The Apostasy [What Lds believe re: Christians: Label us 'apostates' like Islam calls us 'infidels']

Institute.Lds.org ^ | 2008

[Colofornian]

The Church...of Latter-day Saints affirms...there was a falling away...The long night of apostasy lasted well over a millennium. During this period, man-made creeds and practices were substituted for the plan of salvation that Jesus...taught.

SNIP

C. A universal apostasy occurred...

• “For over seventeen hundred years on the eastern hemisphere, and for more than fourteen centuries on the western, there appears to have been silence between the heavens and the earth. Of direct revelation from God to man during this long interval, we have no authentic record...The passing of the apostles was followed by...a universal apostasy...

  “...an absolute apostasy of the Church...” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 745).

  SNIP

• “If the Savior had come back to earth at the beginning of the fifth century A.D., I doubt whether he would have recognized the Christian Church as the one that claimed descent from that which he had established, so far had it gone astray. Christianity had actually become a composite of...Jewish teachings and rituals; Greek, Roman, and Egyptian pagan philosophies; and pagan religions...The power of godliness was no longer present in the Christian Church. Thus there was a complete falling away from the gospel which had been established by the Son of Man...darkness enveloped the earth. This spiritual darkness continued for hundreds ...of years” (Milton R. Hunter, “The Missionary Assignment,” Improvement Era, Dec. 1951, 920).

• “...There was a long period of centuries when the gospel was not available to people on this earth, because it had been changed” (Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 423).

• “In the early centuries of the Christian era...Many men...sought the creation process to make a God which all could accept.

  ...they put together an incomprehensible God idea” (Kimball, Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 425).

[Elsie]

So...the Mormon church STILL teaches about other churches:

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Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

 

 

 

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "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).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses

, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

 

 

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

 

 

 

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

 

 

 

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

 

 

 

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

 

 

 

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

 

 

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).

[Elsie]

The long night of apostasy lasted well over a millennium.

Hey there SLC Mormons!!

YOU are the 'apostates' for IGNORING what your god told you about POLYGAMY!!

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"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;

and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,

and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.

Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)

[Elsie]

From the OFFICIAL Mormon teachings about Christianity:

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Where can we find an 'OFFICIAL MORMON' teaching website??

Official sites are sites supported by LDS officials unless said official sites are considered unofficial by said officials.

 

At that point such sites are unofficial unless officially referenced for official purposes by officials who can do so officially.

 

This should not be misconstrued as an indication that official sites can be unofficially recognized as official nor should it be implied that unofficial sites cannot contain official information, but are not officially allowed to be offical despite their official contents due the their unofficialness.

 

Official sites will be official and recognized as official by officials of the LDS unless there is an official reason to mark them as unofficial either temporally or permanently, which would make the official content officially unofficial.

 

This is also not to imply that recognized sites, often used on FR by haters and bigots cannot contain official information, it just means that content, despite its official status, is no longer official and should be consider unofficial despite the same information being official on an official site elsewhere.

 

Even then the officialness my be amended due to the use of the unofficial information which may determine the officialness of anything be it official or unofficial depending on how and where it is used officially or unofficially.

I hope this clear things up for the lurkers out there.

The haters tend to make things complicated and confusing when it is all really quite crystal clear.

--Ejonesie22

[Elsie]

Talmage also taught: "...plainly...His person cannot be in more than one place at any one time." (The Articles of Faith, p. 43)

Oops!

We REALLY ain't here at the same time; we just flash in and out so quickly that to ol' Joseph we APPEARED to be here together...

[Elsie]

Are they advocating cutting my head off? No. So they aren't like the Islamics.

I can refer you to some folks who have a different experience...

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I do not feel threatened by it because I don’t think that they will be attempting to convert by the sword.

 

The gruesome be headings of some 40 Ute corpses in 1850, heads stacked in boxes,

and hung by their long hair from the eves of buildings at Fort Utah,

 has long been ignored, “You didn’t see the Indians beheading the Mormons.”

 

-- Historian Robert Carter

[Elsie]

But I wonder, is this LDS Bashing Sunday?????

No more than the other six days of the week.

But is it REALLY 'bashing' to merely re-print what the MORMON religious organization has produced over the years?

