Mormonism

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“No, the LDS church does not teach that!”

How many times have you tried to reason with a Mormon by showing them why the things they are being taught are false? Well, for one thing, not all Mormons believe exactly the same thing. Yes, it’s true. In fact,  have encountered Mormons who doubt the validity of the Book of Mormon. One visitor to this site claims to be a teacher at his local Mormon church and claims to have taught things that made his local authority get up and leave.

However, that dyed-in-the wool, LDS thru-and-thru Mormon who still clings to Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, still buys the whole “golden plates” story as truth, and who will defend with every fiber of his being, they will answer our claims about the history and teachings of the Mormon church with scorn because we are anti-Mormon, bigoted, etc. Therefore, let’s look at some of the things a Mormon will deny, and whether or not those things are true. This is but a small sample.

“The Mormon church has never taught polygamy!”

  • “The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy. Others attain unto a glory and may even be permitted to come into the presence of the Father and the Son; but they cannot reign as kings in glory, because they had blessing offered unto them, and they refused to accept them.” (Brigham Young, 8/19/1866, recorded in Journal of Discourses, vol. 11 p.269)

“The Mormon church does not teach we can become gods!”

From Gospel Principles, an official LDS teaching manual:

  • Since we could not progress further in heaven, our Heavenly Father called a Grand Council to present his plan for our progression (see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 348, 349, 365). We learned that if we followed his plan, we would become like him. We would have a resurrected body; we would have all power in heaven and on earth; we would become heavenly parents and have spirit children just as he does (see D&C 132:19-20). (This also refutes the idea that the Mormon church does not believe in a “Heavenly Mother”.)
  • When we lived with our Heavenly Father, he explained a plan for our progression. We could become like him, an exalted being.
  • Exaltation is eternal life, the kind of life God lives. He lives in great glory. He is perfect. He possesses all knowledge and all wisdom. He is the Father of spirit children. He is a creator. We can become like our Heavenly Father. This is exaltation. If we prove faithful to the Lord, we will live in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom of heaven. We will become exalted, just like our Heavenly Father. Exaltation is the greatest gift that Heavenly Father can give his children (see D&C 14:7).
  • Those who receive exaltation in the celestial kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ will receive special blessings. The Lord has promised, “All things are theirs” (D&C 76:59). These are some of the blessings given to exalted people: (2) They will become gods. (3) They will have their righteous family members with them and will be able to have spirit children also. These spirit children will have the same relationship to them as we do to our Heavenly Father. They will be an eternal family…(5) They will have everything that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have–all power, glory, dominion, and knowledge.

“The Mormon church does not teach that God the father had sex with Mary!”

  • “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father. Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was He begotten by the Holy Ghost.” (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 7)
  • “Jesus Christ is the Son of Elohim both as spiritual and bodily offspring; that is to say, Elohim is literally the Father of the spirit of Jesus Christ and also of the body in which Jesus Christ performed His mission in the flesh…” (First Presidency and Council of Twelve, 1916. Cited in Ensign. April 2002. p.13.)

“We are too Christians!”

  • The MYSTERY of Babylon the great, is mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, and it needs no prophetic vision, to unravel such mysteries. The old church is the mother, and the protestants are the lewd daughters…What prayers, what devotion, or what faith, ‘since the fathers have fallen asleep,’ has opened the heavens; has brought men into the presence of God; and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to an innumerable company of angels? The answer is, not any: `There is none in all christendom that doeth good; no, not one…All kingdoms but Daniel’s set up in the last days, must break to pieces. So success to the (divisions of christians): they will help hasten the latter-day glory. God and Mormonism forever! (Brigham Young, Christendom is Babylon, Times and Seasons, volume 6, Nauvoo, Illinois, Feb 15, 1845, p.810-811.)
  • Doctrine and Covenants 123:7–It is an imperative duty that we owe to God, to angels, with whom we shall be brought to stand, and also to ourselves, to our wives and children, who have been made to bow down with grief, sorrow, and care, under the most damning hand of murder, tyranny, and oppression, supported and urged on and upheld by the influence of that spirit which hath so strongly riveted the creeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies, upon the hearts of the children, and filled the world with confusion, and has been growing stronger and stronger, and is now the very mainspring of all corruption, and the whole earth groans under the weight of its iniquity.

