Mormon prayer response

So in my brother’s last conversation on Mormon.org he was given a link to an article about prayer when he asked for some evidence on Mormonism from non-Mormon sources. I asked him to see this article so he forwarded the link. It’s a vastly wicked article so pray before you read it. http://lds.org/new-era/2003/08/recognizing-answers-to-prayer?lang=eng&query=answers+prayer

I feel one of the first things he mentions need to be addressed immediately, then I will move in to the thick of it.

“Our Heavenly Father did not put us on earth to fail but to Succeed gloriously."

What does he mean by succeed gloriously?  From what I can gather here, he is talking about worldly success because he says “… did not put us on earth to fail, but to succeed gloriously”

Jesus tells us in Matthew’s gospel “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” 6:24 but more than that Jesus tell us about the difficulty it will be in following him in Matt 7:13-14 “"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide [is] the gate and broad [is] the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because [fn] narrow [is] the gate and difficult [is] the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” No where in this verse or any other gospels does Jesus say He came to give us success, but on the contrary Jesus promised those who follow Him, would be faced with difficulties, persecution and storms.

We are here because it is a part of God’s ultimate plan to reveal His glory, not our success. We were created for His good pleasure.

This whole Article is fraud; first the Mormon has given us Mormon resources about prayer when we asked for something outside of Mormonism. Second some of these ‘Book of Mormon’ quotes are direct copies of verses found in the Gospel. For example “According to your faith shall it be done unto you” from their book D&C 8:10-11, this is found word for word in the KJV of Matthew 9:29 where Jesus is speaking to a blind man who asked for sight, not someone who was praying about a book, or a prophet, the Context has been manipulated, and we know it has been manipulated because in the Book of Mormon we see 13 chapters copied word for word from the book of Isaiah into their book of 2 Nephi, this includes the added text from the KJV translators that was added in the 16^th and 17^th century, long after the Golden plates containing the Book or Mormon were supposedly written.

Just after the Author of this article misquotes the bible, he quotes Joseph Smith. This holds a lot of weight to Mormons, but like I mentioned earlier, our request was for outside sources. Since we did not get outside sources we are left to examine this, being Joseph Smith and his false prophecy. What do I mean by false prophecy? To Start let us examine Doctrine’s and Covenants(D&C) 84:1-5 where Joseph Smith prophesied that the New Jerusalem and Temple would be built in Zion, Missouri during his generation… needless to say this didn’t happen, and according to Deuteronomy 18:20-22 “'But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.' And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?' when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that [is] the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.” Well one thing this page has helped us confirm is that Joseph Smith is a False Prophet, not from God. And if we apply what we know we can come to the conclusion that the Book or Mormon is false because:

1.       We know that Joseph Smith is a false prophet

2.       The Book of Mormon was revealed to/ through Joseph Smith

3.       The book of Mormon cannot be trusted because :

a.       We cannot rely on our heart because “thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord… Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord…The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:5-9

b.      Joseph Smith, being a false prophet, has revealed a false doctrine.

c.       The Book of Mormon is plagiarized from the kjv bible including translator added words that appear italicized

So this article neither gave us proof or prayer insight. How can I take the writings from this article and quoted scripture and asks in my heart if they are true when outside evidence has already proven that method to be bad, and internal Mormon evidence has shown Joseph smith to be a false prophet who wrote these false doctrines?  Can I pray for truth to be revealed in something already proven false? No, I can’t do that, that’s illogical, 2+2=4 but I’ll pray in my heart it actually equals 5? That makes no sense, But that’s okay, because our Lord and Savior Jesus THE Christ has already given us an ultimate guide to prayer. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom Come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Matthew 6:8-13

A Good example the Lord shows us in testing a teaching can be found in Acts 17:11 “These were more Fair-minded [or noble] than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so”

In this Paul and Silas are sharing the gospel with the Jews in Berea. We are told that the Jews prayed in their hearts for the book to be true… NO! they searched the scriptures, looking for proof of what they heard was true or not, and they are called NOBLE For doing so! Take everything to the word,  testing all things with the True, everlasting word of God. Everything, that means what I or other Christian’s write too, see if there is truth in it.

Did you know that the Bible talks about what the Mormon Cult does? Check out Galatians 1:8-10 with me “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ”… So that must mean the Angel Moroni is indeed a fallen angel.

Next week I will write on how the Mormon’s please men with the polytheism of Mormonism… that’s right, polytheism.

Adventures on Mormon.org

So after My brother and I shared with a Mormon on Campus I've been studying up on the Mormon cult and today I chatted with one on their missionary chat forum. here is the dialog, I must give credit to Always Be Ready and Charlie Campbell for the questions that I asked, I pray some questions arose in this guys mind, but I know it is God who will give the increase.

