Bashers Kryptonite

Hello and welcome to those who are here to learn

how to put a common basher in their place when they
think they know what the Bible says. I will only be
using Bible verses because these people will not listen
to anything from the Book of Mormon or Pearl of Great
Price.

First and foremost, let's establish that you shouldn't

bash unless it's absolutely needed. I think Bruce R
McConkie says it best.

“If a situation arises in which the Elders cannot in

honor refuse a challenge to debate an issue, as when
by withdrawing from the discussion they would lose
their investigators, then it may be proper to go ahead
and engage in the debate or discussion. In such
instances, if the Elders are as informed as they should
be, they always come off victorious. The truth is with
the saints and the truth will stand of its own self.”

You may be wondering, what a basher is, what they

look like, or what they believe. The most common
bashers are Evangelists and born-again Christians
found holding up signs and yelling outside of the
Conference Center every six months, others are found
at fairs, big athletic activities, state capitals, pride
parades, etc. Here are a few examples:
 These people tend to come from a simple
protestant-Christian background and most have your
typical Anglo-Christian beliefs such as the Bible, the
holy trinity, saved by grace, faith in Christ and baptism.
Now that you know a little bit more about your new
friends, let's take a look on how they try to belittle
anyone who doesn't believe in what they do.

Let's dive in, in my experiences with bashers, they

seem to always try to establish a common ground and
act nice at first, but don't let their kindness fool you,
their entire goal is to destroy your testimony, so be
cautious in what you say. At this point the average
basher will then proceed to ask if they can ask you a
question (be aware that you are most likely being
filmed by said basher, or by someone near you, here's a
couple examples of hidden cameras).
 You really should just say you have somewhere to be
at this point and walk away, because if you say yes to
their question you're gonna be there for a while. But
alas, this advice is for those who choose to answer
their question, the question could be from a wide
range of topics, here are some common "light weight"
ones that get "asked" and some answers you can use if
you so please.

Q1. Why doesn't the Book of Mormon have significant

archeological evidence?
A1. Drop Hebrews 11 on them then say something
along the lines of "you other churches always preach
to walk by faith and not by sight, why don't you apply
that to the Book of Mormon?"

Q2. If the Book of Mormon is true, then where are gold

plates?
A2. Same answer as question 1, walk by faith, not by
sight.

Q3. Do Non-Christians have a good standing with God

when they die?
A3. You can tell them that those people are exercising
faith in God, what if it's all they knew? What if they
never had the opportunity to hear the name Jesus
Christ in their lifetime? Would God send them to
hell? That doesn't sound like the God described in
Nehemiah 9:17
(And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy
wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened
their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain
to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to
pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of
great kindness, and forsookest them not).
Then use 1 Peter 3:19 and 1 Peter 4:6 to prove to
them that the gospel is preached to the dead.

Q4. Who is Jesus Christ?

A4. Use Matthew 3:17 or Mark 9:7, Jesus Christ is the
son of God the Father, Exodus 3:14, John 4:26, John
8:58 the great Jehovah.

Q5. Do you believe that Satan is Jesus' brother?

A5. Use Revelation 12:7-9. We believe that we are all
spirit sons and daughters of God the Father, and that
includes the devil and his angels before they were cast
out of Heaven for rebellion.

Q6. Do you believe you can be a god one day?

A6. Drop Psalms 82:6 or Acts 17:28-29 on them and
tell them that you believe you can be like God one day.

Q7. Why couldn't people of African descent hold the

priesthood?
A7. Use Matthew 10:5-6 and ask them why the
Gentiles were not aloud to have the blessings of the
gospel, let alone the priesthood? If they try to say that
the church is "racist" you can bring up that Martin
Luther (the original protestant) was anti-semitic a.k.a
he hated Jews and other people of Middle-Eastern
descent, tell them to look it up if they don't believe you.

These types of questions can and will lead on to

other things and harder questions, after you give an
answer your new friend will probably whip out John
1:1, or some other related scripture that's most likely
been translated incorrectly, they might even have the
nerve to tell you that you believe in a false Christ, take
note that these people are trained to be on the
offensive, so now is the time to turn the tables on them
and put them on the defensive, you must turn it on
them early in the conversation.
The best and most effective way that I've found to do
this is to ask them if they believe in the trinity, when
they say yes (they do most of the time), ask them to
explain it to you, they'll most likely tell you that the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate
persons, but are one being and essence or vice versa,
something along the lines of that, they may even drop
a scripture like John 10:30, or 1 John 5:7 for example.
After they speak you should bring up your own
scripture, I love to use Matthew 26:39, when Jesus is
suffering in the garden of Gethsemane, who is he
praying to? Is he praying to himself? Or maybe you
could drop John 14:28 on them, if the Father and Son
are one, then how can one be greater than the other?
Maybe even ask them about the two personages that
Stephen saw in Acts 7:55-56, another good one is the
entire chapter of John 17 where Jesus gives the great
intercessory prayer, especially the first nine versus, for
example in the first verse is Jesus asking himself to
glorify himself so that he can then in return glorify
himself yet again? Is Jesus teaching that they might
know himself, the only true God, and to also know
himself Jesus, who sent himself in verse three. What
about in verse four; is Jesus again asking himself to
glorify himself with himself and with the glory that he
had with himself before the world?
The list goes on people, speaking of lists, here's one
with scriptures that identify and defend the Godhead:

