I am on my mission right now and a family has hardtime accepting the Church because the mother read an antimormon book that said that Joseph Smith killed all those who rejected the Church. I’ve never heard of Joseph Smith being an assasin in other antimormon sources I read before my mission.
The reason I’m telling you this is so you can help me so she can know J. Smith didn’t do that. And I’m writing this to you because before my mission I had a faith crisis for reading antimormon info and your website and FairLDS helped me to gain my own testimony (please never stop doing what you do). They also have a hard time accepting the Church because they say we believe in many Gods (because of the book of Abraham and because they heard we believe there are other Gods) and that God has a wife. We are going to visit them later but I’d like to know what would you do, just to have an idea. Thanks for your time.
A,
/Questions/m_santo_gringo_s_email_ENG_780.php
2 Responses to “Help a missionary”
Daniel Rubio
2014-02-23 20:06:49
Hi Elder! I'm very happy this site helped you before your mission. Thank you for letting me know it made a difference. That means a lot to me.
I hope this answer doesn't arrive too late. It is certainly not true that Joseph Smith killed all those who rejected the Church. In fact, I am aware of no instance where someone who rejected the church was killed. One common anti-mormon tactic is to distort Mormon history, but in this case it's not even a distortion. It's an out-right lie.
Joseph Smith's experience in the sacred grove showed him that God the Father and Jesus Christ are two separate beings who, together with the Holy Ghost, function in perfect unity as a single monotheistic unit, the "Godhead."
Your investigators' concern about "gods" and "Heavenly Mother" is probably founded in a misunderstanding of our actual beliefs, but at least it's an "understandable misunderstanding." Here are some answers I've given that address the incorrect claim that Mormons are polytheists:
Thanks for your question, Elder! Best of luck to you. You're doing a great work.
Anonymous
2014-02-18 06:04:32
Dear Elder, the task you have at hands is not an easy one. Although there is an answer to all of the "doubts" raised by your Investigators, it will all boil down to the character of the person listening to you and whether he/she will have a honest heart and look for the truth or if he/she will rather prefer to keep holding on to the missinformation.
There is a good website you can use in your efforts to reply to this family at http://www.fairmormon.org/. This website has the collaboration of manny scholars that help answer these difficult questions. Visit this site yourself and look for the answers.
Regarding the first topic, I've never heard of Joseph Smith being accused of murder, and I've heard quite a lot.
Regarding the second topic, the questions posed all have root in the same place. In a nutshell, the reason our theology differs so much from "standard Christianity" is because ours is rooted in the original theology had in the times of the Bible, and the other is rooted in the philosophical greco-roman-stoic bias being put onto the Bible and its resulting missinterpretations. You will see in that website that biblical archeology, linguistics, history and other fields of scholarly analysis are agreeing with many of Joseph´s teachings. This is a rather recent phenomenon (30+ years). Mainstream chirstianity tends to reject the findings.
I hope this answer doesn't arrive too late. It is certainly not true that Joseph Smith killed all those who rejected the Church. In fact, I am aware of no instance where someone who rejected the church was killed. One common anti-mormon tactic is to distort Mormon history, but in this case it's not even a distortion. It's an out-right lie.
Additionally, here's a simple answer regarding Heavenly Mother that might help you.
Thanks for your question, Elder! Best of luck to you. You're doing a great work.
There is a good website you can use in your efforts to reply to this family at http://www.fairmormon.org/. This website has the collaboration of manny scholars that help answer these difficult questions. Visit this site yourself and look for the answers.
Regarding the first topic, I've never heard of Joseph Smith being accused of murder, and I've heard quite a lot.
Regarding the second topic, the questions posed all have root in the same place. In a nutshell, the reason our theology differs so much from "standard Christianity" is because ours is rooted in the original theology had in the times of the Bible, and the other is rooted in the philosophical greco-roman-stoic bias being put onto the Bible and its resulting missinterpretations. You will see in that website that biblical archeology, linguistics, history and other fields of scholarly analysis are agreeing with many of Joseph´s teachings. This is a rather recent phenomenon (30+ years). Mainstream chirstianity tends to reject the findings.