Every time a Mormon will try to talk to you, they will share with you 2 texts in the book of Mormon. The first is 3 Nephi 11, which speaks of Jesus’ visiting of the Americas; the second text is what each individual Mormon’s faith is based on: Moroni 10:4
The last so called prophet of the Book of Mormon, a man named Moroni (the same one who later becomes an angel and appears to Joseph Smith), gave this promise to anyone who wants to know whether the Book of Mormon is true:
“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are NOT true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost”
The Book of Mormon teaches that they way that we can know if the book of Mormon is true is to simply ask God to reveal to us by the Holy Spirit if it is true. They actually claim that they individually receive a revelation from the spirit telling them through their feelings that the BoM is true. This is why it is hard to share the scriptures with a Mormon. They would look at us as trying to tell them that the Spirit of God lied to them!
We’re probably familiar with what John says about prayer in 1 John 5:
1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
Mormons have claimed, just as Moroni does in Moroni 10:4, that the way to know whether a prophet (such as Joseph Smith) or a revelation (such as the book of Mormon) are from God is to ask God whether it is true, and that the Holy Spirit would reveal it to you through your feelings, or as Joseph Smith says “a burning in the bosom”. The question I ask is, “Is to pray to ask God whether a prophet or a revelation is true according to God’s will?” I SAY NO!!! WHY?
If God’s word, the Bible, teaches that it gives us all things pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), that the faith was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3), and that it thoroughly equips us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17), to ask God to reveal if a new revelation is true is to pray contrary to His will because He already tells us that we have everything that we need!
To pray to God to ask Him to show you the truth of Joseph Smith’s revelation is contrary to God’s will according to the Bible, and the Bible says that God will hear your prayer only if it is according to His will! The Mormon’s faith is based on their feeling for praying for something contrary to God’s will. It is not based on the Bible which they teach is the word of God.
I must also ask the question, “Can we trust our feelings? Are our feelings an accurate measure of what is true?” It is not taught in the Bible that feelings are a reliable source to show us what is true:
Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things and is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?” How could something so unreliable be the basis of faith?
Jeremiah 10:23 – “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” Proper guidance regarding right and wrong does not come from inside man. It comes from outside man. Nothing within man can indicate whether or not a message is from God. That would include feelings or a burning in the bosom.
Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Since feelings come from within man, they cannot give assurance of truth.
Proverbs 28:26 – “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool.” Why? Because the feelings of the heart are unreliable and often lead to error!
Satan wants us to have feelings like anger, hate, fear, etc. Acting under such emotions, people commit adultery, murder, stealing, and all kinds of evil. Are these acts right, just because our emotions led us to do them? If Satan can use feelings to lead people to act immorally, why can’t he likewise use feelings to lead them to accept false doctrines? He has done so from the very beginning.
2 Corinthians 11:3 – “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
Emotions are neither good nor bad of themselves. Everyone has them. But they were not given to guide us or to indicate what is good or bad, true or false. To believe that we can know right from wrong by praying for a feeling is to pervert the purpose of feelings, and to think contrary to what the Bible teaches.
How did the apostles convince people that Jesus and His message were really from God? Did they say to pray for a feeling or burning in the bosom? No. They reasoned with people from the Scriptures, and by confirming their teachings by miracles! It is not against reason to expect the exact same from anyone else that claims to have a new revelation from God.
The Bible does not teach the approach that the Book of Mormon teaches. The Bible teaches us to test all things that are taught us according to God’s word. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes from the word of God. Faith is not based on feelings and emotions. We must search the scriptures daily with the things that “so called” prophets teach to see if they are true (Acts 17:11). We need to do what the scriptures teach us and test the spirits (1 John 4). He gives us a means by which to show whether a “so called” prophet or Apostle is from God. We need to follow God’s will in finding out what is true.
In closing, I would like to add just one more problem I have with Mormons using this text from Moroni 10:4: they do not obey what it says! They usually tell people to pray this prayer to see if it IS true, but the verse does not say to do this. Here once again is what the verse says:
“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are _NOT_ true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost” ( Moroni 10:4, emphasis added).
Moroni says here to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon is _NOT_ true, but they do the opposite. They disobey their so called angel Moroni whenever they pray contrary to what Moroni says. Based on this fact, how can they know for sure that this “burning in the bosom” they get when they pray is from the god of Joseph Smith? But I think one thing is for sure after looking at these things, Moroni and Joseph Smith teach things that are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3) in the FIRST century.
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:8).
Works Cited:
Book of Mormon quote from http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10.4?lang=eng