Welcome to Missionary Chat.

Thank you for your interest in talking to a missionary from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The purpose of Mormon.org chat is to answer basic questions about the church and its beliefs and to provide opportunities to learn more.

before we begin, will you share a little about what brought you to chat with us?

A missionary will be with you shortly.

Me: i have been reading the Book of Mormon, and some other Mormon writings and have a few questions I was hoping someone could help me answer

Please Continue to hold for the next available missionary.

Agent [Jimmy] is ready to assist you.

Jimmy: Hi, how are you?

Me: good and you?

Jimmy: Thanks, I'm doing well. How may I help you?

Me: I've been reading the book of mormon and have some questions that i thought you could help me with

Jimmy: Ok, I hope I'll be able to

Me: why does Alma 7:10 say that Jesus was born in Jerusalem when the Bible says he was born in Bethlehem?

Jimmy: That's a great question. I don't know the exact reason why it was written that he would be born at Jerusalem. I could speculate, but that isn't offical doctrine.

Me: I appreciate your honesty.

Me: another question for you

Jimmy: alright

Me: Why do the bible verses quoted in the Book of Mormon contain the Italicized words from the King James Version that were added into the KJV by the translators in the 16th and 17th centuries? for example in #Nephi 24:10 it says "... that there shall not be room enough to receive it..." this is an exact quote from Malachi 3:10 from the King James Version. Seven of these words were not part of the original text. They were added by the KJV translators for Clarity. How did those words end up in the Book of Mormon that was supposedly written over a thousand years before the King James Version of the Bible?

Me: Correction- 3* Nephi 24:10, not #Nephi 24:10

Jimmy: I really Can't say. I don't know too much about the translation process of either the Bible or the Book of Mormon. However I do believe the principles taught in both and try to live them

Me: I guess I'm just having some difficulties in my viewing of the reliability of the Book of Mormon, you know? I was told to pray in my Heart the message of the book of Mormon, but God reveals to us through Jeremiah that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9 So I'm just wondering if there is, like there is for the Bible, any archeological and historical proof from non-Mormon sources that prove that the people and places mentioned are true?

Jimmy: I'm not really aware of any. But then again, I haven't really gone looking for any. I believe the Book of Mormon is from God because I live the principles taught in it and they lead me to God. The same thing goes for the Bible.

Me: what about Salvation? I'm told in The Restored Church, pg. 562,563 that "man cannot be redeemed from this spiritual death by an act of Christ alone..." but in the Bible it teaches that "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast" Ephesians 2:8-9. "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" John 3:16, how can I live by both with such contradictory?

The chat session has ended.

So I struck a chord with that last bit, hopefully it wasn't taken as an attack because i truly meant it in love. My Goal here wasn't to debate him, that's why I moved on after each response until the last one, My goal was to plant some questions in his mind that might bug him to the point of looking for the answers, I can only pray the Lord reveals the Truth to him. hope this can be of some encouragement for yall.

Are We Called?

Above The Radar is a prayer that is finally being put into action. Since I've been saved by Jesus and born again in his blood I have felt the want to share the Good News (gospel) with others, but I found a lot of the time people have questions and doubts about Christianity; a lot of questions I couldn't answer. Like many other Christians most of these questions made me mad, so I started looking for a response or defense. Like many others I did not feel I needed to answer the questions evolutionist/atheist or who ever, until I came across 1 Peter 3:15, which states:

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.”

This showed me two things: One, they have the right to be asking these questions. And two, After  reading this and finishing the Gospel according to Matthew I saw that this is exactly what Jesus did, He went from town to town performing miracles, signs and answer people’s questions and defended the faith. Not once does Jesus say no, I don’t have to; he might answer it in the form of another question but there is still the answer for the skeptic. The second part of the above verse that I think we need to look at is “with Meekness and Fear” or humility and with care. As Charlie Campbell (whose website is on the left under outside resources) put it “you can’t cut off someone’s nose and except them to enjoy the Roses you give them” Meaning that we should remember when answering/defending or debating our whole goal is to point people to Jesus. This doesn’t mean we are to give ground or allow bullying, The Holy Spirit reveals to us through Paul’s first letter to the Church of Corinth that we are to “ Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.” 1cr. 16:13.

Something I feel that overwhelms Christians (because it overwhelmed me) is we feel like we must see everyone through to the end when witnessing, this causes a lot of anxiety about witnessing , but!!!! God is so good, because he lets us know in 1Cr. 3:6-7 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”  It is God, the author and finisher of our faith that will see them to the end, we are just called to sow the seeds.