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One of the pamphlets LDS missionaries hand out is entitled, “The Plan of Salvation”. As it title indicates, it summarizes Mormonism’s plan of salvation. Interestingly, when it deals with eternity, it only mentions the LDS three kingdoms of glory. There is no mention of hell or outer darkness. Rather it states: “After you are judged, you will live in a state of glory. Because everyone’s works and desires vary, heaven includes different kingdoms, or degrees of glory.” (p.14) Note, as that states, the kingdoms are all part of heaven. With that in mind listen to whom, according to Mormonism, inhabits...

Our Transition of Faith Everyone knows the story about our political ups and downs, if you don’t you can read back to the beginning of our blog. But what no one knows, and what we didn’t expect to come out at this time is the story about our religious transition. Recently, a door opened that offered Carl an opportunity to run for the Utah State Legislature, a position that he once held and thoroughly enjoyed. My first instinct was to say, “H*ll no!” But, since I don’t use that sort of language, I settled for, “I know you’ll make the...

(ThyBlackMan.com) For several years now, every Tuesday evening I have had the great privilege of addressing the Christian and Mormon listeners of Worship FM 101.7 in Monrovia, the capital City of Liberia, West Africa. I have come to know several of the station managers and a number of the more frequent callers to the weekly program. Through their comments, questions and photographs, I have been genuinely moved to see the application of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over the past few months the question of racist teachings in the Book of Mormon and from the past Leadership of...

Around the world the fame of Christ spreads. Men and women lift their hands to praise the name of Jesus, worshiping him as the King of kings and Lord of lords. Full of the Holy Spirit, they lift him up as their savior, redeemer, and advocate. His gospel is preached, his word is believed, and his death and resurrection are celebrated in the Lord's Supper. Millions are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, trusting in the person and work of Christ for forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and the transformation of their heart. Hundreds of...

(Salt Lake City, UT) — A group of activist women seeking access to the Priesthood Session at the 183rd Semiannual General Conference were turned away. The 200 women are part of a group called Ordain Women, which is lobbying the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to allow for the ordination of women. A BYU graduated founded the group last year after returning from a mission to Barcelona.

One man's story of how he came to understand the true meaning of Christ's commandment to love your neighbor and turn the other cheek.If you would have told me ten years ago that it was possible for me to form a genuine, lasting friendship with one of the protesters outside general conference, I would have questioned your testimony and standing in the Church. Perhaps I would have nodded my head and agreed that Jesus would have us love our enemies, but it wouldn’t have registered in my mind that actually doing so was possible or even expected. Instead, I would...

Mormon is allegedly a prophet-historian who was the native American believed by Mormons to have written the Book of Mormon – the main religious text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism). Mormonism is a religion less than two centuries old, but in this short time it has managed to accrue a long list of embarrassments which the church leaders would prefer were kept silent. These embarrassments range from textual inaccuracies to scandals in the life of the founder, Joseph Smith. Of all religions, it’s difficult to believe this one has caught on given the long...

(Salt Lake City, UT) — With ten deaths involving missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some are questioning the safety of the church’s youth. The “Salt Lake Tribune” asked the question of church officials, who said missionaries are safe and will continue to serve the church. The church noted three of the deaths were from natural causes, while four died from an illness. There are currently 75-thousand men and women serving the church on a mission worldwide, which is up 28-percent, primarily due to the church lowering the missionary age from 19 to 18.

The Great Apostasy For a time, the 12 Apostles led Jesus’ church (much of the New Testament shares their stories). But after a while, the people again rejected the Apostles, just as they had the prophets in the past, and the full truth of the gospel was lost and distorted. The authority to act in God’s name, which the Apostles held, was taken from the earth. This period of time lasted for centuries and is known as the Great Apostasy. While millions of good people lived and walked the earth during this time, Christ’s true church did not exist. No...

One of the Twelve Apostles in the New Testament, a son of Zebedee, and a brother of James. In his early life he was a fisherman (Mark 1:17–20). He is probably the unnamed disciple of John the Baptist mentioned in John 1:40. Later he received a call to be a disciple of Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:21–22; Luke 5:1–11). He wrote the Gospel of John, three epistles, and the book of Revelation. He was one of three who were with the Lord at the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:35–42), at the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:1–9), and in Gethsemane (Matt....

