For the critics... what do you say to missionaries?

[_quaker]

Mormon missionaries are not sent out to 'teach' the gospel, that would imply they even understand it at this age which they don't. They are sent out to testify of what they already believe. If they encounter someone who wants to argue about religion they should move on looking for more fertile (ignorant) grounds where what they say will be taken at face value. There is a reason they are much more successful with the uneducated.

I have a very difficult time accepting when older people set the standard for ignorance below where they are currently standing. Are you just going to consider more and more people ignorant in such a demeaning manner as you get older and everyone else becomes relatively less experienced? Does that make you feel better?

[_RockSlider]

my hero

Thanks Ray for the acticles

[_Fence Sitter]

I have a very difficult time accepting when older people set the standard for ignorance below where they are currently standing. Are you just going to consider more and more people ignorant in such a demeaning manner as you get older and everyone else becomes relatively less experienced? Does that make you feel better?

I'll answer your question after you stop beating your wife.

[_Fence Sitter]

Oh and Thews would you please reload your avatar? I cannot see one for you.

How does one reload one's avatar? I haven't seen mine in a while and I've been wondering if there's something I need to do to get it visible.

I think you just have to reload it the same way you loaded it the first time.

[_Blixa]

I don't see the missionaries at my door because they have to be buzzed into the apartment building. No one lets them or JW's in.

As I've said before, when I happen to see missionaries out and about in the neighborhood, I usually try to stop, say hello and give them a few bucks and directions to a good place to eat. They're just young kids doing what they think they should be doing or have been pressured into doing. I don't expect they have much luck in these parts and I imagine they are tired, frustrated and discouraged. I have a lot of sympathy for them. Trying to engage them in discussions they aren't prepared for wouldn't accomplish much for either of us.

[_Shulem]

Thews, how do you "know for a fact that Joseph Smith was a false prophet of God"?

Because he knows the Explanations of Facsimile No. 3 which were tendered by the so-called revelations/translations of Joseph Smith are nothing but lies. Modern Egyptology through art and science has proven that. Thews is perfectly safe in knowing Joseph Smith has been proven a false prophet.

Perhaps KevinSims-boy would like to use science to prove the Explanations of Facisimile No. 3 are true and correct? Good luck. You need it. You might as well put your hands down Joseph Smith's pants and feel away. You'll get better success there than you will in his private version of Egyptology.

Paul O

[_Stormy Waters]

Having been a missionary I have a lot of empathy for the missionaries. They have almost zero free time. They have to try to fill their days with missionary activities with almost no breaks. Their leaders are constantly pressuring them to get better results. They face almost constant rejection.
Sometimes I would like to save them the trouble of dedicating two years of their lives to a false church but I think exposing them to damaging information about the church is almost pointless. Their access to the internet is restricted, so they wouldn't be able to dig deeper or verify the things that you told them. They would probably just write off what you told them as anti-Mormon lies.

[_ludwigm]

missionaries...

They're just young kids doing what they think they should be doing or have been pressured into doing. I don't expect they have much luck in these parts and I imagine they are tired, frustrated and discouraged. I have a lot of sympathy for them. Trying to engage them in discussions they aren't prepared for wouldn't accomplish much for either of us.

Agree.

Few years before it was a routine to feed the missionaries. (as far as I know, it was cancelled. WHY?)
As my wife is always behind time with cooking, my task was to hold the mishies in play...

I always examined but never shocked them. Anyway, I was the investigator of the family, who didn't know - my wife was the member who knew (but had no time to talk).
They were not surprised about my questions. And I was not surprised to learn their knowledge - better said, the absence of it.

They are just young kids. Their service is not Neckermann's Sommerurlaub in Mallorca.

[Guest]

Because he knows the Explanations of Facsimile No. 3 which were tendered by the so-called revelations/translations of Joseph Smith are nothing but lies. Modern Egyptology through art and science has proven that. Thews is perfectly safe in knowing Joseph Smith has been proven a false prophet.

I'm not entirely familiar with what Joseph Smith claimed about Facsimile Number 3. The argument seems to be that Smith said it represented some things and modern Egyptologists now say it represents entirely different things. Does that mean Smith was wrong, or is it possible the facsimile might have more than one meaning? It wouldn't be the first time theologians postulated a statement in scripture had more than one meaning.

And even if we could know conclusively that Facsimile Number 3 had one and only one meaning, would the fact that Smith therefore made a mistake make him a false prophet? Does one become a false prophet the first time one makes a single mistake?

I guess I don't look at prophets that way. I consider someone a prophet if God wants me to consider him a prophet. I see no reason to believe God rejects someone as being His spokesman to the world at the very moment that someone makes her/his first mistake. Rather God was clearly aware of the likelihood that that someone might make mistakes at the moment God chose that someone, but was still certain that someone was the best choice to take God's message to the world.

Perhaps KevinSims-boy would like to use science to prove the Explanations of Facisimile No. 3 are true and correct? Good luck. You need it.

To be perfectly honest, I have no desire "to use science to prove the" mentioned explanations, even if I did have any idea how to prove them that way, which I don't. My emphasis has always been, if we go on the assumption that there is a good God in control of the universe, then does it make sense to conclude that that God chose Joseph Smith as His spokesman to the world? I think it does, Smith's explanations of Facsimile Number 3 notwithstanding.

[_KevinSim]

I think you just have to reload it the same way you loaded it the first time.

Thanks, Fence Sitter! I've got it back now.