(Tell us, DU...exactly how long have you had trouble with that vocabulary word, "universal"???)
Has your church, if you have one ever claimed to be the "true church" or declared another group to be apostate (like us for example?) If so, you have nothing to complain about.
(Nice try...#1 show me a Protestant or Evangelical church which puts the word "ONLY" in front of "true" -- like the Mormons do in D&C 1:30...and then show me where they claim that's a direct revelation from God!)
OK, Theoretical question, If God causes a scripture to be written, is a church leader responsible for what it says, or God? None of the Current church leaders can in any way be held responsible for the content of the Book of Mormon. Joseph smith translated that Book by the Gift and power of God. God is responsible for what is in it, and you are free to go to him in the matter as soon and as often as you like.
More crock, DU. More shameful Lds apologetics. Simply put, you are guilty of reducing this to an issue merely of...
...Inspiration...["God said it. Go bug him."]
...And interpretation...["Smith translated that Book by the Gift and power of God Go bug him."]
...But you conveniently neglected the issue of application [see my comment below]
...As well as grassroots Mormons like yourself who has funded that application!!!
What do I mean? Let's look @ 1 Nephi 14:9-10 in the BoM. Didn't Smith date that as citing B.C. times?
If it was only a conspiracy of one -- Smith & his book of mormon --
--Or two (Smith and his god)--
---then were we to see contemporary Mormons & their leaders be magnanimous in their interpretation --
--by erroring on the side of charity...
--We would have seen these contemporaries say, "Well, 1 Nephi was written in B.C. times & what Nephi said applied to the B.C. era; therefore we won't import a B.C. description to club over the head of an A.D. dynamic."
But do we see that from Lds Inc?
In November, Restornu said to me after I pointed out that the Lds church stance on the Christian church as the "church of the devil" was still taught by Lds: "Those are your opinions just like your bais [sic] opinion that does not make them doctrines" [Restornu]
Here was my response to Restornu:
Let's just take one of those quotes and review it:
Lds "apostle" Bruce R. McConkie: "The church of the devil is...EVERY church except the true church, whether parading under a Christian or a pagan banner." (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3:551)
McConkie says here that every non-Mormon church is the "church of the devil" -- doesn't matter if they're "Parading" under a Christian banner or a pagan one...McConkie labels us devilish.
Now this specific quotation was published second hand at: The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Seminaries and Institutes of Religion: Book of Mormon Student Manual: Chapter 4: 1Nephi 11–14: Notes and Commentary [Updated Note: A link, BTW, which has conveniently disappeared in less than two months' time]
Are telling us, Restornu that your Lds Institutes are teaching the mere "opinions" of men in their Lds Institute curricula aimed at impressionable college students? They're not teaching "doctrine?" Do you realize this comes direct from the Lds church curricula department...and is published at Lds.org?
Will you go on the record, Resty, and tell us that you have shot off an e-mail to Lds.org -- where this quote is found -- and tell them to stop teaching what you seem to claim is the doctrine of mere men?
Source: Ten Lies I Told as a Mormon Missionary [And, of course, Restornu didn't respond to the above post in November!]
So if I pay tithes to God, I am responsible for what God does with my tithing... [DU]
Well, we agree on one thing: The Mormon church is your "god," alright...(no wonder First President Marion G. Romney called the Mormon church "the way, the truth, and the life" in the early 1960s!)
Tell us, DU...did McConkie when he was alive get paid out of tithe funds by Mormons? Did the writer of The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Seminaries and Institutes of Religion: Book of Mormon Student Manual: Chapter 4: 1Nephi 11–14: Notes and Commentary get paid out of tithe funds by Mormons?
DU, if you & your fellow grassroots Mormons pay salaries of people employed to APPLY the phrase "church of the devil" (and "apostate") to us -- and if you don't put up any fuss about that -- then the labels are on YOUR head...or should I say...it's funded by your personal wallet!