Saints in shock.

Saints in shock

The title of this page, I know, it sounds strange, but not for me. We have many "friends" on the Net, they are saying "we love you" and after that they start to beat us up in a lovely manner. In the past I had a correspondence with several of those, not for arguing, but because I felt offended in the way they were speaking bad about us. I have all the correspondence in my hands, surely I won't mention names, only I will take the part more interesting of our discussions to try to clarify several points. First of all I firmly believe that everybody has the right to preach the doctrine he or she likes, there is only one problem... You should preach FOR your idea and not against others ideas, or at least if you want to remark mistakes in other churches you can, but you should avoid lies and insults, and above all you should leave it to the other people to judge for themselves.
A person wrote me: "A basic problem" is that the Book of Mormon has virtually no Mormonism in it whatsoever. At least none of the uniquely LDS doctrines that set Mormonism apart from other religions. There is no LDS concept of God taught, no 3 degrees of glory, no LDS "priesthood" no genealogy work, no temple ceremonies, no eternal progression, nothing. If the Book of Mormon is so important, why are none of these things there? If it contains the "fullness of the everlasting Gospel" Why are none of these things there? (of course I believe that Mormon doctrines had not fully evolved in Joseph Smith's mind at this time). You speak of the Bible pointing to the Book of Mormon, yet I fail to see that the Book of Mormon has any importance, even if we were to assume that it is scripture."
"The main purpose of the Book of Mormon is literally explained on its front-page, from the beginning: "Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their forefathers........ and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ" Paul also said, "Our purpose is to preach Jesus and His atonement." The Lord gave the Church another book: "Doctrine and Covenants" Surely it was clear to Him the same concept that you are writing to me, so why you are surprised? Maybe you were looking in a wrong book for the doctrines of Mormonism. It is clear to me that if the Book of Mormon contained the doctrines, we surely don't need "The Doctrine and Covenants" and vice versa. About when you say: "You speak of the Bible pointing to the Book of Mormon, yet I fail to see that the Book of Mormon has any importance." Well it is only your problem. I support the Bible, but like I always told you, I respect your opinion.
You wrote: "Yes, I know that it is supposedly another witness of Jesus Christ, but frankly, I don't need it. The Bible has 66 books that point to Jesus, including 4 Gospels that testify of Him. If that is not enough for someone, they will never believe because of the Book of Mormon."
I guess you are forgetting that the Jew, the chosen people, are rejecting Jesus until now. God made a sacred covenant with them. Are you thinking that the Lord has abandoned them? Anyway, I am one of the many people that thanking the Book of Mormon, accepted Jesus as Savior and I was baptized, and there are many others like me, so your declaration is wrong, and the Jews need more help. Maybe it was for this reason that the Lord wrote in the Bible many passages like this one:
Ezekiel 14:22-23
"Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth UNTO YOU, and ye SHALL SEE their way and their doings: and ye shall be COMFORTED concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. And THEY SHALL COMFORT YOU WHEN YE SEE THEIR WAYS AND THEIR DOINGS: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it."
You wrote: "Of course I believe that Mormon doctrines had not fully evolved in Joseph Smith's mind at this time."
I guess it was totally the same for the disciples at the time of Christ. I could quote so many passages in which they didn't believe in the resurrection, during the lifetime of Jesus. After his resurrection He remained 40 days with them...Why? They had also a conference meeting in Jerusalem to decide what they had to do with the sacrifices and the Gentiles, all the letters are explanations about doctrinal problems, and between Peter and Paul there was difference of viewpoint, so I could say that it was the same for the first Christians or not?
