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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a religious organisation registered as a private unlimited company in the UK, was told in 2005 that it was not exempt from paying business tax on its temple in Preston, Lancashire. Because the public were not allowed access to the temple, which was reserved for the most devout Mormons, the High Court dismissed their appeal in July 2008. However, the church refused to accept the decision, claiming that it amounted to discrimination on religious grounds and taking their battle all the way to Strasbourg. Now the European Court of Human Rights has...

Miraculous claims surrounding the coming forth of the Book of Mormon are an evidence of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith. Critics intent on discrediting the Restoration point to DNA studies on indigenous American peoples in an attempt to expose Joseph, the Book of Mormon, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as frauds. Claiming that scientific evidence excludes any possibility that Middle Eastern or ancient Jewish travelers came to the Americas in antiquity, such critics attempt to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of Latter-day Saints and those of other faiths concerning the authenticity of the...

Feb. 14, 2014 (MonicaKelsey) - When someone says, "I am pro-life except in the case of rape or incest," they are using an oxymoron to describe themselves. This is in essence describing themselves as pro-choice and shows they have a lack of understanding of what being pro-life is truly about. Glenn Beck, who my husband listens to almost daily, is a good example of someone who is highly intelligent, but lacks the understanding of what it means to be pro-life with no exceptions. Let me explain. First of all, let me tell you about who I am. I am a...

Filioque Filioque is a theological formula of great dogmatic and historical importance. On the one hand, it expresses the Procession of the Holy Ghost from both Father and Son as one Principle; on the other, it was the occasion of the Greek schism. Both aspects of the expression need further explanation. Dogmatic meaning of filioque The dogma of the double Procession of the Holy Ghost from Father and Son as one Principle is directly opposed to the error that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, not from the Son. Neither dogma nor error created much difficulty during the...

Thomas S Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ordered to appear before British magistrates' court amid claims that the organisation's teaching amounts to 'fraud' A British magistrate has issued an extraordinary summons to the worldwide leader of the Mormon church alleging that its teachings about mankind amount to fraud. Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been ordered to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London next month to defend the church’s doctrines including beliefs about Adam and Eve and Native Americans. A formal summons signed by District...

“I can’t fake it,” then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney said as the political advisers and family members nearby deflated. They knew what that meant. The scene, which occurred during the heated 2008 GOP primary battle between Romney and his rising political adversary, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), occurs early on in the new Netflix documentary, Mitt. The film premieres on Netflix at 11 AM today and offers a rarely-seen look at the former Governor and his family as they trudge through two seemingly-endless presidential campaigns. Director Greg Whiteley was given great access to Romney during those campaigns, and he uses it to...

Thomas Monson issued court summons to answer allegations of fraud - 2/4/14 The Prophet of the LDS Church, Thomas S. Monson has been ordered to attend court and face allegations of fraud. A court in London, England has issued Thomas Spencer Monson with 2 summons (see below) containing allegations of seven offences in contravention of Section 1 Fraud Act 2006. Mr. Monson is required to attend the court, Westminster Magistrates’ Court, on 14th March 2014. The court will then almost certainly refer the case to Southwark Crown Court for further proceedings. Failure of Mr. Monson to attend the Court on...

Since its beginning, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has proclaimed to the world...there was an apostasy of the church which had been founded by Jesus during his earthly ministry...This is a fundamental belief of the restored church. In fact, it is the apostasy of early Christianity which creates the very need for the restored Latter-day Saint faith: if there had not been an apostasy, there would have been no need for a restoration.2 Latter-day Saint theology asserts...the church of Jesus and his apostles came to an end...the doctrines which its inspired leaders taught were corrupted and changed...

...A frequently cited passage in LDS scripture identifies The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth”(...Doctrine and Covenants 1:30). “What does this mean?” asked Elder Tad R. Callister of the church’s Presidency of the Seventy during a devotional for college-age church members Sunday evening. “It does not mean that other churches do not have some truth, for certainly they do,” he said. “It does not mean that other churches do not render good, for they render much good. What it does mean is that this is...

What do LDS Church leaders have to say about the reliability and accuracy of their own scriptures? According to LDS leaders, Mormon scriptures are “utterly reliable” and “pure truth.” The current prophet, President Monson, declared on the official church website lds.org (underline added): “The words of truth and inspiration found in our four standard works are prized possessions to me…These holy words of truth and love give guidance to my life and point the way to eternal perfection.”In 2011, Apostle Richard G. Scott taughtBecause scriptures are generated from inspired communication through the Holy Ghost, they are pure truth. We need...

