Just curious, who's got the truth. Please don't tell me it's all of Christianity, the Lord wouldn't be the author of so much confusion. With all the differences of opinion about baptism, faith vs. works, the hereafter, gays & women in the clergy, etc., etc. Surely He told you which was His. Which one?
I am not so naive as to trust in the face value of your “just out of curiosity” disclaimer.
That said - I need not worry about declaring the spiritual landscape to be a free for all in the event that the answer to my prayers invalidates Joseph Smith’s pretense to anything other than the mantle of either a deceiver or an insane man.
Your claim that the Lord would not answer one prayer without also answering another (whether asked or not) presumes too much.
It places you in something of a consulting role, knowing how he can or should or must always and only answer such prayers.
You are placing artificial constraints on G_d; man-made limitations and/or expectations. He is not bound by the finite limitations of how you want His responses articulated, and it is not your place to direct how other people pray and petition Him, nor how He replies.
The simple straight-line point is this: If Joseph Smith is not entitled to the office of a prophet {He is not - he demonstrably and repeatedly fails the test of Deuteronomy} and his character is open to question, then Smith’s stories, “testimonies”, “prophecies”, and teachings are invalid on their face as I assert, and as I posit that the Lord affirmed in answer to my prayers, then so too is the mormon church.
Asking about both Smith and the church founded upon him is essentially a redundancy; the answer about Joey IS the answer about the church.
“This church is not true.” to put it plainly.
Therefore whether one or two or ten other churches are, or are not “true”, is scarcely even relevant to the direction of this discussion.
You make an enormous leap of illogic presuming to know the heart and mind of G_d, that he would not allow more than one church to flourish in His name, and that to do so would be somehow wrong and confusing.
It may be confusing to the simple-minded or unimaginative; it is not a challenge for me.
Christ spoke in parables often. A parable is the easiest way to illustrate the validity of there being more than “One” church in the world today that may be considered “of G_d”.
The church (in whole) is the body of Christ. One gathering of believers might be an arm, another a leg, and yet another, a foot or a hand. The body needs all parts - all members to function fully and properly. A hand cannot function as an eye, nor an elbow function as a mouth, etc...
Evidence of this is easily identifiable in the books of the New Testament. Just the mere fact that there are different letters...There are letters to the church in Ephesus, the church in Galatia, the church in Corinth, there is a letter to the Hebrews...
IN the Revelation of St John the Divine of Patmos, seven different churches are addressed, with words which alternate between praise for their worthy deeds and precautionary statements about their shortcomings. In some cases, they receive clear warnings of what will befall if they do not mend their ways. Pergamum, Thyatira, Laodicea...
Nowhere does the Holy Spirit caution man against multiple churches working in Christ’s name.
There is no confusion among true Christian churches about the doctrinal fundamentals. Those who assert things about gays in the clergy, are more than simply misguided, they have strayed far afield - well outside of Christ’s teachings and His example. Faith versus works is likely more of a question of the desires and individual choices among believers - regardless of their denomination. I know Catholics who firmly believe that Grace is enough to save them, and Protestants who believe you must go out and work and earn the right to “receive and possess” what G_d gave them freely already, through the transsubstantiation and propitiation of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
I know at least a few mormons who do not believe that they (nor any other of their fellow mormons) will ever be gods or godesses of their own planets - which is certainly what the LDS doctrine holds.
You as a mormon might call them a “cafeteria mormon” or even a Jack Mormon, depending how far outside the mainstream they were. Real Christians would probably call folk in their midst with similar problems “backsliders”, while devout Catholics look at people like Nancy Pelosi who is an evil flunky of the abortion industry, {IMO} and John Kerry and Ted Kennedy as almost entirely phony “cafeteria Catholics” - for picking and choosing what they want to believe, and what rules of G_d they are willing to support and obey.
“Please don’t tell me it’s all of Christianity” you bleat helplessly, stubbornly, and narrow-mindedly.
I am sorry, but as a matter of fact, whether you like it or not it IS most certainly ALL of Christianity...as you dismissively reference it.
[I’m telling you this anyway, knowing it is true and caring not about your protestations. Sometimes the truth hurts and also requires of you a flexibility of mind...]
Meaning “excepting mormons” and Jehovah’s Witnesses and other cults who deny what mainstream orthodox Catholic and Protestant Christianity have long held to be true about the nature of G_d, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the relationship which binds them together, while loosing the potential of the people who are inhabited by Christ and the Holy Spirit.
I will not suffer the Almighty G_d of the Universe, the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - the everlasting and only G_d - to be constrained by my mortal expectations and my human lack of capacity to fully understand and apprehend His ways.
Who says that only one church can be His? Not the Lord.
WHo says that the existence of more than one church inherently indicates confusion - and of a sort which G_d would not author? Not the Lord.
You - apparently. And Joe Smith and Brigham Young, and Talmage and Joseph Fielding Smith, and Ballard and Hinckley...
Naturally, mohammad says they were wrong too, and us mainstream Christians as well along with Joey boy
But I place very little trust in guys who lie too much and too often, who kill or try to kill their religious or political enemies, and who have a nasty tendency to have relations with underage girls.
That leaves Joey and mohammad both on the outs. If it is any consolation, I vehemently hate mohammad and virtually all he ever stood for, while I simply find Joey boy a contemptible fool and charlatan, who got what he deserved in the end - both his death, and his currently non-air-conditioned afterlife.
A.A.C.
HM... interesting question...
Just curious, who's got the truth. Please don't tell me it's all of MORMONism, the Lord wouldn't be the author of so much confusion. With all the differences of opinion about baptism, faith vs. works, the hereafter, gays & women in the clergy, etc., etc. Surely He told you which was His. Which one?
"We do not indorse the teachings of any so-called Mormons or Latter Day Saints, which are in conflict with the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as taught in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon. They have departed in a great measure from the faith of the Church of Christ as it was first established, by heeding revelations given through Joseph Smith, who, after being called of God to translate his sacred word--the Book of Mormon--drifted into many errors and gave many revelations to introduce doctrines, ordinances and offices in the church, which are in conflict with Christ's teachings."
-- David Whitmer (an elder in the Church of Christ), 1887
Today, there are as many as 100 organizations claiming to be a part of the Latter Day Saint movement, most centered in Utah or Missouri. Most regard their own group, however small, to be the only legitimate Christian church. Most of these organizations are very small, but overall, but the second largest denomination, the Community of Christ, reports over 200,000 members.
Just a sampling...........