Friday, June 27, 2008

My understanding of the Mormon religion


Yesterday we had two young men from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints drop in for a short visit to speak with us about their beliefs, hoping to convert us. I had spoken with them on numerous occasions since first running into them at my mother's house.
There was nothing those men could say that could get me to change my mind about what I believe, but I was interested in learning a bit more about the Mormons. Here is a small breakdown of their religion, and I apologize if I make any errors. (I’m truly sorry if I offend anyone during this post; I am just writing what I believe.)

In the early 1800's, a man known as Joseph Smith claimed to have gone into the wilderness to pray to The Lord about which church to join. He claimed that Jesus Christ and God came to him in a vision and told him to start his own church and was later visited by an Angel named Moroni.
Moroni leads him to some gold tablets written in an old Egyptian language; the tablets were said to contain history of people who migrated from Jerusalem to America between 600BC-AD419.
The Tablets were later published into what is now known as The Book of Mormon.
He was given strict instructions not to show anyone the tablets, and when he had finished translating, Moroni took them back to heaven. (Convenient huh?)

There has been evidence that Joseph claimed that God sanctioned plural marriage calling it ‘Celestial’ marriage. The ‘Celestial’ Marriage was revealed years later when he showed interest in several other females within the group.
He proposed to several women, and a few of them already had husbands, but he made it clear that ‘Celestial’ marriages took precedent over earthly marriages, being on a higher plane!
This created problems with the members of the church who were married to these women, not to mention his own wife.
The husbands who were upset about this new development challenged him and bought a printing press which they used to attack Joseph.
He was shortly arrested, charged with violating the First Amendment, after he sent a group of his followers to destroy the printing press.
He was killed in jail after 'Gentiles,' as the non-believers had been dubbed, charged the jail and shot and killed him.

The Bible is used to a small extent, but the most important book is, of course, The Book of Mormon. The Pearl of Great Price is also a well known book written by Joseph Smith. The book has 5 sections, and one of them, called The Book of Abraham, was supposedly a result of some papyri he bought and translated, which had to do with Abraham's journey into Egypt. Some things were taken out of that book and moved into Doctrine & Covenants. The Doctrine & Covenants was a two part book which contained basic doctrine, which has been removed, and detailed accounts of the revelations received by numerous members.
There is also a book known as the Journal of Discourses which is a 26-chapter collection of sermons by very early leaders. The Journal is a very controversial book for several topics: the blood atonements, Negro doctrine, Plural marriages, and the Adam-God theory.
The LDS has claimed that The Journal is not an official publication!

There are a few verses I would like to point out, which I have found from several of these books.

Jesus is the brother of Satan (this is revealed in the Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses 4:1-4 and affirmed by Brigham Young in the Journal of Discourses, 13:282)



I have searched the Bible and have yet to come across any verses that tells us that Jesus and Satan are brothers, so I must ask myself: could I have missed a verse in the Bible that talks about Jesus and Satan being brothers, or is this something new that God forgot to put it into the Bible, or better yet, did someone add it years later without having any proof? I don't know about anyone else, but I must go with the latter of the three, since it makes more sense to me.


When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one his wives, with him. He helped to make and organized this world. He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days! About whom holy men have written and spoken—He is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom we have to do” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 1:50)


I have to wonder where they came up with this information, since the Bible makes a clear distinction between God and Adam. There is also no evidence of Adam being the Arcangel or having many wives.
" And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and a man became a living soul. Genesis 2-7
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Genesis 2-8

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of Man. Genesis 2 21-23

These are several of the many verses which make a distinction between God and Adam.

Jesus also married Mary and Martha and the other Mary at Cana of Galilee, “Whereby he could see his seed, before he was crucified” (Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, 4:259; 2:82)

I would be interested in being shown where this verse is located.


We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion ( The New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory ( The Pearl of Great Price; The articles of faith 10)

I am curious as to why only ten out of the twelve tribes are being restored, and why the new Jerusalem, Zion, is going to be built in North America.

In Mormon theology, there are three heavens; the Telestial, the Terrestrial, and the Celestial:

“Most adults” will go to the Telestial kingdom and that it is composed of the “the endless hosts of people sensual, and devilish; who have chosen the vain philosophies of the world rather than accept the testimony of Jesus; who have been liars and thieves, sorcerers and adulterers, blasphemers and murders” (Mormon Doctrine, 1966, 778)

The Second kingdom (the Terrestrial) will be inhabited by Christians who did not accept the Mormon message, Mormons who did not live up to their church’s requirements, and men of good will of other religions who rejected the revelations of the Latter-day Saints (Mormon Doctrine, 1966, 784)
The highest or Celestial heaven is itself divided into three levels. Only this highest level is godhood or the possession of a kingdom for one’s self and one’s family to be gained. This particular estate has as its prerequisite the candidate’s having been sealed by celestial marriage in a Mormon temple while upon the earth. Even in the celestial kingdom, godhood is a by slow progression, and in the end each who becomes a god will, with his family rule and populate a separate planet of his own.

I'm aware that the Journal of discourses is no longer considered an official document, but it was written by their founder and was once considered true.
I also can't help but notice how contradicting The Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants are to The Bible, which they claim to be the inspired word of God as well.


The Mormon's believe their president to be a living prophet and that God has granted them the priesthood, which has allowed them to once again gather 12 apostles.
I was also surprised they were unsure of why there were twelve apostles in the Bible.
They were also under the impression that Paul and Peter preach the same gospel, which we showed them to be wrong, but it made no difference to them. They don't believe to be Jewish, but they put themselves under the law and require signs and wonders.

I know it might be hard to believe but we weren't slightly rude or pushy, but we refused to sit and be quiet while they tried to tell us something which they couldn't show us in the Bible.
I would like to think if God wanted us to know something; He would have included it in the Bible which is his inspired word. Right?!














1 comment:

DrillerAA said...

You are absolutely right! God has given us all of the information that we need to have a relationship with Him in the pages of His inspired Word. You have correctly identified some of the major issues between Mormonism and the Bible.