Rebecca Musser...19...was forced to marry Warren Jeffs' 85-year-old father

The Thai telecommunications conglomerate True is getting rave reviews worldwide for its latest spot, "Giving," which tells the story of a man unexpectedly rewarded for a lifetime of good deeds he performed without expecting anything in return.

You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the doctrine of salvation, please stay with us. CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question: Dear Dave and Tom: I have friends who are conservative Roman Catholics, and they just went through the experience of seeing their daughter become a Roman Catholic Buddhist. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms but it’s...

Every so often abortion activists cause a stir with prayers for abortion. The worst may have been when President Barack Obama asked God to bless the Planned Parenthood abortion business at the end of a speech this year. Now, from Iowa comes this: Iowa Democrat gubernatorial candidates join abortion activists in prayer for increased abortion access. “We pray for women who’ve been made afraid of their own power by their paternalistic religion.” They pray for the “blessing of choice.” This is truly sick. From the prayer: “We give thanks, oh Lord, for the doctors, both current and future, who provide...

The Wild Goose Festival — named after the Celtic imagery for the Holy Spirit—draws in aging Protestant Mainliners and disenchanted ex-evangelicals. The festival highlights what its apologists call “emergence Christianity,” but Wild Goose certainly does not shy away from liberal politics. [SNIP] Featured speaker Frank Schaeffer (outspoken critic of his father Francis’ legacy) was more direct: “Certainty is the enemy of the truth.” Indeed, many wild goslings boasted they were “seekers who haven’t found the answers,” but were “looking for companions on each of our respective faith journeys.” Wild Goose “elder” Vincent Harding addressed the opening invocation to “Mother-Father God,...

The age that saw the advent of Jesus Christ was a dark age rich in nature religions, superstitions, open intercourse with demons as well as philosophical and ethical systems encompassing the animism, sex worship and human sacrifice of the vast majority of the world to the Atomism (physical materialism) and pantheist Stoicism (spiritual materialism) of Greek nature sages, the Roman pantheon of deities and the Greek mystery religions. The darkness of sin was everywhere. Into this putrid cesspool of unfettered libido and perverted revelation came the "light that shines in darkness" (Isaiah 9:2; John 1:5), the Son of God, fully...

Remember: when you see the bitter apostate, you do not see only an absence of light, you see also the presence of darkness. Do not spread disease germs! - Boyd K. Packer This past Saturday, The New York Times published an article titled "Some Mormons Search the Web and Find Doubt." The article is about Hans Mattsson who was an Area Authority in the LDS church, and it discusses his crisis of faith. I admire his courage in speaking out about his issues with the church, and I think it is further evidence that doubts affect all types of members....

The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR) is bringing its annual FAIR Mormon Conference to Provo on Thursday and Friday. The organization, whose mission is to discuss and defend criticisms against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used to hold its annual conference in Sandy, but chose the Utah Valley Convention Center this year because of a growing audience. FAIR has seen increased interest recently, both within the church and from outsiders, as the Internet increases access to -- and questions about -- the entirety of church history. Daniel Peterson, an Arabic professor at Brigham Young University...

Ex-Scientologist Katie After divorcing Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes left the Church of Scientology. Though raised Catholic, she joined the religion upon dating Tom.

(Starts at about 8m45s)Cracks in the Mormon Dam. Some water already beginning to gush. Atheist LDS current mission presidents. Unbelieving return-MP’s. Doubting General Authorities. A General Authority that stops BYU’s NAMIR/FARMS from publishing a piece against the agnostic-in-longtime-LDS-sheeps-clothing John Dehlin. Daniel Peterson fired and FARMS abandoning unabashed apologetics. Mormonism’s greatest expert on the Book of Abraham, John Gee, says the LDS Church doesn’t stand or fall on the Book of Abraham, and has offered no credible apologetic for the fraud. Extremely few identifiable up-and-coming LDS apologists, and even most of those seem to have liberalized their Mormonism. LDS philosophers abandoning...

Roy Masters, founder and director, was born Reuben Obermeister to a Jewish family in London, England. At age 15 he worked at his uncle's diamond-cutting factory in Brighton after his father died. As a young boy he became interested in hypnotism. He added to his hypnotism techniques after studying African witchdoctor rites during his apprenticeship at South African diamond mines when he was 18. He came to America in 1949, at age 21, to lecture on diamonds. He legally changed his name to Roy Masters in 1954 (yet never acquired American citizenship) and eventually became a professional hypnotist claiming he...