Acts 7:55-56
Romans 8:34
John 17
Mark 9:7
Luke 9:35
Mark 13:32
Hebrews 1
Hebrews 13:20
1 John 2:1
Revelation 3:5
John 5:26-27
John 14:28
John 5:19
Mark 14:36
Matthew 26:39
Matthew 27:46
Mark 1:11
Matthew 3:17
Genesis 3:22
Genesis 1:26

Now that we've made it clear that the doctrine of the

trinity is false, we can move on to the next phase of
kryptonite, let's teach our new friends about the
importance of Priesthood authority.
The best way I've found to teach anyone is directly
from the scriptures, the same way that we taught them
about the Godhead, we're going to teach them about
authority.
We can start off by asking them where they got their
Priesthood authority to preach Christ's gospel, they
might tell you that authority is not needed, or that they
got their "authority" from from a website or the
government as an "ordained" minister and they have a
certificate, or that they were "anointed" in a dream, or
that they got it from their pastor and they got theirs
from their pastor and so on and so forth until they get
their "authority" from the Roman Catholic church, if
they do end up tracing their "authority" to the Catholic
church, you can ask them if the Catholic church is the
true church since that's where they got their "authority"
from, they'll most likely tell you no because
Catholicism is a "cult" or "false church" therefore they
disprove their own "authority". It really doesn't matter
wherever they claim their so called "authority" from,
start off by using Mark 13:34 on them where the Son
of man (Christ) gives authority to his servants, you can
then use Luke 9:1 where yet again Christ gives his
servants authority, maybe even drop Acts 8:17-18
where the apostles have Priesthood authority to
bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost upon people and that
authority from God cannot be purchased, finally you
can use Mark 3:14-15 where Jesus ordaines his
Apostles. It's pretty clear that Christ's church will have
the authority to act in his name, make sure to pound
that into their heads.
Here is another list of scriptures that you can use,
this time they're for identifying that God's servants
have Priesthood authority:

Exodus 40:15
Numbers 16:10
Deuteronomy 34:9
Mark 13:32
Luke 9:1
Acts 6:6
Acts 8:17-18
Acts 13:3
Hebrews 5:4
Hebrews 7:24
1 Peter 2:5

We can now move on to the next phase of education,

the organization of Christ's church. Most of these
bashers believe that no matter which Christian church
you go to, you'll be saved as long as you have faith in
Jesus Christ.
Let's start by quoting Matthew 16:18 to them:
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it.
 You can also use Ephesians 4:5 on them:
One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Interesting that it
says ONE faith a.k.a one church.
Point out that the verse in Matthew says CHURCH,
not churches, and that hell shall not prevail against IT,
there can only be one true church, you can't just go to
whatever church you want and expect to be saved, this
verse itself rules out born-again Christianity. You can
then use Ephesians 2:20, 1 Corinthians 12:28, and
Luke 6:12-16 to prove that Christ's church has
prophets and apostles, then use Luke 10:1-2 to point
out that Christ's church has 70's as well. Side note, you
could also ask them if they believe there are no more
prophets and will be no more prophets, when they tell
you yes, you can use Revelation 11:3-4 on them and
tell them that there will be two witnesses that will
prophesy in Jerusalem in the last days, and that they
have the power of God (priesthood), then you can
point out to them that prophets and apostles are
special witnesses of Christ that give prophesies, and
hold the priesthood, therefore there will be prophets
and apostles in the last days.
Here is list of scriptures for church organization:

2 Chronicles 24:19
Amos 3:7
Matthew 16:18
Mark 3:14
Luke 6:12-16
Luke 10:1-2
John 15:16
Acts 13:1-2
Acts 14:23
1 Corinthians 12:28
Ephesians 2:20
Ephesians 4:11
Titus 1:5
Revelation 11:3-4
1 Peter 5:1
Hebrews 10:11

Next up on the list is something that these bashers

LOVE to bring up "I am saved by the grace of God and
by faith in Jesus Christ alone". For some reason these
people believe that all you have to do is confess that
Jesus is Lord and vow to follow him and you will be
saved, they may use some scriptures like Acts 15:11 or
2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 10:9, they especially love
using Ephesians 2:8-9 because it says you can't be
saved by works, these people think that we (members
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
believe we are only saved by works, which is a lie.
These people are all about "faith this, and faith that"
yet never exercise their faith by showing good works,
my favorite thing to use against that is James 2:14-26,
he completely destroys the notion that faith alone
saves you, we show our faith in the Lord by doing what
he has asked of us, we need faith AND works.

