Posted on 12/29/2009 10:35:17 AM PST by Colofornian
A media campaign has been launched in eastern Idaho against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The "Speaking the Truth in Love to Mormons" campaign was started by the Truth in Love Ministry...
Five billboards have been placed in heavily Mormon southeastern Idaho...
SNIP
The "Feeling Worthy?" message "targets a foundational fact of Mormonism, the need for all Mormons to achieve worthiness in order to receive eternal life," according to campaign literature. The campaign says God's truth is "the concept of free and full forgiveness through Christ" rather than the "earned forgiveness taught in Mormonism."
"There is an important difference between LDS teachings and conservative Christianity," said Mark Cares, president of the Truth in Love Ministry. "The aim of the campaign is to talk about the great message of forgiveness in the Bible that is obscured by LDS teachings."
SNIP
"Mormons are under a significant amount of stress because of all the commandments they need to uphold and all the duties they need to perform in order to be worthy to receive God's blessings - including his forgiveness," the literature says.
Cares said: "The teachings of Mormonism cause people to despair because they have so much to do."
Cares preaches that God's forgiveness and blessings are available to everyone for free if they simply accept the "good news of God," that "we are already perfect and worthy in God's sight."
SNIP
The Truth in Love billboard featuring a despairing woman follows studies about depression by Mental Health America - formerly the National Mental Health Association - and Express Scripts... Mental Health America ranked Utah as the most depressed state... The Express Scripts study showed that Utah residents are prescribed antidepressant drugs at twice the national average.
(Excerpt) Read more at idahostatesman.com ...
According to Mormon writings, what makes you "worthy?" Your perfection (3 Nephi 12:48; Mt. 5:48)
[Whereas, in contrast, a good definition of a "Christian" is someone already perfect in the Father's eyes thru Jesus sacrificial death (Heb. 10:14) -- where His perfect righteousness is substituted for our imperfect righteousness. (1 Cor. 1:30). Heb. 10:14 ...because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.]
Just to be sure, I looked up "worthiness" (a key Lds concept) in the 1977 "Topical Guide to the Scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" published by church-owned Deseret Publishers.
I found verses like Doctrine & Covenants 59:4: "And they shall also be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time--they that are faithful and diligent before me."
"Commandments not a few"? -- sounds like a long checklist to me.
I then looked at the 1979 "Topical Guide" in the Lds version of its KJV -- and turned to the "worthiness" entry there: It tells me right up top its related to the concept of "qualifying for" & then proceeds to verses like D&C 31:5: "Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live."
Ah. There it is: The Mormon "strategy." Don't "trust" for your salvation, "thrust in your sickle"
So it sounds like the Mormon god wants plenty of soul labor -- paid labor -- spiritual hirelings -- earned labor for salvation. No free gifts here. No grace here. Just follow the rules, ma'am.
Indeed, the LDS are the "rules oriented" ones: The purity and perfection we seek is unattainable without this subjection of unworthy, ungodlike urges and the corresponding encouragement of their opposites. We certainly cannot expect the rules to be easier for us than for the Son of God... (Lds "prophet" Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 28)
Just look @ all the "rule extensions" Lds have imposed upon their followers in order to make it to the highest degree of afterlife:
(1) You have to be obedient to all the commandments & ordinances of the Mormon god
(2) You have to tithe -- what Lds reference as the "Law of consecration"
(3) You have to obey the "Word of Wisdom" -- not drink coffee, etc.
(4) You have to get married -- sorry, no never-married single people allowed
(5) You have to have as many children as possible
(6) You have to perform temple work for the dead
(7) You have to perform endowments essential for this highest degree of salvation
(8) You have to be a member of the right church (Lds)
(9) You have to receive & perform the rites and ordinances established by that church
(10)You have to have Joseph Smith's consent to enter into your highest afterlife
That is 19th-20th-21st century legalism!
The campaign says God's truth is "the concept of free and full forgiveness through Christ" rather than the "earned forgiveness taught in Mormonism."
Past "prophets" like Spencer W. Kimball & others then stress that you have to earn forgiveness -- Kimball even had a chapter in a book entitled, "Keeping God's Commandments Brings Forgiveness."