The purpose of this post is not to “bash” Mormons, but rather to show them that they have not been told the truth about the history of what the former leaders taught and practiced.

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The smoldering ash heap of Ravi Zacharias Ministries.

ravi-zacharias DefCon has chronicled Ravi Zacharias’ downfall beginning with his first public compromise when he accepted an invitation to speak at the LDS temple in Salt Lake City but failed to make any distinction between the true Jesus Christ of the Bible and the demonically inspired false Christ of Mormonism. See Ravi Zacharias fails to preach the Gospel to the Mormons.

We then examined his further compromise in Ravi’s Descent where he accepted the condition to not pray in Jesus’ name at the National Day of Prayer coordinated by NDP chairwoman Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson of Focus on the Family which recently promoted the cult of Mormonism. Beginning to see the big picture yet?

Then we examined Ravi’s Crash and Burn as he not only accepted an invitation to speak at rank heretic Robert Schuller’s New Age ReThink conference, but that Ravi Zacharias also spoke favorably of Roman Catholic mystic Henri Nouwen, calling him “one of the greatest saints in recent memory.”

Now Slice of Laodicea and Apprising Ministries are reporting that not only will Ravi Zacharias not apologize or even back away from his endorsement of Henri Nouwen, but his ministry is defending his position. You can read the following letter from Ravi Zacharias Ministries in defense of Ravi’s endorsement of Nouwen by clicking here (PDF).

One of the most shocking parts of this letter written by Margaret Manning was her justification of Ravi’s compromise via the following statement:

“ . . . if it weren’t for the Catholic church you and I would not be here–nor would Christianity.”

Ravi Zacharias has become one of a long line of “public figure” Christians to compromise a little here and a little there until full blown apostasy is reached. What next Ravi, what next?

“Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.”

Roman Catholic mystic Henri Nouwen

Sabbatical Journey

Page 51, 1998 Hardcover Edition


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The epitome of a Mormon testimony.

This post is not intended to be insulting or demeaning, but is a glimpse into why it is so difficult to convince a Mormon to review the facts about Mormonism from a reasonable standpoint and apply logic to come to a conclusion.

As you will see from these two brief videos, a Mormon testimony usually requires no logic, evidence, or even cognitive reasoning; just feelings. This is why oftentimes the debate with a Mormon dissolves into, “I bear you my testimony . . . ” and “I know, because I know, because I know.”

Their regurgitating of this indoctrinated mantra “I bear you my testimony” is frequently employed when presented with the evidence that Mormonism is a false religion. This type of “testimony” reveals that their whole basis for belief is grounded on emotion and feelings at the exclusion of fact, reason, and logic.

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The shelf.

For those who enjoyed the previous post on the ten reasons Runtu can’t be a Mormon anymore (see here), I’ve found another great post from him that I’ve entitled “The Shelf.“

The “shelf” is where Mormons who can’t help but notice the huge errors of Mormonism are told to put their “questions.” They are instructed to shelve it away until one day the Mormon god reveals it to them.

Runtu published a great post on this “shelf” that I wanted to share with you (and the comments left on the original post are worth reading too). He originally entitled his piece Why I don’t envy Mormon apologists:

When I was an “apologist” (read: rationalizer) for Mormonism, I used to talk about the “shelf.” You know, there were things that we couldn’t quite explain, so we put them on a shelf, figuring that eventually God would sort it all out, and we’d see how everything fit together.

