They have been, but over the past 10 or so years there has been significant splintering so they may not be able to finance far away missions. I’ve read reports that total membership of the CoC is around 70,000 – down from nearly 300,000 forty years ago.
I’ve read that, too, that they are basically dying out, and that the recent more decided move towards mainstream Protestantism is not much more than a means to a graceful end, similar to how the Worldwide Church of God did it years ago. So, there is reason to rejoice!
“Edizione Paoline.” It’s in Italian. I have always loved to compare different translations of the Bible and I think that this one is far superior to translations made by Protestants. Isaiah is especially understandable and I think the translators were honest and didn’t try to manipulate the text as I’ve seen in other versions. If I want to relax and read the Bible, I pick up my Catholic Italian Bible.
I like reading out of more than one translation, too, but being only an English speaker, with very little Spanish, and a little Korean under my belt, I am limited to English translations. I wondered about your comment, because I’ve had so many Mormons so emphatically state to me that, as far as English goes, it is sola KJV.
I meant “scriptures” when I wrote “the revelations.” The terms function synonymously to me.
I get confused, then. Because Mormons have this ongoing new-revelation thing, when a Mormon says “revelation” I understand that to mean something given unto the prophet direct from on-high.
I think that’s different than sending them to the same guy who cheated them.
True, but people do do it, I’ve seen it done. It also needs saying that the word “cheat” can have a fairly wide range of meaning and general acceptance when it comes to sales gimmicks. “Truth in advertising” is one of those oxymoronic practices that we can’t probably blame on modern secular culture. In other words, it is as old as the oldest profession, which we know to be prostitution. People EXPECT to be “cheated” by car salesmen. I’ve bounced around enough religions to know that there is a very, very fine line between a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman and a JW or Mormon missionary, that fine line being that the vacuum cleaner guy probably knows what he’s doing, while the little missionaries usually have clean hearts and are acting out of ignorance. But all are selling something. This goes for many of the fundamentalist Protestant evangelizers, too. They don’t go door-to-door, but they are extremely active in other venues, and often they are in high-pitch sales mode. They go to bible colleges to learn how to sell religion and “grow” their churches.
That is simply unimaginable to me. If I thought my religion were phony, I certainly wouldn’t pray night and day that my children will remain true to its teachings.
Well, I said it before, this probably doesn’t apply to you. If you haven’t already, read
Elmer Gantry. Don’t bother with the film from the 60s, it doesn’t do the book justice. The character of Gantry was based on an actual person, a Protestant minister who lost his faith, but continued as a minister, going thru the motions, because, basically, it was a job. I’ve seen evidence with my own eyes that this happens with Mormons, too.
