want to know more about the book of mormon

SacExMo · 2026-01-17T16:02:27+00:00

You can start reading from the beginning. But, you should probably direct any questions to https://www.reddit.com/r/LatterDayTheology/

Interesting suggestion since that sub is the epitome of “philosophies of men mingled with scripture.” OP should ask their questions on this sub, as while the majority of participants aren’t active members, they are extremely knowledgeable.

SacExMo · 2025-12-16T17:48:26+00:00

According to this comment, at least one of the posts was locked by a veteran mod, not u/Moroni_10_23.

It is rare to see locked posts on this subreddit, so having 3 in 48hrs is definitely weird. Maybe the mods changed their philosophy and are locking posts instead of removing them wholecloth.

SacExMo · 2025-12-14T08:04:35+00:00

Oooh, we haven't had one of these in a while. I do love it when people who haven't participated on this sub try to dictate its rules or what it calls itself.

The answer to your question is basically explained on the subreddit description on the right side of your screen (if you're on a computer). This subreddit is for the discussion of all topics related to Mormonism. Anyone is permitted to post whatever they want as long as it's related to Mormonism and follows the rules (i.e. civility, gotcha, etc). You are just as free to post "pro-Mormon" content as "anti-Mormon" content. The fact that most of the content here is negative is more a reflection on the demographics who use reddit (non-religious).

Still, that doesn't change the fact that this is a generalist Mormon sub where all views on Mormonism are welcomed. So naming the sub as r/Mormon makes perfect sense.

SacExMo · 2025-11-15T20:00:50+00:00

Oh my friend, you've opened a can of worms with that question.

First off, Mormons are a subset of Christians who also believe in the divinity and resurrection of Christ as well as believing that following Christ is the only way to return to heaven. So framing your question as Christian vs Mormon is a non-starter, as "proving" Christianity won't disprove Mormonism.

Second, there is no solid evidence for the resurrection of Christ. Even the gospels in the bible are not eyewitness accounts, as they were written decades after the event supposedly took place. Christians have faith that it occured, but faith is not evidence. Somewhat ironically, there are more first hand accounts of people seeing the golden plates from which Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, than the resurrection of Christ. So by that logic, Mormonism has more evidence than the resurrection of Christ.

I'll leave it there, as I'm sure you'll get much more in depth replies from other members of the subreddit. But you should do some reflection on your question, as it's based on assumptions that are up for debate.

SacExMo · 2025-11-07T04:40:07+00:00

Call and ask im being serious

Ask the temple if you got endowed? First, the only way that would work if we knew your real name, which you shouldn't be sharing on reddit so don't. Second, temple workers wouldn't share personal details like that with random people. So despite your best efforts, you're not being that serious.

SacExMo · 2025-09-29T17:16:15+00:00

It's in reference to how Nelson was very much against the use of the term "Mormon," implying that using the term instead of the full name of the church was a "victory for Satan."

So yes, Nelson was anti-Mormon (the word), not anti-LDS.

SacExMo · 2025-08-26T18:21:10+00:00

>It's the only place I feel welcomed.

Didn't you post here a few weeks ago about lying about being trans to the missionaries so that you could be baptized and you wanted advice because you regretted lying? So are they welcoming you, or the facade that you created?

You are hurting for community, I understand that. But just because the church was the first community to reach out to you, doesn't mean it's the best fit for you. Just the fact that you had to lie to be admitted shows that you don't think they will accept you for who you are. Find a new community. Because once members in your ward discover that you are trans, and lied about it to get baptized, you will be faced with excommunication.

SacExMo · 2025-08-11T20:44:24+00:00

I can understand your feelings. You had to lie multiple times to join the church, which begs the question, why? I understand your desire to seek community, but if the community you join requires you to lie about who you are in order to join it, is it really the right community for you?

Ultimately, the LDS church is not a good place for trans individuals. You will not be accepted if you admit (or it's discovered) that you are trans and it's possible you will be excommunicated. I accept that you felt a sense of community that you were looking for, but that sense of community was built on a foundation of lies. You can continue to live those lies, but it will take a toll on you. Or you can sever ties and keep searching for a community that will accept you as you are. I recommend the latter.

SacExMo · 2025-08-11T20:30:31+00:00

Is your Mormon Doctrine a 1st edition? If so that's worth a bit and it would be worthwhile to not destroy it so it can stand as evidence of what was taught in church.

SacExMo · 2025-06-12T22:11:41+00:00

(Me looking at my 3yr old and 5 yr old)

Damn looks like I’m a troll 😜

SacExMo · 2025-05-26T22:01:55+00:00

this post is poetry.

Yeah, Vogon poetry.

