If you’re ready to ask a question, comment on the post “Ask a Mormon Anything” below. The purpose of this section is to solicit questions from you, and answer them. Granted, I may not be able to answer your questions to your satisfaction, or in a timely manner, or at all (I do have a day job, after all), but I’ll do my best.
Below are posts answering past questions asked of me.
This question was recently put to me by a reader DMT on this website: In 2 Nephi 3:24 it reads: “And there shall rise up one mighty among them”.. The Book of Mormon today has in the footnote for this verse “Joseph Smith” as being the one who will rise up, however, earlier versions of … Read more
As asked in a comment thread on this blog… Q: “I find it interesting that the day before he was killed that Joseph Smith drank wine and don’t Mormons have to be temple worthy to worship in the temple and one of the things that make them temple worthy is that they can’t drink alcohollic … Read more
In response to a question asked in the “Ask a Mormon Anything” section. Q: Mormons think the fall was necessary to bring about God’s plan, so why would Satan encourage the fall? Wouldn’t that be helping to bring about God’s plan? Wouldn’t he have tried to get Adam and Eve NOT to eat of the … Read more
As asked in the “Ask Me Questions” portion of this website: Q: How do Mormons explain Isaiah 44:6? This verse says that God does not even know of another god. Now if Mormons believe that God the Father is married to multiple mother goddesses, who He would clearly know of if He was, then how … Read more
In responding to comments on another post I did quite a bit of research on the question of whether Mormons worship Joseph Smith, so I thought it was worthy of it’s own post. The question seems to arise due to the amount of praise and attention heaped on Joseph Smith by Mormons. I won’t deny … Read more
This question is sparked in response to a statement from Church President Brigham Young, who said “that no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of … Read more
A commenter on this blog recently gave me the following set of questions as a “test” I could use to escape deception. I thought it might be interesting to see how the LDS Church performs on this test. (1) Does it claim to have a special revelation that ignores the clear teaching of the Bible? … Read more
I’m not sure how such a post has never made it on to the website, given the name of the website, but better late than never, I suppose. There are quite extensive posts on this elsewhere, although I think the best resource for detailed information on Mormons and DNA is from Jeff Lindsay’s site. But … Read more
Isaiah 43:10 says “Before me there was no God formed; neither shall there be after me.” This scripture is commonly used to “trick up” Mormons who claim that we humans are children of God, destined to become Gods like him. But the response to that has been adequately answered here, here, and perhaps best, here, … Read more
Q: If Mormons think they belong to the one and only true church of Jesus Christ, then does that mean they see the members of all other faiths as non-believers? After all, read this stuff from your own scriptures and founding “prophet” “Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the Church of … Read more
I don’t know much about Billy Graham. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but if I can assume that this article is referring to Mormonism, then he has some facts wrong about what Mormons believe. In the article he answers a question that asks “How do we know that the books we have in the … Read more
If you ask a Mormon if the Bible contains all the words Jesus or the apostles ever taught, then the short answer is “no.” Now, if you ask whether the Bible is complete, well, that’s a bit harder to answer because one would have to explain what they mean by such a question. How does … Read more
Some religions call their normal meetinghouses “temples”. For Mormons, temples are quite different than the church buildings we meet in each Sunday. At the church we have Sunday School, learn about the gospel, have opportunities to serve in various “callings” (like being the librarian or a Sunday School teacher), and most importantly, take the sacrament … Read more
The argument goes something like this: The word “Lucifer” in Isaiah 14:12 presents a minor problem to mainstream Christianity. It becomes a much larger problem to Bible literalists, and becomes a huge obstacle for the claims of Mormonism…The first problem is that Lucifer is a Latin name…Lucifer wasn’t equated with Satan until after Jerome [in … Read more
For those of you who aren’t sure what the question is referring to, here’s the expanded version: Q: Mormons believe that God used to be a man, like us, and that we can become gods, like God. But this doesn’t seem to make sense if you read the creation story in Genesis 1:1-19. In the … Read more
As posted in a comment here on this blog, “The Mormon Church teaches that when people are married in the temple they are married for eternity but the Bible teaches otherwise as seen by the words of Jesus Himself.” The author of the comment then quoted this passage of scripture from Matthew 22: 25 Now … Read more
From questions by Ann Mere in comments on Sep 7th, 2010. “Are there many gods? Are gods more holier than each other?” This question requires some explanation beyond a simple “yes” or “no” answer, because both answers are correct and incorrect at the same time. Mormons believe that every human being is a God in … Read more
Note: Much of what I’ve put here was inspired by the content at FAIRMormon.org on the matter of God changing/not changing. This is a branch off of a question asked in the comments of another post, and also a widely disseminated “gotcha” question for Mormons, which is that if Mormon claim that God was once … Read more
A friend of mine left the LDS Church a few years ago. He’s not an anti-Mormon, or even a motivated “ex-Mormon”. Maybe you could say that he’s Mormon the same way Jerry Seinfeld’s character on his TV show was Jewish. Mmmm, no, I don’t think that’s exactly accurate either. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. He was … Read more
That’s a darn good question. For those of you who don’t know, “A revision or translation of the King James Version of the Bible begun by the Prophet Joseph Smith in June 1830. He was divinely commissioned to make the translation and regarded it as “a branch of his calling” as a prophet. Although the … Read more
Question: Do you think Bruce Hafens, treating different, and less than with shunning, or high voltage electro shock Mormon aversion therapy would have best solved the following situation? Dear Elder Packer: Although we have met briefly before, it is through the context of my family that you would be able to place me. I am … Read more
Question: Joshua, I would appreciate the name of just one secular encyclopediaa and page which provides supporting information that: 1. “Reformed Egyptian” was really an ancient language. 2. “Domesticated” horses existed in the America’s prior to Columbus. 3. That ancient languages can be translated by looking at a rock in a hat. See: (Ensign » … Read more
Question: Joshua, How is it possible for you to support your church with it going against its own scripture? “We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members as citizens, denied.” … Read more
The full question asked as part of many anti-Mormon pamphlets is: How did Joseph Smith carry home the golden plates of the Book of Mormon, and how did the witnesses lift them so easily? (They weighed about 230 lbs. Gold, with a density of 19.3 weighs 1204.7 lbs. per cubic foot. The plates were 7″ … Read more
To kick off this section, I figure I’ll try and answer some of the questions out there. This page comes up first in Google for “questions for Mormons” and claims to contain “Difficult Questions for Mormons” so let’s see how difficult they really are. I haven’t read more than one or two of them so … Read more
I figure since I’ve got a question where I ask anti-Mormons and others to answer my questions, it’s only fair that I have a section where I take questions. Actually, it’s my blog and I can do what I want with it and fair has nothing to do with it, so let’s just say I’d … Read more