paper-machine comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (5th thread, March 2013) - Less Wrong

27 Post author: orthonormal 01 April 2013 04:19PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 15 April 2013 05:37:35AM 4 points [-]

I tend to focus on the current authorized messengers from God and the Holy Spirit as I feel that is what I have been instructed to do.

Who authorizes messengers from God? It's not like He has a public key, after all...

Comment author: JohnH 15 April 2013 05:23:37PM 0 points [-]

Who authorizes messengers from God?

God obviously.

It's not like He has a public key,

There are actually quite a few rules given to determine if a messenger is from God. Jesus for instance said "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself", then there is the qualification in Deuteronomy, the requirement in John, the experiment in Alma, the promise in Moroni, and some details in the D&C. It is somewhat of a bootstrapping problem as one must already trust one of those sources, or the person presenting those sources, enough to move forward in trying to verify the source and messenger.

Comment author: MugaSofer 15 April 2013 10:32:33AM -2 points [-]

Well, the usual method is to simply check if they're consistent with earlier messages. Which is great until you remember that the Devil can quote scripture to his purpose.

The canonical method, on the other hand, is to check if the messenger professes Jesus as Lord, since as we all know demons can't do that, so by process of elimination it must be an angel (and therefore true.)

No, I don't know what you're supposed to do if it's a hallucination.

Comment author: [deleted] 15 April 2013 04:00:30PM -1 points [-]

we all know demons can't do that

Can't they?

Comment author: MugaSofer 19 April 2013 02:30:04PM -1 points [-]

Nope. Well-known fact.

Seriously, that's official doctrine, that is. Actually, come to think, don't some demons call him Lord in the NT?

Comment author: CAE_Jones 19 April 2013 03:06:19PM 2 points [-]

Jesus goes so far as to discourage both humans and demons from telling people about his Messiahship; demons tended to be pretty quick to start yelling about how he was the messiah/could torment them /etc. Legion is the most memorable case, but I seem to remember an incident from earlier on in Jesus' life when he had to silence a demon that was revealing his identity (maybe it was in Luke?).

Comment author: MugaSofer 19 April 2013 05:21:16PM *  -1 points [-]

And yet, I've read that piece of, um, advice in books by at least one actual exorcist; a pretty high-level one at that. It appears to be the official Thing To Do in response to a questionably divine visitation.

Yes, I read books on exorcism. Don't judge me.