Somewhere along the line, the shelf collapsed, and I’m happy to say I don’t have a shelf anymore. Once you acknowledge that Mormonism is not what it claims to be, there is nothing about the religion and its claims that is so difficult to explain that it must go on the shelf until God explains it. But for the apologists, [expletive deleted], what a shelf. To believe in Mormonism you have to believe that:

  • A young guy who made his living by finding buried treasure (of course, he never found any) by putting a special rock in a hat could miraculously translate ancient records using the same rock and the same hat.
  • Ancient golden plates really did exist, although only members of the young man’s immediate family and close friends ever said they saw them, and the plates weren’t actually used in the “translation” process.
  • This same young man was persecuted for saying he had seen God the Father and Jesus, whereas no one, not even his family, noted his First Vision, and when “persecution” came, it was for the aforementioned rock in hat thing.
  • The record he translated speaks of large numbers of pre-Christian Christians who lived in the Americas, writing in Hebrew and a form of Egyptian, building Jewish temples, making steel swords and metal chains, and riding horses–they did all of this and yet left no trace whatsoever of their culture.
  • This record parallels almost exactly early nineteenth-century beliefs about the Mound Builders (a white, possibly Hebraic Christian, race that was destroyed by the evil Indians) in its descriptions of warfare, religion, culture, and technology, yet these parallels are merely coincidental.
  • The young man was commanded by an angel with a drawn sword to take teenagers and married women as his polygamous wives, but he was extremely careful not to tell his lawful wife, Emma, (or the public, for that matter) about these “marriages.”
  • He translated the Book of Abraham from papyrus scrolls that not only have nothing to do with Abraham but are from the wrong time period. But that’s OK, because, despite the direct translations of three of the illustrations, we are told that the real scrolls are missing.
  • The young man, after founding a religion, never worked again, except to run his church, yet lived off the largesse of his followers and a lot of debt. But, we are told that he got no gain from his employment as prophet.
  • This man incorrectly translated a Greek psaltery and some bogus brass plates, yet we are to believe that he really could translate ancient languages through his rock in the hat.

There’s a lot more, but just these few things seem so patently obvious that I am glad I don’t have make excuses for them anymore. What did you have on your shelf?

Again, thanks for your candor, Runtu.

– Pilgrim

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Why Runtu can’t be a Mormon anymore.

I wanted to share with you Runtu’s top ten list of reasons why he says he can no longer be a Mormon.

10. The Book of Abraham turns out to be a common Egyptian funeral text called the Breathing Permit of Horus.
9. Anachronisms and clear plagiarisms in the Book of Mormon.
8. Joseph Smith’s history of claiming to be able to find buried treasure by looking at a rock in a hat, the same method he would later use to “translate” the Book of Mormon.
7. The wholesale stealing of Masonic rites for Joseph’s inspired temple ceremony.
6. Joseph’s practice of sending men on missions and then “marrying” their wives as soon as they had left town; see, for example, the story of Marinda Johnson Hyde.
5. Joseph’s practice of “marrying” teenage girls behind his wife’s back and promising eternal life to parents of teenagers for their consent.
4. Widespread use of church funds to enrich church leaders, from the days of the Kirtland Safety Society to Brigham Young and beyond.
3. The Mountain Meadows Massacre.
2. Racism, sexism, and homophobia.
1. Most of all, the church’s pattern of hiding all of these things. If you grew up Mormon, you were never told any of these things.

They’re all true. And I won’t be a part of that anymore.

Thank you for sharing, Runtu.

Sincerely,

– The Pilgrim

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How do you read Romans 1:16?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes . . . Romans 1:16

How you read Romans 1:16 tells a lot about you. Which of the following best resembles how you interpret the text?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel (the death burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior), for it (the preaching of that gospel and absolutely nothing else) is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (not a superficial shallow mental ascent, but a complete dependence and trust upon Christ) . . .

– Christian

For I am not ashamed of the gifts of the spirit, for they are proof of the power of God and proof of your salvation to everyone who believes . . .

-Charismaniac

For I am not ashamed of pleading for money, for sowing your faith seed offering is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes . . .

-Word of Faith Charismaniac

For I am not ashamed of Mary, the Pope, and the Mother Church, for they are the power of God and the only way to salvation to everyone who believes and receives the sacraments, attends meritorious masses, is baptized, keeps the law, does good works, purchases indulgences, endures purgatory, etc. . . .

– Roman Catholic

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of the New Earth that we peddle door to door, for the Watchtower is the only ones who speak for God and is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes and exhaustively works their tails off for the Watchtower almost every waking hour of the day for their entire life to obtain Jehovah’s favor, which is not guaranteed . . .

