Posted on 12/28/2009 11:26:45 AM PST by urroner
QUESTIONS FOR LDS ON THE IMPOSSIBLE GOSPEL OF MORMONISM — A Verse-by-Verse Presentation from LDS Scripture
Christians who believe in the sufficiency of faith alone in Christ for salvation are often frustrated when they quote Ephesians 2:8-9 (“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” **) to a Mormon only to find him agreeing that “general salvation” (resurrection to eternal life) is a free gift given to everyone without works. They may wonder, “Is there much difference between the Mormon Gospel and the Christian Gospel?” While Mormons believe that faith in Christ grants the first level of salvation (i.e., resurrection), they believe that good works (such as marriage for eternity in an LDS temple) are required to earn the highest level of Heaven. Quoting James 2:20: “...faith without works is dead” and other passages that speak of rewards granted in Heaven, many Mormons feel that the Christian Gospel is “too easy.” They believe that while Christians have “some truth,” the LDS religion is the only one that contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel.
Is the Christian Gospel too simple? Is faith in Christ all that matters, or does one need to perform righteous deeds to earn a higher position in Heaven? What is the LDS Gospel Plan? Can mankind be exalted to the highest level of Heaven by obedience to its requirements? You be the judge as we examine the Impossible Gospel of Mormonism using only official LDS Scripture books (The Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the King James Bible):
1.) 2 NEPHI 25:23: “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
Have you done “all” you can do for salvation? Isn’t there something else you can think of that you haven’t done for salvation? At what point have you done enough to be sure that you will be saved?
2.) ALMA 5:27-31: “Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins? Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of heaven is soon at hand, and such an one hath not eternal life. Behold, I say, is there one among you who is not stripped of envy? I say unto you that such an one is not prepared; and I would that he should prepare quickly, for the hour is close at hand, and he knoweth not when the time shall come; for such an one is not found guiltless. And again I say unto you, is there one among you that doth make a mock of his brother, or that heapeth upon him persecutions? Wo unto such an one, for he is not prepared, and the time is at hand that he must repent or he cannot be saved!”
Have you walked blameless before God? Are you sufficiently humble, stripped of pride and envy? Would it be honest to admit that you have not done “all” you can do for salvation and that you are “not prepared to meet God”? If you were to die tonight, would you have “eternal life”?
Note: Trying is not sufficient. Either you are “prepared to meet God” or you are not prepared. Either you are “stripped” of envy and pride, have repented of all of your sins and are thus walking “blameless before God” (without sin), or you are not blameless. There is no middle ground. Spencer W. Kimball (former LDS Apostle and 12th Prophet of the LDS Church) explained it this way: “There is one crucial test of repentance. This is abandonment of the sin. …The saving power does not extend to him who merely wants to change his life. …Nor is repentance complete when one merely tries to abandon sin. ...To ‘try’ is weak. To ‘do the best I can’ is not strong. We must always do better than we can.” —The Miracle of Forgiveness, pp. 163-165
3.) MORONI 10:32: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.”
Have you denied yourself of “all ungodliness”? Since Jesus’ grace is not sufficient for you until you have cleared “all ungodliness” out of your life, how can you be “perfect in Christ”? How can you receive His “grace” for salvation, if you haven’t stopped sinning and are not walking “blameless before God,” being sufficiently humble, stripped of pride and envy? Can you honestly say you have done “all” you can do for salvation?
4.) 1 NEPHI 3:7: “…for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”
Do you believe that God does not give you a commandment that you can’t keep? Have you kept ALL of the commandments? What about the 10 Commandments listed in Exodus 20?
Have no other Gods before the one true God.
Is serving and worshipping God your first thought each day? Do you put Him first with daily Scripture reading and prayer?
Make no graven images.
Do you love God over any person or thing in your life?
Do not take God’s name in vain.
Have you ever used God’s name as a curse word?
Keep the Sabbath Day Holy.
Have you ever shopped or worked on God’s day of rest?
Honor your parents.
Have you ever disrespected your parents in word or deed?
Do not murder.
Jesus said that if you have ever been angry with your brother without a cause or called him a “fool,” you have committed murder in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22). Have you ever been unjustifiably angry with your brother or insulted him with mocking names?
Do not commit adultery.
Jesus said that if you look at a woman with lust, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart (Matthew 5:27-28). Have you ever looked with lust?
Do not steal.
Have you ever cheated on a test or taken something that belongs to someone else?
Do not bear false witness.
Have you ever told a lie? Revelation 21:8 warns: “…all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Do not covet.
Have you ever wanted something someone else owns or been jealous of a privilege or reward that someone else received?
5.) DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 25:15: “Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive. And except thou do this, where I am you cannot come.”
Do you keep God’s commandments “continually?” What part of the word “continually” allows for an occasional act of disobedience to God’s commands? If 1 Nephi 3:7 is true that God doesn’t give you a command that you can’t keep, why don’t you keep the commandments “continually”?
6.) ALMA 45:16: “…for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.”
7.) DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 1:31-32: “For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven.”
Since the Lord cannot look upon sin with the “least degree of allowance,” what have you done to eradicate sin in your life? If you have not fully repented by putting an end to sin and keeping God’s commandments “continually,” how can you claim to be forgiven by the God?
8.) ALMA 34:32: “For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.”
Since “this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God,” how can you claim that you have time after death to eradicate sin in your life?
9.) DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 58:43: “By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them.”
At Sacrament meeting each week, do you renew your covenants to keep God’s commandments? Since you are continually breaking God’s commandments, doesn’t this make you an unrepentant covenant breaker? After all, if you truly did repent the first time by forsaking your sins, you wouldn’t need to continually repent again and again, would you?
Note: Joseph Smith said: “Repentance is a thing that cannot be trifled with every day. Daily transgression and daily repentance is not that which is pleasing in the sight of God.” —Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 148
10.) DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS 82:7: “And now, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, will not lay any sin to your charge; go your ways and sin no more; but unto that soul who sinneth shall the former sins return, saith the Lord your God.”
Have you ever repeated a sin after asking for forgiveness? What do your Scriptures say happens to the soul who continually sins? How can you be forgiven if you are held accountable for your former sins? Since you have not stopped sinning, would it be safe to say that you have “procrastinated” the day of your repentance?
11.) ALMA 34:33-35: “And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world. For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked.”
What does this Book of Mormon Scripture say happens to the person who “procrastinates” the day of his repentance until death? Since “the same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that you go out of this life… will have power to possess your body in the eternal world,” how can you repent (i.e., stop sinning) and be forgiven after you die? If after death, you are “subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his,” can you see why Alma 11:37 says that the Jesus of Mormonism “cannot save” you in your sins?
12.) ALMA 11:37: “And I say unto you again that he cannot save them in their sins; for I cannot deny his word, and he hath said that no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore, how can ye be saved, except ye inherit the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, ye cannot be saved in your sins.”
Since “ye cannot be saved in your sins,” and you have already admitted that you have not repented of ALL of your sins because you have not stopped breaking the commandments, how can the Jesus of Mormonism save you? If Mormonism cannot promise you forgiveness, what does your Church have to offer me?
NOTE: If you are a Latter-day Saint, I am sure you take sin very seriously, but at this point you may be feeling completely overwhelmed by the impossibility of salvation within the LDS Gospel. You may be tempted to excuse away the evidence presented here by saying, “This is just your interpretation of these verses.” If you are thinking this way, you must acknowledge that you are no longer sustaining your Church leadership. You must therefore repent! Because they have all affirmed that a person must abandon sin before he or she can be forgiven. Consider the following quotes from official LDS Church publications and leaders:
“Those who receive forgiveness and then repeat the sin are held accountable for their former sins.” —Gospel Principles, 1995ed., p. 253
“There is one crucial test of repentance. This is abandonment of the sin….The saving power does not extend to him who merely wants to change his life. …Nor is repentance complete when one merely tries to abandon sin. ...To ‘try’ is weak. To ‘do the best I can’ is not strong. We must always do better than we can. ...Discontinuance of the sin must be permanent.... the former transgressor must have reached a ‘point of no return’ to sin wherein there is not merely a renunciation but also a deep abhorrence of the sin — where the sin becomes most distasteful to him and where the desire or urge to sin is cleared out of his life” —The Miracle of Forgiveness, 1969, Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 163-165, 176, 354-355
“Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can receive forgiveness for our sins through sincere and complete repentance. … Abandonment of Sin. Although confession is an essential element of repentance, it is not enough. The Lord has said, ‘By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them’ (D&C 58:43). Maintain an unyielding, permanent resolve that you will never repeat the transgression. When you keep this commitment, you will never experience the pain of that sin again.” —True to the Faith – A Gospel Reference, 2004, pp. 70, 134-135
13.) ROMANS 11:6: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”
Is Jesus sufficient or is He just a necessary step for salvation? If Jesus is sufficient, why do we need to add works to His saving grace? Can you see how believing that you must do “all you can do” for salvation is a disgrace to God because you are saying that His “gift” (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9) of Jesus Christ is “insufficient” to save you to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25)?
14.) JAMES 2:10: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”
Since we cannot keep the “whole law,” can you see why salvation has to be granted by grace alone apart from works of the law (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5), and why God cannot accept your filthy rags of pride to merit Celestial glory (Isaiah 64:6; Philippians 3:9; Ephesians 2:9)?
15.) JAMES 2:17-18: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”
The context of James 2 is contrasting the difference between a dead faith that cannot save and a living faith that is evidenced (i.e., shown) by works. Just as a fruit tree is proved alive by its fruit, so true living faith will be proved alive by the fruit of Christian works (John 13:34-35). These works will indeed “shew” that the true living faith that justifies a person is alive within the heart. Rewards given in Heaven are not done to merit a higher level of eternal life. Rather, these rewards are given to be thrown down at the feet of Jesus in gratitude and worship because He is the only One who is worthy (Luke 17:9-10; Revelation 4:10-11).
http://www.4witness.org/ldsquestions/qlds-gospel.php
The TRUTH lies in the
One,
Holy,
Catholic
and Apostolic Church.
Everything else?????
Go talk with a priest and get your questions answered.
What little games am I playing? If you honestly think I am in violation of the rules of the Forum, then please report me. I have asked serious questions on this thread, but I can’t speak for what you believe.
Can you point to a single question on this thread that I have asked that wouldn’t be considered a serious religious question if I were an agnostic who was setting up this scenario?
I work with agnostics and they ask all these questions and even more. If it bothers you that I’m asking these questions, please report it to the admins.
WHAT MORMON.ORG DOES NOT TELL YOU ABOUT GOD THE FATHER:
Mormon “Gods” Existed Before Heavenly Father:
Mormon.org does not tell you that Mormons DO NOT believe that God the Father is the first God who has ever existed. Many outside the LDS Church do not know that when Mormons speak of “Heavenly Father,” they are not speaking of the Biblical God who says: “I am he: before me there was no God formed…” (Isaiah 43:10) Rather, on the contrary, Mormonism teaches that God the Father had a Father “God” before Him and that “God” had a Father “God” before Him and so forth on backward into eternity. Thus, Mormon Prophets and Apostles have claimed:
“I will preach on the plurality of Gods… Our text says, ‘And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.’ The Apostles have discovered that there were Gods above… My object was to preach the scriptures, and preach the doctrine they contain, there being a God above, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” —Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 370
“Our Father in heaven, according to the Prophet, had a Father, and since there has been a condition of this kind through all eternity, each Father had a Father, until we come to a stop where we cannot go further, because of our limited capacity to understand.” —LDS Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith (who became Mormonism’s 10th Prophet) Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, p. 47
Thus, the Mormon version of “Heavenly Father” is not the God of the Bible who claims to be the “first” and only God:
“Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. … Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”—Isaiah 44:6, 8 2.
LDS “Heavenly Father” Did Not Exist From Eternity.
Mormon.org does not tell you that Mormons believe that God has not always been as God. While Mormon.org admits that Mormonism teaches that God has a human body “that looks like yours,” it fails to explain that the Mormon Church does not agree with the Biblical teaching that God is not a man (Hosea 11:9). Rather, Mormonism teaches that God is literally an exalted Man who once lived on an earth like ours and progressed to Godhood. Joseph Smith taught:
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!… I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man.…I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea.…he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did.…”—Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith, pp. 345-346
“Through Obedience to Law We Can Become Like Our Father in Heaven... If God became God by obedience to all of the gospel law with the crowning point being the celestial law of marriage, then that’s the only way I can become a god.”—Achieving A Celestial Marriage, Student Manual, p. 4
God Has a “Wife” in Heaven.
Mormon.org does not tell you that Mormons believe God the Father has a wife in Heaven. When Mormons say that “God is the Father of our spirits,” they do not believe as the Bible teaches, that God created our spirits within our human bodies at conception (Zechariah 12:1), but rather they teach that God procreated our spirits with his wife in a Heavenly spirit-world. On page 129 of the Mormon Church publication, Achieving A Celestial Marriage Student Manual, the Church states:
“By definition, exaltation includes the ability to procreate the family unit throughout eternity. This our Father in heaven has power to do. His marriage partner is our mother in heaven. We are their spirit children, born to them in the bonds of celestial marriage… For as we have a Father in heaven, so also we have a Mother there, a glorified, exalted, ennobled Mother.”
http://www.4mormon.org/mormon-org.php#s1
Is Mormonism Christian? This may seem like a puzzling question to many Mormons as well as to some Christians. Mormons will note that they include the Bible among the four books which they recognize as Scripture, and that belief in Jesus Christ is central to their faith, as evidenced by their official name, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Furthermore, many Christians have heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing Christian hymns and are favorably impressed with the Mormon commitment to high moral standards and strong families. Doesn’t it follow that Mormonism is Christian?
“To fairly and accurately resolve this question we need to carefully compare the basic doctrines of the Mormon religion with the basic doctrines of historic, biblical Christianity.”
To fairly and accurately resolve this question we need to carefully compare the basic doctrines of the Mormon religion with the basic doctrines of historic, biblical Christianity. To represent the Mormon position we have relied on the following well-known Mormon doctrinal books, the first three of which are published by the Mormon Church: Gospel Principles (1997), Achieving a Celestial Marriage (1976), and A Study of the Articles of Faith (1979) by Mormon Apostle James E. Talmage, as well as Doctrines of Salvation (3 vols.) by the tenth Mormon President and prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Mormon Doctrine (2nd ed., 1979) by Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
1. Is There More Than One True God?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that there is only one True and Living God and apart from Him there are no other Gods (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10,11; 44:6,8; 45:21,22; 46:9; Mark 12:29-34).