But as somebody once said, “Jesus’ love is not something we earn, it earns us.” Whereas, Mormon "scripture" is more like:
That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins... D&C 76:52
In the Mormon church, obedience is ground zero.
Even before faith -- obedience earns you faith (so said Lds "prophet" Joseph F. Smith)
Even before forgiveness -- obedience earns you forgiveness (so says Lds "prophet" Spencer W. Kimball)
Even before being able to be washed & cleansed from sins -- obedience must be earned (so said founding "prophet" Joseph Smith)
Even before grace -- restoration "grace for grace" only comes to Mormons "according to their works" (Helaman 12:24, Book of Mormon)
The Mormon "bad news" -- not a "good news" gospel at all -- is obedience not only now and later -- but before anything:
Faith,
forgiveness,
washing or cleansing from sin
grace
None of it kicks in for the Mormon until all the obedient works are racked up! That, my friends, is a false gospel through and through!
What does Mormon doctrine say? "Go ye, therefore, and do the works of Abraham; entere ye into my law and ye shall be saved." (Lds Doctrine & Covenants 132:32)
The Bible says that Abraham was saved by faith (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:2-3) -- not by following a law that had yet to be introduced to anyone of his generation. Rom. 3:20 very specifically says the purpose of the law was to gain knowledge of sin -- not to find salvation. In fact, that verse makes it quite clear that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight."
Mormons say the primary impetus for God's forgiveness isn't based upon His grace & mercy, but rather upon living his commandments (legalism): "To make our repentance complete we must always keep the commandments of the Lord (see D&C 1:32). A person is not fully repentant who does not pay this tithes or does not keep the Sabbath day holy or refuses to obey the Word of Wisdom. He is not repentant if he does not sustain the authorities of the Church and does not love the Lord or his fellowmen. A man who fails to have his family prayers and who is unkind to his family and others is surely not repentant...President [Spencer W.] Kimball said...spend the balance of your lives trying to live the commandments of the Lord so he can eventually pardon you and cleanse you." (Lds church, Gospel Principles, p. 120-122, citing Lds "prophet" Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 200)
The Lds church has it backwards. We are forgiven & cleansed; and therefore God works through us to assist us in good works and pure living. They think you have to engage in commandment-obedience so that God will eventually pardon & cleanse us. (That's legalism)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Think I’ll go get a cup of coffee so I can sit and read all this in comfort ..
Well, aside from the hectic pace of having to uncover everybody who's ever lived birth & death info, temple rituals, seminary school for high schoolers @ ungodly hours, large-family care, extra work to pay for all your children's missionary work, countless do's & don'ts, etc.
When you look up "worthiness" (a key Lds concept) in the 1977 "Topical Guide to the Scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" published by church-owned Deseret Publishers, you find verses like Doctrine & Covenants 59:4: "And they shall also be crowned with blessings from above, yea, and with commandments not a few, and with revelations in their time--they that are faithful and diligent before me."
"Commandments not a few"? -- sounds like a long checklist to me.
In Lds "prophet" Spencer W. Kimball's book, "The Miracle of Forgiveness," he said if Mormons "repent" of a sin -- but then re-commit that same sin...guess what? Well, that person never really repented of that sin in the first place! Imagine all the LDS "young people" who have "repented" of the sin of lust. But then they lust again. (Well, the LDS "prophet" said that then they never really repented of it to begin with -- they're all back to ground zero).
It's like imagining a spiritual game of Shoots & Ladders where most of the contestants always wind up back @ the bottom. Why? 'Cause it's a "game" based entirely upon the ability of somebody to self-will and self-repent once & for all from every single sin out there. Sins of commission. Sins of omission. All thousands of the types of sins out there. Catalogued 1 by 1.
Now that's depressing!
Lds promote that they are "children of God" and that we are heirs. But heirs don't have to boast some long "to DO" checklist to become heirs -- they simply are to BE children of God.
Like any heir, I'm an heir by His death [or did you think you could become an heir & gain a "testimony" only by His life???] and by His ensuing gift to me...NOT an heir based upon...
...my works,
...my obedience,
...my self-promotional worthiness,
...my commandment-keeping,
...my bishop-graded temple recommend,
...my Word-of-wisdom keeping,
...my exaltation checklist,
...who I marry,
...if I marry,
...and all the other plural "My-s" I can ever list--as if my life was to center on... ..me
...or as if all my good works were primarily or unconsciously done to boomering back on my bootstraps to kick me into divinity...
