Could smith have been a true prophet from god?

[pickguard1]

Of course he preached a different gospel than the one that Catholics preach. So do Protestants but you don’t automatically say that they are false because of that.

Actually, Protestants do preach the same Gospel (that is, there isn’t any new books that Protestants have added in)- they just misinterpret it, according to the Catholic Church. So the position of the Church towards Protestants is one of “separated branches” in that they are still from the same tree, but through rejecting Catholic doctrine and dogma, have separated themselves. However, they still retain many of the universal Christian doctrines and dogmas, such as the Holy Trinity (three persons, one God), some retain belief in the Real Presence (although still in an incorrect way), in one heaven and one hell, etc.
I would say that the Catholic church does indeed call any aspects in which Protestants deviate from Catholic doctrines and dogma “false.” But, not in that they establish a new religion entirely, but in that they establish a new (and from the Catholic perspective) false understanding of the original religion.

As for the LDS, it is different, because there is the added books of scripture which in some respects follow the New Testament, but in others deviate and contradict completely. In reality, Mormonism is a completely different religion than that known and practised by all Christians up to the time of Joseph Smith. Just because it has taken some Christian scriptures and incorporated them doesn’t mean it’s another separated branch - and it doesn’t claim to be from the same tree - it claims to be an entirely different tree.

Just as the Quran has some borrowings from Judaic and Christianity, no one claims it is from the same religion - it’s its own religion.

 

[pickguard1]

Thank you again Finrock for your enlightening posts. With regard to the following quote:

Another scripture that is relevant to this is D&C 132:30, where it talks about Abraham and his seed, that “out of the world they should continue; both in the world and out of the world should they continue as innumerable as the stars; . . .” Again, it says nothing about having “spirit children”. **That promise could be fulfilled in any number of ways other than having “spirit children”. **So I think the manual is at fault with that. The good news is that there are not that many such faults in the manual. The bad news is that one is enough for the critics to jump on; therefore one is too many!

I agree with the bolded print. This could simply mean those entering into heaven (who are of the seed of Abraham), and not necessarily that the increase “out of the world” means “having origin out of the world.”

 

[Rachel_Malloy]

Because this thread has gone so completely off topic, it is now close.

God bless

Rachel