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that there are many Gods (Book of Abraham 4:3ff), and that we can become gods and goddesses in the celestial kingdom (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-20; Gospel Principles, p. 245; Achieving a Celestial Marriage, p. 130). It also teaches that those who achieve godhood will have spirit children who will worship and pray to them, just as we worship and pray to God the Father (Gospel Principles, p. 302).
2. Was God Once a Man Like Us?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that God is Spirit (John 4:24; 1 Timothy 6:15,16), He is not a man (Numbers 23:19; Hosea 11:9; Romans 1:22, 23), and has always (eternally) existed as God — all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present (Psalm 90:2; 139:7-10; Isaiah 40:28; Luke 1:37).
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that God the Father was once a man like us who progressed to become a God and has a body of flesh and bone (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22; “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!” from Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-347; Gospel Principles, p. 9; Articles of Faith, p. 430; Mormon Doctrine, p. 321). Indeed, the Mormon Church teaches that God himself has a father, and a grandfather, ad infinitum (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 373; Mormon Doctrine, p. 577).
3. Are Jesus and Satan Spirit Brothers?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that Jesus is the unique Son of God; he has always existed as God, and is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father (John 1:1, 14; 10:30; 14:9; Colossians 2:9). While never less than God, at the appointed time He laid aside the glory He shared with the Father (John 17:4, 5; Philippians 2:6-11) and was made flesh for our salvation; His incarnation was accomplished through being conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18-23; Luke 1:34-35).
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that Jesus Christ is our elder brother who progressed to godhood, having first been procreated as a spirit child by Heavenly Father and a heavenly mother; He was later conceived physically through intercourse between Heavenly Father and the virgin Mary (D&C 93:21; Journal of Discourses, 1:50-51; Gospel Principles, p. 11-13; Achieving a Celestial Marriage, p. 129; Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 546-547; 742; Ezra Taft Benson, Come unto Christ, p. 4; Robert L. Millet, The Mormon Faith: Understanding Restored Christianity, p. 31). Mormon doctrine affirms that Jesus, all angels, Lucifer, all demons, and all human beings are originally spirit brothers and sisters (Abraham 3:22-27; Moses 4:1-2; Gospel Principles, pp. 17-18; Mormon Doctrine, p. 192).
4. Is God a Trinity?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost are not separate Gods or separate beings, but are distinct Persons within the one Triune Godhead. Throughout the New Testament the Son and the Holy Spirit, as well as the Father are separately identified as and act as God (Son: Mark 2:5-12; John 20:28; Philippians 2:10,11; Holy Spirit: Acts 5:3,4; 2 Corinthians 3:17,18; 13:14); yet at the same time the Bible teaches that these three are only one God (see point 1).
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate Gods (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 370; Mormon Doctrine, pp. 576-577), and that the Son and Holy Ghost are the literal offspring of Heavenly Father and a celestial wife (Joseph Fielding McConkie, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, vol. 2, p. 649).
5. Was The Sin Of Adam and Eve a Great Evil Or a Great Blessing?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that the disobedience of our first parents Adam and Eve was a great evil. Through their fall sin entered the world, bringing all human beings under condemnation and death. Thus we are born with a sinful nature, and will be judged for the sins we commit as individuals. (Ezekiel 18:1-20; Romans 5:12-21).
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that Adam’s sin was “a necessary step in the plan of life and a great blessing to all of us” (Gospel Principles, p. 33; Book of Mormon — 2 Nephi 2:25; Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, pp. 114-115).
6. Can We Make Ourselves Worthy Before God?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross we are spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1,5) and are powerless to save ourselves. By grace alone, apart from self-righteous works, God forgives our sins and makes us worthy to live in His presence (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-6). Our part is only to cling to Christ in heartfelt faith. (However, it is certainly true that without the evidence of changed conduct, a person’s testimony of faith in Christ must be questioned; salvation by grace alone through faith, does not mean we can live as we please — Romans 6:1-4).
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that eternal life in the presence of God (which it terms “exaltation in the celestial kingdom”) must be earned through obedience to all the commands of the Mormon Church, including exclusive Mormon temple rituals. Works are a requirement for salvation (entrance into the “celestial kingdom”) — Gospel Principles, p. 303-304; Pearl of Great Price — Third Article of Faith; Mormon Doctrine, pp. 339, 671; Book of Mormon — 2 Nephi 25:23).
7. Does Christ’s Atoning Death Benefit Those Who Reject Him?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that the purpose of the atoning work of Christ on the cross was to provide the complete solution for humankind’s sin problem. However, those who reject God’s grace in this life will have no part in this salvation but are under the judgment of God for eternity (John 3:36; Hebrews 9:27; 1 John 5:11-12).
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that the purpose of the atonement was to bring resurrection and immortality to all people, regardless of whether they receive Christ by faith. Christ’s atonement is only a partial basis for worthiness and eternal life, which also requires obedience to all the commands of the Mormon church, including exclusive Mormon temple rituals (Gospel Principles, pp. 74-75; Mormon Doctrine, p. 669).
8. Is The Bible The Unique and Final Word of God?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that the Bible is the unique, final and infallible Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:1,2; 2 Peter 1:21) and that it will stand forever (1 Peter 1:23-25). God’s providential preservation of the text of the Bible was marvelously illustrated in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that the Bible has been corrupted, is missing many “plain and precious parts” and does not contain the fullness of the Gospel (Book of Mormon — 1 Nephi 13:26-29; Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, pp. 190-191).
9. Did The Early Church Fall Into Total Apostasy?
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that the true Church was divinely established by Jesus and could never and will never disappear from the earth (Matthew 16:18; John 15:16; 17:11). Christians acknowledge that there have been times of corruption and apostasy within the Church, but believe there has always been a remnant that held fast to the biblical essentials.
By contrast, the Mormon Church teaches that there was a great and total apostasy of the Church as established by Jesus Christ; this state of apostasy “still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel” of the Mormon Church (Gospel Principles, pp. 105-106; Mormon Doctrine, p. 44).
Conclusion: The above points in italics constitute the common gospel believed by all orthodox Christians through the ages regardless of denominational labels. On the other hand, some new religions such as Mormonism claim to be Christian, but accept as Scripture writings outside of the Bible, teach doctrines that contradict the Bible, and hold to beliefs completely foreign to the teachings of Jesus and His apostles.
Mormons share with orthodox Christians some important moral precepts from the Bible. However, the above points are examples of the many fundamental and irreconcilable differences between historic, biblical Christianity and Mormonism. While these differences do not keep us from being friendly with Mormons, we cannot consider them brothers and sisters in Christ. The Bible specifically warns of false prophets who will teach “another gospel” centered around “another Jesus,” and witnessed to by “another spirit” (2 Corinthians 11:4,13-15; Galatians 1:6-9). Based on the evidence presented above, we believe Mormonism represents just such a counterfeit gospel.
It has been pointed out that if one claimed to be a Mormon but denied all the basic tenets of Mormonism — that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that the Book of Mormon is true and divinely inspired, that god was once a man who progressed to godhood through keeping the laws and ordinances of the Mormon Church, and that the Mormon Church was divinely established — the Mormon Church would reject such a person’s claim to being a Latter-day Saint. One cannot fairly call oneself a Mormon if one does not believe the fundamental doctrines taught by the Mormon Church. By the same token, if the Mormon Church does not hold to even the basic biblical truths believed by the greater Christian community down through the ages, how can Christians reasonably be expected to accept Mormonism as authentic Christianity?
If the Mormon Church believes it is the only true Christian Church, it should not attempt to publicly present itself as a part of a broader Christian community. Instead it should tell the world openly that those who claim to be orthodox Christians are not really Christians at all, and that the Mormon Church is the only true Christian Church. This in fact is what it teaches privately, but not publicly.
Statements of 5 Christian Denominations on Mormonism
Christian churches teach belief in God as an eternal, self-existent, immortal being, unfettered by corporeal limitations and unchanging in both character and nature. In recent years, several Christian denominations have made studies of Mormon teaching and come to the conclusion that there are irreconcilable differences between LDS doctrine and Christian beliefs based on the Bible.
http://irr.org/mit/is-mormonism-christian.html
Are Mormon Temples Christian?
By Luke P. Wilson
Copyright © 2004 Institute for Religious Research. All rights reserved.
The Mormon Church, known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, operates over 100 temples worldwide. It claims that these impressive looking buildings serve the same purpose as the Jerusalem temple described in the Bible. It also claims that Jesus and His apostles instituted and practiced the secret rituals performed in Mormon temples, including baptism for the dead and eternal marriage.1 Further, the Mormon Church claims that it is the only true Christian church on the face of the earth, because it alone has “restored” these lost temple practices of original Christianity.
“A comparison of the activities of the Biblical temple and Mormon temples shows clearly that the two have nothing in common.”
But are these Mormon claims credible? Are they supported by historical evidence? Most importantly, are they supported by the Bible, God’s Holy Word?
This article will show that there is no basis or support in the Bible or early Christian history for the Mormon temples and the rituals performed in them. They are the invention of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, not something taught in the Bible for Christians of the New Testament age.
No Common Purpose
A comparison of the activities of the Biblical temple and Mormon temples shows clearly that the two have nothing in common. Consider first the purpose of the biblical temple. Its sole function was to teach the need for atonement of sins as a precondition for authentic worship of the true and living God. The location of the altar of burnt offering immediately in front of the only entrance to the Jerusalem temple (see illustration below) illustrates this. It emphasized that God’s love and acceptance can only be extended to the sinner whose transgressions have been borne by His lamb of sacrifice. Solomon expressed this singular purpose of the temple in 2 Chronicles 2:6, “who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?”2
(View enlarged picture of temple)
Solomon’s Temple 960-586 B.C.<
By contrast, Mormon temples exist as places to perform unusual rituals, such as baptism for the dead and eternal marriage. Mormon are also taught secret handshakes there and are given secret names that are said to be necessary to enter heaven. Through these temple rituals men and women can become gods and goddesses, according to the Mormon Church.3 It claims that these rites were a part of early Christianity but were sabotaged by false teachers. It claims that all other churches are false and apostate;4 that Mormonism is the only true form of Christianity in the world. However, these Mormon temple rituals are not supported by the Bible, ancient Jewish literature, or early Christian history.
Inside each Mormon temple there is an impressive baptismal font mounted on the backs of twelve life-size, sculpted oxen.
Baptismal Font in the Mormon Visitors Center
at Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah
This font is modeled after a description in the Bible of a large basin (also called a “laver” or “sea”) that was located just outside the door of Solomon’s temple (2 Chronicles 4:2, 15, see Temple cut-away illustration above). However, the basin at the biblical temple was not used for baptisms, as the Mormon Church teaches (for Christian baptism is a New Testament ordinance). Rather, the Scriptures plainly state that it was used by the priests to wash themselves after offering animal sacrifices in preparation for ministry in the sanctuary (Exodus 30:18-20; 2 Chronicles 4:2-6). The Mormon practice of baptism for the dead is neither a Jewish nor Christian practice, but rather contradicts New Testament teaching regarding baptism and salvation.
Likewise, the Mormon temple rite of eternal marriage was never practiced in the biblical temple. Again, there is not one mention of such a temple rite anywhere in the Bible, ancient Jewish literature or early Christian history. To the contrary, in Romans 7:2 the apostle Paul clearly teaches that marriage is only for mortal life: “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth.” Likewise, Jesus taught us that, “in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). The Mormon temple rite of eternal marriage is not a Christian or biblical practice.
Biblical Rules Violated
A second point to consider is that many of the rules God revealed for the biblical temple are violated in Mormon temples. Here are four examples:
1. God appointed only one temple to reflect the fact that there is only one true God (Deuteronomy 12:5,13-14; 16:5,6). By contrast, the Mormon Church operates scores of temples, in violation of this divine mandate.
2. Only priests were allowed to enter the biblical temple. Worshippers – even the king of Israel5 – came no further than the altar of burnt offering in the courtyard. Since non-priests are allowed to enter and participate in Mormon temple activities, this is another point at which Mormon temple practice violates biblical revelation.
3. All activities in the biblical temple were public knowledge. They are spelled out in detail in Scripture (for example, Exodus 30:7-10; Leviticus 4:5-7; 16:1-34; 24:1-9).6 The Bible warns the Christian against participation in secret activities (Matthew 10:26-27; Ephesians 5:11-12). And Jesus affirmed that He had no secret teachings, “I spake openly to the world … in secret have I said nothing” (John 18:20). In sharp contrast, the Mormon Church’s insists on keeping its temple rituals secret.7
4. The Bible sets forth strict lineage requirements for the Aaronic priesthood. It teaches very explicitly that only men from the tribe of Levi and the family line of Aaron were qualified to serve as priests in the temple sanctuary (Numbers 3:10; Exodus 29:9; Numbers 18:1-7).8 The Mormon Church claims to have a restored Aaronic priesthood, but completely ignores this plain lineage requirement of Scripture.9
The Temple Made Obsolete
At the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ predicted that the Jerusalem temple was about to be destroyed (Matthew 24:2). He told his disciples: “ … verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another … ”
This prophecy was fulfilled in A.D. 70, when the Roman general Titus demolished the temple; it has never since been rebuilt. Elsewhere, Jesus said that temple worship was about to be replaced by a new form of worship without a temple building: “the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father … But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:21,23).
A dramatic event at the time of Christ’s death on the cross signaled the end of temple worship. The Gospels record that at the very moment Jesus expired, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51; also Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). Before it’s rending at the time of Jesus death, the thick temple veil (see Figure 1) had served as a barrier to prevent the priests from seeing into the temple’s inner room, the Holy of Holies. This inner sanctum represented the place of God’s holy and glorious presence. Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This restriction signified that access into God’s presence was not truly provided by the Old Covenant. In the words of the New Testament book of Hebrews 9:8, “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.” According to ancient Jewish accounts, the thick temple veil was so strong that two teams of oxen pulling in opposite directions could not have torn it.10 Surely, this top-to-bottom tearing of the veil at the moment of Christ’s death was a supernatural act of God, heaven’s response to the completion of Jesus once-for-all atoning sacrifice on the cross. (Notably, no cross is displayed on Mormon temples, unlike Christian churches.) Through faith in Christ, believers are now granted free access into the very presence of God. In the words of the New Testament book of Hebrews, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God ... Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16; see also 6:19;10:19-22).
The rending of the veil signified the end of the temple worship system. That system is now obsolete, and we no longer need a human priest or temple. Under the New Covenant established by Jesus Christ, He is the believer’s High Priest in the very sanctuary of Heaven itself. Thus, a “Christian temple” such as the Mormon Church proposes, is a contradiction in terms.
