David Rhoades

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The Book of Mormon vs. the LDS Church

A few days ago, two Mormon missionaries came by my house and wanted to talk. I made an appointment for tonight so I could prepare a few notes (which are below).

There are a lot of problems with Mormonism. The three biggest are that it has an insufficient savior, inconsistent sources of authority, and an impossible salvation (i.e., works-based). Of course, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does a masterful job of minimizing these issues by using the same terminology used in the Bible.

Nevertheless, I needed to decide on how to plant the seeds of the gospel with these missionaries. I chose a rather unusual strategy: gently point out some key differences between what the LDS church taught them and what the Book of Mormon teaches. If I could get these guys to begin to question their beliefs (which they are trained NOT to do), it could lead to them looking toward the real Christ. A faith can only be true if it is consistent with itself.

Below is the text that I prepared. (I left blanks next to "LDS" to allow them to tell me the answer.) The references are found in The Book of Mormon. Do not be concerned that these references may teach doctrine consistent with the Bible, for there are many other Mormon scriptures that contradict the Bible.