Mormons believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God...as long as it is plagiarized correctly."
Posted on 03/05/2011 1:44:43 PM PST by greyfoxx39
Stay on message
When the young men and young women of one stake donated many hours of community service to beautify public areas, a leader responded to a reporter’s query: "As members of the Mormon church we believe in serving others."
Though accurate, the response wasted an opportunity to promote our central message: We do what we do because we love Jesus. Because we love Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, we love our neighbors and serve our fellowman.
Said one Book of Mormon prophet, "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17).
Whether sharing the gospel online or across the street, the scriptures and “Preach My Gospel” are foundational. With purity, prayer and practice, we can share the simple truths of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Lord promises to "go before your face" and send "angels round about you, to bear you up" (Doctrine and Covenants 84:88).
-SNIP-
Keep it simple
Suppose a friend expresses concern about polygamy. You launch into a 10-minute dissertation about the 1890 Manifesto. Wrong! Your neighbor may be asking something else, like, "Won’t I feel ostracized if I join a church that teaches controversial things?"
By identifying the real concern, you can emphasize simple truths such as our love for Jesus Christ, eternal families and the plan of happiness. Keep it simple. Love and simplicity trump the scriptorian every time.
Avoid contention
It is human nature to defend oneself. But as seasoned missionaries know, debating theology is fruitless, especially when contention is afoot. The harder we defend insults, the easier it is to chase the Spirit from the conversation.
We needn’t get sucked into anti-LDS debate, whether chatting with neighbors or sharing online. Well-meaning members sometimes charge into contentious chat rooms, then stray from the central message about Jesus Christ, eternal families, the Restoration and the plan of happiness.
The Lord counseled, "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger" (Proverbs 15:1).
Avoid the knee-jerk contentions so prevalent in this instant-messaging, respond-without-reflecting world.
A word of caution
The open and unregulated nature of the Internet doesn’t always promote fact-checking, attribution or accuracy. Like the child’s game of whispering a phrase in succession to a long line of kids, the message can be unrecognizable at the end of the blogosphere line. Blog debate may be reported in mainstream media as fact when it is not.
Individual members of the church should avoid purporting to speak for the church as an "official" spokesperson.
The church welcomes honest debate. Elder Quentin L. Cook said, "In our increasingly unrighteous world, it is essential that values based on religious belief be part of the public discourse. Moral positions informed by a religious conscience must be accorded equal access to the public square" (Quentin L. Cook, "Let There Be Light!," Ensign, November, 2010)
In any public debate affecting the church as a whole, there is an order of things. The Lord governs his church through keys and councils. Area and General Public Affairs Councils are responsible for responding to media requests about proposed legislation affecting religious freedoms or attempts to erode core religious values.
By accessing keys through authorized priesthood councils, we assure clarity and unity of response, and we honor the Lord.
Preach the gospel
Elder Marion D. Hanks used to say, "Preach the gospel always. Use words only when necessary." Righteousness is our best sermon, but never discount the power of inspired words. By staying on message, keeping it simple and avoiding contention, our words will be thoughtful and our influence unlimited.
“The Power of Preach My Gospel”
.......Using the inspired content of Preach My Gospel, many missionaries have made dramatic improvements in their capacity to teach with conviction and to invite the confirming witness of the Holy Ghost. Recently I asked two assistants to a mission president to share the vision of Joseph Smith while I acted as the investigator. I planned to vigorously challenge them to see how they would respond. Yet the sincerity of their message, the purity of their intent, the skill with which it was delivered, even in a practice session, was so compelling that I could not do it.
You can observe this improvement yourself. Invite missionaries to present the first lesson to your family in your home. Better yet, invite neighbors to come to your home to be taught by missionaries. Guided by the Spirit, in their own words they will explain how Father in Heaven has used prophets throughout the ages to communicate His plan of happiness to His children. Feel their testimony as they bear witness of the sublime vision in which God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph Smith. They will skillfully unfold the subsequent events that restored the fulness of the gospel, with the authority to act in the name of God, on earth again. You can also accompany missionaries as they teach others these inspiring truths. Your presence will greatly strengthen those who hear these precious truths for the first time.
