Is there anything stranger about the claims of Joseph Smith than those of a guy named "St." Paul?

Question

In essence, they did just the same thing (with equal amounts of proof.) So before you insult Mormons, take a good look at yourself.

Answer 1

You're absolutely right Brother. But keep in mind as to what Elder McConkie said:
"Apostate Christendom is performed in ignorance, as much so as was the worship of the Athenians who bowed before the Unknown God, and to whom Paul said 'Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.' But where the sectarians are concerned they have the Bible and in spite of the creeds of their fathers they have an obligation to replace ignorance with light and truth. Unless they do so, they are not blameless before God"
Those who mock our faith do so in ignorance. They do not have the fullness of the gospel, and do not seek it out but seek to destroy it.

Answer 2

Last time I checked, St. Paul didn't order terrorist raids on his neighbors, burn newspapers that published facts about his cult activities, promote plural marriages and pervert the word of God by making false prophetic claims. Joseph Smith was a cult leader in every sense of the term. His followers in his time were nothing but fools for abandoning the Holy Bible.

Answer 3

Yes there are many things stranger about Joseph Smith than St. Paul.

Answer 4

I was not aware that Paul ever claimed to have gotten his writings by translating them from gold plates in an egyptian language that he could only read by looking through one eyepiece of a special part of glasses made for a giant. Nor that he translated his writing behind a curtain, handing out the pages as he completed them.

That seems a much stranger claim to me then Paul's claim to have learned what he knew through years of work, prayer, discipline, and studying of the Old Testament scriptures. Out of those he received a "revelation" or understanding of many things about Christ.

His writing were giving as letters to local bodies to help them deal with questions of doctrine and practice which had appeared in Paul's absence, and not intended by him to be "scripture". Nor did he attempt to collect a community or group of followers around him. Rather he always pointed them back to Jesus and their relationship with Him.

While he had at least three recorded visions, only one of them is mentioned in his writings, and then he makes no special claim of it for himself, by rather speaks of "a certain man". None of his writing are based on special visions. Nor does he claim angelic appearances or special visitations beyond the one which converted him.

So there is a hugh difference between the claims of Joseph Smith and those of the Apostle Paul.

Answer 5

Mormons!

Answer 6

Whoa...that was scary. I am not looking at myself ever again. Anyway, chrisitians, mormons, whatever, are all a bunch of cultists. Remember, "God" is nothing more than a nonsense word made up to explain away the things we can't yet understand. Wake up and get out of that crazy cult!

Answer 7

The Bible is the infallible Word of God. (I don't refer to Paul as "St. Paul" , all believers are called "saints" in the Word of God)

The Book of Mormon has been proved to be false. Here is the proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svfxSscxh8o

Answer 8

Not in my book, anyway. I really don't want to look at myself. I need a shave and a shower and smell like stale beer. Unlike some other posters here who look really good in the morning.

Answer 9

Being a mormon doesn't make you a Christian.


"Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" Gal. 4:16

These two verses alone prove that Joseph Smith was nothing more than a liar!

"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:20-21

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Galatians 1:6-9

In Palmyra, New York, a newspaper reported in 1831, that Joseph Smith Jr. claimed he had seen God frequently and personally. But look at what the Bible reads:

"No man hath seen God at any time." 1 John 4:12

The mormons also claim that there was a "Council of gods" that took place in heaven to determine whether if Jesus or satan should be the saviour of the world. The mormons even go as far to claim that Jesus and satan were brothers. If it wasn't for people actually believing this, the comment is almost laughable--what a hoax!

Consider this: Refering to John 1:1-2 Before anything else ever exist God already was, this alone proves there was no "Council of gods" because other than God, there was one one else in existed to have a council with. The crying shame is, mormons have a King James Bible. This alone proves they don't read it--or don't believe it.

When the Bible refer to "god" or "gods" in the Bible using a little g, it's referring to demons and devils. The Bible says:

"I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me:" Isaiah 45:5

"All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:3 "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made." Genesis 3:1

If all things were made by Jesus, how can satan be Jesus' brother?

Therefore proving that the mormon religion is just another one of satan's lies.

If one would read in the OT, the Bible speaks against being married to sisters at the same time. There is no telling of how many mormons that have been married to two or more sisters at the same time.

Battle Cry

Mormon Myths Exposed by Their Own Literature

Issue Date: November/December 1998

Myth #1: Reading the Book of Mormon will tell you all about Mormon doctrine.
The Book of Mormon fails to teach the unique doctrine Latter-day Saints feel is necessary to believe and practice in order to become gods.

Myth #2: The book of Mormon has been proven by archaeology.
To date, nothing has been found to verify Book of Mormon sites. In fact, many within the Mormon Church are beginning to abandon the idea that the Book of Mormon is a book of verifiable history. No credible archaeologist outside of the Mormon Church considers the book to have any New World archaeological value.

Myth #3: Brigham Young never taught Adam was God.
Not only did Brigham Young teach that Adam was Michael the Archangel, the Ancient of Days, he also taught that Adam was "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do."

He finished this message by saying, "Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation." (Journal of Discourses 1:50,51). Notice Young called this teaching a "doctrine," not a "theory" as most Mormons like to refer to it today.

Myth #4: All of Joseph Smith's prophecies came to pass.
If that was true, Jesus would have returned in 1891 (Documentary History of the Church (DHC) 2:182), the Civil War would have poured out upon all nations (Doctrines & Covenants 1:87:1-3); the wicked of Smith's generation would have been swept from off the face of the land (DHC 1:315); and a temple would have been built in Independence, Missouri by the generation living in 1832 (D&C 84:4,5).

Myth #5: Joseph Smith died as a "lamb led to the slaughter."
The fact is, Joseph Smith died in a gun battle using a pistol that was smuggled to him while incarcerated at Carthage jail. According to the DHC, Joseph Smith pulled this six-shooter from his pocket and "snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the barrels, however, were discharged. I afterwards understood that two or three were wounded by these discharges, two of whom, I am informed, died" (John Taylor, Volume 7, pp. 102-103).

Myth #6: Polygamy was necessary in early Utah because there were more women than men.
The fact is there were more men than women in early Utah when polygamy was being practiced. Mormon Apostle John Widtsoe wrote on pages 390-91 of his book entitled Evidences and Reconciliations: "The most common of these conjectures is that the Church, through plural marriage, sought to provide husbands for its large surplus of female members. The applied assumption in this theory, that there have been more females than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seem always to have been more males than females in the Church… The theory that plural marriage was a consequence of a surplus of female church members fails

Even the Book of Mormon talks about polygamy being wrong Jacob 2:24 'Behold David and Solomon had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the lord.' " This only proves that the mormons are nothing more than "cherry pickers" even to their own book, much less the Word of God itself. Need I say more?

Answer 10

This is why I am no longer Mormon and not Christian.