What fables do Mormons think Catholics teach?

[christianley]

Yesterday at the LDS Church where I still attend with my wife and daughter, the speaker referred to 2 Timothy 4:4 which says “And they shall turn their ears away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” So apparently the LDS Church thinks Catholicism and the rest of Christianity have been “turned unto fables.” Which fables are they referring to – the Old and New Testaments? We don’t have any other stories which we are required to believe. Where are these fables?

Now let’s begin to really look at who is teaching fables. Could the Book of Mormon, a history which never ever happened, be termed a fable? How about the Book of Abraham? We know the Book of Abraham is a fable since the papyrii it was supposedly translated from tells an entirely different story. Perhaps the Mormons are the apostates who have turned to fables instead of the truth. These Mormons look pretty silly these days. Perhaps before Mormons answer the question they should find me a Native American with Hebrew blood.

 

[Chris-WA]

Yesterday at the LDS Church where I still attend with my wife and daughter, the speaker referred to 2 Timothy 4:4 which says “And they shall turn their ears away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” So apparently the LDS Church thinks Catholicism and the rest of Christianity have been “turned unto fables.” Which fables are they referring to – the Old and New Testaments? We don’t have any other stories which we are required to believe. Where are these fables?

LDS love to point to certain bible verses to support their “Great Apostacy” theory. But 100% of the time the scriptures they use do not support a* total* apostacy of the church. The bible does say that there will be apostacy among the members, but it never says that the Church will lose its authority, nor does the bible ever say that the Church will need to be restored. LDS try to interpret the bible that way in order to justify their own existence, but the truth is that it’s just not there. Just remember, they have to believe in the apostacy for their church to exist at all. Without the apostacy, there can be no LDS church, and everything unique to Mormonism comes crumbling down in a heap.

Do Mormons ever bother to ask themselves this one basic question–Why would Jesus Christ go to all the trouble of establishing a church with the 12 Apostles, establish the everlasting New Covenant (the Eucharist), promiss them the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth, commission them to go to the ends of the earth to spread the gospel, and promiss them that he will be with them until the end of time, if he knew that the church would fall into complete apostacy within one generation? Mormons would have us believe that Christianity, despite incredible persecution, managed to spread throughout the earth for 1700 years while in a state of total apostacy with no legitimate church authority. That just doesn’t make any sense.

 

[christianley]

What I get upset about it that the scripture quoted applies almost perfectly to the LDS rather than any other Christian group. No other Christian group has created its own fables like the LDS have. This scripture perfectly describes the LDS Church as the apostate group!

LDS love to point to certain bible verses to support their “Great Apostacy” theory. But 100% of the time the scriptures they use do not support a* total* apostacy of the church. The bible does say that there will be apostacy among the members, but it never says that the Church will lose its authority, nor does the bible ever say that the Church will need to be restored. LDS try to interpret the bible that way in order to justify their own existence, but the truth is that it’s just not there. Just remember, they have to believe in the apostacy for their church to exist at all. Without the apostacy, there can be no LDS church, and everything unique to Mormonism comes crumbling down in a heap.

Do Mormons ever bother to ask themselves this one basic question–Why would Jesus Christ go to all the trouble of establishing a church with the 12 Apostles, establish the everlasting New Covenant (the Eucharist), promiss them the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth, commission them to go to the ends of the earth to spread the gospel, and promiss them that he will be with them until the end of time, if he knew that the church would fall into complete apostacy within one generation? Mormons would have us believe that Christianity, despite incredible persecution, managed to spread throughout the earth for 1700 years while in a state of total apostacy with no legitimate church authority. That just doesn’t make any sense.

 

[Chris-WA]

What I get upset about it that the scripture quoted applies almost perfectly to the LDS rather than any other Christian group. No other Christian group has created its own fables like the LDS have. This scripture perfectly describes the LDS Church as the apostate group!

That’s true. The LDS have rejected certain parts of the bible in favor of Joseph Smith’s own re-translation, and have added their own giant fable–the Book of Mormon, a fictional work about civilizations in the Americas that never existed. This biblical verse does perfectly apply to the LDS. How ironic that someone would use it in a sacrament meeting talk.

Funny that to date no person, place, or event from the BoM new world accounts has ever been discovered or supported by any other source. Funny how not one other person from either the entire Nephite or Lamanite civilizations managed to carve something into stone or write something on a metal plate for us to find. That is just really odd, don’t you think? Two entire civilizations disappear without a trace. No writing, no architecture, no mention of them from the histories or legends of the surrounding civilizations. If these people had a written language, where are any artifacts of anything they wrote? Where are the BoM cities? Where are the remains of their weapons from the massive battles they had? Where is a single scrap of their written language? It’s as if the Nephites and the Lamanites lived in a vacuum unknown to any outsiders and were suddenly swallowed up into oblivion without a trace. Despite feverish archeological work by FARMS and other LDS groups, all they have been able to show is that there were people in the Americas before the Europeans showed up, but we already knew that, didn’t we?

