Don’t Pray About the Book of Mormon!

A [Mormon] missionary resource explains, “In order to know that the Book of Mormon is true, a person must read, ponder, and pray about it.  The honest seeker of truth will soon come to feel that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.” . . .

Yet there are problems with this challenge.  First of all, the test is skewed.  A person who “prays” but doesn’t get the same answer as the missionary is viewed as not getting it correct.  If prayer is the correct means of testing the book’s authenticity, why is a negative outcome immediately rejected as a plausible response? . . .  However, Jeremiah 17:9 says a feeling that one has can be disastrously wrong because “the heart is desperately wicked.” Praying about a religious book, especially if it is fictional and not historical, is hardly an objective test.

If the Book of Mormon is just one of four LDS scriptures, why should it be prayed over and not the other three scriptures? For that matter, why shouldn’t a seeker after truth pray about the Qu’ran (Islam), the Vedas (Hinduism), or the Tripitaka (Buddhism)?  Where does praying about a particular religion’s scripture stop?  If praying about a book is a way to determine truth, then why have many Mormons never even thought about expanding their prayers to more than just one religion’s scripture?

Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson, Mormonism 101, pg. 135

Should You Pray About the Book of Mormon?

The title of this post is a question which has been asked many times, and the answer is always the same — ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

No where in the Bible are we told to pray to see if some claimed prophetic book is true.  What we ARE told is to compare what is taught with what the Bible says.

Many moons ago, in the comment thread of the first part of the Shack Up, an LDS (or “Mormon”) commenter showed up and we had a little back-and-forth.  In the post, I claimed that no other world religion has writings that claim “to actually be written by God by means of people who were writing on behalf of, and empowered and guided by, the Spirit of God himself.”  The commenter suggested that the book of Mormon did indeed claim to be inspired, as according to the above definition.  I asked for citation, and he gave a series of references that I challenged as insufficient.  He also gave a smooth-sounding argument for additional scripture … Conversations with LDS people often close in an exhortation to simply read the book of Mormon and pray that God would convict you, one way or the other, regarding the truth of the book of Mormon. … If I prayed for the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit regarding the books of Joseph Smith, I’d be asking the Holy Spirit to contradict his own written revelation about false prophets and bless my disobedience.  That’s not a prayer he’d ever answer with a “yes” and definitely not a risk one should take.

Continue reading at the Cripplegate.

Random Articles from Mormonism Research Ministry

I’ve been sort of busy with so many other things these past few weeks (such as with my apologetics blog) that I’ve not had a chance to post articles here.  I have, however, been collecting links to good articles which expose the Mormon Church for the fraud that it is.

Now, I know anyone can to to Mormonism Research Ministry’s web site or their blog site and read search for various articles, but to save time I want to point out specific subjects of interest so as to get more people informed for countering the false teachings of the LDS.

A story I had never before heard or read is “The Transfiguration of Brigham Young.”  The myths that the LDS develop can be quite amusing.  But then, the whole church is built on myths and lies.

There is not one bit of evidence from history or archaeology to verify the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.  Nothing.  But facts have never stood in the way of Mormons.

More information about Joseph Smith’s use of a “seer stone.”  (Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry also has a short article on this topic.)

Mormons abuse the Bible (of course) to “prove” they are the one and only true Christian church.  A commenter on a blog I follow posted a list of items which if any other church fulfilled he would leave the LDS, but the list he gave was all done by abusing Scripture so as to fit only the LDS.  This article on Mormon Coffee has a similar list, which the blog addresses as to why they are abusing the Bible.

One of the earlier articles I wrote for this blog was “The Non-Virgin Virgin Mary of Mormonism.”  This article pretty much summed up all the teachings from various Mormon leaders about how Mary had sexual intercourse with “God the Father” in order to provide normal conception for Jesus.  Mormon Coffee posted a short article about the same topic, ending with a link to the same article I used as my reference.

One of the things I’ve pointed out in LDS teaching is their need to be humble for salvation, and yet the humility they are required to demonstrate is something really unattainable.  Just when are they “sufficiently humble”?

Mormons will always press you to read the Book of Mormon and the pray about it to receive a testimony as to its veracity.  If you don’t come to the right conclusion, it is because of YOUR lack of faith, YOUR lack of sincerity, etc.  It is NEVER, according to the Mormons, due to the fraudulent nature of the BOM.  Excellent article about this issue can be found here.