Notes
1 The Mormon Church claims that it’s rite of baptism for the dead “restores” an ordinance originally established by Jesus Christ (see Did Jesus Establish Baptism for the Dead?), while its rite of temple marriage goes all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve: “[S]uch a marriage involves ‘an eternal principle ordained before the foundation of the world and instituted on this earth before death came into it.’” Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way of Perfection. Salt Lake City, 1931, p. 251, as quoted by James T. Duke, “Eternal Marriage,” Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 2:858. Joseph Fielding Smith was the 10th President of the Mormon Church, though he was an Apostle, not President, at the time this book was originally published.
2 All Bible quotations are from the King James Version.
3 A complete transcript of the Mormon temple endowment ceremony is available online at www.irr.org/mit/endowment.html. On the Mormon teaching that humans can become gods, see Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-20; Gospel Principles, 1997 ed. p. 302; Achieving a Celestial Marriage, p. 130.
4 Mormon scripture includes the first vision account of Mormon founder Joseph Smith. He claimed that God told him all other Christian churches “were wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight” – Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith – History, 1:18-19.
5 The exclusion of all but the Aaronic priests from the sanctuary is dramatically illustrated in an incident from the life of the Jewish king, Uzziah. He presumptuously entered the holy place and proceeded to burn incense. The priests confronted the king and ordered him out of the temple: “It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou has trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God” (2 Chronicles 26:18). When Uzziah ignored this rebuke, the text records that God struck him with leprosy, whereupon the priests forcibly removed him from the temple.
6 The awareness and interest of the common people in the priests’ sanctuary ministry is illustrated in Luke 1:10. One of the priests’ daily duties in the holy place was burning incense, symbolic of prayer (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8; 8:4), on the altar of incense which stood immediately before the veil (see Figure 1). The Bible records that as the priest Zacharias performed this duty, “the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of the incense” (Luke 1:10). Their prayer was doubtless that Zacharias’ service on their behalf would be found acceptable to the Lord.
7 The Mormon Church refers to these rituals as “sacred, not secret.” However, this is a distinction without a difference, since in fact it instructs its members that, “We do not discuss the temple ordinances outside the temples.” (Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple, Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1982, p. 2).
8 Male Levites from family lines other than that of Aaron performed subordinate temple duties under priestly supervision (Numbers 3:5-9). A recent scientific study published in the prestigious British journal Nature, found a genetic link among contemporary Jewish men claiming priestly lineage; this lends support to their claim of common ancestry tracing back over 3,000 years to the biblical Aaron. The study, headed by Prof. Karl Skorecki of Rambam Medical Centre, Technion-Israel Institute in Haifa, Israel, “found clear differences in the frequency of Y-chromosome haplotypes between Jewish priests and their lay counterparts.” This genetic commonality was found in those claiming priestly ancestry from both the Sephardic and the Ashkanazic communities. The Y chromosome is found only in men and is transmitted through the father. See “Y Chromosomes in Jewish Priests,” in Nature, vol. 385, 2 January 1997, p. 32.
9 This also constitutes a major objection to the Book of Mormon. For the people it describes (pre-Columbian Hebrew immigrants to the Americas, called “Nephites”) are said to have had temples and to have observed “all things according to the law of Moses” (2 Nephi 5:10; 25:24). Yet they are described as descendents of Joseph (1 Nephi 5:16; or Manasseh, one of the “half tribes” associated with Joseph, Alma 10:3), and not the tribe of Levi. For this reason the Book of Mormon people could not have had a valid Aaronic priesthood.
Although the name “Aaron” appears 48 times in the Book of Mormon, it is never used with reference to the biblical Aaron or the Aaronic priesthood. Here is a list of other tabernacle/temple-related terms used in the Old Testament (with number of times used in parenthesis) that are not mentioned even once in the Book of Mormon: “laver” (13), “incense” (121), “ark of the covenant” (48), “sons of Aaron” (97), “mercy seat” (23), “Day of Atonement” (21), “Feast of Tabernacles” (17), “Passover” (59), “house of the Lord” (627).
10 Cited by M. R. DeHaan, The Tabernacle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), p. 115.
http://irr.org/mit/are-mormon-temples-christian.html
God Was Once a Man Like Us : Finessing an Off-Putting Mormon Doctrine
By Joel B. Groat
Copyright © 2006 Institute for Religious Research. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Joseph Smith apparently wanted to set his followers straight when he proclaimed the following at the Mormon Church’s General Conference in April, 1844:
I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. … It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and to know...that he was once a man like us.... (“King Follett Discourse,” Journal of Discourses 6:3-4, also in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345-346, and History of the Church, vol. 6, 305-307, emphasis added)
“It is a ‘Mormon’ truism that is current among us and we all accept it, that as man is God once was and as God is man may become.” (Melvin J. Ballard – Mormon Apostle General Conf. address, April 6, 1921)
Q: ... Don’t Mormons believe that God was once a man?
A. Hinckley: “I wouldn’t say that. ... That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don’t know very much about.”
(Interview -Mormon Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1997)
Subsequent Mormon leaders have been just as clear, like General Authority Milton R. Hunter, who wrote:
Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father was once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life similar that through which we are now passing (The Gospel Through the Ages, 1945, p 104).
But recently I’ve noticed changes — changes in what Mormon Missionaries teach investigators, changes in Mormon teaching manuals, changes in what Mormon people say about their own Church’s doctrine.
Ask the Missionaries
What is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) teaching its members about who God is and what He is like? Does it teach non-members anything different? To find out I called two different Mormon missionary residences in my city. At the first number Elder Fieldcrest1 answered the phone. He was cordial and very willing to answer my questions on the nature of God. I asked two:
The first was, “Has God always been God, complete with all attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience?” His answer was “Yes. God has always been God.”
My next question was equally straightforward: “Was God once a man like us?” His immediate answer was “No.” When I asked does the Mormon Church teach that God was once a man, he said “No.” He went on to say that there is no specific teaching on that. God does have a body of flesh and bones, but he was never a man like us.
Two hours later I received a call back from the other missionary residence where I had left a message. This time I talked with Sister Sansburg. I asked her the same two questions. To the question “Has God always been God?” there was a pause and then “No. God was once a man.” I then asked, “So does the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teach that God was once man like us?” To which, after a slightly longer pause, she answered “Yes.”
Two Mormon missionaries, trained at the same Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, working in the same city, but they gave two very different answers to these important questions on the nature of God. What’s happening? I believe it is the result of a deliberate attempt on the part of Mormon leaders to cloak certain teachings that are disturbing to non-members and investigators of the Church. Teachings like:
* God the Father has not always been God, but was once a man like us
* God had to “progress” to his current status of godhood
* Men (but only Mormon men) can progress to be Gods like Heavenly Father
During the course of my conversation with Sister Sansburg I found out she had been raised Mormon. I assumed this was why she so openly and candidly spoke about God having been a man. I was wrong. Instead she told me she had assumed all her life God had always been God, but it was only while she was on her mission that she learned God was once a man who had progressed to Godhood. It was a “deep doctrine” (her words) that she learned from fellow missionaries during private discussions. She made it clear that as Mormon missionaries they never teach this doctrine to investigators, nor was it ever taught to the missionaries during her missionary training.
The evidence indicates that in recent years the Mormon Church has become aware that the non-LDS public is uncomfortable and even offended with its long-standing doctrinal teaching that God the Father was once a man like us. It would appear that this and related teachings, ie. men can progress to become Gods, is a hindrance to the growth of the Mormon Church, and has led to the deliberate withholding of this information from nonmembers and even its own missionaries. How important is this issue? To answer that question this article will look at three related areas:
* How important is a correct understanding of the nature of God?
* Has the teaching that God was once a man like us been a core or central doctrine of the Mormon Church historically speaking?
* What evidence indicates that the Mormon church will neither repudiate this doctrine, nor openly admit it or teach it to non-members?
I will conclude the article with some recommendations on how Christians can more effectively approach Mormon people in light of this information.
Does it Matter What You Believe?
Having a truly biblical understanding of the nature of God, knowing who He has revealed himself to be, is at the heart of what it means to be an evangelical Christian. For those who accept the authority of the Bible, it is not only important that we be restored to a right relationship with God, but that we are in relationship with the right God – the One True God who has disclosed himself in the Bible. This is underscored in passages like Isaiah 45:18, 21:
I am the Lord and there is no other … there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved all you ends of the earth; for I am God and there is no other.
Turn to the wrong God, or a man-made god and you miss out on salvation, for authentic faith requires knowledge of the true Gospel and the One True God.
Consider Acts 4:24 where upon the release of Peter and John from jail, the people raise there voices together in prayer to God, “Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and everything in them.” Prior to that Peter and John said “Salvation is found in none other” (Acts 4:12).
LDS people who are theologically inclined would agree. Mormon General Authority, Bruce R. McConkie, stated clearly and emphatically:
There is no salvation in worshiping a false god—neither a cow; nor a crocodile; nor a cedar post; nor even a spirit essence, without body, parts, or passions, that fills the immensity of space. (Bruce R. McConkie, “The Caravan Moves On,” Ensign, Nov. 1984, 82, emphasis added)
Yet many Mormons appear to have little concern for how accurate their or another person’s concept of God is. That is because within Mormonism, one’s concept of God is increasingly less important to one’s identity, acceptance or significance within the Mormon culture or community. One’s personal understanding of the nature of God beyond the fact that He is personal and our Father in Heaven, seems of lessening significance within the theological and social system of Mormonism. I must note here, however, that the Mormon Church does continue to emphasize that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones.
What has happened to the teaching that God was once a man like us? Was it ever really an important doctrine, or was it simply, as Elder Fieldcrest explained, an idea held by some early Mormons, but never specifically taught?
History of the Teaching – LDS Leaders Speak
Joseph Smith, revered as the founding prophet of the Mormon Church, first publicly taught that “God himself was once as we are now” and that men would have “to learn how to be Gods” in 1844. He did so toward the end of his life and heralded it as both a distinctive doctrine of Mormonism and a departure from the previously accepted truth about God the Father. According to Joseph Smith, to know for a certainty the character of God was “the first principle of the Gospel,” leaving little doubt as to its importance and centrality. It should be no surprise then, that subsequent Mormon leaders have consistently taught and affirmed this teaching up until recent years. What follows are quotes from Mormon leaders.
Joseph Smith – Prophet, President
God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret... …I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. … It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and to know...that he was once a man like us.... Here, then, is eternal life - to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you... (“King Follett Discourse,” Journal of Discourses 6:3-4, also in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345-346, and History of the Church, vol. 6, 305-307, emphasis added)
Following Joseph’s death, several leaders vied for the right to lead the church. Among the issues that divided them, beside their competing claims to be Joseph’s legitimate successor, were Joseph’s secret teaching and practice of polygamy and Joseph’s recently introduced concept that God had not always been God, but was a once a man. Eventually, a sizable number of Latter day Saints, including Joseph’s widow Emma, joined together in following Joseph’s oldest living son, Joseph Smith III. This movement, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, broke with all the doctrinal innovations of the Nauvoo period, rejecting as unbiblical, polygamy, plurality of Gods, the elaborate Masonic-based temple ceremonies introduced to help men progress to being Gods, as well as the Book of Abraham.
The great majority of Mormons, however, united under the leadership of Brigham Young, who at Joseph’s death was head of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Young embraced Joseph’s teachings on plural wives, plurality of Gods, and temple ordinances leading to godhood and continued to promote these among the Latter-day Saints he led west.
Brigham Young – Prophet, 2nd President
He [God] is our Father - the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted being. (Journal of Discourses 7:333)
The Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming Gods like himself. (Journal of Discourses 3:93)
George Q. Cannon – First Presidency
Well, who was His [Jesus’] father? Why God was His father; and who was God’s father? Why God had a father like you and I have. …
Heavenly Father once a mortal man. Every child knows that its earthly father had a father, and its grandfather had a father, and so on back as far as they can be traced; it can believe also that if it lives to become a man or a woman, it will also have children.
The Prophet Joseph teaches us that our Heavenly Father was once a man and dwelt on an earth like we do upon this one and that He has gone on from step to step, from one degree of glory and exaltation to another, until He now rules and governs. (George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth: Discourses and Writings of President George Q. Cannon, selected, arranged, and edited by Jerreld L. Newquist [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1987], 101.)
Elder Melvin J. Ballard – Apostle
“It is a ‘Mormon’ truism that is current among us and we all accept it, that as man is God once was and as God is man may become.” (General Conference address, April 6, 1921)
Milton R. Hunter – General Authority
Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father was once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth life similar that through which we are now passing. He became God – an exalted being – through obedience to the same eternal Gospel truths that we are given opportunity today to obey. (The Gospel Through the Ages, 1945, p 104).
In June, 1840, Lorenzo Snow formulated the following the famous couplet: “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.” This doctrine, when first announced by the Prophet and later restated by Elder Snow, was astounding to Christendom, since the teachers as well as the laity had long ago ceased to regard man as being of such magnitude. Even today it is still a doctrine understood primarily by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (The Gospel Through the Ages, 1945, p 105-106).
Hunter supports his affirmation that Mormon prophets have continuously taught this sublime truth by citing such LDS leaders Joseph F. Smith, Orson Hyde and Daniel H. Wells.
Joseph Fielding Smith – Prophet, 10th President
God is an exalted man. Some people are troubled over the statements of the Prophet Joseph Smith ... that our Father in heaven at one time passed through a life and death and is an exalted man... (Doctrines of Salvation 1:10, 1954)
Bruce R. McConkie - Apostle
...God...is a personal Being, a holy and exalted man... (Mormon Doctrine, 1966 edition p. 250)
Other Mormons Speak
While the following quotes are not from LDS spiritual leadership, they indicate that some Mormon apologists and academics acknowledge this Mormon teaching on the nature of God.
Michael Fordham (Mormon apologist)
Everything Latter-day Saints teach about God is in agreement with the rest of the Christian world, with the exception of His nature (Mormon apologist Michael W. Fordham, “Does Gordon B. Hinckley Understand Mormon Doctrine?” (http://www.fairlds.org/apol/misc/misc09.html emphasis added).
Robert L. Millet (Professor, Brigham Young University)
Knowing what we know concerning God our Father — that he is a personal being; that he has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as our own; that he is an exalted and glorified being; that he was once a man and dwelt on an earth - and knowing that this knowledge was had by many of the ancients, should we be surprised to find legends and myths throughout the cultures of the earth concerning gods who have divine power but human attributes and passions? (BYU Professor Robert L. Millet, “The Eternal Gospel,” Ensign, July 1996, pg.53 emphasis added)2
Books and Periodicals
Achieving a Celestial Marriage, 1976, p. 129. GOD WAS ONCE A MORTAL MAN (1-2) He lived on an Earth like Our Own. “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret.”
