How Can Glenn Beck Be Right on So Much and Yet Still Believe the book of Mormon? (serious question)

[Scythian]

I'm a huge Beck fan, in fact I'm listening right now here

http://www.ksfa860.com/common/gap_streamer.php

but something really confuses me. It takes the ability to use real critical thinking to know what Beck (and most of us know about the state of the country and where we are heading). That is, we have the ability to discover the truth no matter how much the media or conventional wisdom try to hide it. Yet on Mormonism, Beck is cleary wrong. Any Christian knows that the book or momonism is severely flawed and that Joseph Smith was no prophet. How can Beck cut through all the chaff of what is going on in our world and come to the truth and yet believe the writings of Joseph Smith? It doesn't make sense? I'm not saying he's up to something secret, not by any means, it's just that he's so right about so many things and completely wrong on the most important thing. Now, he just said on the air that he believes Jesus is the Savior of the world and that he is Mormon.

I also think that because he is Mormon he is not attacked near as much if he was a Evangelical Bible only believer. Anyway, am I nutz or does Beck being a Mormon seem bizarre?

[Tennessee Nana]

Hey, when was the last time mormon leaders marched against abortion ???

or spoke out against abortion ???

When was the last time mormons spent the same amount of money, effort and man hours working against abortion as they did for Prop 8 ???

If they had spent that money time and effort supporting our Conservative candidate for POTUS, Barry might not be in the White House...

BTW has Beck ever had a program about abortion ???

[Tennessee Nana]

In fact, your belligerent and intolerant behavior is remarkably unlike Christ.
____________________________________________

You got Bible scripture that says Jesus readily agreed with the religious people and hypocrites of His day ???

[greyfoxx39]

Their obsessive/compulsive behavior & their uncanny knowledge & use of the liberal playbook (misrepresentations, distortions, out of context, lies, all in a very familiar way to Conservatives) certainly makes one go hmmmm. Trojan horse? I would be inclined to think not, but I do wonder.

"misrepresentations, distortions, out of context, lies,"

What the Official Mormon Church Website (and FR mormons) Will Not Tell You

"They interpret the scriptures as giving them license to do what they do, & do what they do in the name of the Lord. I imagine the Lord isn't too pleased (IMHO)."

Interpreting scripture, eh? This statement from one whose leaders made this "doctrinal statement":

First Presidency Doctrinal Statements
It is not only his discourses that form the basis of Joseph F. Smith's doctrinal legacy. During his presidency, several important documents signed by the First Presidency and/or the Twelve were issued that still serve as a touch stone of Latter-day Saint belief. One such document, The Origin of Man: By the First Presidency, was issued in 1909 during a time when evolution was gaining attention in the academic world.

They wrote:

"In presenting the statement that follows we are not conscious of putting forth anything essentially new; neither is it our desire so to do. Truth is what we wish to present, and truth--eternal truth--is fundamentally old. A restatement of the original attitude of the Church relative to this matter is all that will be attempted here. To tell the truth as God has revealed it, and commend it to the acceptance of those who need to conform their opinions thereto, is the sole purpose of this presentation. 'God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.' In these plain and pointed words the inspired author of the book of Genesis made known to the world the truth concerning the origin of the human family."

They added:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, basing its belief on divine revelation, ancient and modern, proclaims man to be the direct and lineal offspring of Deity. God Himself is an exalted man, perfected, enthroned, and supreme. By His almighty power He organized the earth, and all that it contains, from spirit and element, which exist co-eternally with Himself. He formed every plant that grows, and every animal that breathes, each after its own kind, spiritually and temporally--'that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal, and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual.' He made the tadpole and the ape, the lion and the elephant but He did not make them in His own image, nor endow them with Godlike reason and intelligence. Nevertheless, the whole animal creation will be perfected and perpetuated in the Hereafter, each class in its 'distinct order or sphere,' and will enjoy 'eternal felicity.' . . . Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God."

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/biography/000128jfsdoctrinelegacy.html

Interpreting scripture?

From the LDS creed, called Articles of Faith, No.8. "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

All in the name of the Lord, eh, Reno?

[ejonesie22]

All in the name of the Lord...,/p>

Shouldn't that be "lords"...

Hate for anyone to get slighted now...

[gunnyg]

ThankYa Elsie—much appreciated!

I still haven’t found it on the I’Net yet—I think I must have read it in either Cults of Unreason or Kingdom of the Cults.

But I believe it must have been the Rev Spalding (original author plagiarized)that I was looking for that was said to have been in jail in upstate NY w/young Joseph Smith.
Several sources well documented for this...

http://www.truthnet.org/mormon/mormonismunveiled/19solomonspalding.htm

many more.

None of those I have now seen mention that the good reverend was said to have been in the slammer w/Smith, and that being how Smith came by Spalding’s manuscripts, etc.
Writers for/of Spalding likely not wanting to mention their guy being in the pokey.

