jabo777 wrote:Are you guys familiar with the original manuscripts of the Bible?

Unfortunately there are no original manuscripts of the Bible. There are some very old manuscripts, but none that get even within a few centuries of when the biblical books were written. All we have are copies of copies of copies of copies of copies.

If you've searched the Scriptures in depth, you'll find that YHWH are the letters that translate from the Hebrew everywhere God or Lord is mentioned in the Old & New Testament.

That's not exactly true. YHWH/Jehovah, a Hebrew word, does not appear in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it is a name applied to God, but is certainly not his only name.

The English pronunciation of this word is Yahuwah.

Actually the typical English renditions are Jehovah (traditionally) and Yahweh (modern).

There is no "J" in the Hebrew language. There actually is an original Hebrew manuscript that was recently found in Israel.

jabo777 wrote:There is no "J" in the Hebrew language.

Having studied biblical Hebrew, I'm aware of that. However, traditionally, the letter yod in Hebrew was transliterated as a 'J'.

There actually is an original Hebrew manuscript that was recently found in Israel.

You're mistaking an old Hebrew manuscript for an original Hebrew manuscript. If an original Bible manuscript were discovered, it would be all over every news station.

Christian: Professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.

By the strictest of definitions, Latter-day Saints are Christian, as we claim to follow Christ and follow the teachings found in the New Testament.

Some of the problems non-members have are our interpretations of doctrine, the most relevant one being the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are three distinct and separate beings. Differences such as these cause questions to arise whether us LDS are Christian or not.

But, as others have stated before, if these rules are considered in deciding if someone is Christian or not, who has the right to define what a Christian is?

jabo777 wrote:It's pretty simple. Mormons are Mormons. Christians are Christians. What you believe defines what you are. If you hold to the BoM more than any other, you're Mormon. If the Bible only, then you're Christian. If you're Mormon by definition, then you can't be Christian b/c Mormons hold to the BoM more than the Bible.

What makes you think we hold to the Book of Mormon more than the Bible? What is your source of information?

The irony of what you say is that when Hugh Nibley, an LDS scholar, was a young man, he became concerned because there was not a great deal of emphasis on the Book of Mormon. Nowadays, the Gospel Doctrine (adult Sunday School) schedule involves a four-year cycle covering 1) the Old Testament; 2) the New Testament; 3) The Book of Mormon; and 4) The Doctrine and Covenants. It has been said that we LDS are more familiar with the Bible than other Christians, and given that we devote as much time as we do to studying it just at church, I'd say the chances are not bad that the report is true.

Having the Book of Mormon, or "additional" information does not make our Jesus any different. That's like saying that finding new information on George Washington makes for a different George Washington.

Joseph wrote:

jabo777 wrote:Are you guys familiar with the original manuscripts of the Bible?

Unfortunately there are no original manuscripts of the Bible. There are some very old manuscripts, but none that get even within a few centuries of when the biblical books were written. All we have are copies of copies of copies of copies of copies.

If you've searched the Scriptures in depth, you'll find that YHWH are the letters that translate from the Hebrew everywhere God or Lord is mentioned in the Old & New Testament.

That's not exactly true. YHWH/Jehovah, a Hebrew word, does not appear in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it is a name applied to God, but is certainly not his only name.

The English pronunciation of this word is Yahuwah.

Actually the typical English renditions are Jehovah (traditionally) and Yahweh (modern).

YHWH, is frequently pronounced Yahweh, Yahovah or Jehovah. As someone pointed out, there is no "J" in Hebrew. The reason we have the "J" is because some of the earliest vernacular translations of the Bible were German. In German, the "J" is pronounced like the English consonantal "Y." The name of the Lord is not to be spoken, so what the Hebrews did anciently is to substitute the vowel sounds from "adonai" (lord) for whatever vowels were to be found in YHWH, hence Yahowah, or the Anglicised Jehovah.

Jabo, your post was split and moved to the "Other Religions" forum.

I'm cutting out the posts about the board's posting features into another thread. You can find it in the "Dialogue - Other" forum.

More and more it seems to me that some Christian churches worship and are strictly LOYAL to the BIBLE more than they actually are to Jesus Christ and His teachings.

Christians believe that Jesus is the savior and redeemer of the world from sin. (so do mormons, so in that sense we are Christians)

Christians study the Bible to try and learn about and feel closer to the Love of God. So do Mormons, except we also study the Book of Mormon along with the bible which also teaches about Jesus Christ and how we can feel closer to Him. (anyone who reads it will know that it is a CHRISTIAN book because all it does is tries to persuade all men to learn about Jesus and try to follow Him.)

Mormons believe that Jesus Christ set the perfect example for us on how we should try to live our lives.
How we should, " Love God with all our heart might mind and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves."

He said, love one another as Jesus loves you,... try to show kindness in all that you do,... be gentle and loving in deed and in thought...For these are the things Jesus taught..

Your leaving out the obvious difference: attaining godhood. We can never become gods ourselves; however, we can become like God b/c we're created in His image. There's a big difference in becoming a god, equivalent to God the Father, and becoming like Him, in a divine nature.

jabo777 wrote:Your leaving out the obvious difference: attaining godhood. We can never become gods ourselves; however, we can become like God b/c we're created in His image. There's a big difference in becoming a god, equivalent to God the Father, and becoming like Him, in a divine nature.

Who said we can become equivalent to God the Father?

Define godhood then Joseph? Do you become a god of another planet/universe? From my understanding, a god is a god is god, right?

jabo777 wrote:Define godhood then Joseph? Do you become a god of another planet/universe? From my understanding, a god is a god is god, right?

How can you become like God without being a god? In what way are you like God then?

The angels aren't gods, but they're spiritual beings. We will have a heavenly/divine nature, but we'll not be gods. Remember, there's only One True God. The other supposed "gods" are all man-made; therefore, they're not gods at all.

To be "like" something is to demonstrate its characteristics. Love is a characteristic of God, so in that way, all Christians are like God. Of course, the list of characteristics is infinite, and they are unique to every Christian. We all have our purpose, or role, in the Body of Christ.

jabo777 wrote:The angels aren't gods, but they're spiritual beings. We will have a heavenly/divine nature, but we'll not be gods. Remember, there's only One True God. The other supposed "gods" are all man-made; therefore, they're not gods at all.

To be "like" something is to demonstrate its characteristics. Love is a characteristic of God, so in that way, all Christians are like God. Of course, the list of characteristics is infinite, and they are unique to every Christian. We all have our purpose, or role, in the Body of Christ.

Men becoming gods is a Christian doctrine. You may be interested in reading this blog post I wrote a little while back: http://www.josephantley.com/2009/08/christian-doctrine-of-becoming-like-god.html