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But let me ask you this. If I say the Mormons believe this, and you say but MY bible says that, then where does that get us?

We take it to the next level. When we get down to the details, Mormonism teaches the original manuscripts were lost and were in need of restoration. From where does this belief come? Mormons have no physical evidence to support their claim that biblical text was deleted, and in Mormons restoring the text we find text incompatible with Christianity. As you said, there is only one source of truth.

Incompatible with what? Incompatible with Christianity? As defined by who? You? Your priest, pastor, or bishop? By the Roman emperor who instructed the competing Christian faiths to get their act together?

Look, I know this line of reasoning sounds like post-modernist realativism to you but it isn't. I'm just trying to explain to you why I don't believe bible bashing convinces anyone. In the end it comes down to translations and ancient documents and who was arrested for what and when and why. There are snide remarks about printing presses being destroyed and polygamy. There are vile insinuations about things one side holds dear. None of it is productive.

But like I said I'm happy to try to answer your questions. I think I detected a question about where Mormons get the idea that there were lost manuscripts. Well, and again I'm not an authority and I don't speak for the church, but are you suggesting that everything that was written by the holy men in biblical times made it into what we today call the "bible?" Is everything there? Every last word? I havn't prayed about it, but I find that harder to believe than the possibilty that some past authority decided to leave out books that didn't "contribute" to the accepted beliefs of the day. I'm not suggesting the ommision was done out of evil designs. I'm just saying it's possible.

But the real crux of it isn't whether there are passages or manuscripts missing. The crux of it is whether you think God can reveal his will to man, or in this case a boy named Joseph Smith, as recently as 1830. If you don't believe that, then it doesn't matter what you believe about what is in the bible. If you don't believe in revelation, then you can't believe in Joseph, and the rest of the discussion is pointless.