First of all, all “Mormons” do not have “visions”, just prophets/seers. Second, we stick to the Bible when it says that things of God are only spiritually discerned. I have already quoted 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 10-11 in response to you earlier (which you ignored) where it says that we can only know the things of God through His Spirit. I also believe in Galatians 5:22 where it says the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace”, etc.
I believe that God communicates to us through these “good” emotions as we attempt to communicate with Him in prayer. Love is the universal language, so it makes sense He could communicate with everyone that way. Our heart has to be open and ready for an answer and that is typically the problem with us.
Please answer a few of my questions, so that I can better understand your position on how we know whether something is from God or not. Here goes: First, if you have not prayed and asked God that what you have read in the Bible is true, what method have you used to actually know that everything contained in the Bible is the Word of God? Second, is the method you used to know this any more or less subjective than through the way I described?
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There's your first bold faced lie. We don't have visions. Countless Mormons give testimony of dreams and visions that tell them that "Mormonism is the truth".
"Burning Bosum" experience? How is this not a type of vision?
I guess you folks might call it a strong "feeling" that Mormonism is the truth.
Sadly, "feelings/emotions" are the greatest betrayers of human kind. They are a blessed part of humanity, but they are not the "test" of the truth.
Feelings/emotions are so often used as a gauge by human beings involved in religion to determine if God is near or faraway.
For instance, the tongues movements in many Pentacostal/charismatic churches can get so out-of-control, that all objective scriptural truth becomes second-rate to experiencing physical/emotional phenomena in worship situations.
Much of the tongues phenomena is not from God, but is Satan's major "tickle" to get Christians off-track and looking for the experienctial in order to validate the strength and closeness of their faith in God.
Sadly, there are so many "drop outs" from Charismatic churches where gifts are and especially tongues are given greater emphasis than God desires according to His Word, the bible.
Likewise, the Mormons, have taken a similar root. They ask folks to pray and ask God if Mormonis is the true church. This opens up the realm of the "invisible spiritual demonic realm". It's like a on off switch. God had wired us to have total communion with Him, because we are spiritual creatures. Sadly, the spiritual counterfeits of Satan are ready to fill the gaps in a Christians or non-Christian/Mormon's seeking, when they use unscriptural means to seek God.
Remember that Satan and 1/3 of the angels in heaven followed him in turning away from their Maker/God. They were all cast to earth, and now Satan is called the Prince of this world. He is deluded to the point of thinking that he can defeat God, Christ, and the great plan of salvation that is clearly laid-out in the bible.
He is no dummy. He can fool the intellectual, the artist, the whole gamut of human personalities, and intelligence. He has created many religions that are substitutes or counterfeits of true Christianity as laid-out in the bible.
First of all, in order for Satan to make inroads in humanity and win souls to his delusional bent, he must "attack the bible"; the very foundation of Christianity. This is done in many ways:
1. Take away the divinity of Christ as the I AM or God Almighty as Christ and His apostles described Him over and over in the N.T..
2. Create a scenario where mere sinful, Adamic man can attain the level of God, through works.
3. Create a false martyrdom of the his/Satan's counterfeit belief system in order to give members or potential converts the idea that they are of a type of exclusivity that is always under danger because of their faith.
4. Confirm in the unseen spiritual realm of the human soul validity his/Satan's false belief system. In fact this is the easy one for him. As Americans or the Western world becomes more and more enamored with spiritual phenoma...ghosts, occult, witch craft, ......which founder J.S. Jr. found intriguing in the use of seers stones, and crystals, the stage is set for massive deception.
5.God has His ways, and man has his ways. One is Spiritual, the other is worldly or of the flesh. Satan plays on the fleshly side of mankind; feeding the sexual desires, that J.S. Jr. propogates with polygamy.
6. Satan also hates "woman" as she was the means which brought the incarnate Christ to earth. Also she was the link to deceiving mankind in the garden, though Adam was just as guilty as he believed Eve over God's commands.