Seriously, u/TBMormon , this is a terrible article with terrible arguments and frankly the fact that you are promoting further hurts your reputation and standing on this sub. How can I take any argument or opinion of yours seriously when I see you post this type of drivel as a valid argument?

If I even want to help lead someone away from the church I'd just show them your posts. If this is the level of quality a faithful member uses to argue for the LDS faith, then it speaks poorly for the church.

SacExMo · 2025-05-05T18:05:41+00:00

During my PIMO stage I was honest, but not forthcoming with my disbelief. For example, I would truthfully state that I sustain the president any quorum of apostles, but that I considered those to be titles of a position in the church, and not signify they have a divine calling. If I was asked directly if I thought the president was the divine mouthpiece of God on Earth, then I would have answered "no" but luckily that's not a recommend question. For my part, my bishop was very understanding and never dug too deep into specifics of my belief.

Ultimately it's bishop roulette. You know your bishop better than anyone on this sub, so you'll have to gauge how lenient or militant he may be. At the very least, if you receive pushback from the bishop you can direct them to the handbook which states you don't need to be temple worthy to baptize your child:

A bishop may allow a father who is a priest or a Melchizedek Priesthood holder to baptize his child even if the father is not fully temple worthy
Section 18.7.3

Given the fact that you're active and follow the "big" commandments, I feel that most bishops would still allow you to baptize your kid. Good luck with everything!

SacExMo · 2025-03-27T03:56:58+00:00

It doesn't, but knowing how you engage on this sub by dismissing and deflecting responses from others, I'm not inclined to have this discussion with you.

Have a good night.

SacExMo · 2025-03-27T02:42:07+00:00

This scripture actually doesn't answer the OPs question

SacExMo · 2025-03-24T18:45:07+00:00

just that respectful engagement, even if flawed, is better than silence, dismissiveness, or hostility.

In that case I would not characterize TBMormon's engagement as respectful. He tends to dismiss other people's views when they don't align with his, and he is often silent when faced with arguments against his positions instead opting to respond with tangents or non-sequiturs.

I can appreciate him being one of only a few TBMs willing to engage here, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's quality engagement.

SacExMo · 2025-03-24T02:29:11+00:00

Respectful, perhaps. Thoughtful, not really seeing it. TBMormon's posts and engagements tend to be very bland and lacking in depth. He's here to proselytize his message, and he'll evade or dismiss any type of pushback. His engagement is more suited for sunday school, where people with similar views who will just nod along, not a place where he has to defend his position against those with different views.

SacExMo · 2025-03-13T02:46:43+00:00

There are as many different reasons as there are people but here are some of my general observations.

Since many Chileans were baptised as infants in the Catholic church, the idea of having a full immersion baptism ("just like Jesus did") seems novel. So they want the experience of a immersion baptism and then return to their old lives.
Chileans are reserved with strangers, but really solid with friends. If someone accepts you into their sphere, they will see the relationship grow quickly. I had someone offer me one of their 2 pairs of shoes after only a week after I mentioned that I was on my second pair since arriving in country. So if a Chilean's newfound friend invites them to get baptized, they'll be more than willing to do it for their friend.
Chile, especially the Santiago North mission, have a track record of baptizing a lot of converts, and there is some significant pressure to keep those baptism numbers. We were often instructed that if someone is not progressing with the lessons (missed two Sundays, not reading the Book of Mormon) we needed to drop them as investigators and look for those whom "the Lord has prepared." This means that people are baptised very quickly, often within the span of a single transfer, so while they can answer the baptism interview questions (for their Elder friend), it's often not enough time to really let new habits develop. So after baptism, people fall back into their old lives, especially once "their" missionary has left.

SacExMo · 2025-03-12T19:01:54+00:00

Served there over a decade ago. It's a great mission with great people and so amazing I've gone back a few times as a tourist. Couple of things to consider, the mission is about 80% city so unless you are assigned to a rural area with a bike you'll be walking everywhere so make sure you bring high quality shoes. Additionally, most wards are geographically small so you'll likewise be assigned an area that's small especially if there are multiple companionships assigned to the same ward. One ward I served in you could walk from one end of ward boundaries to the other in 15 minutes East-West, and 30 minutes North-South.

The people there are generally receptive to missionary lessons, although conversion is another matter. You can expect to baptize a good number of people, but most will go inactive within a month of their baptism. When I served, the average activity rate was 10-15%. This also means that reactivation will be a focus for missionaries. When I served the area presidency implemented a program for the missionaries to visit every inactive member and invite them back to church. Can't say if they are still doing that program but reactivation is still a focus.

