>>582216
>I have read that a tactic of Mormon missionaries …
Never heard this before. Interdasting.
>Which raises several questions for me: 1) Are these people actually communicating with God …
God cannot lie. God cannot say, "this is truth" when it is a lie. Now you need to answer whether Mormonism is truth or a lie. If you already know the answer (pro-tip: it's a lie), then you can answer "which spirit is replying to these people?"
>2) Would any Christian in general, be he a Roman Catholic, Baptist, Orthodox, Calvinist, etc., ask God this question?
We all do, and aside from this guy's >>582237 suggestion from "They who do the will of my Father", or mine of "You will know them by their fruit", I am not sure we receive specific answers. The Lord seems more interested in warding us from heretics than delineating between this or that specific group. I am sure others will disagree with my-and-my-kin's experiences.
>3) Would God provide different answers to different people?
Yes … and no. If you'll permit me to quote Morpheus: "What was said was for you, and you alone." Unless He is speaking to a prophet (or someone He's calling to be one), the Lord is speaking to you, personally, when He specifically answers, which is rare enough anyway. The path with Christ is not about Him answering all our questions and making sure this iota is correctly dotted, it's about moulding us in His image. While I am emphatic that He cannot lie, He does guide us in ways that would make no sense to others. We are all individuals, uniquely fashioned, and we require a different kind of parenting to one another.
Praise God He is up to that task, and willing to perform it.
>4) Does it happen that someone asks God this question and his answer compels them to switch to a different Christian following? I would think everyone says that God tells them their way is their right way.
I don't think God has ever told someone out-loud, "These catholics/protestants/orthodox you're with are heretics. Flee and join that Jubilee Church down the road." I am willing to be wrong, but I would offer that unless someone is part of a truly heretical body, this doesn't happen.
God's parenting is more subtle, more glacial, and more focused on what HE wants from us and our lives than what WE think He wants. His interest in us, I will suggest, is that we bear fruit, that we do the will of His Father in heaven, than necessarily which liturgy, form, or ecclesiastical structure we cling to as "inviolable truth". And YET, I do contend that He puts us and redirects us, in the case of denom'-jumpers, where His goals for us will be most effective, and I will contend He moulds our desires in His service. You like Catholic liturgy because it makes you feel closer to God, I'll warrant the Spirit of God is using that to put you where you will bear most fruit. You later tire of this and migrate to Baptist-memery and embrace the Prophet of Tempe, unless you're just being a floppy fish, might this not be the Spirit of God moving within you calling you to bear even more fruit?
I know I sound like a Christian hippy, but we – the Church – began life as a very … now I mean VERY … diverse bunch of people clinging to a truth Paul and the other Apostles had passed on. If there were fights between Paul and Peter, yet both men were In Christ, surely we cannot persist with the idea there won't for-as-long-as-earth1.0-persists be fights about doctrine and YET both sides be In Christ. There's not many words in the gospels and epistles, and we have turned those few words into several impenetrable edifices of doctrinal certitude that ONLY my specific branch of the Church is true and the rest of you are heretics … I mean, we're finished with that kind of thinking, now. Right?
The problem with EVERYTHING I just said is that it leaves opens the door to reddit-Christianity where gays are lovely, transpeople are equally valid Christians, and "Jesus was just a nice guy"-theology. Obviously, this is utterly contemptible purely because while we may not agree on the filioque, or on whether the Pope licks diapehs, the Church, the living, breathing Kingdom of God on earth is in agreement that living as though God never gave us Law is to walk the path of death. So, instead, our path is to accept one while rejecting the other: accept that there is diversity in the Kingdom on earth, while rejecting falsehoods.
This is the path of the Church. Has been for two thousand years.
>5) Do most people not really communicate with God in the way they imagine?
Ummmm…. mind elaborating on what you're asking?