In the recently released statement on lds.org on Race and the Priesthood, the modern Mormon Church disavows “that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else…” This unequivocal truth, that no race or ethnicity is superior to another, is something that Spain (1542), Quakers (1600s), Pennsylvania (1790), England (1807), Abraham Lincoln (1865), and Christians of any era who believe the Bible, know. According to the Bible, God shows no favoritism—never by skin color—and commands his people to do the same. Lincoln, who often quoted the biblical God, was displeased with the...

...Many today use innuendo, outright lies and other forms of deception to confuse and divide in order to control followers... The end result?...About 80% of the Church succumbed to lies and deceit, and either followed Joe Tkach or went home in confusion...-most...became “lost to history,” spiritually dying where they sat. The remaining 20% fell into following various bickering, disagreeing splinter leaders teaching selected—preferred!—parts of the truth... Fast forward to 1993-1998, to sample one splinter. An evangelist (Roderick Meredith) arose and came to power in the Global Church of God. This second new leader also promised...he would uphold the truth as...

...Never before...have so many people become so deceived in such a comparatively short time of less than a decade. How could this unprecedented end-time deception have happened with such lightning rapidity? The success of this...apostasy was due, at least in part, to mass defections in the ministry, but...also partly due to the power of modern means of communicating and disseminating information. At the time of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s death in January 1986, about 130,000 members of the Worldwide Church of God regularly observed God’s weekly and annual Sabbaths, as well as other important laws and commandments of God. During...

It is with a grateful heart that I’ve received yet another testimony. This one like so many others, came via an email, and is a great blessing to me and to others who contend for the Gospel in the arena with those who pursue Torah. Many thanks to Mark Smith for the following. Mark’s story is about coming out of the Worldwide Church of God, from which the Hebrew Roots Movement draws much of its doctrine.This testimony will also appear on the Testimonies Page here at JGIG.If you have a testimony you’d like to share about coming out of the...

TWO Mormons on the Gold Coast for a church camp stand accused of a shocking attack that left a passing stranger in a coma.Amanaki Kaufusi, 21, and Onesi Taufui, 18, yesterday faced Southport Magistrates Court charged with grievous bodily harm over a violent attack on a tourist in Surfers Paradise. Hundreds of Mormons have gathered on the Gold Coast for a Latter-day Saints conference at Tallebudgera. But as their friends listened to the teachings of church leaders, Kaufusi and Taufui, both from western Sydney, headed to the bright lights of Sin City for a night on the town. The court...

The Mormon Church has officially renounced the belief that dark skin is a sign of disfavor, or curse. On the official website for The Mormon Church, www.lds.org, a statement has been posted titled "Race and the Priesthood," where blame for the belief that dark skinned people were inferior to whites is placed on the establishment of the church coming in 1830, a time of great racism in the United States. The Church points out how previous leaders, most notably President Brigham Young, restricted Blacks from priesthood in the Church, receiving the temple endowment, or allowing them to be married in...

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22). “And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit." (Rev. 9:1) In his Concise Commentary Matthew Henry identifies falling stars as tepid, indecisive, weak or apostate clergy who, "Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the...

The Ravenous Wolves of FreeRepublicHow do we deal with the insults and pain of those whom Christ called "ravenous wolves"? Many aren't aware of it but the phrase "A wolf in sheep’s clothing" has biblical origins. Mat 7:15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. The word translated "false prophet" here is not referring to a Godly person who has a prophecy that fails. Instead it's referring to a person who pretends to be a Christian but in reality is not. They are compared to "ravenous wolves" among the flock....

How can I know when I have the Spirit of the Lord with me? I’m a college student having a lot of new experiences, and sometimes I can’t tell if I’m just feeling “good” or if my feelings are genuinely righteous. Don Norton, English Department, Brigham Young University I’ve heard this question from dozens of young adults who are making all sorts of discoveries about themselves. Indeed it is a very important question. Since in this life “it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things” (2 Ne. 2:11; italics added), it must needs be that we...

POCATELLO — A Cedar City, Utah, man convicted of felony injury to a child stemming from inappropriate contact with a 16-year-old child in 2012, was placed on probation Monday and sentenced to spend the next 10 days in Bannock County Jail. Derrick Starley was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chubbuck when the incident occurred. He was originally charged with sexual battery of child 16 or 17 years old... Starley pleaded guilty to the reduced charge in early November as part of a plea agreement through which prosecutors agreed that they would not...