Intensive effort on the part of the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, other General Authorities, and most capable teams of devoted, experienced staff members produced Preach My Gospel and its planning tools. Those who participated in its development are witnesses of the inspired direction of the Lord through the Holy Ghost in the conception, framing, and finalization of the materials in Preach My Gospel.
After extensive testing in 14 missions, Preach My Gospel was adjusted. That result was reviewed, modified, and approved by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. On October 15, 2004, a worldwide satellite broadcast introduced mission presidents and missionary leaders to Preach My Gospel. Every missionary throughout the world was given an English copy. While many did not speak English, they felt part of the renewal of our missionary effort. Interestingly, some foreign-language-speaking missionaries were motivated to learn English. Early this year Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese versions of Preach My Gospel were distributed. By the end of the year, we anticipate that the guide will be available in most of the languages spoken by missionaries.
"Can you catch the vision? You’ll be as excited as I am when in your personal life you begin to understand and use this missionary tool. Unlike prior full-time missionary resources, Preach My Gospel is available to any leader or member through Church distribution."
Ping
That is just gross.
The fact Mormons have to train people like that, instead of relying upon the Holy Spirit to give them wisdom...
yeah instead of doing what Christ tells us and what REAL Christians do — relying upon the Holy Spirit —
Mormons have to do the CULT thing and teach people tricks of language and syntax in order to TRICK people into thinking they are Christians.
Mormons and liars will NOT enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Mark Twain said that without all the "and it came to pas" the bom would have been a pamplet
Mark Twain, Roughing it
Second in importance is the nature and identity of God the Father. Again, the "Elohim" of Mormonism is not the Creator God of the Christian Bible.
This is theology, and this is what separates Mormons from the Christian Church.
Shouldn't that be stay on the anti-Christian message and avoid answering any questions what so ever because if you do people will find out what we really believe and we can't have that now can we?
As we have seen on this forum, mormonism is "anti-Trinitarian", their god had to work his way up from man to be a god...just sayin'...
Gotta control that message...question for Christians reading this...have you ever had any restrictions put on you by your "church" as far as speaking for it? If you are asked what you believe, do you have to say, "Oh, wait a minute while I find my pamphlet of instructions on what I may or may not say about what we believe"?
Mormons believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God...as long as it is plagiarized correctly."
In all my years (and there are many) I have never had a pastor, lead elder or even Sunday school teacher tell me I could not speak what was in my heart to the person asking.
I have never had a pastor, or lead elder or Sunday school teacher tell me or anyone asking 'wait you are just not ready to hear that', 'milk before meat remember, I'll tell you when you are ready to hear'.
Good one...but someone whose name I will not mention will tell you that mormons have a Bible too...
Exactly! And that alone would disqualify Mormonism as Christian!
When the Mormon leaders speak, the thinking has already been done.
re: The main issue at dispute with Mormons is the identity of the Jesus they refer to.
Yes, it seems to me that while claiming that the church “welcomes honest debate” this Mormon leader is advising Mormons to change the subject rather than discuss the most important of Mormon doctrines. He tells them that “as seasoned missionaries know, debating theology is fruitless.”
The Bible in contrast says something different. “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15
Interesting, on one hand members are admonished not to get into “anti-LdS debate”, then on the other they “welcome honest debate”.
What qualifies as “honest debate” and what qualifies as “anti” debate in their minds/rules/regulations?
As many here have learned, any disputing of LdS doctrine qualifies as “anti”, yet few if any have qualified the “honest” aspect.
Sigh...
Thanks for pointing out the nice article! I’ll be sure to share it with all my friends.
A good good article. The comments following it by the anti-Mormon gang.... not so much. But hey that’s to be expected.
Thanks again!
If ANYONE brings up our SCRIPTUREs or our TEACHINGS; just ignore them.
NONE of us know what the HELL we are supposed to believe or say!
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