Temple Preparation Seminar Discussions, 1978, p. 8. Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God.” (Joseph F. Smith, John R Winder, and Anthon H. Lund, Messages of the First Presidency, James R. Clark, ed., Bookcraft, 4:203, 205-6.)
Gospel Principles, 1978, p. 6. What Kind of Being is God? The Prophet Joseph Smith said: “If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all the worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible—I say, if you were to see him today you would see him like a man in form…” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). God is a glorified and perfected man, a personage of flesh and bones. Inside his tangible body is an eternal spirit (see D&C 130:22)
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young (published by the church as an official lesson manual 1997 [text “approved 10/95”], p. 29):
President Brigham Young taught ... that God the Father was once a man on another planet who ‘passed the ordeals we are now passing through...
Presidents of the Church, Student Manual, Religion 345, chapter 5, “Lorenzo Snow,” copyright 2003, p. 88.
[Subhead] He Received a Revelation About Man’s Divine Potential
… the Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon me—the eyes of my understanding were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noon-day, with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man. I formed the following couplet which expresses the revelation, as it was shown me … As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.
Note this famous couplet is heralded as a “revelation” from God given to the 5th President and Prophet of the Mormon Church.3
Ensign magazine, January 2006 (an official publication of the Mormon Church)
In an article titled “The Nature of the Godhead” LDS Apostle Elder Dallin Oaks is quoted:
The Prophet Joseph Smith once taught: “It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, … that he was once a man like us …” (Ensign, January 2006, p. 51).4
This sampling, though brief, is enough to demonstrate that key teachings like the following are core doctrines:
* God the Father was once a man like us
* God progressed to Godhood, and that
* Men likewise can evolve into Gods
These concepts have been consistently taught since the days of Joseph Smith. These teachings not only define the Mormon Church’s beliefs on the nature of God, but also render the Mormon belief system decidedly not-Christian. In fact, in this area, Mormonism is as different from historic Christianity as other recognized non-Christian religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Because most people with a Judaeo-Christian background recognize the non-Christian nature of these beliefs, there is an immediate tension created when the Mormon Church introduces these unbiblical, unChristian teachings and at the same time claims to be a Christian Church, indeed, the only Christian Church.
Keep the Investigators Comfortable
I suggest that this increasing tension has been a catalyst for an increasingly dishonest portrayal of Mormon beliefs to the public in general and to potential converts more specifically. In an attempt to minimize the tension and keep investigators comfortable while they learn about the Mormon Church, Mormon leaders have omitted disturbing, non-Christian teachings from their official manuals, public discourses, missionary training, pageants and temple open houses and both official and unofficial websites. Even the current Mormon President has been less than forthright in public interviews on this subject.
1. Books and Manuals
Gospel Principles is a teaching manual of the Mormon Church, published continuously in various editions since 1978. This 47 chapter manual is studied, in a Sunday School class format, chapter by chapter throughout the year to teach the fundamentals of the LDS faith to new members and investigators. This section will highlight some of the changes made to various editions that are relevant to the subject of this paper and suggest why these are significant.
Gospel Principles, 1978
Chapter 1, p. 6
What Kind of Being is God? The Prophet Joseph Smith said: “If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all the worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible—I say, if you were to see him today you would see him like a man in form…” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). God is a glorified and perfected man, a personage of flesh and bones. Inside his tangible body is an eternal spirit (see D&C 130:22)
In chapter one the class is introduced to the idea that God is a glorified man. However, the quote from Joseph Smith that is used, ellipses out the section of Joseph’s sermon that says God was once a man like us. This is not covered until the final chapter, chapter 47.
Chapter 47, pp. 289-290, 293
What is Exaltation? Exaltation is eternal life, the kind of life that God lives. He lives in great glory. He is perfect. He possesses all knowledge and all wisdom. He is the father of spirit children. He is a creator. We can become Gods like our Heavenly Father. This is exaltation. (GP, 289-290, emphasis added)
This is the way our Heavenly Father became a God. Joseph Smith taught, “It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God … he was once a man like us; ... God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345-46, emphasis added).
When the Gospel Principles manual is used in the Gospel Essentials Sunday School class, this final chapter of the book is covered about a year after the start of the class, meaning those in the class have been members of the LDS church for nearly a year or more, and have likely developed strong social and emotional connections to the Church.5 Two key teachings that were skirted or avoided at the beginning of the class are now presented clearly. First, men can become Gods – capital G – like Heavenly Father, this is what it means to achieve exaltation. Second, we are simply repeating an already established process, doing what God the Father has already done before us. This is the doctrine of eternal progression. Men become Gods, who are then able to create other men who in turn can also progress to become Gods, who repeat the process indefinitely. Up through the 1980s the Mormon Church taught these doctrines in clear, unmistakable terms. The 1981 and 1988 editions of Gospel Principles, while undergoing some format changes (smaller size, new cover design, adding an index) introduced no textual changes I’m aware of.
Criticism and falling convert ratios
However, by the late 1980s, among other things, the Mormon Church was receiving increasing scrutiny and criticism for its non-Christian and non-biblical teaching that there were many Gods, God the Father was once a man like us, and men could eventually become Gods, like God the Father. Whether there is a direct correlation or not, it is noteworthy that the Mormon Church had it’s highest ratio of converts baptized to full-time missionaries in 1989 (8.0 converts per missionary), only to fall steadily through 1992 to a 13-year low of 6.0 converts per missionary. It was in 1992 that the Mormon Church introduced it’s first significant textual revisions to Gospel Principles (approved for publication 11/91).6
Significant Changes
Gospel Principles, 1992
Chapter 1, p. 9
No change from previous editions. The Joseph Smith quote is still in place.
Chapter 47, p. 302, 305
What is Exaltation? Exaltation is eternal life, the kind of life that God lives. He lives in great glory. He is perfect. He possesses all knowledge and all wisdom. He is the Father of spirit children. He is a creator. We can become Gods like our Heavenly Father. This is exaltation. (GP, 302)
This is the way our Heavenly Father became a God. Joseph Smith taught, “It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God … he was once a man like us; ... God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 345-46).
Though small, both these changes remove key words and de-emphasize multiplicity of Gods and men becoming Gods.
Gospel Principles, 1997
Chapter 1, p. 9
What Kind of Being is God? The Prophet Joseph Smith said: “If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all the worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible—I say, if you were to see him today you would see him like a man in form…” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). God is a glorified and perfected man, a personage of flesh and bones. Inside his tangible body is an eternal spirit (see D&C 130:22)
In this edition the paragraph above with the Joseph Smith quote is removed entirely. In its place is the following:
Because we are made in his image (see Moses 6:9), we know that God has a body that looks like ours. His eternal spirit is housed in a tangible body of flesh and bones (see D&C 130:22). God’s body, however is perfected and glorified, with a glory beyond all description. (GP, p. 9)
Since 1997, those using this manual are not even exposed to the resource Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith until they reach the end of the book. And when it is discussed, the references to being “Gods” like Heavenly Father have been removed since 1992.
Chapter 47, p. 302, 305 (No additional changes from 1992 edition)
Another LDS Church manual that has been edited, perhaps to avoid drawing attention to the teaching that God was once a man like us, is Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: JOSEPH F. SMITH, published in 1998.
On page 337 of this LDS Church manual introducing members to the teachings of the Church’s 6th President on the idea of becoming “like” God is the following:
…We must become like [God]; peradventure to sit upon thrones, to have dominion, power, and eternal increase. God designed this in the beginning. … This is the object of our existence in the world.
What is omitted by the ellipsis? Here is quote as it appears in an earlier Mormon Church-published book, Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons and Writings of Joseph F. Smith, Deseret Book Co., 1939, p. 63, with the significant portion of the ellipsed material in bold.
In other words we must become like him; peradventure to sit upon thrones, to have dominion, power, and eternal increase. God designed this in the beginning. We are the children of God. He is an eternal being, without beginning of days or end of years. He always was, he is, he always will be. We are precisely in the same condition and under the same circumstances that God our heavenly Father was when he was passing through this, or similar ordeal.
Thus, while the 1939 book containing the teachings of President Joseph F. Smith made it clear that God the Father once shared a condition that is the same as ours today, current Mormon Church leaders omitted his clear teaching from the modern manual.
2. Mormon Pageants and Temple Open Houses
The Mormon Church produces a number of pageants that celebrate its unique history and tell the story of Mormonism with dramatic reenactments featuring casts of hundreds of performers. Yet, seldom, if ever, do these lavish performances provide accurate information on Joseph Smith’s distinctive teachings on God being a man like us and men becoming Gods. Here are a couple of examples.
Mormon Miracle Pageant – Manti, Utah
The Mormon Miracle Pageant, performed each June on the grounds of the Manti Temple in Manti, Utah, attracted 77,500 visitors during 8 days of performances in 2006. However, while the performance featured a lengthy segment on the life, teaching and death of Joseph Smith, there was no mention of Joseph’s “God was once a man like us” teaching.7
Nauvoo Pageant: a Tribute to Joseph Smith – Nauvoo, Illinois
Similarly, Nauvoo Pageant: a Tribute to Joseph Smith, which in 2005 replaced the City of Joseph pageant in Nauvoo, Illinois, omitted key material from one of its side performances – the King Follett Discourse. According to a ministry colleague, Sharon Lindbloom (Mormon Coffee blog), who attended the pageant both last year and this year (2006), an actor portraying Joseph Smith recited excerpts from this historic sermon delivered at the LDS Church’s 1844 April General Conference. However, in contrast to the previous year, the 2006 version of the presentation was noticeably sanitized. Gone were all the references to God was once a man like us and the need for men to need to learn to become Gods themselves, the same as all other Gods before them had done.8
Mormon Temple Open Houses
I have attended over 12 Mormon Temple open houses on three different continents in the last 6 years and at each one the unique Mormon teachings on God, men and role of Mormon temples in helping men become Gods were omitted. Furthermore, on multiple occasions when I had opportunity after the tour to ask questions in a public context with other people standing around and listening, the Mormon missionaries, Mormon leaders and Mormon tour guides I spoke to nearly always denied the existence of many of these doctrines, accusing me of inventing lies to discredit the Mormon Church. They persisted in these denials until I produced an official Mormon manual and began to document my point. Then the denials often turned to strong affirmations and a defense of the teaching that had been denied moments earlier.
A recent web article records similar incidents of deliberate deception by LDS Church representatives at the August 2006 open house of the Sacramento, California Mormon Temple.9
3. LDS Online materials
The Mormon Church provides extensive material on its website www.mormon.org on the subject of who is God and what is he like, and yet in page after page of material there is no mention of God once being a man like us, there is no mention of exaltation to godhood, there is no mention of God being a mortal man, who lived on his own earth and progressed to becoming a God, nor that man is supposed to follow a plan of eternal progression and also eventually become a God. A person could not come to know that Mormon prophets, apostles and leaders taught consistently and repeatedly as a key doctrine, up until at least the 1960’s and 70’s, that God the Father was once a man like us. For the investigator and general public, that information is not readily available.
Also online, from the July 2006 Ensign, is an intriguing statement by the current Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley in his First Presidency Message, “In These Three I Believe.”
I recall reading a tract some years ago written by a critic, an enemy of the Church whose desire was to undermine the faith of the weak and the unknowing. The tract repeated fallacies that had been parroted for a century and more. It purported to set forth what you and I, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe.
Without wishing to argue with any of our friends of other faiths, many of whom I know and for whom I have the highest regard, I take this opportunity to set forth my position on this most important of all theological subjects.
I believe without equivocation or reservation in God the Eternal Father. He is my Father, the Father of my spirit, and the Father of the spirits of all men. He is the great Creator, the Ruler of the universe. He directed the Creation of this earth on which we live. In His image man was created. He is personal. He is real. He is individual. He has “a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s” (D&C 130:22). (http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,2043-1-3470-1,00.html, or Ensign, July 2006, p. 3).
It is unfortunate that President Hinckley did not identify for his audience the “fallacies that had been parroted for a century and more” and thus set the record straight. Nevertheless, in this public discourse, specifically designed to articulate his beliefs, and by extension the beliefs of the Mormon Church, President Hinckley omitted any mention of God being man, progressing to Godhood, or having a goddess wife. President Hinckley has also avoided such disturbing Mormon teachings in various media interviews, which we will examine next.
4. Public Statements of the Current Prophet – Gordon B Hinckley
Don Lattin, religion editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, interviewed President Hinckley on April 13, 1997. Please keep in mind this comes less than a year after the Ensign article by BYU professor Robert Millet that stated, “Knowing what we know concerning God our Father — … that he was once a man and dwelt on an earth.”
Don Lattin (religion editor, interviewing Gordon B. Hinckley, San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1997, p 3/Z1)
Q: There are some significant differences in your beliefs [and other Christian churches]. For instance, don’t Mormons believe that God was once a man?
Hinckley: I wouldn’t say that. There was a little couplet coined, “As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become.” Now that’s more of a couplet than anything else. That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don’t know very much about. [emphasis added]
Q: So you’re saying the church is still struggling to understand this?
Hinckley: Well, as God is, men may become. We believe in eternal progression. Very strongly. We believe that the glory of God is intelligence and whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the Resurrection. ... that’s one thing that’s different. Modern revelation. We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, we believe he has yet to reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
In another interview, later that same year, we find President Hinckley claiming to be ignorant of whether the church really teaches that God was once a man.
Gordon B. Hinckley, Time Magazine, quote, Aug 4, 1997:
On whether his church still holds that God the Father was once a man,
[Hinckley] sounded uncertain, ‘I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it... I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don’t know a lot about it, and I don’t think others know a lot about it.’
Luke Wilson, Executive Director of the Institute for Religious Research, wrote the LDS Church about this, querying the office of the First Presidency as to whether Hinckley had been accurately quoted to say “I don’t know a lot about it.” The reply he received from the LDS Church was clear, “The quotation you reference was taken out of context.”
He then wrote to TIME magazine asking them to reply to the Mormon Church’s allegation they had quoted President Hinckley out of context. TIME made it clear they stood by their story, and asked the interviewing reporter to reply to Wilson. Richard Ostling replied and provided a transcript of his conversation with President Hinckley which follows:
Q: Just another related question that comes up is the statements in the King Follett discourse by the Prophet.
