It is also odd, because after I was convinced that my brand of Christianity was not the correct route, my prayer became much like Joseph Smith's ("Which denomination is right? Point me in the right direction.") I wonder why his prayer was supposedly answered, and mine wasn't. I can assure you I was quite sincere, as my entire world seemed to be falling apart around me.
Okay - very good question. Why was his prayer answered and not many other people's in his time or before? The best answer I can think of is that Joseph Smith was preordained before birth to be a prophet, that God knew the future since the creation of the Earth, that Joseph would be born in America, and had the qualities to be a prophet. He was chosen. In other words, Joseph Smith was *meant* to get an answer and to restore God's true Church.
Now going back to you for a second - do you believe that God intentionally made it so that there's actually a specific process which is necessary for people to find him?
I know the belief is that the church was corrupted fairly quickly, but is this based on some sort of evidence, or just on the fact that we can't find Mormon practices in the early church records?
There's no evidence, apart from what's already been mentioned in the Bible and perhaps non-canon Gospels (I've never read any, so). Again, faith plays an important part here, and the only way to find out is through revelation, a confirmation from God.
Why would God nitpick? What is the thought process there? "Wow, prewitt81 is really having a hard time with his faith. If only he knew the secret special prayer. Oh well, back to making sure the Cubs don't win another pennant!"
Perhaps to prove that you are serious about being open minded to the possibility that the LDS Church may be his Church. That you are indeed serious about finding God and his authority?
I'm sure someone else has made this point, but has every Muslim been fooled? Has every Catholic been fooled? Have all those who have converted to Pentecostalism in Africa been fooled? I would answer yes to all of the above.
Maybe - who knows? Satan intentionally tries to fool everyone. Confuse people - which is right? Maybe none of them are, and that's what Satan wants you think. Okay, so putting that aside for a moment - I believe that all genuine religions that are not God's church might have partial truths, but not all of it.
If I were "God", I would love my creation enough to give revelation to everyone instead of a few shady, untrustworthy characters. Or, if I was adamant about letting people decide for themselves, I would not make the stakes so high if they made the wrong choice.
Actually, God is making it difficult for a very good reason, I think. Being a god means having to deal with very difficult choices. Preparing for godhood is not meant to be a walk in the park, so to speak. Since God wants his children to be like him (i.e., be a god like him), he created this world and the conditions therein so the really worthy ones will have proven themselves *capable* of handling difficult decisions and of being able to love all people, and thus become gods and goddesses.
The stakes are *not* that high - remember, even if you flatly reject everything about Christianity or any other religion, very good chances are that you will still end up in a better world than this.
I believe you are a sincere person. However, it seems to me that there is no way, in your perception of the world, that someone can honestly and sincerely follow Moroni's advice and not receive an answer. When confronted with honest, sincere people who have tried this out and not received an answer, you either consciously or unconsciously conclude that they are doing something wrong.
Like I said, whatever happens, it's between that individual and God - and not my place to judge. I can only report that in my experience, more people have received answers successfully than not. People *have* failed to receive an answer, but I can only say that I hope they really wanted to know, despite whatever result they get.
This is a textbook example of mislabeling belief as "knowledge". If the witness of the Holy Spirit is powerful enough that it becomes knowledge, how is it that it can be diminished or forgotten? It sounds like this "knowledge" is on shaky ground.
You're quite right. It's like this - you go to a restaurant, and you get your favorite dessert. You find out that it's actually the best tasting dessert you've ever had. You remember and cherish the experience. However, as you know, our memories diminish over time, and the potency of such experiences diminish as well. Unless you go back to that restaurant and remind yourself by ordering it again.
In other words, once you get that knowledge, the experience, you remember it. But time does tricky things to our memories and knowledge. You need to keep feeding that knowledge and memories to maintain the potency of such experiences. That's just plain human nature - to forget.
We can know that the Holy Spirit confirmed to us, but we have to keep working at it so we can remember those experiences over time.
If one of them really is the Supreme Ultimate Truth, it should stand out. Mormonism fails to do this just as much as the rest of them.
Or if the truth is really a quiet and humble sort of truth and does not stand out because it's quite simple. Either that, or its ideas are too different from what people expect the truth to be.
So - you're left with a choice - ask God to confirm if the truth is contained in the LDS Church and the Book of Mormon, or remain ignorant if it's true or not, despite whatever contrary evidence there may be against Mormonism.