Just wanted to get back to you, and thanx—a bit windy, I know—thanx for putting up w/me.

Semper Fidelis
Dick Gaines
**********

[NautiNurse]

Here are a few passages that reflect Jesus' teachings...

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

...and The Beatitudes fit nicely at this juncture.

In summary: arrogance, belligerence, and intolerance are very unlike Christ. If Christ walked among us today, I don't believe for a moment he would be throwing flame torches and spears via keyboard to Mormons as so many here do in the name of Jesus.

[ejonesie22]

What you state is very true and is the way Christians should treat each other, indeed we are directed to do so by Christ himself, turn the other cheek etc.

Of course with that you are missing one little issue and the equally important directives of Christ that pertain as well...

[Tennessee Nana]

If Christ walked among us today, I don’t believe for a moment he would be throwing flame torches and spears via keyboard to Mormons as so many here do in the name of Jesus.
________________________________________________

Nor do I...

Jesus in His day had invitations as keynote speaker at conferences...

Thousands came to hear Him speak...

He wouldnt need to stay at home behind a keyboard..

When He got to the conference He said...

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Matthew 23:27-39

(And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’)

[Reno232]

Thanks for your contribution to the Conservative cause today GF. /Sarc

My best to you & yours.

[Colofornian]

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?...In summary: arrogance, belligerence, and intolerance are very unlike Christ.

Hmmm...Boy my plank-meter detector sure just went off with these descriptors you gave...did you find that arrogant, belligerant, intolerant sawdust you were looking for in TN's eyes? Wasn't it kind of hard with such limited visibility?

[See anybody can play that one-upsmanship game -- including me...In fact, we could go round & round on that one...another poster could join us and ask me, "C, did you find that sawdust you were looking for in NN's eyes?"...and then where would it stop?]

And speaking of intolerance, why have you been so intolerant of comments by TN and myself & a few others on this thread? I mean, tolerance isn't one of my highest virtues...but apparently is yours. But that then means, if you're going to export that as a standard you expect others to uphold, I'd suggest you'd better start practicing it yourself. (Otherwise, what are we supposed to do? Believe what you say -- "be tolerant" -- or follow your actions -- your religious intolerance toward us.)

(I tell you once you play high & mighty on the tolerance card, 'tis a slippery slope unless you're a consistent social/spiritual libertarian across the board)

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

(Boy, I guess whatever your perception of what TN did was tied to your above comment, Well, you sure tried to do it back "unto her," that's for sure!)

[Tennessee Nana]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

The NIV...

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Matthew 7:3

This would pertain to the mormon’s obsession with deviant sex practices of others while their own religious doctrine is based on the need for a lifestyle of polygamy in order to get into their mormon heaven...

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. John 8:7

Ditto.. Joey Smith was a sinner and a hypocrite..Self righteousness is written into the mormon doctrines..

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Matthew 7:12

Again Joey Smith practiced this one...Do unto others before they do it to you...Joey Smith sinned against others but accused his victims of doing the same to him..Smoke screens..

“and The Beatitudes fit nicely at this juncture.”

If they fit then where are they ???

“arrogance, belligerence, and intolerance are very unlike Christ.”

Do mormons get addressed with these same words ???

arrogance, belligerence, and intolerance are very much the mainstay of the mormon god...Read some of Joey Smith’s teachings...and the teachings of his later “prophets”...

mormons follow these “prophets”

They have to say everything Joey Smith and the prophets said or wrote is “true”

Christians believe Jesus and the Bible...

Mormons teach against Christians and the Bible...

and instead say that Joey Smith and the book of mormon are “true”

BTW do you ever read some of the comments by mormons ???

[restornu]

LOL it gets to you and no matter how ye protest your tongue will reveal your motives!:)

[greyfoxx39]

Thanks for your contribution to the Conservative cause today GF

 

The self-importance of mormons never ceases to amuse me...Beck's mormonism is the "Conservative cause of the day", huh?

 

A few FR articles currently being discussed by Conservatives that are much more important than whether you mormons get your widdle feeling hurt :

 

Virginia Polls Confirm Big Lead For Conservatives

 

Joe Lieberman: I'll filibuster Harry Reid's plan(Lieberman Will Join GOP Filibister Of ObamaCare)

 

Obama --- Signing away sovereignty

 

GOP Reps. Cole And Rohrabacher Back Conservative Party's Hoffman In NY-23

 

Rep. Stupak calls on President Obama to act to support abortion funding restrictions

 

Bishop Tobin asks Rep. Kennedy to apologize for 'irresponsible' comments

 

Net Neutrality Sought by Government Officials Seeking More Control (Updated)

 

Doug Hoffman vs. Dede Scuzzyacorn: Buh-bye, Dede

 

BTW, your posting history seems to indicate that you don't bother with "Conservative causes on FreeRepublic"

As shown here

Someone thought that was quite important in Colofornian's case.