Due to political pressure brought upon the LDS Church by the federal government over the issue of plural marriage, President Wilford Woodruff signed what has come to be known as The Manifesto, or Declaration 1. The Manifesto can be found following section 138 in the Doctrine and Covenants. This document was basically a promise to the United States stating that the LDS Church would submit to the laws of the land and desist from solemnizing plural marriages. The document, signed in 1890, also denied any accusations that the church was encouraging or performing any such marriages. However, despite this promise,...

Jehovah Witnesses have long been frowned upon regarding their approach. Their mission is the study of the Bible to gain enlightenment and to spread the word of the Bible or the "good news." They also teach of a Armageddon, which they claim is nearer than most think. The religion is fairly new compared to others and is based on Bible teachings of Charles Taze Russell who formed a Bible study group in 1870 and later founded the Bible Student movement comprised of "witnesses." It is based on intense study of their own version of the Bible called the New World...

A LABOUR politician has defended his beliefs in extra-terrestrial life - after claiming to have fathered a child with an alien. Married father-of-three Simon Parkes, who represents Stakesby on Whitby Town Council, said his wife had rowed with him after revealing he had a child called Zarka with an alien he refers to as the Cat Queen. The 53-year-old driving instructor said he has sexual relations with the alien about four times a year. “What will happen is that we will hold hands and I will say ‘I’m ready’ and then the technology I don’t understand will take us up...

Jehovah’s Witnesses have received global media attention for their child protection policies, which put children at risk and serve to protect pedophiles. It has been estimated that Watchtower policies are responsible for thousands of children being harmed. To protect these policies, and the image of the organization, Watchtower has been forced to pay out vast sums of money in settlements. When a child reports a case of abuse, the correct response would be to report the accusation to the proper, trained authorities for them to investigate as a matter of urgency. However, the Watchtower instructs elders to handle such accusations...

On the day of July 8, 1838 -- 175 years ago tomorrow -- the original "prophet" of the Church of Mormon, Joseph Smith, made up four "revelations" from the Mormon god: These are recorded in Doctrine & Covenants (numbers 117, 118, 119, & 120). Let's look at some of the verses in these: 117:12: I say unto you, I remember my servant Oliver Granger; behold, verily I say unto him that his name shall be had in sacred remembrance from generation to generation, forever and ever, saith the Lord."Of course, you all know Oliver Granger, right? ....Uh, right? Well, surely,...

And lo, it is written: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor thy neighbor’s seat… Unless that seat is being saved, apparently. Wayne Dodge, 51, was arrested Sunday following a violent row at a Mormon church that reportedly started over seat-saving. According to Deseret News, Dodge, a regular at the Meadows Ward LDS Church in Plain City, Utah, sat in a section of pews being reserved by a family who does not usually attend the ward. “There [were] some seats that were allegedly saved, and there was a disagreement over whether they were saved or not… This continued to...

St. George Mormon Temple Haunted? Did the Declaration of Independence signers appear as ghosts to a later Lds 'prophet'? Without saying his name, Mormon leaders and grassroots Mormons daily reference Wilford Woodruff when they interact with non-Mormons and the media. How so? Well, they like to tell others how polygamy is a supposed bygone of another era; how a certain Lds "prophet" in 1890 put the kabosh on it...or, at least, started a mainstream Mormon move toward monogamy. Yet, there's a little-known episode that this same Wilford Woodruff said that occurred in the 1870s -- before becoming the head "prophet"...

Although Joseph Smith said God had pronounced the completed translation of the plates as published in 1830 correct, many changes were made in later editions. There are at least 3,913 changes, and not all of them minor or merely grammatical. The LDS Church suggests that the changes are unimportant, but actual examination does not bear this out, especially when one considers that the Golden Plates were supposedly translated letter-by-letter by the power of God (H. of C. 1, pp. 54-55). Spelling or grammatical errors are one thing, but changes in doctrine and errors in consistency and common sense are quite...

June 29, 2013. 7:00 pm – open to the public. Salt Lake City, Utah. In June 2012, around over a hundred people showed up to support resignation from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormon or LDS church). This year, they are doing it again. Former and current members of the LDS church will be marching on Ensign Peak at 7pm on June 29, 2013, in a mass resignation event from the LDS church. This event means a lot to the people who are involved. Resigning from the church is a milestone for...

