I'm sure it happens in all churches where there are anti-Christians or Anti-Mormons that attempt to share literature that tears down a person's faith. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's been going on since Joseph Smith said the Father and Son visited him and told him not to join any of the churches for they are all wrong and come close with their lips but are far away from their hearts. So, a General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints poses these questions to those who have had a testimony of the Latter-day work:
1. Do you believe in the pre-mortal existence- that we lived with God as His children before we came to this earth?
2. Do you believe in the doctrine of the spirit world-that everyone will have a fair chance to hear the gospel in its fullness either on earth or in the spirit world before they are judged?
3. Do you believe, then, in baptism for the dead because that too is in the Bible?
4. Contrary to the doctrine of the Trinity as taught by most of the Christian world, do you believe that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are two separate personages with glorified bodies of flesh and bones?
5. Do you believe in one heaven and one hell as taught by most of the Christian world, or do you believe in three degrees of Glory?
6. Do you believe in the eternal nature of families?
7. Do you believe that Christ's Church today should have Apostles just as existed in Christ's mortal ministry?
8. Do you believe in on-going revelation today or believe that it ceased at the time the Bible ended and thereafter God left us on our own?
Then, the big question, Can you think of any other Christian Church that teaches one, let alone all of these doctrinal principles? So, if you still believe lost sheep are you willing to give up all this doctrine you know to be true, to throw it all away, because you have a few questions you can't answer?
Someone can't very well embrace the doctrine of the Church on one hand and then reject the prophets and scriptures through which it came on the other, any more than someone can claim that good fruit comes from a bad tree. If the fruit is good, the Savior taught, the tree is good. Accordingly, if the doctrine is true, then the prophets through whom it came are true.
Once we know that the doctrinal teachings of the Church are true, then we don't have to agonize over and dissect every statement of the prophets...we can accept them as the will of God and move forward in a positive, constructive way. The profound doctrinal teachings of the Church are powerful witness that our prophets are inspired, and thus, we can trust their counsel..