Hinckley: Yeah
Q: ... about that, God the Father was once a man as we were. This is something that Christian writers are always addressing. Is this the teaching of the church today, that God the Father was once a man like we are?
Hinckley: I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it. I haven’t heard it discussed for a long time in public discourse. I don’t know. I don’t know all the circumstances under which that statement was made. I understand the philosophical background behind it. But I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t know that others know a lot about it. [emphasis added]
It appears clear President Hinckley wishes to avoid this aspect of Mormon doctrine and is willing to feign ignorance of his own church’s teaching to do so.10 For a complete report on the relevant exchange of correspondence, please see the article Dodging and Dissembling Prophet? (http://www.irr.org/mit/hinckley.html)
5. Training Missionaries to Proselytize under False Pretenses
From the previously mentioned interviews with Mormon Missionaries and conversations I’ve had with representatives of the Mormon Church on this subject, it would seem safe to conclude that Mormon Missionaries are not being taught that God was once a man like us. Subsequently, they cannot teach these things to investigators and they can legitimately claim ignorance of such teachings when confronted with this material while on their mission. Mormon leaders practically insure their missionaries are misrepresenting Mormon Church doctrines to potential converts.
Directly related to this is the omission of the section on Eternal Progression in the new Mormon missionary training manual – Preach my Gospel. In the previous materials used by the Mormon Missionaries in their house-to-house work, the fourth discussion was devoted to the topic of Eternal Progression. Eternal progression is not listed in the index of the new manual, and to my knowledge, is never discussed. The term does appear on page 59 with a list of “Other Terms That May Need Further Definition for Those you Teach.” Within the manual the terms exaltation and eternal life are both explained as “living with God forever in eternal families” (Preach my Gospel, pp. 53, 70). This is amplified in a list of “Key Definitions” which for exaltation has:
Exaltation: Eternal life in God’s presence; to become like our Father in Heaven and live in His presence. The greatest of all the gifts of God. Exaltation comes through the Atonement of Christ and through obedience to all the laws and ordinances of the gospel. (Preach my Gospel, p. 58)
There is no mention of God being a man like us, or men progressing to Godhood.
The result of Mormon leaders failing to disclose these disturbing doctrines, not teaching them to their own Missionaries, and the Mormon President’s public denials, is that many members of the Mormon Church may not know about these doctrines, or may likewise deny them. What should characterize our response to these issues?
How Can We Approach Mormons?
1. Approach them with awareness and affirmation
Be aware that fewer and fewer Mormons hold to or are even aware of the doctrine that God was once a man like us and that men can become Gods. Exercise caution and do not assume or accuse the Mormon of believing these things; there is a good chance they don’t. If a Mormon says, “I believe there is only one God, I believe that God has always been God,” affirm that belief, reinforce that is what the Bible teaches and therefore it is also what we believe. Take the time when appropriate to rehearse the biblical passages in Isaiah 44-46 and Deuteronomy 4:6 that teach this.
Now, we need to be careful that the Mormon is not using the same terminology and changing the definitions (this will be addressed in the next section), but it is possible for a member of the Mormon Church, especially if they are a new convert, to be unaware of, or to have rejected these particularly egregious and unbiblical aspects of Mormon teachings. When this is the case we need to encourage them to continue this movement away from false Mormon teaching. It is also possible the Mormon has retained biblical teachings about God he received earlier in his spiritual experience before being proselytized into the LDS Church. When this is the case, we need to affirm biblically correct beliefs, and help them see how such beliefs are irreconcilably different from official Mormon doctrine.
2. Challenge them with boldness and truth
If there is reason to believe the Mormon is not being honest in what he or she is affirming, if they are sharing terms but changing definitions, we need to gently, but boldly challenge them with this, and continue to ask them questions until what they truly believe comes out. We can be frank, without being contentious, abrasive, arrogant or mean. They key is persistent questioning that demonstrates you want to know what the Mormon truly believes and has been taught by his leaders. It will take boldness to do this, for if a Mormon affirms belief in the trinity, salvation by grace alone, Jesus as my Savior, there is only one God etc., it is not wise to accept unquestioningly their affirmations.
I saw this firsthand several years ago when some Mormon Missionaries visited our office. One young man, at that point within months of completing his two-year mission, asked me point blank, “Why don’t you accept us as Christians? We believe in salvation by grace alone too.” Surprised he would make such an affirmation I replied, “Are you saying that both of us can equally have eternal life in the presence of Heavenly Father through faith alone in Jesus Christ?” “Yes,” he replied, “that’s what we believe.” Being yet skeptical of his affirmation, I decided to phrase the question differently. “So, if you are a member of the Mormon Church, a faithful, temple-worthy Mormon who is married for time and eternity in the temple, and I, on the other hand, never become a Mormon but continue to put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and live in obedience to him, trusting in God’s grace alone to save me, when we die, will we both end up in the same place?” As he replied, he looked both offended and surprised, “No, of course not. You can’t make it to the celestial kingdom if you never join the church.” “Ah then,” I said, “you don’t really believe in eternal life through faith alone, you need to do your part to ultimately be considered worthy of Heavenly Father’s presence. That’s what makes us different, and part of the reason why I cannot accept the Mormon Church as a Christian Church.”
I’ve had similar conversations since then, underscoring the need to be cautious and bold when a Mormon claims to believe “just like we do.” But boldness in and of itself is not enough.
3. Respond with compassion and care
As we are dealing with Mormons and are able to present material like this that is now being avoided or covered up, we should also clearly articulate how it continues to be an important, integral part of Mormon theology.11 The Mormon Church affirms that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones. Well, how did he get that body of flesh and bones? The reason God the Father has a body of flesh and bones is because he was once a man just like us and worked his way to godhood. At one point he was not God, he was a mortal man, a man who lived, and died, according to some Mormon sources.12
And yet, as we talk about these beliefs we need to be compassionate and caring. The Mormon person needs to know that we value them as a person first, and consider their membership in the Mormon Church secondary. Apologetics is a tool we use to reach certain people who need to hear the gospel – we use it to open minds and hearts so the truth can get in and transform their lives. So what we learn about Mormonism, what we understand about the doctrinal system, what we discover about the changes, the errors, the cover-up, the lack of integrity – all that should simply be a tool that lets us more effectively and more compassionately reach out to these people. We should never use our knowledge as a sword with which to cut them to ribbons – that should never be our goal. In our ministry to Mormons, compassion and care needs to be predominant, and if at any point what we are feeling is “I just want to nail this person to the wall, I want to show them up, I’m so sick of the deception,” then it is probably a good time to stop the conversation because the Mormon will sense that attitude in you. However, if what is coming from you is a compassion and concern, a genuine care for who they are and a desire for their salvation in Jesus solely through the unmerited grace of God, they will also sense that and it will have as much impact as the information you are sharing.
Conclusion
Whether deliberately or unwittingly, Mormons on a regular basis fail to disclose Church teachings that are disturbing and most clearly place them outside the Christian tradition. Beneath the affable, families-are-forever, wholesome image, lies a disturbing pattern of cover-up, distortion and misrepresentation. This is all the more troubling because those in various leadership positions apparently feel justified in engaging in this deception. From the 50,000+ missionaries going door to door around the world, to Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley’s interaction with the media, doctrines that have distinguished and uniquely defined the Mormon religion are omitted, ignored or denied. When I asked one pair of Mormon missionaries if when they went door to door they clearly presented their unique teachings about God being a man who progressed to godhood and was married with a wife in heaven, they replied, “Of course we do not tell people that. If we told people about that stuff they would never let us in to talk to them.” When I followed up with, “Don’t you think that is a bit deceptive?”, they amiably replied, “No we have to give them milk before meat.”
One thing is certain, Mormon leaders have not repudiated Joseph Smith’s non-biblical teachings on the nature of God and continue to promote them, albeit selectively. This means the Mormon Church continues to hold to doctrines that make it decidedly non-Christian, while hiding these teachings from investigators, new members and even its own missionaries. This calls for boldness as we expose the disingenuousness of Mormon leaders, and discernment and gentle forthrightness as we draw Mormon people into truth, authenticity and spiritual worthiness through a restored relationship with the one true, immutable, ‘from everlasting to everlasting’ God.
Notes
1 Missionary names changed to protect their identities.
2 In his 2005 book, A Different Jesus (Wm B. Eerdmans, p. 145), Millet stated “God is an exalted man”. This continues to make it difficult to sustain the notion that either Millet personally, or the Mormon Church corporately, are moving away from Mormonism’s non-biblical and unchristian definition of God.
3 Just as interesting is the date that Lorenzo Snow claimed to have received this revelation – in the spring of 1840. This is four years before Joseph gave the King Follet discourse (April 1844) which was not published until August of that same year. Snow said he shared his revelatory experience with Joseph Smith in 1843 in a confidential interview and received as a reply from Joseph Smith, “Brother Snow, that is true gospel doctrine, and it is a revelation from God to you.” (Presidents of the Church, 2003, p. 88). So, did Joseph influence Snow or did Snow influence Joseph? According to Snow, the idea was first planted in his head before he was a Mormon convert in 1836, when Joseph’s father, Joseph Smith, Sr. told him “you will become as great as you can possibly wish – even as great as God, and you cannot wish to be greater” (Improvement Era, June 1919, p. 654. Cited in Pres. of the Church, p. 88).
4 This article has no author and appears to be recycled from the May 1995 Ensign article by Mormon Apostle Elder Dallin Oaks, entitled “Apostasy and Restoration.”
5 The class structure and schedule was explained to me by a Mormon friend who is currently a bishop and has taught the class himself.
6 In addition to the changes noted in the body of this article, another significant change to chapter 47 was the deletion of the following summary statement regarding the requirements for exaltation: “In other words, each person must endure in faithfulness, keeping all the Lord’s commandments until the end of his life on earth.” [emphasis added]. This change is consistent with increased promotion of the “folk” doctrine that assures Mormons they don’t need perfection in this life but will have millions of years if necessary to complete the perfection process after they die. While this is a popular and widely held belief among Mormon people, there is no support for this concept in any Mormon Scripture, in fact the exact opposite is taught.
7 For attendance figures and other official info see: http://www.mormonmiracle.org/information.html. I attended the performance on June 15, 2006 and noted the lack of reference to the unique Mormon doctrines of God as once a man like us, men becoming Gods, God having a wife. The pageant also mocked the various Christian denominations of Joseph’s day, and omitted, among other things, Joseph using a gun to defend himself during the Carthage jail scene.
8 For Sharon’s report and commentary see http://mormoncoffee.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-and-improved-king-follett.htmll.
9 See for example, http://sacredorsecret.com/temples_tours_truth.htm, and Saturday, August 19, 2006 “The good, the bad, and the ugly” blog here: http://www.evidenceministries.blogspot.com/.
10 President Hinckley’s artful dodges became readily apparent a short time later when he addressed an all-Mormon audience at their semi-annual General Conference. In what the Ostlings see as a pointed reference to those interviews, Hinckley assured his listeners, “None of you need worry because you read something that was incompletely reported. You need not worry that I do not understand some matters of doctrine.” He added, “I think I understand them thoroughly.” The Ostlings note that the audience laughed understandingly. (Richard N. and Joan K. Ostling, Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, Harper San Francisco, 1999, p. 296)
11 Some within the Christian community suggest these changes indicate the Mormon Church is rethinking its doctrines and moving toward more biblical teaching on the nature of God. I find it difficult to sustain this position in the face of recent Ensign articles and LDS Church manuals that I’ve cited that continue to promote the God was once a man doctrine to the general membership.
12 See Achieving a Celestial Marriage, p. 132, which states, “As shown in this chapter, our Father in heaven was once a man as we are now, capable of physical death.”
http://irr.org/mit/finessing-god-once-a-man.html
I look at it like this: The bible says we were created for His pleasure, the same kind of pleasure that a person gets, say, tending a garden. So you want to return that interest back to Him that He has in you and not be a weed that no one wants.
28 Biblical Passages Which Explicitly Teach There is Only One God
Copyright © 2006 Institute for Religious Research. All rights reserved.
There are not a few ambiguous Biblical passages that teach that there is only one God, but many explicit passages that clearly declare this cardinal truth. Each of the following 28 passages explicitly teach that there is one — and only one — true and living God. The Mormon plurality of Gods doctrine (found most explicitly in the Pearl of Great Price/Book of Abraham 4-5) contradicts this fundamental biblical teaching.
“The Mormon plurality of Gods doctrine (found most explicitly in the Pearl of Great Price/Book of Abraham 4-5) contradicts this fundamental biblical teaching.”
Please note that the King James Version (used here) designates the Hebrew name Jehovah (or Yahweh) with “LORD” spelled with all letters capitalized; Adonai, meaning “Lord” or “Master,” is designated by “Lord;” and “Elohim,” is translated as “God.” Thus, in Deut. 4:35, for example, the phrase “the LORD he is God,” would be literally translated, “Jehovah, he is Elohim.” (In those instances were Adonai is used as a compound with Jehovah, the latter term is spelled GOD, so that the compound name “Lord GOD” designates the Hebrew, “Adonai Jehovah”).
1. Deuteronomy 4:35,39 — Unto thee it was shown, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him. (39) Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.
2. Deuteronomy 6:4 — Hear, O Israel: The LORD thy God is one LORD. [Note in Mark 12:28-34 how Jesus and a Jewish scribe he encountered understood this text.]
3. Deuteronomy32:39 — See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
4. 2 Samuel 7:22 — Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God; for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
5. 1 Kings 8:60 — That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else.
6. 2 KINGS 5:15 — And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel; now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.
7. 2 Kings 19:15 — And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth.
8. 1 Chronicles 17:20 — O LORD, there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
9. Nehemiah 9:6 — Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou has made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.
10. Psalm 18:31 — For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?
11. Psalm 86:10 — For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.
12. Isaiah 37:16,20 — O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou has made heaven and earth. (20) Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.
13. Isaiah43:10,11 — Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior.
14. Isaiah44:6,8 — Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Fear ye not, neither be afraid; have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.
15. Isaiah 45:21 — Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time: who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me.