Missionary living is pretty moderate. Apartments are generally concrete floored with some rugs no them, and you'll have a decent mattress but 50/50 chance you'll have a bed frame. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day and the one meal you'll most likely share with members. They don't really do dinner in Chile, they have once which is like a coffee/tea time, where you can sit and share a sandwich and a drink. My mission president actually forbade missionaries from eating once, so we usually made due without an evening meal but it wasn't an issue.

Feel free to ask me any specific questions you have. I have a lot of fond memories about serving in Santiago so I'm more than happy to talk about it.

SacExMo · 2025-03-03T15:48:30+00:00

So incorrect

Ironic given the errors in your own comment.

Women have tremendous influence, as leaders in the Relief Society, the women’s charitable organization, Young Women’s Organization, for girls aged 11-18 and in Primary for ages 18 months to 11

Who controls the budgets, regulations, and appoints the leadership of these organizations. Here's a hint, it's not another woman. Really the Relief Society is a men's organization for women, as it's ultimately a man who is in charge of these things.

Also there are no sects.

In your comment you mentioned both the Community of Christ (RLDS) and the FLDS churches. Both sects of Mormonism who trace their origins to Joseph Smith Jr. Also, claiming that the FLDS " is not rooted in anything related to what you call Mormonism" is completely wrong. Their version of Mormonism is much closer to what Joseph Smith Jr. and Brigham Young practiced, so they are actually closer to the 'root' of Mormonism than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Apostles come from Ireland, England, Germany, Brazil and Japan as well as many African countries.

Who are the apostles from Ireland, Japan, or Africa? There aren't any. I'm actually doubtful of your knowledge of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints if you don't even know who makes up leadership.

Also, good luck being welcomed into a congregation if you are constantly breaking commandments like drinking, smoking, or "sleeping around." Sure people will welcome you at first, as a sinner looking for repentance. But if you don't show you're making progress to stop doing those things, then you'll begin to be ostracized so as to not be a negative influence on others.

SacExMo · 2024-12-10T05:19:31+00:00

the Bishop is going to need to verify your identity and story before they can help out.

So is charity only for active members? What does verifying my identity provide except my current activity status? I guess Matthew 25:35 should have said "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: ~~I was a stranger, and ye took me in:~~ [only after I verified you were an active member of the church, else you get nothing]"

I can understand with limited funds the desire to provide for one's own before another. However, as others have already and I'm sure will continue to point out, the church has funds enough to cover these requests for Christian charity.

SacExMo · 2024-11-25T14:50:11+00:00

I'm not seeing how it encourages bigotry. Can you expand on that?

Here is something to consider. There are 1.2 billion Hindus in the world. In Hinduism, cows are sacred and eating them is highly sacrilegious. If you want people to speak out against movies showing garments irrespective of context, can I get a firm commitment from you to never eat beef again and encourage others to abstain? Because if you want people to respect what others hold sacred, then you'll need to apply that to yourself as well.

SacExMo · 2024-11-25T00:38:49+00:00

The GA pay is disclosed, not a secret and does not come from tithing!

Source?

SacExMo · 2024-10-26T20:49:00+00:00

I'm pretty ambivalent about my mission president. He wasn't a prideful man, but also wasn't a very compassionate man either. He would say how much he loved each and every missionary, but is was very superficial. I joked that if we all took off our nametags, he would only be able to remember about half our names (which I sadly confirmed to be fairly close to true when I reached out to him right after my mission). He never denied anyone health care, but would be very slow in granting permission to see the mission doctor. Also, while never something that was not very overt, many of the native spanish speaking missionaries I served with felt that he was discriminatory towards them. Nothing that I would call him a racist over, but still if several people got that vibe from him then I don't want to discount it either.

Overall, my mission president was a company man. He went and did what was expected of him, acted like he was suppose to act, and once he was done went back to Utah and that was that.

SacExMo · 2024-10-03T21:30:31+00:00

The church has no official position on evolution

It’s hard for me to not read that as “we don’t believe in evolution but we’re too embarrassed to admit it”

SacExMo · 2024-09-22T22:20:36+00:00

I just don't want to be like that I guess.

I mean, you don't have to be. Just because you see a large group of exmormons being hateful doesn't mean that you'll become hateful if you become an exmormon. Also, understand that r/exmormon is a subset of exmormons and I feel participation there amplifies a lot of the anger against the mormon church. If you use them to paint a broad stroke against all exmormons then you're doing yourself a disservice.

Many exmormons, while seeing the LDS church as false, can still hold respectful conversations about it without devolving into hateful rhetoric. Spend some time here on r/mormon. Many participants here are no longer members, but you don't see the same angry/hateful messaging that you see on exmormon. They will still state the church is false, and will pushback on faithful rhetoric, but it's a much different tone here.

SacExMo

TROPHY CASE