Posted on 10/25/2010 6:01:00 AM PDT by Colofornian
SPIRITUALISM AND MORMONISM WERE BOTH BORN in the "burned over district" in upper New York State within a generation of each another and teach that it is possible for the living to speak with the dead. Even though Spiritualists and Mormons have often recited these and other similarities—a hope for communitarian reform, a belief in humanity's perfectibility and eternal progress, experimentation with marriage relationships...
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Orthodox ministers...also found themselves agreeing that the apparitions claimed by these new religious movements were either bogus14 or inspired by the devil.15 Such comparisons and criticisms created a dilemma for followers of both movements.16
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Godbe and Harrison believed that the transition from Mormonism to Spiritualism would not be difficult because the Mormon church itself was "spiritualistic."43...Even one of the Mormon church's twelve apostles, George Q. Cannon, seemed to agree that similarities existed. In 1869, he revealed he had read a book early in his life which contained doctrine he thought was "written by the Latter-day Saints."45 According to Cannon, The argument of the writer was in favor of communication with the spirit world, through the ministering of angels, being as possible in these days as at former times. He used precisely similar arguments to those used by the Elders of this Church; and quoted largely from the Bible to prove that it had been quite common for men in ancient days to have such communications...46
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Another famous British medium...William Stainton Moses,59 whose book Spirit Teachings60 has been called the "Bible of British Spiritualism,"61 expressed admiration for Utah and the Mormons in 1882 in an editorial published in Light, a Spiritualist newspaper published in London. After reading a book about the Mormons by Phil Robinson62 published the same year he became convinced that Mormons were, like the Shakers, "instinctive Spiritualists."63
(Excerpt) Read more at dialoguejournal.com ...
The 1850s: The Rise of Spiritualism and its Linkages to Mormonism
The October Other-World Series:
The 1840s: The Nauvoo Pentagrams
The 1830s: The Occult and the Restoration Story: Joseph Smith and RLDS/LDS Origins
The Spirit World, Our Next Home
Are ghosts among us? Many believe in spirits, but churches offer stern warnings
The "familiar spirit" in 2 Nephi 26:16
The early 1800s:
JOSEPH SMITH, JR: Founder and first "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator" (1805-1844)
JOSEPH SMITH’S INVOLVEMENT WITH MAGIC, MASONRY, AND THE OCCULT
GOD-MEN AND SPIRITUAL VEGETABLES: The Occult Worldview of Mormonism
George Q. Cannon was "first counselor" (highest ranking Mormon next to their "prophet") to four, count 'em four, Lds "prophets."
It’s another anti-mormon day on FR.
Even more today?!??!
Going for some kind of record?
I challenge you to post 100 threads against Mormonism today, come one let's see you do it.
That is obviously what FreeRepublic is built for.
I am rooting for you.
Come on! 100 threads against Mormonism in one day! I know it is a stretch but you can do it!
go. go! Go. Go! GO GO! GO! GO!
Undecided readers,
If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you will notice a pattern. There’s an anti-Mormon group of people here that spends a great deal of their time attacking the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They post regurgitated propaganda on an almost daily basis.
They have a misguided obsession. You can witness many different tactics employed that you might find quite interesting. The straw man argument is a big favorite and is frequently preceded by cherry-picking quotes or other material. After the “quotation” the attacker will misrepresent what has been said or what was meant and then attack their own interpretation.
Another favorite is posting scripture or statements which on their own really present no dilemma. They make something out of nothing while never bringing up a single objection that hasn’t been addressed a hundred times before.
Sometimes they cruise the headlines of the day seeking any story that might be twisted into making the Church look bad. Anything will do, just watch the progression of posts following it and see what I mean.
After reading their posts, I invite you to seek the truth about whatever “issue” they seem to be “revealing” or “exposing”. I promise that if you do so with honest intent, the “ahah” moments you will have will be many and frequent. You will start to recognize the tactics employed to cleverly twist and attack and will likely chuckle the more you see. In actuality, there’s nothing new here. It’s all been addressed many times before.
Here’s a few links to get your started from a different viewpoint. I have found that the vast majority of the “issues” brought up can be found and addressed at http://www.fairlds.org/ but here’s more:
http://scriptures.lds.org/
http://www.lds.org
http://www.fairlds.org/
http://www.mormonapologetics.org/
http://www.mormonwiki.com/Main_Page
http://www.lightplanet.com/response/index.html
http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDS_Intro.shtml
http://www.answeringantimormons.com/index.htm
http://promormon.blogspot.com/
Now you will likely notice the “you never address our points” posts pop up as usual. All after providing the answers just as you have here. Will you wear blinders too? Seek truth. Find out for yourself.
(All they are missing is their cheerleader uniforms)
So tell us why do anecdotal ghost-spirit stories show up in BYU curricula for freshmen taking genealogy courses?
Or Lds Sunday School lessons?
Or 7-page Lds handouts at the temple dedication in San Diego in 1993?
Or several books by Lds authors like John Heinerman and Duane Crowther?
*****
An Open Letter to Mormons who are reading this thread...
If you peruse the Free Republic religion forums you
will notice a pattern. There’s a group of Christians
who spend a great deal of time posting from Official
Mormon Sources - both the Book of Mormon as well as
Mormon Prophets and Church materials.
You will also notice that many of these Christians
are former Mormons who have left Mormonism and come
to know the Biblical Jesus Christ and His Gospel of Grace.
They have a passion to reach other Mormons to share what
they learned about Salvation by grace and apart from
human works. Part of this process is by necessity, negative.
To correct error, you must identify the error and explain how
it contradicts the truth.
Since you already believe in truth and falsehood, I’m
not telling you anything you don’t already know. Something
cannot be true when it contradicts something else that is
true. One must be false.