 

[TimOliv]

Yesterday at the LDS Church where I still attend with my wife and daughter, the speaker referred to 2 Timothy 4:4 which says “And they shall turn their ears away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” So apparently the LDS Church thinks Catholicism and the rest of Christianity have been “turned unto fables.” Which fables are they referring to – the Old and New Testaments? We don’t have any other stories which we are required to believe. Where are these fables?

Now let’s begin to really look at who is teaching fables. Could the Book of Mormon, a history which never ever happened, be termed a fable? How about the Book of Abraham? We know the Book of Abraham is a fable since the papyrii it was supposedly translated from tells an entirely different story. Perhaps the Mormons are the apostates who have turned to fables instead of the truth. These Mormons look pretty silly these days. Perhaps before Mormons answer the question they should find me a Native American with Hebrew blood.

Keep in mind, if they work hard enough, they get their very own planet. Aim High!

 

[carmine007]

It’s the mormons. who cares?

 

[Brad_Haas]

I do…

 

[Saint_Michael]

Let’s discuss Mormonism, not knock Mormons, it makes us look bad. Catholics get that treatment at CARM and when you are on the outside looking in, it comes off really badly.

It’s a good topic and worthy of discussion:

“And they shall turn their ears away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Seems to describe the Mormon Church well to a Catholic. Was Joseph Smith a false prophet we were warned about? Is the Book of Mormon the “fables” we are warned about in Timothy? I would say so…

 

[christianley]

It’s the mormons. who cares?

My wife and kids are still Mormons. They are still being fed this garbage in their meetings. I think it is important to make Mormons think about how silly their teachings really are. Maybe at some point it will wake them up. I know when I was a true blue Mormon I was influenced by people who began to use logic to combat the absolute stupidity of Mormon teachings. The apostasy is one area in which they are really out to lunch. They need to be told.

 

[Chris-WA]

It’s a good topic and worthy of discussion:

“And they shall turn their ears away from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Seems to describe the Mormon Church well to a Catholic. Was Joseph Smith a false prophet we were warned about? Is the Book of Mormon the “fables” we are warned about in Timothy? I would say so…

The bible does speak of false prophets coming and leading many astray. I think many individuals over the last 2000 years fit the bill, including Jospeph Smith. His church just happens to be one of the more successful at it. The bible does not speak of a latter-day true prophet coming to bring about a restoration.

 

[Hastrman]

I think it is important to make Mormons think about how silly their teachings really are. Maybe at some point it will wake them up.

Yeah, but maybe not. They do have the whole Averroes “two truths” thing, don’t they?

Obviously don’t stop trying to evangelize, but don’t make fun of them. Yes, half their stuff is ridiculous. But be charitable to the poor goofs. Guys, we’re the religion where everything about the bread stays the same, except it’s not bread anymore. If you’re not acquainted with Aristotelianism, that sounds either stupid, or like a Zen koan. You know how many Buddhists I’ve met think our doctrines are koans?

Koans, I should explain, are paradoxes designed to startle the student out of thinking in terms of true and false. And as a Catholic, you constantly have to explain, “No, that’s not a puzzle, that’s a doctrine. Yes I know it’s strange. But it means what it says, and not something entirely different. God and Man, in Christ, are fully God and fully Man, not ‘alike parts of nonbeing’.”

Compared to trying to understand Christianity, meditating under waterfalls and wrestling with bears (Buddhist ascetic/charismatic practice) probably seems easy.

 

[RCCDefender]

What I find completely odd is that they believe the entire Church that Christ founded ceased to exist within a century of Christ’s resurection. How exactly do they square that while holding to the Bible which was compiled by Catholics in 393, and their specific version which was written in 1611? If Christ had no Church on earth in any of that time how do they have any faith in what they are reading???

 

[PaulDupre]

Mormons really have very little faith in the bible. They teach that it is hopelessly corrupted (mostly by the Catholic Church) and untrustworthy. They only use the bible to cherry-pick a few verses that they think support Joseph Smith’s teachings. They trust the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price, all written by Joseph Smith. But they do not trust the bible, mainly because the bible contradicts nearly all of their distinctive beliefs.

God bless,
Paul

 

[RCCDefender]

Ah, I thought that must be the case!