Theologic Thursday: Debating Mormons
Apr 5th, 2007 | By admin | Category: Christianity, Theologic ThursdayAnyone who has a front door has had a neatly dressed duo standing there asking about your thoughts about salvation. That duo usually represents the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the LDS represents many things, but especially they represent the Book of Mormon, the “other” gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am not going to get into a long discussion on HOW to debate Mormons. There are many excellent books and websites already out there to do just that. I just want to pass along an online tool that you might find useful if you are one of those Christians that use the opportunity of the unsaved walking right up to your door and asking about salvation. Little to they know that they are about to hear the TRUTH from you!
To that end let me offer this website (rarebookroom.com), and this link in particular: http://www.rarebookroom.org/Control/smimrm/index.html. The actual Book of Mormon published in 1830. From this many are able to demonstrate the changes made to the “most perfect book ever published” over the many years.
This tool alone won’t convince a Mormon to drop everything and worship at the foot of the Cross of Christ. But it will allow you to build some credibility in their eyes because you have access to something they are denied, the actual work of Joseph Smith from the time he penned it. The versions floating around now have revisions and updates that can prove troublesome to those whom Trust the Book of Mormon and what it represents of itself.
Because you have access to something they are denied? Is that why replicas of the first edition of the Book of Mormon can be found in LDS bookstores and in many LDS homes? Do you really think Mormons are that ignorant? I have a son who is currently serving as a missionary who thought it would be fun to read a first edition replica before he went out. (He did.)
“From this many are able to demonstrate the changes made to the ‘most perfect book ever published.’” Actually, the claim is the “most correct” rather than “perfect” and pretty much everybody aware of the actual quote knows it refers to the doctrine it contains rather than the diction. The problem with this approach to Mormons is that it assumes that the Mormon perception of scripture mirrors that of popular Christianity. It doesn’t. Mormons don’t believe in infallible or immutable scripture. It’s like trying to shock a Christian with the news that Peter denied Jesus three times. Some who are completely unaware of the facts of the gospels might be shocked, shocked! to learn of that fact, but the source of their shock can only be the abject ignorance of their own religion.