“For although a man may have many revelations, and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength, and sets at naught the counsels of God, and follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires, he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon him.”—Doctrine and Covenants 3:4Did Joseph Smith “boast in his own strength”?“I have more to boast of than ever any man had…A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man...

The Mormon Church has an ambivalent history with Christianity’s most iconic symbol, the cross. For about 70 years, the cross was generally tolerated within the church’s cultural fabric. However, the first decades of the 20th century initiated a slow but steady expression of disapproval of the cross; a criticism influenced by LDS leaders’ willingness to publicly declare the Roman Catholic Church as the “church of the devil” described in LDS scripture. “Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo,” (John Whitmer Books) by Michael G. Reed, is a slim but valuable volume on the history of the Mormons’ relationship...

The Word of God clearly teaches that in the last days just before the return of Christ for the saints there will be a falling away from the Truth... ...The words “falling away” in this text are old English words for an abandonment, a defection, a desertion or a departure from one’s faith. It is a forsaking of something once believed. An apostasy or falling away is leaving the principles of one’s faith as set forth in the Word of God and either compromising them or clearly abandoning them. In the Word of God, the words “falling away” is the...

Years ago...I had lunch with a conservative Protestant clergyman and his wife...Personally friendly and pleasant, they were nonetheless outspoken critics of Mormonism who frankly considered its claims about God “blasphemous.” Our conversation...turned to the ultimate fate of the unevangelized...To make the question specific, I proposed the hypothetical case of a medieval Chinese peasant who...had never traveled more than perhaps 20 miles from his home and who had never so much as encountered the name of Jesus. “He’s damned,” the clergyman said...I responded that such a fate seemed terribly unjust, since this Chinese peasant had never had a fair chance —...

Butch Cassidy is arguably one of the most infamous bandits of the Old West. His lucrative heists, daring schemes of tactical brilliance many years ahead of their time, wrested hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks, trains, and businesses—equivalent to multi-millions today. Only caught once on a charge of horse theft for which he served 18 months in jail, the wildly successful Cassidy earned himself such fame that pop culture today still knows his name. And he was a Mormon.A Mormon outlaw? It seems like it should be an oxymoron. Latter-day Saints take pride in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent,...

The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday that the LDS Church is expecting to hit a milestone of 85,000 missionaries in late 2013. This is half again as many missionaries as were serving before the Church made its landmark October 2012 announcement that the missionary age was being lowered, spurring thousands of young men and women to turn in their applications.

MHA Mormon History Association Preliminary Program Layton, Utah, Conference June 6-9, 2013 SNIP Friday, June 7, 2013 SNIP Janiece Johnson (University of Leicester, England): In Search of Reform: The Mountain Meadows Massacre Prosecution and Solving the Mormon Problem SNIP Patricia Lyn Scott (Salt Lake City, Utah): “The Wickedness of this Place is Dreadful”: A Presbyterian Teacher’s View of Fillmore, Utah, 1881-1885 SNIP Kenneth L. Alford (BYU-Provo): Saving Utah from Itself: The Grand Army of the Republic’s Anti-Polygamy Campaign SNIP

Dear Stacey: You have written demanding an apology for my recent characterization of the Mormon religion as "non-Christian." I am happy to write a public letter of apology to you and to the countless Mormon readers who responded negatively to my characterization. I am sorry that so many of my Mormon readers have brazenly accused me of ignorance of their religion and suggested that I read the Book of Mormon. I am sorry that they were unaware that I read the Book of Mormon back in 2006. I am sorry that the science of genetics has refuted claims made in...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Strong allegations against a former member of the Mormon Church in Menifee: The man is charged with sexually assaulting two teenagers, and police say there could be more victims. The suspect has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He apparently met the two teens while he was at the church. Murrieta resident Todd Mitchell Edwards, 49, is accused of sexually assaulting two teenage girls who reportedly went to the church where he was a bishop at one time. Edwards has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted he faces up to nine years in prison....

ROOSEVELT — A man responsible for teaching religious education classes to LDS high school students is facing criminal charges after investigators say he burglarized a home on a Sunday afternoon to steal prescription painkillers. Brian Dean Thacker was charged Wednesday in 8th District Court with burglary, a second-degree felony, theft, a class B misdemeanor, and possession of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor. On May 26, Thacker entered a home about 2 p.m. and took Lortab from a medicine cabinet, according to Duchesne County sheriff's detective Dela Rowley. A woman was upstairs in the home at the time and...

