----- Original Message ----- From: "David Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 10:51 AM Subject: RE: [TruthTalk] What advantage is there to Mormonism?
> Blaine wrote: > > I believe in your heart you have fellowshipped with > > Jesus Christ. I believe, however, that all things > > not entered into by Jesus Christ's properly acknowledged > > authority--the priesthood as revealed to Joseph Smith > > and Oliver Cowdery--will be of no effect in the world > > to come, in and after the resurrection. > > Here's the problem, Blaine. You acknowledge that I have fellowship with > Jesus Christ. Well, I asked him about Joseph Smith, and he showed me > how Joe was a con-man, and that this priesthood revelation was not from > Him. Instead, Joe borrowed various concepts from various sources and > created this thing himself. Now either you are lying to me or Jesus > Christ is lying to me, or perhaps you think that I am lying to you. > Which is it? > > I believe that I can show you through the Scriptures that this > priesthood authority is false, but you would have to accept the Bible to > be a greater authority than the BOM, D&C, and PGP. Blaine: Of course I would not accept the Bible as being the final word on it--you have to remember the entire doctrine of new revelation is involved here, so it would be a disavowel of that entire concept for me to go solely to the Bible for a proof or disproof of the Mormon concept of Priesthood authority. The possibility of New revelation is provable from the Bible, so if you want to go that route, OK. But as I recall, you and DaveH have already explored that extensively. (:>) I'm not sure you are > able to do that. Would you care to comment on how Joe Smith failed the > elder criteria of the Bible? Blaine: I don't see that he failed it. JS was a married man, married to one wife only, when the church was first formed in 1830. That's about when he became the first elder. Plural marriage as a doctrine did not get started until shortly before JS was martyred in 1842--and still was not widely practiced until after the Saints had departed from Nauvoo--I believe it was at Winter Quarters that BY first announced it as an official church doctrine, open to anyone who was accounted worthy. Prior to that, only selected men practiced it--men selected by the prophet himself, perhaps as a test to see if men of proven integrity could handle it, then others might be allowed to do such too. JS was always "proving" things, as I have read about him. He once told John Taylor he needed to have his wife for awhile, then renigged at the last moment and admitted to John Taylor that it was all just a test of his loyalty to the prophet--sort of like Abraham being tested of the Lord when he was commanded to sacrifice his only son from his wife, Sarah. These tests may have been where the rumor got started that JS was after other men's wives. > > Peace be with you. > David Miller, Beverly Hills, Florida. > > ---------- > "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org > > If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed. > ---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org If you do not want to receive posts from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and you will be unsubscribed. If you have a friend who wants to join, tell him to send an e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and he will be subscribed.