16. Isaiah 46:9 — For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me.
17. Hosea 13:4 — Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me; for there is no savior beside me.
18. Joel 2:27 — And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
19. Zechariah 14:9 — And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one.
20. Mark 12:29-34 —And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
21. John 17:3 — And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
22. Romans 3:30 — Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
23. 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 — As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
24. Galatians 3:20 — Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
25. Ephesians 4:6 — One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
26. 1 Timothy 1:17 — Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
27. 1 Timothy 2:5 — For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
28. James 2:19 — Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
http://irr.org/mit/one-god.html
THE RESTORATION OF THE GOSPEL - Mormon.org States:
“In 1820, as He had done throughout history, Father in Heaven again chose a prophet to restore the gospel and the priesthood to the earth. He called a young man named Joseph Smith, and through him, the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. …The Apostle Peter prophesied of the “restitution of all things” before Christ’s Second Coming (Acts 3:19–21). The Restoration of Christ’s Church on the earth has made available the opportunity for all to once again receive all of the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
WHAT MORMON.ORG DOES NOT TELL YOU ABOUT THE RESTORED GOSPEL
The “Restored Gospel” = Another Gospel
Joseph Smith claimed that God restored the “gospel” through him by the appearance of the Father and the Son in his first vision, and later, the angel Moroni, who allegedly led him to the gold plates of the Book of Mormon buried in the Hill Cumorah in upstate New York. Mormons claim that this Book of Mormon is “another” testament of Jesus Christ, yet the Biblical Apostle Paul warned of this “another gospel”:
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” —Galatians 1:6-8;
What is the true Gospel? How is it different from the “restored gospel” of Mormonism? As we have already discussed, the true gospel was delivered “once” for all with no need for it to be redelivered to the church (Jude 3). The simple fact that that Mormonism claims to “restore” a lost gospel is an indication that its gospel is a counterfeit.
The true Gospel is the belief that Jesus Christ died to pay the full penalty that was due us for the crimes (sins) we have committed in disobeying God’s laws (1 Peter 2:24). To accept Christ’s pardon, we must first recognize that we are all sinners and are unworthy to stand in God’s presence (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Next, we must place our personal trust in the belief that Jesus Christ as God died to pay for our sins so that we can be forgiven of our sins and “perfected” by standing in Christ’s righteousness alone (Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 10:10, 14). The Biblical Apostle Paul explained:
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”—2 Corinthians 5:21
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” —Ephesians 2:8-9
The Mormon Church’s version of the “gospel” does not agree with the simple “gospel” of Jesus Christ given in the Bible because it requires obedience to “laws and ordinances” to make oneself worthy instead of trusting solely in Christ’s substitutionary righteousness. LDS Apostle Spencer W. Kimball explained:
“Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, has given us our map – a code of laws and commandments whereby we might attain perfection and, eventually, godhood. This set of laws and ordinances is known as the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is the only plan which will exalt mankind.”—The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 6
When one reads the description of the “another gospel” that Paul warned the Galatians about in the following verses, one is able to see how Mormonism’s gospel falls into the same category of being a counterfeit gospel:
“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth… Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? …But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith…”—Galatians 3:1-3, 11-12
The Christians in Galatia had fallen victim to the counterfeit “gospel” of a faith that required followers to perform “works of the law” to “perfect” themselves. Thus, we see that in the same way that the Galatians had fallen prey to a “another gospel,” so Mormons have fallen pray to the Mormon Church’s “another” gospel “code of laws” in an attempt to “perfect” themselves “by the flesh.” By adding personal worthiness requirements of obedience to the law, Mormonism has in essence proclaimed that Jesus Christ’s atonement was insufficient to cover sin. For if Mormons truly believed that the blood of Christ was sufficient, they wouldn’t need to add personal works of righteousness to their “gospel” of faith in Christ. Paul warned:
“Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”—Galatians 5:4
Eternal Marriage and The Gospel:
The key Mormon gospel requirement of “eternal marriage” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-20) is missing from the gospel described both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. According to Mormonism, if a man aspires to gain a full salvation to “become a god” in the highest level of Mormonism, he is required by the Mormon “gospel” to be “married for time and eternity” in an LDS Temple. Yet, one will search in vain to find this “gospel” ordinance discussed in the Bible and it is even missing from the Book of Mormon that Mormons claim “contains… the “fulness of the everlasting gospel,” and Joseph Smith hailed is “the most correct of any book on earth… a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” 3. Far from marriage for eternity being taught in Scripture, we learn that Jesus Christ who is God Himself, was not married and He taught that all people would resurrect like the “angels” in heaven who are not married (Matthew 22:28-30). Also, the Apostle Paul encouraged believers of his day to remain unmarried for the work of the gospel (1 Corinthians 7). Even Jesus in the Book of Mormon states:
3 NEPHI 11:39-40: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine …and whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil…”
So, again we see that the LDS “restored gospel” really hasn’t been “restored” to the original gospel, but is rather, “another” gospel condemned by both the Biblical Scripture and the Book of Mormon.
Acts 3:19-21 and the “restitution of all things”
The Mormon Church’s use of the Biblical Scripture of Acts 3:19-21 as a proof-text for its claim that a restoration of the gospel was prophesied in Scripture is taken completely out of context.
ACTS 3:19-21: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”
If Acts 3:19-21 speaks of Mormonism’s restoration of the gospel, where is Jesus Christ today? Why isn’t He here ruling upon the earth for the 1,000-year millennium that is prophesied to be the time in which Christ will restore creation to perfection as it was prior to the curse in Genesis? The Apostle Paul explained that at the “glorious appearing” of Jesus Christ, Jesus will “redeem” and purify His people — the sons and daughters of God (Titus 2:13-14). Then, when these children of God are manifested at Christ’s “glorious appearing” (His second coming), all of creation “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption” due to the curse (Romans 8:19-22). Thus, the context of Acts 3:19-21 has nothing to do with a “restitution” of the “gospel”, but rather, it is talking about the prophesied “restitution of all things” in creation when it will be delivered from the curse “when… he shall send Jesus Christ” (Acts 3:20) back to earth for His 1,000-year reign (Revelation 19-22):
“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” —Romans 8:19-22
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity…” —Titus 2:13-14
http://www.4mormon.org/mormon-org.php#s1
Evidence You Never Knew Existed: Why Jesus and the Bible Can Be Trusted — Introduction
Full book available here:
http://irr.org/bc/evidence-intro.html
THE RESTORATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD – Mormon.org states:
“Throughout time, God has given His servants, the prophets, the authority to act in His name. This authority is called the priesthood… John the Baptist appeared and conferred upon Joseph Smith and his associate Oliver Cowdery the Aaronic Priesthood... Later, Peter, James, and John… conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, restoring the same authority given to Christ’s Apostles anciently.”
WHAT MORMON.ORG DOES NOT TELL YOU ABOUT PRIESTHOOD AUTHORITY
The Aaronic Priesthood, Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith
Jesus Christ could not hold the Aaronic Priesthood because He was not of the Levitical lineage of Aaron, so neither could Joseph Smith receive this priesthood. Joseph Fielding Smith claimed that: “…the Prophet Joseph Smith… was of the lineage of Joseph through the loins of Ephraim.” 4. Since Smith was not of the tribe of Aaron, it would have been impossible for him to be ordained to the Biblical Aaronic priesthood. Hebrews 7 explains:
“And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham… For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.”—Hebrews 7:5, 14
The Aaronic Priesthood authority nullified.
The Aaronic Priesthood authority was nullified by the greater Melchizedek Priesthood. According to the Bible, only one priesthood authority exists in power at one time. When Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, the Aaronic Priesthood didn’t exist. Then, when the Aaronic Priesthood came into power, one no longer heard about the Melchizedek Priesthood until Jesus came to spiritual power and operated under the authority of this Melchizedek Priesthood. Because Jesus lives forever (Hebrews 7:24), the Aaronic Priesthood authority has been forever been done nullified!
“If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” —Hebrews 7:11-12
The non-transferable Melchizedek Priesthood
The Melchizedek Priesthood is non-transferable because Jesus Christ is the ONLY one who fulfills the qualifications to hold this Priesthood. There is only one High Priest who can exist at one time (see Numbers 35:25, 28 and 2 Kings 12:10; 23:4). Thus, when Jesus became the Christians’ High Priest as One who holds the power of an endless life, He demonstrated that He alone fulfills the Melchizedek Priesthood Authority’s qualifications. He as God existing from eternity (having neither beginning of days, nor end of life) and is the only one who is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” As our only High Priest, He holds an “unchangeable” (non-transferable) Priesthood Authority.
“Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils… But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.”—Hebrews 7:3-4, 24-26
The Priesthood authority of all Christian believers
The non-Aaronic and non-Melchizedek priesthood authority of all Christian believers is available to ALL who call upon the name of Jesus for salvation. This authority is not limited by race, citizenship, nor gender:
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power [authority] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” —John 1:12
“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. …But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”—1 Peter 2:5, 9
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” —Galatians 3:28
As we have seen above, neither Joseph Smith, nor current Mormon leaders fulfill the Biblical qualifications to hold the discontinued Aaronic Priesthood Authority, nor do they currently hold the occupied Melchizedek Priesthood. Therefore, we must ask: What do you call men who claim to be “Apostles,” but who do not have the proper Authority? You call them a “false apostles!”
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” —2 Corinthians 11:13
http://www.4mormon.org/mormon-org.php#s1
Eight Mormon Myths
By Bill McKeever
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Myth #1: The Mormon Church is the fastest growing religion in the world.
The sheer number of adherents to Catholicism and Islam make them far and away the fastest growing religions in the world by birthrate alone.
Myth #2: The LDS Church doesn’t have a paid ministry.
All General Authorities serving the LDS Church in Salt Lake City are offered a living allowance for their full-time service. While it is true that those who minister in the LDS Church on a local level (such as the bishop) are not remunerated, Doctrine and Covenants 42:71-73 says they should be.
Myth #3: Reading the Book of Mormon will tell you all about Mormon doctrine.
The Book of Mormon fails to teach the unique doctrine Latter-day Saints feel is necessary to believe and practice in order to become Gods.
Myth #4: All of Joseph Smith’s prophecies came to pass.
If that was true Jesus would have returned in 1891 (Documentary History of the Church (DHC) 2:182), The Civil War would have poured out upon all nations (D&C 87:1-3), the wicked of Smith’s generation would have been “swept from off the face of the land” (DHC 1:315), and a temple would have been built in Independence Missouri by the generation living in 1832 (D&C 84:4,5).
Myth #5: Brigham Young never taught Adam was God.
Not only did Brigham Young teach that Adam was Michael the Archangel, the Ancient of Days; he also taught that Adam was “our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.” He finished this message by saying, “Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation” (Journal of Discourses 1:50,51). Notice Young called this teaching a “doctrine,” not a “theory” as most Mormons like to refer to it today.
Myth #6: The Book of Mormon has been proven by archaeology.
To date, nothing has been found to verify Book of Mormon sites. In fact, many within the Mormon Church are beginning to abandon the idea that the Book of Mormon is a book of verifiable history. No credible archaeologist outside of the Mormon Church considers the book to have any New World archaeological value.
Myth #7: Polygamy was necessary in early Utah because there were more women than men.
The fact is, there were more men than women in early Utah when polygamy was being practiced. Mormon Apostle John Widtsoe wrote on pages 390-391 of his book entitled Evidences and Reconciliations,
“The most common of these conjectures is that the Church, through plural marriage, sought to provide husbands for its large surplus of female members. The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more females than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seem always to have been more males than females in the Church... The theory that plural marriage was a consequence of a surplus of female Church members fails from lack of evidence.”
Myth #8: Joseph Smith died as a “lamb led to the slaughter.”
The fact is, Joseph Smith died in a gun battle using a pistol that was smuggled to him while incarcerated at Carthage jail. According to The Documentary History of the Church (published six years after the fact), Joseph Smith pulled this six-shooter from his pocket “and snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the barrels, however, were discharged. I afterwards understood that two or three were wounded by these discharges, two of whom, I am informed, died” (John Taylor, vol. 7, pp. 102-103).
http://www.mrm.org/eight-mormon-myths
Quick Responses to the 10 Most Common LDS Questions
By Eric Johnson
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Whether you are on the streets in Utah, on the job, or answering e-mails, there seems to be certain questions that are most often asked of Christians who challenge Mormon beliefs. The following list, though hardly exhaustive and in no particular order, gives the most common questions, and several quick responses that could be given. These are obviously short starter responses, but hopefully one or more of these might help you to better formulate your own answer.
1. Isn’t it unchristian to question someone else’s claim to Christianity?
* Didn’t Joseph Smith do this very thing when he claimed that God told him that the churches were “all wrong,” that their creeds “were an abomination,” and that their professors “were all corrupt”?
* Didn’t Brigham Young also do that very thing when he said, “Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity” (Journal of Discourses 10:230).
* The Book of Mormon claims that my church is the church of the devil (1 Nephi 14:10). Would a Christian willingly attend the church of the devil? http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/attack.html
2. You must obviously be motivated by hate.
* Based on this reasoning, should we then conclude that the tens of thousands of Mormon missionaries who knock on the doors of professing Christians are also motivated by hate? If not, why can’t I be given the same benefit of the doubt? If the missionaries are motivated by a desire to share what they obviously believe to be true, why will you not give me the same courtesy?
* Can you specifically point out what I have said that you consider hateful? If not, is that a fair accusation?
* If disagreement is equal to hate, does that mean Jesus hated the Pharisees (Matthew 23)? Does that mean Paul hated Athenians (Acts 17)?
* If your house is on fire and I walked by without doing anything, would you consider this loving? (If a Christian truly believes in an eternal hell, which is eternal separation from God, then in effect not telling the Mormons in truth that they are wrong is not loving but rather hateful.)
3. We’re Christians, so why don’t you do something positive for your own faith?
* To help people avoid error is part of the Christian faith. It’s called evangelism. http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/witness.html http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/2john10.html
* There’s a lot to lose if you are wrong. http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/pascal.html
* What could be more positive than to encourage people to correctly interpret the Bible? (Paul spoke in the synagogue of Ephesus for three months, “disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God”—Acts 19:8.)
4. With which church are you affiliated?
* My church affiliation is not really that important. It is one’s view of God, Jesus, and the Bible that is crucial.
* The Greek ekklesia, which means “church” in the Bible, refers to individuals, not an organization. These individuals are those who have placed their trust in the Jesus of the Bible and are relying on His mercy for their salvation.
* Just because our church does not have Jesus’ name in it does not make it false. After all, the LDS Church didn’t always have the name of Jesus in it. http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/name.html
5. What about all of the fruit of the LDS Church, especially since there is no faster growing church?
* Numbers have never determined truth. If so, perhaps there is a lot of truth to Islam since there are over one billion professing Muslims in the world.
* Actually, the Mormon Church is not the fastest growing. In fact, the rates have dramatically dropped percentage wise over the past several years. http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/fastest-growing-church.html
* Are you really suggesting that the Christian churches have no fruit? (Consider the many philanthropic organizations, colleges, world relief, community support, etc. To say the evangelical Christian churches are not “fruitful” would be very naïve.)