Another argument your new friends might use is that

all we need is the Bible, and that the Book of Mormon
adds to the Bible, they will probably quote Revelation
22:18-19 and say that we are breaking the
commandments, this argument is completely false and
uneducated, one only needs to turn to Deuteronomy
4:2 where Moses says the same exact thing, does that
mean that the rest of the Bible is invalid? No! It simply
means to not add or remove from that specific record,
the same goes for the Book of Revelation, the Bible we
know today was not compiled at the time John wrote
Revelation, in fact, the book of Revelation was written
before any of the other books of John, the last thing
that was written in the Bible is actually John 21:25
where he leaves the scriptures open for future
revelation.

Another topic they might try and argue about is

pre-mortal life, they believe that we did not live before
we came to Earth, instead they teach that we came
into existence only upon birth, one only needs to read
Jeremiah 1:5 to know that we existed before we came
to Earth, Ephesians 1:4 is great for pointing out life
before Earth as well, Ecclesiastes 12:7 is good too. You
can use Jude 1:6 and Revelation 12:7 if you want, but
you'll have to explain the war in heaven.

More points they like to yell at us about is thay claim

we are not actually Heavenly Father's children, but that
we are just His greatest creation, and are adopted by
him, this idea is complete blasphemy, the Bible and
Book of Mormon alike testify that we are literal spirit
sons and daughters of our Father in heaven, here is a
list of scriptures you can use to show them we are
God's literal offspring:

Acts 17:28-29
Hebrews 12:9
1 John 3:2
Psalms 82:6
Romans 8:16-17
Malachi 2:10
Numbers 16:22
Deuteronomy 14:1
Hosea 1:10

The last thing I will add to this paper are the 17 point
of the true church, these points have come in handy in
certain non bashing situations, they can be used in a
bash as well.
 1. Christ organized the church. Ephesians 4:11-14
2. The church must bear the name of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:23
3. The church must have a foundation of apostles
and prophets. Ephesians 2:19-20
4. The church must have the same organization as
Christ's church. Ephesians 4:11-14
5. The church must claim divine authority. Hebrews
5:4-10
6. The church must have no payed ministry. Isaiah
45:13 and 1 Peter 5:2
7. The church must baptize by immersion. Matthew
3:13-16
8. The church must bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost
by the laying on of hands. Acts 8:14-17
9. The church must practice divine healing. Mark
3:14-15
10. The church must teach that God and Jesus
Christ are separate and distinct individuals. John 17:11
and John 20:17
11. The church must teach that God and Jesus
Christ have bodies of flesh and bone. Luke 24:36-39
and Acts 1:9-11
12. The officers must be called by God. Hebrews 5:4,
Exodus 28:1 and Exodus 40:13-16
13. The church must claim revelation from God.
Amos 3:7
14. The church must be a missionary church.
Matthew 28:19-20
15. The church must be a restored church. Acts
3:19-20
16. The church must practice baptism for the dead. 1
Corinthians 15:16;29
17. By their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:20

Why are these things important?

Hebrews 13:8

Here are some points of advice:

- Use as many scriptural references as you can, the

more you use, the more your point will get across to
them.
- Never show fear our concern, be bold, you can't bash
halfway, go for the kill every single time.
- Always take the offensive as soon as possible, it is
way easier to point out the truth to them when you're
the one asking questions and dropping scriptures.
- Always get the last word in, when you get the last
word, it will be going through their mind for the rest of
the day, maybe even the next few days, make them feel
like a pharisee.
- Only bear you testimony if prompted to do so, most
of the time the Spirit is hard to recognize when you
are debating doctrine with somebody else, if they are
humble and willing to listen, then I think it would be
appropriate to bear testimony of the truths you pointed
out.

As you can see, these protestants, born-agains,

evangelists, and all other Bible bashers are clearly part
of false and misinformed churches. For one reason or
another they feel it is okay to "correct" others by
putting them down, quoting out of context or
mis-translated scripture, and telling others that they
believe in a false Jesus, these bashers are just like the
pharisees and sadducees in Jesus' day, seeking to
destroy anyone and anything that does not align or
agree with their false doctrines, nothing gets my
adrenaline pumping like a good bash, but they can
tend to be a waste of time, that's why I try to avoid
them, you never know though, maybe someone will
actually learn something from trying to debate with us.
 For this reason was this paper written in the hopes
that more missionaries around the world would be able
to defend the gospel more confidently and with power
and authority.

-Elder C Morgan
Arizona Tucson Mission
4/18-4/20
Last modified: Jul 28, 2019