why me wrote:marg wrote:
Why me Have you heard the voice of God, have you seen the plates through the power of God. And what is this God or angel that you know is the same per the Book of Mormon witness statement. You have not had the same experiences that is claimed by those witnesses.
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I had my own experience with the Book of Mormon. I knelt down and prayed about it and received a very powerful witness that it was true. And it is that witness that I cannot deny. However, I am not the best church member. So, I can relate to the witnesses having a strong witness and yet, drifting away. However, some of the witnesses drifted away not because of disbelief but because of Joseph Smith. But they hung on to their testimony.
Why me your experience is so different to theirs that it's hardly comparable and is leading you into poor critical thinking assumptions.
To begin with Harris, D. Whitmer, and Cowdery were business partners with Smith, before the Book of Mormon was written. They would have been aware that they stood to gain a huge financial reward as well as power should their venture become successful...a venture that used as its backbone the Book of Mormon.
What they testified to is not just a generic "feeling" like you say you had, but a particular experience of the same things ..an angel, voice of God, bright light, plates etc. That they all say they experienced the same particular things makes that experience much more extraordinary than yours..hence unlikely.
They were highly motivated to not deny their testimony experience otherwise to do so would make them liars in order to perpetuate a fraud.
If the 3 witnesses for the Book of Mormon had nothing to gain, were not given high positions in the Mormon business once it got started, if the other 8 were unrelated to each other...the 2 testimonies would have some reason to be credible. But given the circumstances of the claims made (they all claim to experience the same extraordinary things), how extraordinary the things they claimed are and given the Book of Mormon witnesses were related to one another, motivated for financial and position reward in the business...there is little reason to believe they were sincere/telling the truth.
And by the way deathbed testimony is unreliable when it serves to benefit those taking/hearing the testimony.
And as to yourself, I'm even doubting your sincerity. From the inception of Mormonism the main purpose was that it was to replace other religions which were abominations. If you've had a powerful witness of the Book of Mormon then what's the justification to leaning towards/believing in Catholicism?
And if you believe D. Whitmer is telling the truth..why do you defend The LDS church? D. Whitmer said it's a false religion..and God told him to leave it.