6. Have you read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it?
* Where in the Bible does it say to pray about the Book of Mormon? http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/book-of-mormon.html
* I’ve read the Book of Mormon but have not prayed about it because the Bible tells me not to. The Bible says to test all things (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John 4:1). God has given us a mind, and if a religion disagrees with God’s Word as found in the Bible, then it is to be rejected (Gal. 1:8; 2 Cor. 11:4).
* If I were to pray about the Book of Mormon and felt that God told me that it and your church were both wrong, would you leave? If not, what makes you think that your answer from the “Holy Ghost” is any better than mine?
* If praying about a religious book is the way to determine truth, then have you prayed about the religious books of other religions such as Islam, Hinduism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses? If the answer is yes, then ask them if they can tell you the scriptures of these religions i.e. Islam (Koran); Hinduism (Bhagavad-Gita and the Vedas); Jehovah’s Witnesses (beside their New World Translation of the Bible, inspired writings as found in the Watchtower magazine). (If they say they have indeed prayed over these other religions but can’t name the scriptures, then how seriously did they really consider these other faiths?)
* What does the Book of Mormon have to say that I need to know but can’t already find in my Bible? http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/test.html
7. Don’t you want to be with your family in the hereafter?
* If my family members are believers, we will be together in the afterlife. Heaven is a place made for all believers to have eternal fellowship with God.
* What guarantees do you have that you will exist with your family if your other family members are not as equally righteous as you are? http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/families-forever.html
8. Don’t you believe we need prophets today?
* We do have a living prophet today. His name is Jesus. (Deuteronomy 18:15 along with John 5:46; 6:14; 7:40; Acts 3:22-23; 7:37; Hebrews 1:1-2.)
* When was the last time your current prophet “prophesied”? What has he actually said since becoming president that, had he not said it, would make exaltation unreachable?
* If LDS prophets are to be believed, what about all of the contradictions between them?
9. What about the many errors of the Bible?
* Which “errors”? Are you sure that what you perceive to be an error is not just a lack of knowledge on your part?. (For additional information, see When Critics Ask by Norman Geisler/Thomas Howe or Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason Archer.)
* The Bible is translated accurately. http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/scholarship.html
* Are you bothered by the many errors of the 1830 Book of Mormon edition when compared to the current edition? http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/3913intro.htm
* Why does your church expend so much time, effort, and money distributing the King James Version Bible to potential converts if it cannot be trusted?
* If errors are really a concern, why doesn’t your church use the Joseph Smith Translation? http://www.mrm.org/multimedia/text/faith-alone.html
10. How can you believe in a God who’s not fair and would send people to hell?
* It isn’t a case of what you may think is “fair,” but it is a matter of what the Bible actually teaches. A person who is truly concerned about the destiny of others will want to do all he/she can do to share with them (Rom. 10:15).
* If God was to be totally “fair,” all people would be deserving of hell based on the fact that all are sinners (Romans 3:23, 6:23).
* Didn’t the Mormon God condemn to hell (outer darkness) all of his spirit children who joined with Lucifer in the war in heaven? If he would send those “children” of his to hell, what makes you think He could not send others there as well?
* God is loving, but He is also just. But thankfully He is also merciful to those who place their total trust in Him for their salvation. Should hell be a reality, what have you done to escape it?
Further Reading
* Why Clarify Mormonism?
* Is Mormonism Research Ministry “Anti-Mormon”?
* Some Questions for our LDS Friends
http://www.mrm.org/10-questions
If the parents were RC, they should have had designated godparents who saw to your spiritual development in the church.
Some Questions For Our LDS Friends
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* Joseph Smith said that a person “would get nearer to God by abiding by [the Book of Mormon’s] precepts than by any other book” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 194). Just what are those “precepts” from the Book of Mormon that God wants you to follow that cannot be found in other books like the Bible?
* Alma 11:37 says that “no unclean thing can inherit the kingdom of heaven”? Are you clean? How did you get that way? And how long does this cleansing last?
* Alma 11:37 also says that, as a Mormon, you “cannot be saved in your sins.” D&C 1:31 adds that God cannot “look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” Do you struggle with sin? If so, can it be assumed that you are not saved?
* As a Mormon I am sure you take repentance very seriously. However, on page 67 of the LDS Church manual Gospel Fundamentals it states, “Our Father in heaven does not sin, and He does not allow people who sin to live with Him. To live with Him we must repent of our sins. To repent means to feel sorry for our sins and stop doing them.” Have you stopped sinning? If not, how can you be sure you will live eternally with Heavenly Father? If the above statement is true, doesn’t the fact you continually repent, prove you are not truly repentant; after all, people who stop sinning have no need to repent.
* D&C 25:15 says that unless a person keeps the commandments “continually,” he cannot go where God is. Do you keep the commandments continually? If not, where do Mormons like you go when they die?
* If you cannot say that you do keep the commandments “continually,” then how do you explain 1 Nephi 3:7 where it says, “For I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them”?
* Isaiah 44:6,8 says that there is no God beside the God of the Bible and that this God does not know of any other gods. If this is Jesus (Jehovah) speaking—as attested to by such LDS leaders as Apostle Bruce McConkie (The Promised Messiah, p.312)—does that mean Jesus does not know His own Father? If you were to actually become a god, would God know you?
* In Alma 11:26-29 Amulek tells Zeezrom that there is only one “true and living God.” If that is true, which of the three Gods in the Mormon godhead is not true and/or living? God the Father? Jesus? Or the Holy Ghost?
* If we are to believe that the Nephites are truly ancient “Mormons,” where in the Book of Mormon does it say they held the Melchizedek priesthood? Where does it say they practiced baptism for the dead? Or believe that men can become Gods? How about God having a body of flesh and bones? What about the existence of a “heavenly mother”? Where does it say that all humans existed prior to this earthly existence? Or how Jesus and Lucifer are brothers?
* D&C 88:22 says that only those who abide a celestial law can hope to achieve the celestial kingdom. Are you keeping celestial law?
* If the “decrees of God are unalterable” (Alma 41:8), why has your church made so many corrections over the years (i.e. Declarations 1 and 2, changes in the temple endowment ceremony, changes in the birth control doctrine, etc.)?
* Your leaders have taught that salvation comes by faith and works. If this is true, then why did Joseph Smith insert the word “alone” into Romans 3:28 of his Inspired Version (a.k.a. the Joseph Smith Translation) of the Bible? (It reads, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law.”)
* Joseph Smith inserted the word not in Romans 4:5 of the Inspired Version so that it reads, “...who justifieth not the ungodly...” Are you “godly”? If so, how did you get that way? If not, doesn’t that mean you are not justified before God? Why would God need to justify a godly person anyway?
* President Brigham Young concluded his Adam-God sermon with these words: “Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation” (Journal of Discourses 1:51). Do you believe Adam is God? If not, aren’t you treating these “doctrines” lightly or with indifference”? Wasn’t Spencer Kimball treating Young’s teaching with indifference when he called it a “false doctrine” (Church News 10/9/76)? If Young was correct, will Kimball be damned? If Kimball was correct, doesn’t this prove LDS prophets can teach false doctrine?
* Alma 10:3 states that Lehi “was a descendant of Manasseh.” If Indians are really descendants of Lehi and his son Laman, why does DNA deny any link between Indians and Lehi’s Jewish heritage?
* Joseph Smith said, “We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). But the Book of Mormon says in Moroni 8:18, “For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity.” Did God change? Or was He always God?
* President Brigham Young and other LDS leaders taught that those who were not valiant in the preexistence were marked in mortality with a “flat nose and black skin.” (See Journal of Discourses 7:290, The Way to Perfection, p.101, Answers to Gospel Questions 2:175, Mormon Doctrine, p.527.) Since it was this mark that would help distinguish who was not eligible to receive the priesthood, why do some people still bear the mark even though the priesthood ban was lifted in 1978?
* Presidents Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff both taught that God is progressing in knowledge (Journal of Discourses 11:286, The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p.3). Yet President Joseph Fielding Smith said that “this kind of doctrine is very dangerous” (Doctrines of Salvation 1:8). Which prophet was telling the truth?
* When asked in a Time magazine interview if God the Father was once a man, President Gordon Hinckley said, “I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it...” (8/4/97, p. 56). Was he telling the truth?
* Are you “sufficiently humble” and “stripped of pride”? If not, Alma 5:27,28 says you are not prepared to die. If you think you are, doesn’t this prove you’re not?
* Apostle Bruce R. McConkie said “a man may be damned for a single sin” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 3:257). Can you account for every single sin you have ever committed?
* President Spencer Kimball said that only those who are “living all the commandments” are guaranteed “total forgiveness of sins” and assured of “exaltation” (The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.208). Are you living all of the commandments? If not, how can you be sure you are forgiven?
* Spencer Kimball also taught that “each command we obey sends us another rung up the ladder to perfected manhood and toward godhood; and every law disobeyed is a sliding toward the bottom where man merges into the brute world” (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.153). How tall is this proverbial ladder? And which rung are you on?
* President Joseph F. Smith said, “...it is absolutely necessary for every man and woman in the Church of Christ to work righteousness, to observe the laws of God, and keep the commandments that He has given, in order that they may avail themselves of the power of God unto salvation in this life” (Conference Reports, October 1907, p.3) Yet Titus 3:5 states clearly that salvation is not gained by “works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy.” How can salvation be wrought by God’s mercy if you earned it through good works?
* In Ephesians 2:8,9 the Apostle Paul states, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” When Paul uses the word “saved,” is he making a reference to a general resurrection or exaltation?
* The Apostle John stated, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:13). If you were to die right now, do you know for certain if you will have eternal life? If not, when will you finally know? Wouldn’t you like to have this issue settled before you die? Do you think you ever will if you remain in the Mormon Church?
* As a person who values religious truth, if there was the slightest possibility that you could be wrong, would you want to know?
The Book of Mormon is historically inaccurate and disagrees with archaeology.
The Book of Mormon is historically inaccurate and does not agree with archaeology. Examples of historical and archeological discrepancies found in the Book of Mormon are as follows:
COMPASS: The earliest form of the compass (magnet floating in water) was invented in China sometime around 1044A.D. A dry form of the compass was invented in Europe around 1300A.D. until it was replaced in the 1800’s by a liquid-filled magnetic version. Yet, Nephi in the Book of Mormon is said to use a compass as early as 589 B.C. (1 Nephi 18:21).
ANIMALS: The Book of Mormon mentions the cow, horse, ox, ass, and goat as if these animals existed in America between 589 B.C. and 421 A.D. (Alma 18:9; 1 Nephi 18:25; Enos 1:21; 2 Nephi 17:25; 21:7; 30:13; 3 Nephi 3:22; Ether 9:18-19; Mosiah 13:24). Yet, none of these animals have been found in pre-Columbian America. The “curelom” and “cumoms ” animals mentioned at Ether 9:19 in the Book of Mormon are unknown to mankind.
WHEAT, BARLEY: The Book of Mormon mentions wheat and barley grains (Alma 11: 7, 15; Mosiah 7:22; 9:9) as being cultivated in America around 200 B.C. Yet, these grains are unknown to Pre-Columbian America.
SILK: The fabric “silk” mentioned at Alma 1:29 did not exist in pre-Columbian America.
STEEL, BRASS, BELLOWS: Steel mentioned at I Nephi 4:9; 8:25, Brass mentioned at 2 Nephi 5:15, and Bellows (a device used to control the sending of pressurized air to a firey heater) mentioned at 1 Nephi 17:11 were either unknown in Book of Mormon times or did not exist in Pre-Columbian America.
CIMETERS (SCIMITARS) AND CHARIOTS: The cimeter (curved sword) mentioned at Enos 1:20 and chariots mentioned at Alma 18:9-10 did not exist in Pre-Columbian America.
COINS: Ancient Biblical coins abound in Archeological digs throughout the Middle East, yet not one Book of Mormon coin (senum, amnor, ezrom, onti, seon, senine, shum, limnah, shiblon, shiblum, leah, antion) has ever been found anywhere.
DNA EVIDENCE: The Book of Mormon claims that Jewish ancestry formed the majority of pre-Columbian inhabitants of America. Yet, 99.4% of the DNA research done on thousands of Native American Indians from over 150 tribes shows a direct link to Asia and 0.6% points to Europe or Africa, not Israel. Thus, there is NO evidence whatsoever to suggest a Jewish or Middle-Eastern migration to America. To excuse away the DNA evidence against this Book of Mormon claim, Mormon apologists have resorted to the idea that the Jewish Book of Mormon immigrants to America (the Nephites and the Lamanites) comprised only a relative small group of ancient inhabitants of America.This argument falls apart when one considers the following explicit passages from the Book of Mormon that assert that no other people existed in America prior to the Book of Mormon migrations. These passages claim that these Book of Mormon Jewish pilgrims grew “exceedingly numerous” to “cover the face” of the “whole” land:
2 NEPHI 1:8: “And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance. ”
JAROM 1:6: “And they were scattered upon much of the face of the land, and the Lamanites also. And they were exceedingly more numerous than were they of the Nephites…”
ALMA 10:3: “And Aminadi was a descendant of Nephi, who was the son of Lehi, who came out of the land of Jerusalem, who was a descendant of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by the hands of his brethren.”
OMNI 1:15-17: “Behold, it came to pass that Mosiah discovered that the people of Zarahemla came out from Jerusalem at the time that Zedikah… And they journeyed in the wilderness, and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth. And at the time that Mosiah discovered them, they had become exceedingly numerous.”
HELAMAN 3:8: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. ”
Rather than finding supportive evidence for these Book of Mormon historical claims and artifacts, Mormon scholars have been forced to retreat from traditional interpretations of the words and phrases in the Book of Mormon and have developed unconventional explanations to reconcile these conflicted Book of Mormon texts with ancient Native American artifacts.
The Book of Mormon is geographically inaccurate.
The Book of Mormon is Geographically Inaccurate. Not one non-Mormon scholar has ever identified the remains and/or locations of any Book of Mormon land, city, river, battleground, or people group. Mormon scholars often point to Aztec and Mayan ruins for evidence, but they disagree among themselves as to the identity of these ancient ruins.
UNKNOWN LANDS, CITIES, RIVERS, VALLEYS AND PEOPLE:
Where is the “river, Laman, that emptied into the Red Sea” (1 Nephi 2:8) or the “valley of Lemuel” (1 Nephi 2:14) in the wilderness of Israel?
