Unprepared to engage Mormon missionaries when they knock on your door? Perhaps the Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers back into us. benefit of our listeners and discuss his introduction to this article and why he not only gave this devotional message, but eventually it was turned into an article that I'm sure the Church feels will benefit those who may be having doubts about what they believe as a Latter-day Saint. He says, as part of an assignment I had as a general authority a few years ago, I read through a great deal of material antagonistic to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the events of the Restoration.
Since that assignment changed, I have not returned to wallow in that mire. Reading that material, he said, always left me with a feeling of gloom and one day that sense of darkness inspired me to write a partial response to all such antagonistic claims. I would like to share some of the thoughts he says I recorded that day, and although what I wrote was for my benefit, I hope it will help you as well. Now, we should mention we have looked, and as far as we know, Mr. Corbridge has not published, either in print or on the internet, this list of antagonistic claims that he feels that he responded to. So we don't really know exactly what specifically were those problems, although he does give us, I think, a hint as to what they were when he talks about his primary questions and secondary questions. And the secondary questions, of course, included things about church history, plural marriage, people of African descent, not getting the priesthood, DNA in the Book of Mormon, etc.
So those were probably some of the things that he responded to for his own personal benefit. It's ironic, though, that some of the things in this list are exactly what the church talks about in their Gospel Topics essays that started coming out in 2013 and ended up coming out periodically for a period of about two years, because what obviously were things that bothered church members, these were things he had to look at. And it's fascinating to me as the church has responded to those problematic areas.
And as we've said on this program, their answers didn't really comfort a lot of members. In fact, it upset a lot of members because the church, in being transparent, had to agree with many of its critics, ourselves included, and what we had to say about church history on a lot of these topics. We were correctly looking to the history.
We were correctly reporting the history. And sometimes when a Latter-day Saint looks at that correct history of their own church, it causes them some doubts and causes them some problems. And this is what Mr. Corbridge, no doubt, is trying to address here. But I read you that introduction because he's going to go back to this alleged gloom that he felt several years ago. And in order to understand what he's talking about, you have to read the opening portion of this article.
But what does he say, Eric, on page 30, under the heading, That Which Doth Not Edify? So what was the gloom I felt several years ago while reading antagonistic materials? Some would say that gloom is the product of belief bias, which is the propensity to pick and choose only those things that accord with our assumptions and beliefs. The thought that everything one has believed and been taught may be wrong, particularly with nothing better to take its place, is a gloomy and disturbing thought indeed. Now, as he goes on, he's going to exempt himself from what he calls belief bias.
And we're going to talk about that later. But let's address this right now, because I agree that one of the reasons why Latter-day Saints have a problem believing what you as a Christian tell them, even if it's from their own material, is because of this belief bias that Mr. Corbridge makes reference to here. A Latter-day Saint hears something, it could be from their own sources, from their own leaders, and they did not know about that particular teaching or that saying. It causes them trouble because they didn't agree with it.
And now it kind of upsets their apple cart, so to speak, and they don't know what to do with this. I think that's a very real thing. I've seen it in the lives of Latter-day Saints as I'm having conversations with them. You say something, they say, oh, that can't be true. But when you ask them, well, have you ever read what I'm citing to you?
Well, no, but I just know it can't be true. There's not even, in many cases, the idea that maybe that in their ignorance, they ought to check this out before they denounce it as being false. But many times it's interesting they don't do that. What you're saying here about what he calls that gloom is the product of belief bias, doesn't the Latter-day Saint have belief bias?
Because the Latter-day Saint only picks and chooses what he or she wants to believe about whatever particular issue. Absolutely. Because they do have this belief bias, it does cause them some problems. But folks, we all have belief bias. Right. All of us do. As a Christian, if I'm listening to, let's say, an atheist offer some of his arguments as to why Christianity shouldn't be believed, and I've never heard that argument before, and it sounds like what they're saying might have some plausibility, would it not cause me a little bit of angst?
Of course it would. That's why, as Christians, we need to check these things out. We need to find answers to these perplexing problems, even regarding our own Christian faith. We all have belief bias. But what I find amazing is how Mr. Corbidge is going to go on and give us the impression he's above all that. He doesn't have that problem. But he must recognize that a lot of his fellow members have it.
