; wherefore whosoever belongeth not to the church of the lamb of God belongeth to that great church; which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.” (The Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 14:10).
Or maybe this:
"I must join none of them [Christian Churches], for they were all wrong…that all their creeds were an abomination in His sight” (Joseph Smith History 1:19).
How about this:
“…the God whom the ‘Christians’ worship is a being of their own creation…” (Apostle Charles W. Penrose, Journal of Discourses 23:243).
“The Christian world, so called, are heathens as to their knowledge of the salvation of God.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:171).
“The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:73).
“What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute best.” (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 13:225).
“What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing…Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest fools; they know neither God nor the things of God.” (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 13:225).
Brother Joseph B. Nobles once told a Methodist priest, after hearing him describe his god, that the god they worshiped was the “Mormon’s” Devil-a being without a body, whereas our God has a body, parts and passions.” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 5:331).
“The Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant church, is the great corrupt, ecclesiastical power, represented by great Babylon….” (Orson Pratt, Orson Pratt, Writings of an Apostle, “Divine Authenticity,” no.6, p.84).
“…all the priests who adhere to the sectarian religions of the day with all their followers, without one exception, receive their portion with the devil and his angels.” (The Elders Journal, Joseph Smith Jr., editor, vol.1, no.4, p.60).
“…all other churches are entirely destitute of all authority from God; and any person who receives baptism or the Lord’s supper from their hands will highly offend God, for he looks upon them as the most corrupt people.” (Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 255).
“Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the “whore of Babylon” whom the lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornication’s and wickedness.” (Orson Pratt, The Seer, p.255).
Jude 1:3
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
***
The Lord ways are not the world ways!
The spirit of the Lord does not teach to argue or to be nasty or unkind when the spirit of the Lord contends it makes known the love and truth of the Lord by the power of the Holy Ghost and those who are of His fold are converted.
1 Corinthians 2:
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth
Then why to you do it?
Buying time for the committee to meet and fashion a response, perhaps?
...the world continue to witness banter from the continues antis ...
“It is important to note what Alma’s words were. He did not claim Jesus would be born in the city of Jerusalem, but “at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers.””
Makes perfect sense to me!
God EXACTLY knew the location where Christ would be born. EXACTLY - down to the specific clan of Jesse.
Alma, written by Satan, only knew it was somewhere around Jerusalem, kinda within a few hundred square miles or so. He was not privy to the details of the Savior’s birth, but had a general idea of what God was up to.
“Thus, Joseph Smith gets it exactly right — the town of Bethlehem is in the “land of Jerusalem.” In fact, Bethlehem is only 5 miles south of Jerusalem: definitely “in the land,” especially from the perspective of Alma, a continent away.”
Actually, Joe Smith Fail, again. Residents knew the difference. God KNEW the difference. Had the mormonic verses been actually God inspired, Alma/Joe/Satan would have gotten it precisely right too.
Why didn’t he/they/his darkness know what God said with such precision?
ampu
Jude 1:3
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
***
“The Lord ways are not the world ways!
Restornu Fail.
If the faith was ‘ONCE FOR ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS”..
Why not polygamy?
Why no polytheism?
Why not Temple rituals?
Why no salvation by works?
Why no created Jesus?
Why not Naughty Holy Spirit?
Why no Heavenly Mothers breeding in space?
Because NONE of that mormon st*ff was delivered
“once for all entrusted to the SAINTS.
It came later, after satan had a time to think how he
could distort things and keep people out of the Gospel
of Grace!
By the way...
INMANS do exactly what you posted...
“contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”
Really, you couldn’t have posted a better Bible Verse.
ampu
You had me at hello.
You lost me at Satan.
I’m not playing.
“You had me at hello.”
Don’t think I said hello, but hello!
“You lost me at Satan.”
Yea, no one appreciates having their personal belief system
invalidated. I can understand that.
If it’s any consolation, you were “lost” in this matter
before you read the word “satan”. The great news is that
the real Gospel of Grace is open to you this very minute.
“I’m not playing.”
Me neither. I’m as serious as life or death - yours included.
As of December 31, 2009, there were 51,736 LDS missionaries serving in 344 church missions throughout the world. Their work, often in cooperation with local members, resulted in 280,106 convert baptisms in 2009.[12] Author David Stewart points out that the number of convert baptisms per missionary per year has fallen from a high of 8.03 in 1989 to just 4.67 in 2005.[13] He argues that the number of converts would increase if Mormon missionaries made greater efforts in meeting new people; he points out that the average companionship spends only four or five hours per week attempting to meet new people.[13]
How terrible it is that a handful of Christians post a handful of threads per week on FreeRepublic to counter the proselytizing efforts of the missionaries and public relations campaign of the mormon church. Don't you just feel SO sorry that the poor, persecuted mormons aren't able to have their message heard?
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