Can You Please Help?

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Matthew_Kane

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Hi, I am a faithful Catholic who loves the Church and all Her teachings, but am now struggling with mormonism. I am just lured to the lds church and I do not know why. I know the saying that the “enemy” camp may be luring and very attractive, but I have still been struggling with it. If you please help me with some apologetics on the subject it would be greatly appreciated. (I do not want any hateful and uncharitable remarks from LDS memebers and other memebers if argument sparks =)
Thanks and God Bless!
PS- I am not trying to insult the lds church or what it believes I would just like some help and comfort from my Catholic bretheren.
 
Matthew_Kane said:
Hi, I am a faithful Catholic who loves the Church and all Her teachings, but am now struggling with mormonism. I am just lured to the lds church and I do not know why. I know the saying that the “enemy” camp may be luring and very attractive, but I have still been struggling with it. If you please help me with some apologetics on the subject it would be greatly appreciated. (I do not want any hateful and uncharitable remarks from LDS memebers and other memebers if argument sparks =)
Thanks and God Bless!
PS- I am not trying to insult the lds church or what it believes I would just like some help and comfort from my Catholic bretheren.
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What is it that you find attractive
 
I don’t know exactly, I guess their sincerity, their testimonies, joseph smith, etc. It’s hard to explain =) I guess its one of those things that I think is attractive all together, but seperated is not. LOL sorry if this hard to help me with.
 
I also feel lured to read the book of mormon, but have tried and could not get through cause it felt as if i was faith into something that was not true. =)
 
Matthew_Kane said:
I don’t know exactly, I guess their sincerity, their testimonies, joseph smith, etc. It’s hard to explain =) I guess its one of those things that I think is attractive all together, but seperated is not. LOL sorry if this hard to help me with.
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The problem is I am better at defending the Catholic faith than attacking others. I would say find a priest you can confide in to talk to, and listen to Catholic Answers Live as much as possible. Look through their archives about Mormonism, and find out if any of their Apologists have come out of the LDS, they would be able to help as well.
 
SOrry I can’t help more, but that is the best advice I can give.
 
No, No that’s fine. =) Thanks for the advice. I think it will help me.
 
The Orthodox Wiki has a good explanation of Mormonism from the Orthodox perspective (which shouldn’t be too different from the Catholic perspective). You can read through it if you think it will help:

orthodoxwiki.org/Mormonism#Mormon_Organization

A lot of times when we are attracted to things, it is 5% knowledge and 95% infatuation, we build it up in our head and make it sound good. If you learn more about Mormonism and how it differs from the Catholic Faith, you will be able to make a more informed decision about your spiritual life.

Personally, though, I tend not to trust people who show up and say that everything that’s been going on for the past 1000s of years is corrupt, God wouldn’t allow His Church to go astray for that long.

Hope this helps!
 
Matthew_Kane said:
I don’t know exactly, I guess their sincerity, their testimonies, joseph smith, etc. It’s hard to explain =) I guess its one of those things that I think is attractive all together, but seperated is not. LOL sorry if this hard to help me with.
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On the “search” tab of this CAF site, type in Mormonism and you will find tracts about what the LDS believes.
 
StTommyMore said:
The problem is I am better at defending the Catholic faith than attacking others. I would say find a priest you can confide in to talk to, and listen to Catholic Answers Live as much as possible. Look through their archives about Mormonism, and find out if any of their Apologists have come out of the LDS, they would be able to help as well.
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Definitely look through this site for articles on Mormonism. Mormons as a whole are very devout, sincere, nice people, who are models of charity. There is much to admire in how they conduct themselves. That said, their faith is based on several fallacies and does not contain the Fullness of Truth as the Catholic Church does.
 
Just do a simple Google search about anachronisms in the Book of Mormon. it’s loaded with them! Read and research Joseph Smith and you’ll eventually come to the conclusion he was not at all prophetic or trustworthy. Take a look at his “translation” of the “Book of Abraham” that turned out to be an embalming manual!

Mormonism is not Christian. It lacks the Holy Trinity, attributes false revelations to God, gives God the Father a human body, gives God a wife, talks about preexistence and spirit babies and bizarre cosmic speculations. The New World narrative of the BOM is just not consistent with a racist agenda against blacks via the lamanites, it is inconsistent with history and ideas like proxy-baptisms after someone has already died are just bizarre. There is a history of racism, polygamy (back in the day), cult-like behavior, and really shoddy theology.

I would think LOOOOONG and hard about Mormonism. I’d convert to just about any Christian denomination before I’d move to Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Unitarianism. Those three are not Christian religions IMO. Do Mormons have charitable, kind, clean-cut, generally nice people in them. HECK YEAH! Is it a legitimate Christian religion? I would say not at all.
 
I don’t know exactly, I guess their sincerity, their testimonies, joseph smith, etc. It’s hard to explain =) I guess its one of those things that I think is attractive all together, but seperated is not. LOL sorry if this hard to help me with.
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Then you have to think about the fundamental question - where is God’s Church and truth to be found? The Catholic Church has stated her belief unequivocally in documents and official teachings.

Though we are often attracted by the externals let these do not take away the truth of the internal. Yes, we often admire and are impressed by what we see in other churches because it often reflect what we do not have in our own. If we have problem with our own parish one way or the other, the grass on other side would always seem to be greener. Should that kind of feeling arise in us, it is always good, as I said to go back to the basic. Take time to ponder about our own spiritual state of life, read religious books, consult and talk to fellow Catholics, reach out to priests and religious and most of all, fall on our knees and pray. Ask the Lord why we are attracted to something that’s away from him. We can always trust the Lord that he will not forsake but affirm us.

God bless.
 
Matthew_Kane said:
joseph smith, etc.
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A man who was shot to death during a gun battle while escaping from jail? Choose Jesus.

They do not worship the same God. Theirs is different in substance from the Christian God. If they are honest, they will admit as much. Caution: They may use “holy lies” to gain your trust.

You can tour the holy land. You can see and touch those places where our Lord walked.

There is zero physical evidence of any of the claims made in the book of Mormon.

In the Catholic faith, you have the testimony of the entirety of the scriptural authors. You have the written testimony of the early Church fathers. You have the lives, works and testimony of the Saints. You have an almost 2,000 year continuum of Christian tradition and practice. Almost all parishes have an altar stone which contains a relic of the Saint for which it is named.

The LDS have the word of a 19th century American man. They claim that the Church failed and fell into “total apostasy”, a contention which makes the promise of Jesus Christ into a lie. Do not be deceived. We are in the biblical age of false christs and antichrists.
 
There’s a great book called Inside Mormonism by Isaiah Bennett (sp?) that is available through Catholic.com as well as through other sites. The author was a Catholic priest who left the church to become a Mormon. After several years in the LDS Church he left it to return to the Catholic faith. He regretted his decision to leave, and does a very fair job - in the book - of explaining what is good, but also what is untrue about the LDS Church.

If reading helps you to deal with these sorts of issues, I highly recommend this book. It does a fair job of laying out the LDS doctrines and explaining why they simply don’t square up with each other, with scripture, or with reason. It’s a thick book, but worth the read.

From my own experiences with family members and others, I’ve found many LDS members to be very kind, and very giving. But there are some very nice Buddhists I know as well. Their doctrines are not proven true or false by this. You really have to separate the two.

Peace,
Robert
 
Is the True Presence of the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Redeemer available to us ANYWHERE BUT THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC CHURCH?

Not…
 
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