Click to enlarge… -9fe78609122b9aa3 Photo caption: Rabbi Edward Cohn of Temple Sinai, talks about compassion and open mindedness during a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Planned Parenthood health center at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans on Clairborne Avenue, May 22, 2013. ~ On Planned Parenthood’s plans to build a 7,000 sq ft abortion clinic in New Orleans, “the first Planned Parenthood clinic in Louisiana that will offer the procedure,” according to The Times-Picayune, May 22

...Bruce R. McConkie was a boy growing up in Monticello, Utah... ...the son grew to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1972 until his death in 1985, well respected and remembered for his written and spoken discourses in which he taught the doctrines of the gospel with clarity and power. The above...was recounted by Elder McConkie’s son Joseph Fielding McConkie on April 11 in an address in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in Salt Lake City for the monthly Men and Women of Faith Lecture Series sponsored by the Church History Library. His topic was...

College changes policies to settle Alliance Defending Freedom lawsuit Attorney sound bite: Travis BarhamSALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s Snow College has changed several policies to restore greater religious freedom to its campus and settle an Alliance Defending Freedom lawsuit filed in October of last year on behalf of a Christian student group. In light of the settlement and corrected policies, the group has voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit. College officials banned the Solid Rock Christian Club from including religious speech as part of a homecoming event. The college, located in the town of Ephraim, also denied the club benefits that it...

Some ran an additional eight miles beyond the marathon just to reunite with loved ones. Others were spared after receiving VIP tickets that placed them across the street from the explosions. All are grateful for the miraculous blessings that kept them safe and sound. Cell phones and VIP passes convinced Heather Ekola and her husband Josh that they had been uniquely blessed by the Lord in helping to be preserved from the savagery of the Boston Marathon bombings. The Springboro, Ohio, couple was among many Latter-day Saints participating in Monday’s world-renowned race who found themselves safe after the worst attack...

Jesus only did the Father's will ! Do not be disarmed by others any more or care for their concerns but be filled with MY will for you, for in this alone shall you be able to do all things. You see it is in this place where truly the flesh dies yet I remain and this IS complete surrender as true as the sky is blue for in my atmosphere all else pales to compare for My Glory even rests here ! I establish all things so where I AM you "MUST BE" and begin to inhabit for "I...

On April 6, 2013 Grant Palmer, former CES teacher and author of two outstanding books (1 & 2) on issues in the LDS church, released a statement through an anonymous blog about his meeting with mission presidents and a first quorum of the seventy member of the LDS church. Many many people have called the account fable and rumor. I’ve heard these experiences since last November, and Grant alluded to them (with the mission presidents) in the exmormon foundation conference (where he also mentioned my public resignation) last October (2012). Late Sunday (April 7), Grant reconfirmed to me personally that...

Editor Comment: Grant waited 6 months before releasing this report to the public because he wanted to make sure this is what the GA believed. In mid-October 2012, a returned LDS Mission President contacted me to arrange a meeting. Several days later, he called again and said that a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy also wished to attend. He said the General Authority would attend on condition that I not name him or repeat any stories that would identify him. He explained that neither of them, including the GA’s wife, believed the founding claims of the restoration...

SNIP Young women, their mothers and leaders recently participated in the annual Young Women meeting in the Conference Center and in thousands of meetinghouses across the world. The Church’s Young Women organization provides instruction, encouragement and support in living the gospel of Jesus Christ for teenage girls ages 12 to 17. SNIP The Young Women program emphasizes eight values — faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue — each represented by a different color, as in these flags...

I just wanted to share with you my story of grace so you can more fully understand why we do what we do. Rob Sivulka is definitely more on the truth end of things and I am on the grace end, but whatever the approach our goal is the same. I pray that you would read my testimony and not go by emotions, but by the facts. I know some of what I say will well up anger or frustration in some of you (it did in me when I was first confronted that Mormons are not Christian), but please...

The grand council of atheist Mormon bishops have met and codified the Creed of Practical Mormon Atheism, a list of things that both atheists and Mormons can largely affirm together: Even if Mormonism is false, it is still worth believing and ought not be refuted.Faith is ultimately irrational.Even if you don’t believe in God, you should still stay on the membership rolls and consider yourself a Mormon.If the LDS Church isn’t true, there is no God.How you live your life is more important than what you believe.I can’t believe in a God who demands worship.It doesn’t matter if it’s true....