– Jehovah’ Witness

For I am not ashamed of the restored gospel, even though I am ashamed and embarrassed about our church history and the things our church prophets have said (that was just their opinion and they were not speaking for God when they said all those awful things) for the Melchizadek Priesthood which only we have is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes and follows the following conditions as outlined in Gospel Principles pages 303-304 (1997 edition): 1.) We must be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. 2.) We must receive the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. 3.) We must receive the temple endowment. 4.) We must be married for time and eternity.In addition to receiving the required ordinances, the Lord commands all of us to– 1. Love and worship God. 2. Love our neighbor. 3. Repent of our wrongdoings. 4. Live the law of chastity. 5. Pay honest tithes and offerings. 6. Be honest in our dealings with others and with the Lord. 7. Speak the truth always. 8. Obey the Word of Wisdom. 9. Search out our kindred dead and perform the saving ordinances of the gospel for them. 10. Keep the Sabbath day holy. 11. Attend our Church meetings as regularly as possible so we can renew our baptismal covenants by partaking of the sacrament. 12. Love our family members and strengthen them in the ways of the Lord. 13. Have family and individual prayers every day. 14. Honor our parents. 15. Teach the gospel to others by word and example. 16. Study the scriptures. 17. Listen to and obey the inspired words of the prophets of the Lord. Finally, each of us needs to receive the Holy Ghost and learn to follow his direction in our individual lives.

– Mormon

For I am not ashamed of the value found in all religions regardless of whether or not they conflict with one another on core issues , for whatever truth is for you, it is the power of God, gods, goddess, no god, or whatever you believe for a better world to everyone who believes or chooses not to believe . . .

– Universalist Unitarian

For I am not ashamed of shameless church marketing, for the end justifies the means and pragmatism is the power of God for filling seats on Sundays to watch our awesome worship rock band followed by our hip and and oh, so cool pastor and we’re also giving away free gas cards to everyone who attends our local campus . . .

– Seeker-Friendly

For I am not ashamed of supporting any socialist cause or liberal issue, for a woman’s right to choose and a homosexual’s right to marry is the power of self–empowerment for salvation from the oppressive chains that the white, Anglo-Saxon, Capitalist, fascists have placed on the backs of everyone in this nation . . .

– Liberal

Romans? Is that in the Bible?

– Emergent / Emerging

** Update ** This post was picked up by Todd Friel and featured on Way of the Master Radio. To find out more, click here.

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Why don’t they get it?

Have you ever been perplexed by those who can’t seem to grasp simple axioms? Do you long for the days when people exercised reason and logic? Do you rack your brain trying to figure out how someone can fail to see something that’s so obvious?

Well, I discovered some great insight from the Scriptures on why this happens and I’ve succinctly written it below for your edification. I hope that it helps you when you are banging your head on the wall because the person you’re talking to seems completely incapable of accepting even elementary truths. When you find yourself at this point I encourage you to refer to the following:

One’s heart and mind has to first be opened by God to even be able to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:25, Acts 16:14, 1 John 5:20) because the carnal man cannot accept the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14) and even as he’s perishing he considers the preaching of the cross to be foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18).

It is God and God alone who grants the repentance necessary that leads to the knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). No one gets to the Father except through the Son (John 14:6) but no one can come to the Son unless the Father draws them (John 6:44) and grants it (John 6:65).

The Son also draws men unto Himself (John 12:32) and we don’t control who is drawn because all that the Father gives to Christ will come (John 6:37, 6:39, 17:2, 17:24).

When we keep these essential truths present in our mind we will be less likely to try to argue, debate, or manipulate someone into Heaven.

For your convenience I’ve incorporated the above into the printable Bible Reference Notes found here.


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I didn’t realize Mormons and Word of Faith Charismatics had so much in common.

Do you see any similarities between Mormonism and Charismatics in the following quote from LDS prophet Brigham Young? Aren’t these the same “symptoms” that Charismatics cite as proof of being baptized in the Holy Spirit (and thus, salvation)? Of course, to be fair, the Charismatics don’t believe a person’s blood literally changes when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, but I’m confident that most Mormons don’t believe that now either (darn those advances in science and human anatomy not foreseen by LDS prophets of old).

