Frisbinator

Check it out, Luke 14: 26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. What the? What does Jesus mean hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters? I'm lost!

Thank you all for your comments.

Read the KJV and I will get a better picture? Ok, sounds like a great idea your deragatory-ness! Here is what the King James version says: (LUKE 9:) 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Looks to me like it says the exact same thing, which brings me back to my original question: Could the disciples call down fire from heaven, or not?

I apologize Paul, perhaps my question was a little bit lengthy. Really, what I intended to ask you was simply this: How do Mormons explain the complete lack of non-mormon archaelogical evidence supporting the statement that the above mentioned 27 crops/animals/metals existed when/where The Book of Mormon claimed? The same question for my 1-7 list regarding Mormon cities/ scripture / hebrew in America/ etc....... ? How do people of your faith explain this? Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. -Trent

Hello Paul. I appreciate your willingness to discuss your beliefs openly with us. I have always been curious as to how Mormons feel about the following, but have never been able to obtain a clear explanation. Perhaps you could shed some light on how the Mormon community feels about the following statements: The following are 27 various animals, animal products, crops, metals and metal products mentioned in the Book of Mormon: Animals and animal products: Ass,Bull,Calf,Cattle,Cow,Butter,Elephants,Milk,Flocks,Goat (The Nephites claimed to have found the domestic goat.),Herds Horse (The horse plays a major role in the Nephite and Lamanite societies.) ,Ox ,Sheep (This was a major animal in the Book of Mormon.) ,Sow, and Swine. Crops: Barley (Moses 7:22, 9:9, Alma 11:7, 15) Figs (3 Nephi 14:16) Grapes (2 Nephi 15:2, 4, 3 Nephi 14:16) Wheat (Moses 9:9, 3 Nephi 18:18) Metals and metal products: The following metals, metal products, or metal manufacturing are mentioned in the Book of Mormon record: Bellows,Brass,Breast Plates,Chains,Copper,Iron,Ore (mining),Plows,Silver,Swords (metal), and Steel. As far as the animals and crops are concerned: There is no independent (non-Mormon) archeological evidence that any of these existed in the area and time frame of The Book of Mormon. As far as the metals and metal products are concerned: Independent (non-Mormon) archeological evidence shows that none of these were manufactured or used in the area and time frame of 2 Nephi 5. The Smithsonian Institution's Dept. Of Anthropology declares the Americas did not have steel or horses before 1492. The Book of Mormon (600 B.C. to 421 A.D.) claims both steel (1 Nephi 4:9) and horses (Alma 18:9). Gordon H. Fraser, anthropologist and ethnologist, agrees with the Smithsonian Institution and adds that copper (Mosiah 8:10) was unknown at that early date as referred to in the Book of Mormon. Also: 1. No Book of Mormon cities have been located. 2. No Book of Mormon names have been found in New World inscriptions. 3. No genuine inscriptions have been found in Hebrew in America. 4. No genuine inscriptions have been found in America in Egyptian or anything similar to Egyptian, which could correspond to Joseph Smith's 'reformed Egyptian.' 5. No ancient copies of Book of Mormon scriptures have been found. 6. No ancient inscriptions of any kind in America which indicate that the ancient inhabitants had Hebrew or Christian beliefs have been found. 7. No mention of Book of Mormon persons, nations, or places have been found. (Archaeology and the Book of Mormon by Hal Hougey, p. 12) Thankyou very much for taking the time to read this and I am looking forward to your reply. -Trent

Apparently, a couple of Jesus' disciples had the ability to call down fire from heaven, as indicated by this passage in Luke: 51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked,

Thanks for the help folks, it is very much appreciated!

Can any of you high schoolers out there remember a bible study/ Sunday school class that you were given that you thought was really really great? If so, could you please answer these questions: How was it taught as far as participation is concerned? Was it more of a lecture, or an open discussion, and how did the moderator encourage discussion? What kinds of questions did they ask, questions referring to the story itself or questions referring to applying it to your life? What was the lesson on and what, in your opinion, made it so great? I teach high schoolers and am just lookin' for a little bit of inside info, thanks!

Yeah, well, I personally like hearing the view of unbelievers and reading about them. I feel it's our responsibility to hear what "the other side" has to say about us and our religion, be it true or not.

Joseph was the husband of Mary and Mary was a virgin when she had Jesus. The part that confuses me is, if Mary was married, why would she be a virgin? Why would they not have "made love" if they were married?

You should. It is very interesting.....

Anyone read that relatively new Newsweek article about Jesus and his birth? If you did, what did you think about it?