That's why he's addressing it here. And I think that is a main reason why a lot of Latter-day Saints will say things to us, such as when you bring up something they've never heard before, they'll say something to the effect, well, I don't feel the spirit when you talk. I've had Mormons say that to me, even though what I just said comes from their own sources. You would think that if those sources were telling the truth, since they're coming from an LDS perspective, they should feel the spirit at the same time, wouldn't you think? Yeah, you would think so.
You would think so. But they don't. They somehow feel that I'm either misquoting what I said or just making it up.
Bill, I want to read that last sentence of that paragraph again. The thought that everything one has believed and been taught may be wrong, particularly with nothing better to take its place, is a gloomy and disturbing thought indeed. And it's true. Statistics say that close to half of all Latter-day Saints who leave the Church end up heading toward atheism, agnosticism, or nothing at all, about 44%.
And so that is very possible. But I'm going to say a lot of Latter-day Saints who are currently Latter-day Saints don't seriously consider the idea that possibly Christianity could be true. They've never really looked into Christianity.
Why? Because if the Church is not true, then nothing else is. That's a mantra that has been going through Mormon churches for many, many years. And so many Latter-day Saints say because of the apostasy, because of the loss of authority and no priesthood authority that is found in the Christian Church, that is not a real possibility. And I think it's a shame that many Latter-day Saints continue to stay in the Church because they really don't feel there is nothing better to take its place. And I would also take this as a warning to those of us as evangelicals, that when we are talking to our LDS friends and acquaintances, I would certainly hope you're not just knocking the props out from underneath the subject of Mormonism, but while you are doing that, you are giving them something to replace that loss. I don't want to make them ex-Mormons for nothing. I want them to become ex-Mormons, yes, but I would hope in exchange that I would give them the information and the direction to find Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the New Testament, as their Savior, one that they can, in fact, place their complete trust. You don't need the LDS Church, folks.
All you need is Jesus. He is enough to forgive you of your sins. When he goes on in the next paragraph, he says, See, but the gloom I experienced as I listened to the dark choir of voices raised against the prophet Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ is different. See, his is different. He's not falling into this category of the average member. He's above all that.
I have a feeling a bit of his arrogance is coming out in this paragraph here. He said, That gloom is not belief bias, and it is not the fear of being in error. It is the absence of the Spirit of God. Oh, so what I gather from this is if you bring something up that conflicts with this belief bias that Mr. Corbridge thinks he's above, that has to be an absence of the Spirit of God, even though what you're saying to the Latter-day Saint could be absolutely truthful.
The history that you're talking about could be absolutely truthful. But if the Latter-day Saint doesn't agree with it, they're going to assume, as Mr. Corbridge seems to do here, they're going to assume that it's the absence of the Spirit of God. Would it really be if the statement that is being said to the Latter-day Saint is based in fact? How would that have an absence of the Spirit of God? Remember, the Holy Spirit is going to lead you to all truth.
That's very important. The Holy Spirit is not going to lead you into error. So when you're having these conversations with Latter-day Saints and you're citing your sources accurately, you're not taking a Bible verse out of context. You're not taking a Book of Mormon verse out of context. If the individual Latter-day Saint feels troubled by that, would it be right for them to assume there must be an absence of the Spirit of God in what you're saying?
See, I don't see a connection here. He says, he says, it is the condition of man left unto himself. It is the gloom of darkness and the stupor of thought that is mentioned in Doctrine and Covenants 9-9, he says in parentheses. And tomorrow's show, we're going to start by reading what Doctrine and Covenants 9-8 and 9-9 has to say. Thank you for listening. If you would like more information regarding Mormonism Research Ministry, we encourage you to visit our website at www.mrm.org, where you can request our free newsletter, Mormonism Researched. We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on Mormonism. on issues that will probably come up in a typical conversation. You can find these informative articles at CrashCourseMormonism.com. That's CrashCourseMormonism.com.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-04 06:27:44 / 2024-02-04 06:32:48 / 5