March 9 – The Mystery of Christ. Psalm 18:49 “Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, And sing praises unto thy name.”
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By God’s grace through Paul’s mouth, we can now see how scripture was fulfilled in the salvation of an unknown people; the Gentiles! PTL! Explain to the Mormon the Book of Mormon is wrong by pointing out what God revealed through His holy prophets and apostles (see Eph. Reference below). It’s telling how their self appointed prophets and apostles were totally wrong in believing the other sheep were the Book of Mormon people.
Ephesians 3:4-6 “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”
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3 Nephi 15:21-22 “And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 22 And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching.”
Hard to believe with all the information available today regarding the BOM, Book of Abraham, Kinderhook Incident, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young etc, that people remain loyal to the church. It only goes to show how efficient the church has become in covering up certain facts about it’s past.
I understand that the church still uses the Book of Abraham for teaching, despite what has been found out about that particular text. Why are people not asking their leaders, Sunday School Teachers, Quorum leaders, the hard questions about the church and whether or not certain things they have read about the church are true or not?. For me, it would be hard to imagine most church members not discovering certain unpleasant truths about Mormonism at one time or another during their tenure as active members of the church. For example, Johnny is given the task to give a talk in two weeks about Joseph Smith. Johnny goes to the internet, types in the name Joseph Smith and sees before him, on his computer monitor, hundreds of articles about Joseph Smith. Many of these articles have titles which would indicate that Joseph Smith was a man of questionable character. Young Johnny reads the articles, is shocked at what he reads. He then goes on to read a 2nd and a 3rd article about the real Joseph Smith. Johnny then talks to his parents about what he has learned. His parents tell him to never again read anything negative about the church. and to certainly not mention anything inside the ward about what he has read. Johnny is a teenager, rebellious by nature, therefore, he goes back to his room and reads another 5 or 6 articles, not only about JS,but about Brigham Young, Parley Pratt, Joseph F Smith. He reads articles about the real story behind the 3 and 8 witnesses, He learns about the Kinderhood Incident. He then goes on to read from sites like Life After Ministry, Ex Mormon, The Mormon Curtain, Mormon No More.
Question is, what will young Johnny do about what he has learned. In all likelihood, probably nothing. He doesn’t want his parents to be accused of improper parenting or his friends told not to hangout with him anymore.