No, he isn't her boyfriend. She said that they were just "doing it" and it wasn't supposed to be exclusive, but it "kinda was". Meaning they're "doing it" and apparently someone decided that there shouldn't be any relationship involved. I'm sorry, but "doing it" with someone everytime you get the feeling to isn't something that I can respect. Especially when you're unwilling to date someone who you ADMIT you have feelings for, because you feel committed to your "buddy", who set the parameters that there WOULD be no commitment. I'd like to see you feel an extremely strong amount of love for somebody for almost two years, make huge amounts of progress (due to your perseverance), and then have them go and do this with someone else, see how you feel about the other person involved when you think about it a hundred times a day. Anyway, I appreciate everyone's help and consideration. If anyone is curious, here is what's happened so far: Yesterday, I took my cell phone apart and hid each part on the opposite sides of the house, in places where it would be difficult to get them. I'm going outta town for eight days and will leave my cell phone at home. I'm praying that everything will turn out ok and come to some sort of conclusion. And that's that! Thanks again for all your help.

There's this girl, she's not Christian, and she's a good deal younger than me. I've known her for two years and have been trying to grab her attention so to speak pretty much the whole time. We were getting pretty close, until she just stopped contacting me. Finally, after four weeks, we started talking again and after some prying, said she was "kinda seeing someone" and after more prying said "We are kinda exclusive but free to do what we want. Even though we dont." This troubles me tremendously, especially when I'm trying to sleep, cause it's like I want to just strangle this guy she's seeing, just thinking about it raises my adrenaline..... I realize that this isn't the right kind of girl to chase after, but it's like I want her more than anything. I'm always thinking about her whether I want to or not, my heart beats fast anytime we interact in any way, and praying hasn't seemed to change the way I feel about her in the slightest. What would YOU do about this troubling predicament?

Tubal Cain, I disagree with one thing you said in your post: Christianity is monotheistic and is not considered Duality for one simple reason already mentioned in several earlier posts: The Devil is not as powerful as God. For a religion to have such a quality, it must have two EQUAL powers, sometimes losing and sometimes gaining ground, in the universe. The Devil is not considered an Equal power to God and therefore Christianity is not dualistic.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the effort that you all go through to post all of your info. Here are just a couple of questions/comments I have about some of the things people have said: How could Satan's power be denied? Look at how many Christian men are addicted to pornography, look at all of the sexual abuse that happens, look at all of the violence people commit, look at all of the corruption. Gen 3:1 Now the snake was wiser than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. We are natural sinners.....but I just hear so many people talking about how careful we need to be, because Satan is right around the corner, ready to throw another temptation at us, etc....... When you say, "don't say that EVERY single bad thing that temps us comes from Satan", does that imply that there are some bad things that tempt us that DO come from Satan? If so, that brings me right back to the original question: How can Satan be omnipresent? Or does he just tempt one person at a time? Hold on a second, the Devil never killed Adam or Eve did he? He just tempted them to eat from the tree of knowledge right? I thought that Cain committed the first murder... So, you're saying that right now, Hell does not exist?? Does everyone else agree with that, or am I the only one who "did not take the time to read the bible on this simple point"?

Ok, thanks for the info, but one question still remains. First of all, there seems to be some confusion. I never meant to ask if Satan was omniPOTENT. OmniPOTENT would imply that he is all powerful. I meant to ask if he was omniPRESENT, meaning everywhere at once. I was just confused how an angel could have such a quality. Let me break this down: We're all tempted by the Devil, right? Millions of Christians around the world, at the same time, are being tempted by isolated occurences that are not related, right?? Well, how is that not omnipresent? How can an angelic being be in millions of different places at the same time?

God created the Devil as an angel. God created the Devil implies that God is much more powerful than the Devil, correct? So, Lucifer tries to destroy God and obviously fails and is thrown outta heaven and spends his time tempting people away from his enemy, God, so that they may spend eternity in "a lake of sulfur where there shall be nashing of teeth". Here are my questions: 1. Satan tempting all of us, constantly, every single day to sin implies that he, like God, would have to basically be everywhere at once. But he is not as powerful as God, so how could he be everywhere at the same time, tempting all of us to sin? 2. Is Satan not basically doing God a favor, by sort of "taking care of the unbelievers"? Did Satan create Hell or did God create Hell? And how come Satan gets to rule over Hell, shouldn't he be suffering in the lake of fire right along with the non believers? And PLEASE don't say "Well a life without Jesus IS Hell". Perhaps it is very miserable, but I disagree. The bible clearly states that Hell is a pit of fire: Deu 32:22=> For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Rev 19:20=> And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Rev 20:10=> And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Rev 20:15=> And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Thanks for the insight folks.

As a young and single Christian, do you all think that it is ok to have non-Christian friends, who are either a different religion altogether or just plain not interested in Christianity? Also, is there a large enough gap between Protestants and Catholics to justify a Protestant not dating a Catholic, or vice versa?

Ya'll crack me up. Out of all of those responses, only one guy answered the question!