The paradox of Mormonism is not that it's hard to disprove but that it's too easy to disprove. Joseph Smith is such a typecast conman that if some folks are still prepared to believe he's a true prophet despite his manifest chicanery, what is there left to say? It's like charlatan faith-healers who've been exposed, yet folks continue to send them money. These are the willingly deceived.
So the most effective strategy for converting Mormons may simply be to befriend them and pray for them, waiting for an opportunity to present the Gospel, rather than apologetics in the usual sense. That said, there's the danger of overestimating how much the average Mormon knows about the history of their own faith.
To what extent do you think this holds for Jehovah's Witnesses?
ReplyDeleteThe suspect the appeal of Mormonism in the past was the offer of becoming a God. But that aspect to their theology is no longer emphasized as it once was. I also suspect one of the reasons why many modern Mormons remain Mormon is that they now consider their sect one of other Christian denominations. So, there's no point in leaving. Whereas in times past the sect explicitly rejected claims to being a Christian religion, and distanced themselves from historic Christendom.
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