Another big problem that the friends have with us, is the Book of Mormon. Since it is impossible to destroy the Book of Mormon by the Bible, from the beginning they started to say it was a fraud. For about a century there was the story about the Spaulding. Joseph, according to their opinion, made a copy of this booklet and made a Book of Mormon. It was strange like anybody made complaints, I mean the Spaulding's family, anyway this mistake was resolved when few years ago the original handwritten was found and it was possible to show everybody that the Book of Mormon is really another story. Well at this point I read on a web of a person specialized against Mormonism (He/She claims to be called from God to redeem the Mormons) that Sidney Rigdon wrote the Book of Mormon for Joseph Smith. I wrote her: "Look! Sidney Rigdon was baptized about 1 year after the foundation of the Church, so it is impossible, and also you think that Sidney Rigdon wrote the Book of Mormon and gave it to Joseph to copyright? Especially when Joseph died he could affirm that to have the leadership. He/She answered me: "I didn't know that" I have the letter in my hand. I asked her to remove that part but he/she didn't do it. At this point I don't know if he/she is real sincere in his/her commitment to be on the side of the Lord. In another web against the church there is another beautiful article about this topic: "Oliver Cowdery was a cousin of Joseph Smith, and he wrote the Book of Mormon." At this point I thought that maybe a team of people cooperated to create the Book of Mormon. So Oliver Cowdery was a cousin of Joseph, he wrote the Book of Mormon for Joseph and told him: "take the honor because you are a good man, take the copyright be prophet and lead the church." It could be, but why? When he left the church and was excommunicated, he didn't make any mention of this Usually when the people are angry, and I guess he was at that time, he could ruin Joseph, but he didn't. And when he was rebaptized and Joseph was already dead, why didn't he reveal this great secret? Well, my opinion is this: "When in a court, the indictment changes many times. The jurors are just confused and at the end they will ask themselves: "Does the accuser know what is going on? Or is he trying to guess?"
On the same page I read a criticism of Mark Twain on the Book of Mormon, it basically was saying that the Book of Mormon has no poetry and it is boring to read. I'd like to take this as a compliment, because the Book of Mormon is not to entertain the people. If you read the Bible, especially n the Old Testament, you could think the same. Surely the Book of Mormon, like the Bible, has a different purpose and if you don't have any interest in spiritual things, surely you can't find that there are interesting things to entertain yourself.
With the second person I had a long correspondence, about 20 or more letters, all in my hands. I won't publish them because I won't make the same mistake that this person did. He/she had a conversation with a famous Mormon on the web. She wrote on his page that this person asked her/him to have a private conversation but he/she frankly admitted that he/she put everything on line because thought to have won the contest. I have to be sincere I felt sadness for this and I wrote to him/her, but his/her answer was: "Don't worry! That guy is a big boy!" We had a contest about the prayer and salvation by faith, basically it is what you find in faith and words and for the prayer I quoted several scriptures in which Jesus Himself promised that the people asking by the prayer they couldn't be deceived, and I asked Him/Her to quote me 3 or more scriptures in which the Lord warned the people that it was possible to be deceived by prayer. Well this person wrote me back and said that they needed to prepare for a wedding and that it was impossible for him/her to answer me until about a week. I understood the problem and I warned him/her to be sincere. Anyway, the Lord helped me and I had the proof that this person was lying to me. After 2 days I received an e-mail from a friend of mine and he sent me a copy of a letter that he received from the same person, that was supposed to be absent or busy. I wrote to the person: "Look I have the proof......" The person wrote me back the same day that was supposed to be absent or busy, the answer was very weak for my opinion, but at that point I didn't need an answer, the behavior had told me everything. I wrote to the person, I guess a kind letter and the discussion was over. All the letters are in my possessions, but I won't publish them. It would not be right. We have to give respect to everybody and respect all the other opinions. I wrote to this person only because I felt offended and insulted in my feelings and I wrote this in my letters. I am writing this in my pages, because there are many on the web speaking against us. They can do that, but we can defend ourselves from the lies. Usually they don't use a lot of the scriptures, because they don't support them, unfortunately they use gossips and stuff that they can't prove but it is enough for them to put a doubt in a mind of the people. Usually a good Christian preaches about his church not against other churches.