[Elsie]

...all who want America to survive had better forget the theological small change and work together>

Sorry; but we are EXPOSING mormonISM so that folks SOULS will survive the HERESY from SLC!

[CommerceComet]

This country can’t survive another 4 years of Obamunism, but can probably muddle through with Romney.

Such a ringing endorsement. Personally, I'm not compromising my conservative principles to vote for Romney when he represents such a marginal improvement over Obama.

[Elsie]

If not, set your hate aside for a while, hold your nose, and vote for Romney.

So sad; to hear someone who values his countrie's existance over the souls of men and women.

[Elsie]

If not, set your hate aside for a while, hold your nose, and vote for Romney.

Ain't gonna happen; for I truly HATE the HERESY that calls itself MORMONism.

[GladesGuru]

May I suggest that unless Obama is not elected, and unless enough conservatives are swept into the House and Senate - the United States will not be a place where you have to worry about Hell in the afterlife.

Allow Oabama and the Muslims in again, and Hell comes to you.

Defeat the worst enemy first, then sweat the small stuff. After all, if people do have dominion over their own lives, and free will, let them choose.

Islam and socialism remove choice.

[BlueMoose]

lll

[Elsie]

...the United States will not be a place where you have to worry about Hell in the afterlife.

I understand what you're saying here; but even folks in Idi Amin's Uganda would STILL have to face that after his thugs were through playing with their machetes on them.

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Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.

They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.

They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,

destitute, persecuted and mistreated -- the world was not worthy of them.

They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

Hebrews 11:35-38

[Elsie]

"If any man have an ear; let him hear."   is STILL valid today.

 

 

 

 

 

 Revelation 13:4-9

 

 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

 

 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

 

 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

 

 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

 

 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

 

 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear.

 

 

[Elsie]

This nation does NOT have a political problem; but a SPIRITUAL one.

Our ills will NOT be 'fixed' by political means.

[Elsie]

Defeat the worst enemy first, then sweat the small stuff.

If, by the 'small stuff', you mean a person's eternal destiny; then I'd say you have things backward.

If you happen to DIE, defeating the 'worse enemy first', then only the heresy of MORMONism will be able to reach you in the afterlife with it's phony 'salvation'.

[bonfire]

Amen, Elsie.

[reaganaut]

Preach it, Brother!

[firebasecody]

Primarily because it is none of my business what the LDS church believes. I have known some LDS folks, and found them on the whole to be charming, and with an eye to self-sufficiency. I focus on behavior.

My Church has a horrendous history under Islam. I can judge the collective behavior and say honestly that I don’t like it, at all.

BTW, I do not consider LDS to be a ‘Christian’ church. But, I am sure that my opinion on them, causes no consternation on their part.

[Colofornian]

BTW, I do not consider LDS to be a ‘Christian’ church. But, I am sure that my opinion on them, causes no consternation on their part.

Individually? No, probably not.

Collectively (as that opinion is made known)? Yes, it does.

It does @ a dual level [grassroots Mormons...and particularly the leadership of the Mormon church]. #1, the Christian "brand" is highly coveted; #2, Mormon leadership -- called General Authorities -- are mostly business men. Business men tend to put a high price tag on PR/Marketing.

So it's been very important for them to market Mormonism as "Christian."

Sometimes, in Lds-church owned venues like the Deseret News, you'll see the term "other" Christians (referencing us) or "we're Christians, too" focus. More often -- when you take their books, Web site, curricula, broadcasting venues en toto, -- it's more, "We're the ONLY true Christian church on the face of the earth." One of their "scriptures" -- Doctrines & Covenants 1:30 -- says their church is the "Only true & living church on the face of the earth."

In this way, Mormonism doesn't simply try to gain a place @ the table, they actually wind up trying to be the "replacement Christians..." meaning THEY alone are THE "restoration" to us apostate "infidels." Now not only does that slander worldwide Christianity, but it's not a fair presentation to all of their contacts/potential proselytes...many of which they are already "guiding" into Mormonism based upon the missionary "good will" Christian missionaries have built up in other countries. Primarily because it is none of my business what the LDS church believes. I have known some LDS folks, and found them on the whole to be charming, and with an eye to self-sufficiency. I focus on behavior.