Where are the ruins of the ancient Nephite people who “had taken possession of all the northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness, at the head of the river Sidon, from the east to the west, round about the wilderness side; on the north, even until they came to the land which they called Bountiful.” (Alma 22:29)? Where is the “land of Zarahemla” (Omni 1:12; 15)?
Where is the location of “the land on the northward [that] was called Desolation, and the land on the southward [that] was called Bountiful” (Alma 22:31)?
Where are the locations of the Lamanite “land of Ishmael,” “land of Middoni,” “city of Nephi,” “the land of Shilom,” “the land of Shemlon,” “the city of Lemuel” and “the city of Shimnilom” (Alma 23:9-12) who called themselves “Anti-Nephi-Lehi” people (Alma 23:17) and built “many buildings,” “a great tower” (Mosiah 11:13), “synagogues,” “houses,” “temples,” and “sanctuaries” (Alma 23:2).
HILL CUMORAH: Where is the Hill Cumorah? At Mormon 6:2, the Book of Mormon states that a Nephite general, named Mormon, called his people together to battle the Lamanite people “unto the land of Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah.” This battled ended with the complete annihilation of the Nephite people and hundreds of thousands slain with the sword (Mormon 6:11-15). Of the Nephite people that remained, it is claimed that only General Mormon and his son Moroni survived the battle to bury the gold plates of the Book of Mormon “in the hill Cumorah” (Mormon 6:6).
Where is the Hill Cumorah? Joseph Smith claimed that this hill is in upstate New York where he allegedly found the gold plates. However, some Mormon apologists disagree, not only due to the lack of battleground artifacts found on the Hill Cumorah in New York, but also due to the problems with the Book of Mormon’s own geographical claims. Note the following passages:
ETHER 10:20: “And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land.”
ALMA 63:5: “And…he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward.
HELAMAN 3:8: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. ”
Many Mormon apologists point to Central America for the location of Book of Mormon lands due to the mention of a “narrow neck of land…where the sea divides the land,” however problems arise when one considers that “the sea south” and the “sea north” are irreconcilable with this limited geographical location for Book of Mormon lands, and the Hill Cumorah would have to be moved from North America to Central America. This limited geographical view for the Book of Mormon lands being in Central America also runs into problems with the Mormon Scripture, Doctrine and Covenants, section 54:8 that claims the “land of Missouri…borders… the Lamanites.” How could the Lamanite lands border “Missouri” in North America if Book of Mormon lands and events were located in Central America?
http://www.4mormon.org/mormon-org.php#s1
God's creation is perfect, urroner. Space, time, planets, how it all works together is perfection down to the smallest molecule. I assume by imperfection, you are speaking of imperfect people? Because God loves us, he also gave us free will, therin lies the source of imperfection.
When God created man and placed him in the garden, He gave him everything he needed in true abundance, but asked him only one thing. Of all the trees and fruit, do not eat from this one little tree. The tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Man ate from that tree and condemned himself. From then on, men were doomed to learn, doomed to work with a knowedge that was way too big for them.
Your questions are larger than they seem urroner. The concept of Free Will is a hard one to get across.
“We’re Christians just like you!”
By Bill McKeever
When speaking to our Mormon friends about religious issues, it is not uncommon to hear them tell us, “We’re Christians just like you.” There could be many reasons for a response like this. Perhaps the Mormon with whom you are speaking does not really understand what Christians have believed over the centuries, or it could be that they are not really familiar with the positions of their own church. It could be that because both groups share a desire to live moral lives that this qualifies them as “Christian.” However, this conclusion is refuted by the fact that many religions emphasize wholesome living as a part of their beliefs. Christianity, as a religious faith, is known by its teachings (doctrine) and not necessarily by the behavior of its adherents (though we certainly hope that a Christian’s faith is reflected in their practice).
One thing we have found in most cases is it is very rare for the average Latter-day Saint to fully explain the unique teachings of Mormonism. In the LDS Church it is taught that milk must be given before meat. Since many Mormons know that some of their unique teachings will be questioned by their evangelical acquaintances, they often give an explanation of the LDS faith that is less than precise.
It is difficult to comprehend why Mormons would say they are Christians “just like us” given that the foundation of their church presupposes that all professing Christian churches outside of the LDS Church are in a state of apostasy. Do Mormons who make this claim really think they too are “apostates”? Putting that aside, you need to ask yourself some important questions before automatically accepting the notion that the differences separating Christians from Mormons are insignificant. For instance, if your Mormon friend is really a “Christian just like you,” does that mean you believe:
God was not always God?
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taught,
“We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see. These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.345; also cited in Gospel Principles, p.305).
In contrast to this, Psalm 90:2 states, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you have formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.”
God is a glorified, perfected human being with a body of flesh and bones?
According to Joseph Smith,
“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret, if the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible,—I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345. Also cited in Achieving a Celestial Marriage, p.129).
The Doctrines of Covenants, considered to be scripture by Latter-day Saints, teaches, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s” (130:22).
Jesus taught that God the Father was not a man at all. In fact, John 4:24 records Jesus saying, “God is spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
God is only one among many Gods?
Joseph Smith said, “I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. It has been preached by the elders for fifteen years” (Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.35).
Brigham Young, the second president of the LDS Church, once stated,
“How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through. That course has been from all eternity, and it is and will be to all eternity. You cannot comprehend this; but when you can, it will be to you a matter of great consolation” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:334, October 8, 1859).
However, Isaiah 44:6,8 tells us that the God of the Bible knows of no other Gods. “I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God…Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any.”
God is married?
Gordon B. Hinckley, Mormonism’s 15th President, once noted in a conference message, “Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me” (“Daughters of God,” Ensign (Conference Edition), November 1991, p.100. This is also cited in The Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, p.257).
Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie wrote,
“Implicit in the Christian verity that all men are the spirit children of an Eternal Father is the usually unspoken truth that they are also the offspring of an Eternal Mother. An exalted and glorified Man of Holiness (Moses 6:57) could not be a Father unless a Woman of like glory, perfection, and holiness was associated with him as a Mother. The begetting of children makes a man a father and a woman a mother whether we are dealing with man in his mortal or immortal state” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 516).
Just as there is nothing in Mormonism’s unique scripture that mentions God being married to a “heavenly mother,” there is nothing to imply such a teaching in the Bible either.
Jesus is the spirit-brother of Lucifer?
12th Mormon President Spencer W. Kimball wrote,
“Long before you were born a program was developed by your creators ... The principal personalities in this great drama were a Father Elohim, perfect in wisdom, judgment, and person, and two sons, Lucifer and Jehovah.” (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 32-33).
Since The New Testament claims that it was through Jesus all things were created (John 1:3; Colossian 1:16, 17), it is difficult to assume such a familial relationship. Lucifer is described as an angel and angels, according to Psalm 148:1-5, are created beings, not pro-created beings in a sexual sense.
Jesus is the literal “Son of God” who was begotten naturally by an immortal Father?
In a pamphlet published by the LDS Church First Presidency, it says:
“Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh, and which body died on the cross and was afterward taken up by the process of resurrection, and is now the immortalized tabernacle of the eternal spirit of our Lord and Savior” (”The Father and The Son; A Doctrinal Exposition by The First Presidency and The Twelve,” June 30, 1916. Reprinted in Articles of Faith, p. 421).
Mormon Apostle Bruce McConkie taught that God stepped down from His throne to “join with one who is finite and mortal in bringing forth, ‘after the manner of the flesh,’ the Mortal Messiah” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah: From Bethlehem to Calvary, 1:315).
The Bible describes the incarnation of Christ as a miracle known as the Virgin Birth. Mary, the mother of Jesus, became pregnant without the aid of man, mortal or otherwise (Luke 2:35).
Christians are saved by grace coupled with works?
The Book of Mormon teaches in 2 Nephi 25:23, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
President Spencer W. Kimball said,
“One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation” (12th Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.206; also cited in The Book of Mormon Student Manual, religion 121 and 122, 1996, p.36).
Though Christians are saved “unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10), the good works of a Christians do not justify (or make right) the believer before God. The apostle Paul made this very clear when he wrote, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Grace is given by God only after a person has denied themselves of all ungodliness?
Writing for the Mormon magazine Ensign, BYU professor Clyde J. Williams said,
“The perfect relationship between the atoning grace of Christ and the obedient efforts of mankind is powerfully stated by Nephi: ‘We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Nephi 25:23). Furthermore, we are invited to ‘come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.’ When we deny ourselves ‘of all ungodliness,’ then and only ‘then is his grace sufficient’ for us (Moroni 10:32)” (“Plain and Precious Truths Restored,” Ensign, October 2006, p.53).
Apostle Bruce McConkie wrote, “And unless men have the agency to choose to do good and work righteousness—and, in fact, do so—they cannot be saved. There is no other way” (The Mortal Messiah 1:406).
However, in his pastoral epistle to Titus, the apostle Paul wrote that a believer’s salvation was “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” He went on to write that this great kindness was “shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7).
Humans can become Gods?
According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism,
“Logically and naturally, the ultimate desire of a loving Supreme Being is to help his children enjoy all that he enjoys. For Latter-day Saints, the term ‘godhood’ denotes the attainment of such a state—one of having all divine attributes and doing as God does and being as God is” (2:553).
Brigham Young declared,
“The Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming Gods like Himself; when we have been proved in our present capacity, and been faithful with all things He puts into our possession. We are created, we are born for the express purpose of growing up from the low estate of manhood, to become Gods like unto our Father in heaven. That is the truth about it, just as it is” (Brigham Young, August 8, 1852, Journal of Discourses 3:93).
Historically, such a notion has been considered blasphemous by Christians. Never have Christians taught that mankind has the capacity to become ontologically like God. As God Himself said through the prophet Isaiah, “Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (Isaiah 43:10).
Mankind must believe Joseph Smith was a prophet of God in order to get into heaven?
“There is no greater prophet in any dispensation than Joseph Smith… Joseph Smith was a prophet, and all the calumny and aspirations to the contrary cannot controvert that fact. Anyone who has concern for the welfare of his eternal soul should give attention to this message. Every man who has lived since the days of Joseph Smith is subject to accepting him as a prophet of God in order to enter into our Heavenly father’s presence” (A. Theodore Tuttle, “Joseph Smith re-established fullness of true gospel, Church,” Church News, March 17, 2001, p.14).
This concurs with what Brigham Young said in 1859:
“From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding-up scene of all things, every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are — I with you and you with me. I cannot go there without his consent” (Brigham Young, October 9, 1859, Journal of Discourses 7:289).
The Bible declares that Jesus is the Christian’s living prophet and it is Jesus whom Christians must listen to and obey (Deuteronomy 18:15; John 5:46; 6:44; 7:40; Acts 3:22, 23; 7:37; Hebrews 1:1-2). Judgment has been given to Jesus alone by authority of the Father. “For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22).
Christianity ceased to exist after the death of the Twelve Apostles?
According to the LDS Church manual Gospel Principles,
“One by one, the Apostles were killed. Because of the persecution, surviving Apostles could not meet to choose and ordain men to replace those who were dead. Eventually, local priesthood leaders were the only ones who had authority to direct the scattered branches of the Church. The perfect organization of the Church no longer existed, and confusion resulted. More and more error crept into Church doctrine, and soon the destruction was complete. The period of time when the true Church no longer existed on earth is called the Great Apostasy” (Gospel Principles, p.105, emphasis theirs).
But Jesus promised to be with His Church unto the “end of the world (or age)” (Matthew 28:20).
The Apostle John is still alive?
Doctrine and Covenants 7:1-3 states,
“AND the Lord said unto me: John, my beloved, what desirest thou? For if you shall ask what you will, it shall be granted unto you. And I said unto him: Lord, give unto me power over death, that I may live and bring souls unto thee. And the Lord said unto me: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, because thou desirest this thou shalt tarry until I come in my glory, and shalt prophesy before nations, kindreds, tongues and people”
BYU Professor Robert Millet noted that not only was the Apostle John still alive, but that “Three “Nephites” mentioned in the Book of Mormon were also living today in a translated state.
“We know from the Book of Mormon (see 3 Nephi 28:6) and from modern revelation (see D&C 7) that John was translated-changed to a terrestrial state so as to no longer be subject to the effects of the Fall, including physical suffering, bodily decay, and death. Like the three Nephites, he is still ministering among the peoples of the earth and will do so until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, at which time he and they will be changed from mortality to immortality (see 3 Nephi 28:8, 27-30)” (Selected Writings of Robert L. Millet: Gospel Scholars Series, p.85).
Jesus never made such a promise. Clearly such a conclusion is based on a misunderstanding that the Gospel of John corrects in John 21:22, 23.
American Indians are “Jewish”?
Joseph Smith said
“that America in ancient times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites and came directly from the tower of Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country” (Joseph Smith, Times and Seasons 3:707).
Harold B. Lee, Mormonism’s 11th president, stated,
“The Indians on the American continent are descendants of the tribes of Ephraim, Judah, and Manasseh, we are told by the Book of Mormon. (Omni 15-19; I Nephi 5:14-16.) Their dark skin was a curse put upon them because of their transgression, which in a day to come in their descendants will be lifted and they will become white and delightsome as they accept the Gospel and turn to the Lord” (Decisions for Successful Living, pp.166-167.)
Genetic evidence denies such a connection. Modern data concludes that the American Indians are not of Hebrew ancestry but are instead of Asian descent.
The Garden of Eden was located in Missouri?
Mormon Apostle John A. Widtsoe wrote,
“Latter-day Saints know, through modern revelation, that the Garden of Eden was on the North American continent and that Adam and Eve began their conquest of the earth in the upper part of what is now the state of Missouri. It seems very probable that the children of our first earthly parents moved down along the fertile, pleasant lands of the Mississippi valley. The great floods that have often occurred there make the description in Genesis seem very reasonable indeed. And if the historian saw the flood there, it is not unlikely that the waters covered the highest points or peaks, for there the mountains are but hills” (Evidences and Reconciliations, p.127).
Milton R. Hunter, a Mormon Seventy, stated, “From the foregoing evidence, it is certain that the Garden of Eden was located in America, in what today is known as the state of Missouri and probably the adjacent region” (Pearl of Great Price Commentary, p.109).
The above represents just a small amount of the many contrasting beliefs between Mormonism and biblical Christianity. Our prayer is that you will take the time to carefully study the truth-claims of the Mormon Church and compare them to what the Bible already declares. In doing so you will be better prepared to discern what Mormonism is all about.
http://www.mrm.org/topics/introductory-issues/were-christians-just-you
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