Mormon Dilemma 93

05 November

Mormon Dilemma 93

Bible, Many Errors and Contradictions

Answers to Gospel Questions 2:161; “”No Man Hath Seen God at Any Time”—a Mistranslation.  No Bible student today believes that the Bible has come down to us in its perfect and original appearance in the manuscripts. Scribes left out words and phrases, just as we do at times in typing, missing one whole line and thus changing the meaning. Moreover, the scribes added or interpreted according to their own opinions at times. These things are quite generally understood. Therefore we find errors and contradictions in the Bible.  There are too many passages which declare very definitely that God did appear, “face to face,” with his ancient servants. Therefore, passages which declare that no man has seen him, must be in error.” – Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr.

Psalm 19:7-10; The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.  8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.  9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Today we highlighted an article I found on Mormon Times entitled “Cherry Picking Similarities a Powerful Way to Mislead”.  I know it’s a mouthful, but the contents therein share a startling tale.

The Mormon Church has always gone out of its way to tell people how they do not agree with the Bible in the form it’s presented.  Thus, they have the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants as well as the Joseph Smith Translation (JST).

They’ve insisted they believe in the Bible “as far as it is translated correctly”.  (8th Article of Faith) So why is the Church so concerned about comments made by an Egyptian pastor who told readers on his blog that the Mormon Church doesn’t believe the Bible in its current form?  It seems they’re making a mockery of Smith’s claims.

http://lifeafterministry.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/romney-islam-and-mormonism

Perhaps they’re worried about their image?  Or perhaps they’re doing damage control to ensure their church looks Christian when indeed it is not!

The LDS quote above is the way most Mormons look at the Bible.  The statements made by Joseph Fielding Smith also show the animosity they have in their hearts towards God and His sacred word.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

4 Responses to “Mormon Dilemma 93”

  1. shematwater November 7, 2011 at 10:30 pm #

    It is false and deceptive to say that we do not believe the Bible to be authoritative because we believe in other scriptures. Yet, in the article you link, that is exactly what you are doing.
    You make the fallacious assumption that believing the Bible doesn’t hold all truth is the same as believing it is not authoritative.

    We believe the Bible to be authoritative on those truths that it does contain, and not on any truth that it does not contain.
    We also acknowledge that the truth it does (or did) contain has been obscured or lost due to faulty translations over a period of some 2000 years.

    Neither of these beliefs means we do not believe it to be authoritative.
    It always surprises me how often the LDS church is accused of deception when those making the accusation use deception themselves to misrepresent the church.

  2. CamdenC November 8, 2011 at 5:40 am #

    Shem –

    I wrote pretty much the same thing below on a different page to a different Latter-day Saint…

    “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made” and He is “the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us”. He is “the Word”.

    Do you believe that the One who created everything by the Word of His mouth, would allow His Word to be corrupted or changed? He has the Ominipotence to insure that all people would have His Gospel of salvation by Grace through Faith, in it’s purest form.

    To say that “many precious things pertaining to the gospel” were lost through translation, carelessness, or outright deception is to have the attitude or view of a Deist. They beleive that God “wound the clock” then just sat back and watched.

    Do you believe that Jesus did all that He did (left fellowship with the Father and Holy Spirit, emptied Himself of His God attributes, suffered the scourging and beating, spit on, beard pulled out, crown of thorns, then was nailed to the cross, was seperated completely from His Father by our sins, and died of a broken heart) only to sit back and (according to the LDS church) watch sinful men and apostate Christians corrupt His Word and His Gospel?

    God wants everyone to be saved, through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16 / 14:6). What Joseph Smith basically said was that the world had been in the dark for 1,800 years. How many people during that time put their faith in the Jesus of the Bible only to (according to LDS teachings) find out they had been following a “myth” and the churches they had been attending were “nothing less than the whore of Babylon”.

  3. shematwater November 8, 2011 at 5:44 pm #

    CAMDEN

    I am not a deist, and to believe that the written word of God could become corrupted does not make me one.
    God has given man his agency, something that God cannot take away. God cannot force anyone to do anything, he can only prompt us into the right course of action.
    As such, using his agency, man is capable of many gross sins, including the corrupting of the written record of the word of God. To say anything else is to destroy the agency of man and thus the justice of God.

    However, God is an active participant in the affairs of men, and he has been guiding men throughout all ages, including the time of apostasy. The various translations, though they are far from perfect, have been preserved enough to inspire various men into action; and it is this preservation that prompted Joseph Smith to do what he did.
    We do not hold that the Bible is not able to be understood, or does not carry truth. It is a false claim to say that we believe that even a majority of the bible has been corrupted. The majority has been preserved; but that does not exclude the fact that some errors exist within it.
    As I said, the truth has become obscured. It is still there, but it is much more difficult to see than it originally was, which has caused many people to fall into error.

    I agree that people have been in the dark for many centuries (through I think 15 or 16 hundred years would be more accurate). These people will discover that the church and doctrine they believed in were nothing but the “whore of Babylon” and will be given the opportunity to reject it and accept the truth. God is just to everyone.

  4. shematwater November 8, 2011 at 10:12 pm #

    Hey

Leave a Reply