Originally posted by michelle:
No, not as a prophet, but as a believer. How did they know they had the words of God, prior to God speaking through them? What evidence did they have or need?
Phillip:
Okay, since my seminary course that I am completing is a 23 hour course in Old Testament Summary, I suggest you take the same thing.
But, in a very short attempt to try to answer your question, the Old Testament prophets and believers referred to the books written by Moses and kept in or near the Ark of the Covenant or at the temple and were explained by God that they were the Word of God through many miracles including leading them out of Egypt, parting the sea, parting the Jordan, whipping every city in the promised land and on and on. The Jews had no doubt they had the Word of God and what it was. God told them.
Many prophets are not considered as prophets and were punished until they their prophecies came true.
Take Daniel for instance, when he translated the writing on the wall, then the king died as predicted. Predictions came true. They only had the Old Testament and that was the Word of God.
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Michelle:
Well, I guess I should have gone a little further, and said "and the people of those days". It could even continue further, until this modern day. But my point is, what EVIDENCE has any believer in the past needed? How did they know? I think you answered it in part. How did they know that they had God's words 100%? And why would it be different for us today?
Randy:
First, I will answer like you answered me when I asked you why the 1611 translators added the apocrypha. You said that we didn't live back then so how would we know and that it is irrelevant to the fact we have a KJV today.
Bad answer, isn't it?
We do NOT believe we have His words 100%, only a few KJVo do that. We believe we have an inerrant translation of His doctrines, stories and the other information He wants us to have. We also have it in new translations. Your feelings are irrelevant because Joseph Smith had feelings. (or said he did). Mormon's have a feeling every time they test out their book of Mormon, the ole burning in the bossom.
We have HISTORICAL evidence we have the Word of God. We have testimony of Jesus, we have thousands upon thousands of ancient documents that all say the same thing within 98% of each other and the parts that are different are irrelevant. We know what God's Word is, but we don't do it by some "burning in the bossom" feeling. YES, we have faith in what we believe. But, logic precedes faith. Just as I told you your husband will have to go through before he develops that faith. You cannot just have faith in NOTHING, you must have a basis for that faith and our basis is all of the witnesses of Jesus Christ performing miracles, dying on the cross, rising again and being seen by many, many people. Therefore, we are back to logic, then faith.