What Errant Beast…?

Nearby the above verse, 2 Nephi 2:23 says that if Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned against God “they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.” And if sin is that by which good is known, God must have been predated by sin for His goodness to be established at creation, before The Fall… and fault would have to exist for creation to be good, as God states it, because one cannot be known without the other, according to this line of reasoning.  Nevermind the clearly stated “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” command in Genesis 1:28, before Adam & Eve fell, which 2 Nephi 2:22-25 seems to forget.

So since 2 Nephi 2 says that mankind would not have proliferated without the occurrence of sin and that for which mankind is made (by way of The Fall) is joy, that seems to say that Satan, the Adversary, is on our side, since his deception was a parlay into joy instead of the sin of dishonoring God’s sovereignty leading to death (Romans 6:23; again, a clear choice between 2 opposites).  So, joy is our reason for living and we live because of sin and sin was caused by Satan… which means that Satan should not be our Adversary because he is that by which we may have joy. (I should point out that I asked a Mormon about this and he said that’s not what he was taught about it, but that’s the linear progression of those verses, linguistically.)  Of course, Satan being the cause and proliferator of our joy is antithetical to the Bible wherein we were made to commune with God & hold Him as Lord (Adam & Eve with God in the Garden, Enoch walking with God, Elijah, Moses and other prophets declaring the correct, Godly behavior because of communing with God, etc).  Furthermore, Adam (from “adamah” for “earth”) & Eve (the Anglicization of the Hebrew “chavvah” for “life [source]“) lived in the garden of Eden (which, in Hebrew, means Pleasure).  Now, how can one abide in untarnished pleasure without joyful satisfaction?  They would have no need to sin in order to know God’s joy.

Now, the book of Mormon claims validity because it (the supposed golden plates) would be read and “shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit” (2 Nephi 26:16; phrasing also in Isaiah 29:4, though in the opposite context of being far from God in desolation, ensuring their destruction).  Contrary to this LDS passage, the King James Bible, which is used by the LDS church, has only one context for “familiar spirit” and it’s not of God.  On that reference alone one, if the Bible holds significance to them, should be extremely wary of the Book of Mormon, whether what’s taught is what’s expressedly written or not.  The fact they say, in D&C 42:18, that murderers cannot be forgiven (although Moses, David, and Paul were, by their faith) is also an example of how the familiar spirit of Mormon doctrine seeks to nullify the all-encompassing sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross (1 John 1:5-10).  Also, D&C 132:36 proposing to be the word, referencing Exodus 20:13, of God claims that “though shalt not kill” was written down at the time of Abraham, who lived before Moses came from Mt Sinai with the law written on the stone tablets.  (That doesn’t mean that murder was OK at one point; just that it hadn’t been written down and that God, if He had dictated D&C 132 to Joseph Smith, would not have said it were when it wasn’t.)  Also, just earlier in verses 34-35, Abraham is mentioned as impregnating Hagar by God’s command when the command was that Sarah would bear the promised child, Isaac (Genesis 17:1-21).  So, you see, Abraham was told that Sarah would conceive and that child would bear the blessing of God’s covenant… but because of Abraham’s request, Ishmael (son of Hagar) would also become a great nation, BUT, God points out Isaac shall be under the covenant of God (not Ishmael, meaning that God’s provision through Sarah was His intent, but He’s gracious to honor Abraham through Ishmael, though Ishmael wasn’t part of the intent of the covenant for Abraham’s descendents).

And, of course, if you disagree, you’re welcome to.  But the writings of Mormonism, although largely based on the Bible and largely quoting directly from the Bible, contradict the Bible in those things which they changed.  However, this doesn’t say anything about Mormons themselves other than that they aren’t being taught the Bible correctly, thereby (largely, as I cannot comfortably deal in such absolutes) not in communion with the God of the Bible, for which mankind was created.