Of course, they are attacked regularly by a very small
group of self-styled defenders of Mormonism who are
zealous, but have little knowledge beyond what the Mormon
Church tells them.
You will notice that these mormons cannot identify ANY:
… Facts
… Evidence
… Logical support
... that any reasonable person could examine and conclude
that Mormonism is true.
They must content themselves with posting links from
the same official LDS sources that the Christians
quote.
Have you ever wondered why there are no facts that
can be verified? No evidence that supports the claims
of mormonism? No logical argument that supports the
claims of mormonism?
Every spade of dirt turned over in the Holy Land adds to
the facts, evidence and logical argument in support of
the Bible. Every spade of dirt turned over in America
fails to find any facts, evidence or basis for a logical
argument in support of mormonism.
If mormonism is true, there should be all three.
Right?
Yet none of those things exists to support mormonism.
None.
Why?
They do try to pass their feelings off as truth, which
of course, they cannot be, since they are subjective.
People deserve more than feelings, failure to respond,
and more official links that themselves contain no
facts, evidence, logical argument, etc.
The best the group of mormons have been able to do
is construct ad hominem attacks against Christians,
which is always a sign that they have no facts,
evidence of logical arguments.
You have certainly witnessed this here many times as
you read these threads, so I am not telling you
anything you haven’t verified with your own eyes.
After reading both sides on this thread and others,
you may very well be wondering about what you were
taught when you joined the LDS church.
You also may be wondering how to resolve the lack
of facts, evidence and illogical nature of Mormon
claims.
Many have approached those of us who are Christians
asking where to find out more and some, even, to ask
how to leave the Church and learn more about Christ’s
Gospel of Grace. How to get off the human works treadmill
and come to know the joy of salvation by grace through
faith. We’ve been happy to answer questions and share how
to know the Biblical Christ.
Many, after much honest examination of the facts, soul-
searching and wrestling, have left the LDS group to
pursue knowing the real, Biblical Christ and to accept
His Gospel of Grace.
We invite you to take a first step. If mormonism is true,
it should withstand thorough examination, right? If it is
false, it will fail the test of your mind and heart.
Christ identified the Greatest Command as “Loving the Lord
your God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul and ALL YOUR MIND.
Here is a chance to begin fulfilling His command:
Here are a few links to get you started in your quest
to love God with ALL your mind and come to know the
Biblical Christ.
http://www.irr.org/mit/default.html
http://www.exmormonsforjesus.org/
http://4mormon.org/ex-mormon.php
http://www.exmormon.org/
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/
We also invite you to private freepmail any or even
every Christian on this thread to ask questions about
the concerns you find. We will always do our best to
directly answer your questions with facts, evidence
and logical support from the Bible.
There is a wonderful God of Love and Grace who offers
you salvation by both - and apart from “all you can do”.
Gifts don’t cost anything, or they are not free.
There is the gift of salvation, set aside for you to
respond to. Today is the day.
best,
ampu
*****
I have a question for you. Lucifer/Satan was cast out of heaven and damned to hell for eternity for believing that he could be God. Adam and Ever fell from grace for wanting to be like God. The Mormons believe, like Satan did, that man can ascend to be equal to God. Does that scare you that Mormons fall for the same sins that Satan did and the results will be the same?
If it works for your cause, then keep at it.
Nice list, they hate it when you post. There are some really nice sites on that list. We just had the daughter of a rather famous protestant anti-mormon minister (now deceased) to church on Sunday. She made the mistake of running into too many really nice Mormons in her 30 year career. In fact, my wife’s first introduction to Mormonism was at her father’s church by some ex-mormons for christ. Needless to say, the anti-mormon rants did not match her experience with LDS people in my wife’s professional circles. So, she tried to find out why the discrepancy.
Nice list, they hate it when you post. There are some really nice sites on that list. We just had the daughter of a rather famous protestant anti-mormon minister (now deceased) to church on Sunday. She made the mistake of running into too many really nice Mormons in her 30 year career. In fact, my wife’s first introduction to Mormonism was at her father’s church by some ex-mormons for christ. Needless to say, the anti-mormon rants did not match her experience with LDS people in my wife’s professional circles. So, she tried to find out why the discrepancy.
So true. Also interesting is the follow up posts to mine claiming silly things like no logic, evidence etc has been provided. I guess they think someone will be fooled into not looking.
Halloween is next Sunday,,,
Mormonism is akin to the celebration of that day,,,
The spiritualism, witchcraft, ghosts, demons/goblins, trick-or-treat...
and of course “the mostest sincere pumpkin patch” for the Great Pumpkin to appear in...
Out west, 'twas happening, too:
1850s: The Evil Spirit Haunting of the Salt Lake City Tabernacle -- Even During Broad Daylight!
"Well, these evil spirits are ready to prompt you. Do they prompt us? Yes, and I could put my hands on a dozen of them while I have been on this stand; they are here on the stand; Could we do without the devils? No, we could not get along without them. They are here, and they suggest this, that, and the other." Brigham Young, JoD, 3:369, June 22, 1856
Brigham claiming he couldn't "do" without his dozen or so devils prompting him in broad daylight in the Lds Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle!!!
That´s it. Thanks.
Wanted to ping you based upon your comment on spiritualism made yesterday...if you wanted to repeat it here...and possibly add to it.
Mormonism is akin to the celebration of that day,,,
The spiritualism, witchcraft, ghosts, demons/goblins, trick-or-treat...
and of course “the mostest sincere pumpkin patch” for the Great Pumpkin to appear in...
are you OK?
You know, not once have I seen mormons here try to bolster support for the bom by claiming it has a ‘familiar spirit’. Wonder why
But; it's ACTUAL Mormon HISTORY!
How can THAT be against...?
Oh...
Wait....
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