...rather than simply to love the One I serve.
LDS: join us in concluding that you could never do all you could do -- including love as Jesus loves -- in order to coax God's grace to eventually kick in (2 Nephi 25:23)
(Join us in trying to stop manipulating how God thinks about you -- He already knows us perfectly -- and a temple recommend checklist is mere religiosity -- not a relationship with the true Jesus)
Do you rejoice with the truth that he who believes in Jesus HAS eternal life -- not just WILL have -- but has it NOW? (John 3:36; 5:24; 17:3; 1 John 5:10-13).
The impossible gospel of mormonism placemark
Mark Cares is an awesome pastor, and I love this approach to the LDS.
Every LDS person I know (and even me when I was LDS) feels they are under a tremendous weight to be “perfect”. Not just from themselves, but from other LDS as well.
Many are broken and don’t know to turn to Jesus to heal them.
Also, every ex-LDS person I know (including me) that has become a Christian, have all stated that accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for their sins lifted that burden immediately.
I didn't have the particular burden of mormonism to contend with but it works for all of them.
You should read Hebrews chapter 10 ... if you want some great legal work to read, it will “ WOW “ you...
People need to leave the Mormans alone. Whatever their religious belief, they are the largest most functional group in our society. I really like the teaching of having 7 years of food storage, weapons and survival tactics. I also like that they are flat out conservative, have low crime where they dominate.
Can you imagine how much better our nation would be, if Churches would turn back to teaching responsiblity? Seriously, we have fallen a long way as a nation and a lot of it is “easy” Christianity.
Perhaps ? God ‘s saying ? be whole as I am whole
- - — -
The Greek bears that out. The word translated “perfect” is telelos which is usually an architectural term translated “whole, finished, complete”.
That is exactly what Jesus is saying. We are to be “complete” in love and in Him.
However the LDS use that verse (Matt 5:28) saying we can be completely perfect, overcome all sin, in THIS life. They also use it as a “proof” we can become Gods ourselves.
Finally, the LDS reject the idea that humans are sinful by nature, they say that we were BORN “children of God” and also that sin is just “missing the mark”. There is a lot of downplaying sin.
Their idea of perfection is following all of the “commandments” which are basically the rules/regs/rituals of the LDS church.
I was LDS for several years until by God’s grace He pulled me out of it.
(Of course, you're at this very moment texting this same message to 60,000 Lds missionaries, the bulk of whom call upon Christian homes)
Whatever their religious belief, they are the largest most functional group in our society.
(Oh, that's why The Deseret News reported that Utah leads the nation in suicides among men aged 15 to 24...one Utah State University study found Utah lead nation in antidepressant use...and in late 2007 Mental Health America labeled Utah the Most depressed state...and Express Scripts says that Utah doubles all other states in prescribed anti-depressants...'cause all is well, eh? Why is Salt Lake City's a leader in plastic surgery? Vanity?
I also like that they...have low crime where they dominate.
Yes, Utah's in the Top 10 for fewest people per capita who are in prison, but do you wanna explain why Utah...
...as of the years since 2000, consistently has ranked between 14 & 18 re: rape rate?
.....as of 3 or 4 years ago, was Utah #8 in the nation for its sex offender rate?)
...And why do Utah schools have dozens of 2009 sex-abuse investigations they've opened up just this year?
...And what about the Salt Lake Tribune reporting this Fall that in 2005, Utah ranked 16th in the nation for teacher sex offenses, according to an Associated Press survey of disciplinary records from 2001 to 2005 in 50 states and the District of Columbia. At that time, 52.7 percent of Utah teachers who lost their licenses surrendered them for sexual misconduct -- twice the national rate, the AP found.
...Also, why also the huge jump in Utah domestic violence cases between 1997 & 2000?
...And why does Utah rank #6 in larceny?
...And why is Utah tops for some years among bankruptcy filings?
...And why has Utah had some years where they're #1 in mortgage fraud?
This is the culture you want the rest of the country to emulate? Really? Is it because Lds are just so "nice" and "salt like" in spreading this "nice behavior" amongst its Utah neighbors?
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