Is the Book of Mormon Divinely Inspired?

[Gadianton]

His question was hypothetical. If a non-Mormon were to use your trademark method to a different end what would you do?

After I finished my run I came back and had a nice chat with them actually waiting for them to offer up their testimony.

You held the actual expectation that a Jehovah's Witness would bear witness of their beliefs in Mormon lingo, and because they didn't, you were pleasantly reminded yet again how true Mormonism is.

[Marcus]

What are the odds that you define 'bearing one's testimony' as a thing that happens only and exactly as Mormons do it? Of course you find the Mormon version of this to be more common in your experiences with Mormons. Your limited experience is influenced by reasoning that is happily circular, which I believe Gad pointed out.

I think the sincere testimony of a Jehovah’s Witness would be easily recognizable....

See Gadianton's response.

[Gadianton]

Jehovah's Witnesses "witness", they don't "bear testimony" and so it wouldn't be obvious to MG because he'd be waiting for them to say they Know that God's name is Jehovah and the truth of it had been manifest by the Holy Ghost. There is no such thing as the "sincere testimony" of Jehovah's witness because they aren't Mormons who believe in testimonies. I guarantee you that if you have spoken to several pairs of JWs -- I have done so myself -- that you've received the "witness" because if they told you anything about Jehovah at all, or anything about the Bible, then they just "witnessed" to you.

[Morley]

We flew to San Fransisco this weekend to surprise a daughter for her birthday. After dinner, we called an Uber for the fifteen minute ride back to our lodgings. We were picked up by a quiet young man who thanked us for the business--because our route was on the his way to his prayers at the mosque. Arriving at the motel, the driver asked us to wait a minute, while he dug in a box in his trunk. Without a word, he sheepishly handed me a copy of the Quran, got back in his car, and drove off. MG would have been disappointed in the fellow's apparent lack of a testimony.

[MG 2.0]

We flew to San Fransisco this weekend to surprise a daughter for her birthday. After dinner, we called an Uber for the fifteen minute ride back to our lodgings. We were picked up by a quiet young man who thanked us for the business--because our route was on the his way to his prayers at the mosque. Arriving at the motel, the driver asked us to wait a minute, while he dug in a box in his trunk. Without a word, he sheepishly handed me a copy of the Quran, got back in his car, and drove off. MG would have been disappointed in the fellow's apparent lack of a testimony.

Not so. I think that was a beautiful gesture on his part.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

His question was hypothetical. If a non-Mormon were to use your trademark method to a different end what would you do?

After I finished my run I came back and had a nice chat with them actually waiting for them to offer up their testimony.

You held the actual expectation that a Jehovah's Witness would bear witness of their beliefs in Mormon lingo, and because they didn't, you were pleasantly reminded yet again how true Mormonism is.

Not so. They were very pleasant and easy to talk with. For some reason IHAQ, earlier, was referencing Jehovah’s Witness’s as having some kind of compatible ‘testifying’ similar to Mormon missionaries. Go back and read what he wrote. My response was to him as I said I didn’t see a similar ‘testifying’ of truth.

Then, or at other times I’ve talked with JW’s.

That’s not anything against what they might feel in their hearts, it’s just that I haven’t really heard them come out and express their deepest intuitions or feelings. Friendly folks though. Good conversations.

LDS Missionaries come right out and bear witness and testify of the truth. They don’t hold anything back.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

Here is another paper that can be added to the other links I’ve posted in this thread. Only for the lurkers though.

https://rsc.BYU.edu/historicity-latter- ... ook-Mormon

Regards,
MG

[Marcus]

Here is another paper that can be added to the other links I’ve posted in this thread. Only for the lurkers though.

https://rsc.BYU.edu/historicity-latter- ... ook-Mormon

Regards,
MG

Presented in the link above, as evidence in favor of the historicity of the Book of Mormon:

Evidence from Joseph Smith

Since Joseph Smith was the publisher of the Book of Mormon, we can rightly assign some measure of credit for its existence to him, assuming that he was not entirely subject to some force independent of his own agency. It will not be necessary to repeat the whole story of Moroni’s coming, the plates, and the Book of Mormon, but we will view some selections of Joseph Smith’s public and private statements about its origin and content. [16]

...Letter to a newspaper, January 1833

The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians, having been found through the ministration of an holy angel [and] translated into our own language by the gift and power of God after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years; containing the word of God which was delivered unto them. By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them. [18]

Some historical details: book written by ancestors of Indians, translated into English, duration of plates’ burial in ground, Israelite ancestry of Indians.

It's a known and universally accepted fact that the above statements about "our western tribes of Indians" are blatantly and completely untrue.

What a source.

[Philo Sofee]

Here is another paper that can be added to the other links I’ve posted in this thread. Only for the lurkers though.

https://rsc.BYU.edu/historicity-latter- ... ook-Mormon

Regards,
MG

Presented in the link above, as evidence in favor of the historicity of the Book of Mormon:

Evidence from Joseph Smith

Since Joseph Smith was the publisher of the Book of Mormon, we can rightly assign some measure of credit for its existence to him, assuming that he was not entirely subject to some force independent of his own agency. It will not be necessary to repeat the whole story of Moroni’s coming, the plates, and the Book of Mormon, but we will view some selections of Joseph Smith’s public and private statements about its origin and content. [16]

...Letter to a newspaper, January 1833

The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians, having been found through the ministration of an holy angel [and] translated into our own language by the gift and power of God after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years; containing the word of God which was delivered unto them. By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them. [18]

Some historical details: book written by ancestors of Indians, translated into English, duration of plates’ burial in ground, Israelite ancestry of Indians.

It's a known and universally accepted fact that the above statements about "our western tribes of Indians" are blatantly and completely untrue.

What a source.

But, and now dear Marcus, you already know this... if you testify in words that contravenes and refutes the direct non-historical, contradiction of being entirely wrong, and so, it is correct after all. And for bonus feature #334 in the series, if you testify it is the most correct book of any on earth because Joseph Smith hisself said so, why... you are close to the Covenant path and thinking Celestial! Man you would be happenin'. You would be burnin' the tracks, trumpin' the Republicans, Jimmyin' the jury, and crammin' the critics.

[Moksha]

LDS Missionaries come right out and bear witness and testify of the truth. They don’t hold anything back.

Regards,
MG

Jehovah's Witnesses are not there as salesmen. Their faith requires them to bear witness.