What it all boils down to...

[Sparko]

So, my question to you, John is this: What greater witness is there than from God? When God speaks peace to one's heart, are you trying to say that archeology and the carnal senses is a greater witness than that?

Surely there is an archeology forum somewhere where you can discuss archeology as a foundation for faith in Christ and in his word.

Well, here's the problem, OC. You have people who have a peace in their heart that Mormonism is based upon a fraud committed by Joseph Smith. Now you're going to have to make a valid argument for why your "peace" is right, and someone else's is wrong.

You see, Christianity isn't built upon some feeling you think might be the Holy Spirit. Yes, that is definitely a piece of it, but Christianity is also built upon a continual historical witness of Christ's resurrection and to the Scriptures both of the prophets and the apostles, and that witness is the Church.

When you claim that the Church became apostate, you lose all that. You don't have a historical witness to Christ, His death or His resurrection, nor do you have a historical witness to any writings, BoM or the Bible. So, somewhere you're going to have to establish that this was instituted by God besides your own feelings. Joseph Smith tried to do this by claiming to be a prophet of God, but both his lifestyle and his false prophecies belie this claim. The evidence of this is clear and has been repeatedly presented to you.

And while archeology isn't the basis for faith, if you're going to claim a literal BoM, then archeology should at least not contradict the claims in the BoM.

And it does.

At some point you have to take your blinders off and ask the hard questions:

Are the claims of fact of the BoM true?
On what basis does the Mormon Church establish divine origin? Is the basis both valid and true?
What witness exists to validate my Church's writings, both Scripture and BoM?

You can't answer these questions, which should give you doubts about Mormonism.

Michael

very well summarized Mike.

[ApologiaPhoenix]

Very good pick.