For a Mormon wife to reach that celestial kingdom, her husband must raise her up to life after death. This is blasphemous, as it places the male human above the female human in importance.
Some how a womans or wifes call to submission to her husband as the bible states has been convoluted into a male dominance within the LDS church that is both flatly unscriptural, and sad.
7. Moroni brought false messages to J.S. Jr.., if indeed Moroni actually existed and wasn't a figment of a very disturbed mind in need of Lithium treatments. J.S. Jr.'s life reflects one that can easily fall into the category of "disturbed". There is or was a "granduer" complex with him, that lacked humility, humbleness, contrite, and repentant of heart, etc. that typified the bible-Jesus' disciples, excluding the false one Judas.
8. To this day, I've not witnessed or read any posts by the most vocal Mormons on this thread that show or emit the tiny'est ounce of the humility, contriteness of heart, that typifies, true Holy Spirit filled biblical Christians. Those that bring up legitimate points are blown off or considered "enemies" of the LDS church.
Paul on the other hand loved to debate, and get right in their with Jews, gentiles alike. In fact he had a wonderful time on Mars Hill with many greek philosophers, and won many over to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit working through Him.
Paul was an extremely educated Jew, who at one time persecuted Christ's followers, but later was met with an encounter with the ascended Christ that changed his life, and turned the whole world upside down................Paul the most prolific author of the N.T. heartily stood by and cheered on folks as they stoned to death Steven the Godly man of the early Jerusalem Church. Paul would later-on become a fire-brand of Holy Spirit filled power as he endured stonings, lashings, imprisonments, and being cut-off from fellowship in the Jerusalam temple, because he chose Jesus, yes Jesus, the One who was and is so clearly described in the Word of God.
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So what does the LDS church give us? Well, they give us a veiled polytheism..........or progression of godhood. Basically it's just good old polytheism, as there is "no" one God, but a myriad of gods.
Secondly, it teaches that God was once just an guy like you and me. Then this average guy, through good earthly works or whatever planet he performed his good works-on, was elevated by an earlier elevated god to godhood too.
Folks, most realize that Hubbard's Scientology is a real "crock" but folks, the LDS church isn't far off from Scientoloty in their many planets, doctrine or belief.
Mormons on this forum and elsewhere just say that we just have to pray and believe.....................The first mistake is praying. Why? Cause when you pray, your suppose to pray in a way that says that you are seeking the true God's intimacy or relationship. Now this is where the crap shoot happens. You may or may not get the true answer to your prayer. This is why the bible will confirm whether burning bosums, visions, dreams, any kind of messages are trully "of God", and not counterfeits.
Again, emotions are God given, but they are not the final proof of what is right and what is wrong/false. Secondly emotions are a beautiful addition to "true" believe. The human mind must always be "in gear" or "drive". When the potential Mormon prospect just prays and asks if Mormonis is the truth, this is when this person has placed their mind in "Neutral". I.E. they have allowed their mind to be subjected to any and all things spiritual..............That includes not only God, but Satan, and his demonic principalities, that are practically numberless. Demons or false spirits can place thoughts in the human mind, while awake, asleep, at any time. They also insert feelings and emotions to acompany the false thoughts that they inject into the human soul/mind.
What in the world can we do to stop or thwart this? Romans Chapter 12 says, "renew your mind with God's word/scripture".
This means that Satan and his demonic host have to go against the imbedded Word of God, or if the potential proselytite does so they can "flee" to the Word of God, after experiencing the vision, burning bosum, dream, that confirms Mormonism, and "TEST" the spirits.
I can attest that when false, ungodly thoughts come into the mind, that the Word of God will make them null and void. The Truth is the Light, and darkness flees from the light. The Light/Truth illuminates every part of the human soul. The Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword dividing the Word of God from false doctrine, even if possible to the very bone marrow of the individual(metaphor-but biblical).
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You Mormons need to be brave and stand up and question your doctrine, and test it against the Word of God in totality.
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