“Again, if a pure Gentile firmly believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and yields obedience to it, in such a case I will give you the words of the Prophet Joseph—’When the Lord pours out the Holy Ghost upon that individual he will have spasms, and you would think that he was going into fits.’ Joseph said that the Gentile blood was actually cleansed out of their veins, and the blood of Jacob made to circulate in them; and the revolution and change in the system were so great that it caused the beholder to think they were going into fits. If any of the Gentiles will believe, we will lay our hands upon them that they may receive the Holy Ghost, and the Lord will make them of the house of Israel. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, Page 269, 1855

Good thing Brigham Young was just giving his opinion and not speaking as a prophet when he quoted Joseph Smith who must have been giving his opinion and not acting as a prophet when he said this!

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Download your free cult flyer here.

It was the spring of 2006 and I kept seeing Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses going door to door throughout the neighborhoods of my community. It got me thinking: What are the local Christian Churches doing to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to combat the spread of false doctrine in our community? Additionally I pondered about what I could personally do.

I then came across the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry website (www.CARM.org). They had a downloadable cult warning flyer. Eureka! This was exactly what I didn’t know I was looking for and exactly what we needed here in my town. I quickly went to work on my own version of a flyer and several months later, the new flyer was birthed.

Now, in the spring of 2008, I have updated and produced the second version of the cult flyer and am now offering it for you to download for free to distribute in your neighborhood.

Flyer: Who’s Really Knocking at Your Door?

For those who prefer a more professional look, a brother in the Lord from Australia produced a professional version of the flyer for me to make available to all of you. You can download it here.

I also encourage you to download my free tracts to insert in each of the flyers. There are three different tracts (front and back) on one sheet of paper.
Tract: 3 Things You Won’t Find in the Bible  /  Are You Self-Righteous?  /  Priceless
Simply print the cult flyer on 11 x 14 paper (front and back). Then print the tract (also front and back on 11 x 14 paper). Cut the tract into three, fold the cult flyer and insert one tract into each flyer. Then put a hole in the top with a hole punch, put a rubber band through it and it’s ready to be hung on doors.
I am currently working on six new tracts to download and insert in the cult flyer and will make them available in the near future.

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There really are only two religions

The religion of God, and the religion of Satan. There may be 80,000 religions other than Christianity. But really, they are ONE religion–the religion of man’s ability to save himself (or, really, his lack of ability).

Found the following video over at Symphony of Scripture. John MacArthur explains it much better than I ever could (so what else is new?)

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Faith vs Works (Part 1): The introduction.

Faith vs Works (Part 1): The introduction.

I’m in a rather unique position with this blog. I get hit from both sides of the Faith vs Works debate. On the one side are the Catholics, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim that faith itself is insufficient without man working for his salvation (funny how these three groups tend to have so much in common). On the other side are the cheap-grace, easy-believism, lukewarm crowd who love to label me judgmental and a legalist when I say that there is not only a Biblical mandate for the law, holiness, and good works, but that these will be evident in the life of a true Believer.

Scripture is crystal clear on this issue, that we are indeed saved by faith apart from works and the law. This is commonly known as “alone.” To deny Scripture’s clear teaching on Sola Fide takes an unwillingness to part from former presuppositions and religious indoctrination.

With that said, I thought I’d cite numerous texts that deal directly with our salvation being through faith alone (Part 2); what the Bible says about those who rely on the law and their good works for salvation (Part 3); what place the Law and “good works” play in our faith (Part 4); and my conclusion (Part 5).

I am not posting this five-part series in an attempt to win any arguments or even to create more (although some will be inclined to do so). I will let the Scriptures speak for themselves with minimal commentary on my part. If you have reservations about their context, I encourage you to research each one for yourselves.

If I can win 1,000 arguments but not change one mind, heart, and soul, I have done nothing. I am hoping that with the following posts I can put to rest the issue some may be struggling with when it comes to Faith vs Works. Thank you for your faithful readership and as always, your comments are welcome.

(All scriptures are quoted from the New American Standard Bible).

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

PART FOUR

PART FIVE