Whereas, I, except for THIS thread, have been concerned with "Conservative" issues.

[Elsie]

It just shows how little many critics really know about The (True) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the War in Heaven which is carried on today!

I'd be happy just to learn what JS found to be UNTRUE about PRESBYTERIANism of his day.

It appears that NO mormons have a clue; either.

[Elsie]

Golly!

PRESBYTERIANs believe everythjing you just posted!

[Elsie]

Golly!

PRESBYTERIANs believe everything you just posted!

[Elsie]

Eph 4 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism...

Well...

Except for that Baptism for the Dead thingy we MORMONs do...

--MormonDupe(I just wonder how we'll EVER find out the NAMES of folks way back in time that left no record...)

[Elsie]

...I am thru 'reading' your ravings.

Sorry you feel that way about MORMON writings.

[Elsie]

 

 So "written" is defined as a scribble from words dictated by a man looking into a hat claiming the words were being "translated" from golden plates that were "taken by an angel" into heaven as an explanation as to why the plates cannot be examined for authenticy and the world is to take the word of a handful of men who may or may not have actually seen these plates.

The "Caractors" are the only tangible evidence in existence related to Smith's story.

 

 No gold plates, no brass plates, no peep stones, no Urim and Thummim... only these "Caractors," not a single one of which is in the purported languages.

 

---

 

Smith's translation of the Caractors. According to Martin Harris (Joseph Smith - History, 1:64), "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated,* and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters."

Speak right up now in all truthfulness. Isn't it revealing how Smith started out making a stab at creating believable "caractors" but quckly gave up and produced nothing but squiggles, ending up wih a series of nothing more than crude little scribbles? Yet Professor Anthon supposedly translated them!

---

*Harris must have had two or three pieces of paper with him—one with characters and a translation of them (on the same paper or a separate one) and one with untranslated characters—quite likely the "Caractors." Some Mormon "scholars" have gone out on a limb, sawed it off, and knocked themselves out trying to translate from these true Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters a segment that would correspond with a verse from 1 Nephi.

---

Modern-day experts in Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. In 1829, any knowledge of these languages possessed by U.S. scholars would have been rudimentary at best. Expertise in them has vastly improved since then. So go ahead, do it. Get any modern expert in these languages to identify which of these "Caractors" are Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic. Better still, accept the claim of Mormon apologists that Anthon did indeed so testify and that his appraisal of the Caractors was correct. (Op. cit, pp. 73-75)

Save your money! Samples of Assyriac/Aramaic and Arabic writing:

     .
 

     .
 

      .

 

What say you? Which of Smith's "Caractors" resemble the Assyriac and Arabic ones? No need to pay experts for their analysis. A child could accurately check this out. These writing systems have remained constant for well over 3000 years.

[Elsie]

 

 So "written" is defined as a scribble from words dictated by a man looking into a hat claiming the words were being "translated" from golden plates that were "taken by an angel" into heaven as an explanation as to why the plates cannot be examined for authenticy and the world is to take the word of a handful of men who may or may not have actually seen these plates.

The "Caractors" are the only tangible evidence in existence related to Smith's story.

 

 No gold plates, no brass plates, no peep stones, no Urim and Thummim... only these "Caractors," not a single one of which is in the purported languages.

 

---

 

Smith's translation of the Caractors. According to Martin Harris (Joseph Smith - History, 1:64), "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated,* and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic; and he said they were true characters."

Speak right up now in all truthfulness. Isn't it revealing how Smith started out making a stab at creating believable "caractors" but quckly gave up and produced nothing but squiggles, ending up wih a series of nothing more than crude little scribbles? Yet Professor Anthon supposedly translated them!

---

*Harris must have had two or three pieces of paper with him—one with characters and a translation of them (on the same paper or a separate one) and one with untranslated characters—quite likely the "Caractors." Some Mormon "scholars" have gone out on a limb, sawed it off, and knocked themselves out trying to translate from these true Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic characters a segment that would correspond with a verse from 1 Nephi.

---

Modern-day experts in Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic. In 1829, any knowledge of these languages possessed by U.S. scholars would have been rudimentary at best. Expertise in them has vastly improved since then. So go ahead, do it. Get any modern expert in these languages to identify which of these "Caractors" are Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac and Arabic. Better still, accept the claim of Mormon apologists that Anthon did indeed so testify and that his appraisal of the Caractors was correct. (Op. cit, pp. 73-75)

Save your money! Samples of Assyriac/Aramaic and Arabic writing:

     .
 

     .
 

      .

 

What say you? Which of Smith's "Caractors" resemble the Assyriac and Arabic ones? No need to pay experts for their analysis. A child could accurately check this out. These writing systems have remained constant for well over 3000 years.