Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

[ThaBrownBeast]

What do u guys think about this?

[Hooah101]

not a good thing.

[ThaBrownBeast]

can u expand on this? I'm a member of this church, some things I don't agree with certain things in this church but overall, it is very family oriented, everyone is very sincere and spiritual...

[Hooah101]

Dr. David Reagan of Lamb and Lion Ministries.
[ QUOTE ]
Oh what a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to deceive." This old adage would be a perfect epitaph inscribed on the tombstone of Joseph Smith. What started out as a profiteering scheme, by a young man known for his occult activities and tall tales, has now become a multi-billion dollar religious organization known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) whose main headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Today, it influences millions of people and is trying desperately to present itself as part of mainline Christianity. But what is it really?

Mormon Theology
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the Mormon church, is a well organized, highly-controlling, aggressive religious movement that is out to convince the world that they have a corner on "the truth" about God. They use door-to-door missionaries, friendship evangelism, and slick TV advertising to promote their world view, as well as the Book of Mormon as "another testament of Jesus Christ." Some of their distinctive doctrines include the following:

Men have the potential to become gods with their own worlds to rule


Joseph Smith, not Jesus, holds the keys to the last dispensation


People have existed eternally


Adam was given conflicting commandments in the Garden of Eden and was suppose to fall


The Holy Ghost is spirit, but God the Father and Jesus both have bodies of flesh


Lucifer was the "spirit brother" of Jesus


Christ’s death brought "universal resurrection" to all, but each man must now earn his place in heaven


Couples married in a Mormon temple ceremony are married forever


The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one true church

It doesn’t seem to bother the leaders of Mormonism that the Bible refutes all of their doctrines listed above and others not listed here. Neither do they seem concerned about defending Joseph Smith who spoke numerous false prophecies, took over fifty wives, was a first rate con-artist caught up in treasure seeking, freemasonry, and witchcraft, and died ignobly in an old fashioned shoot-out after being arrested in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. Strangely, even when their own Mormon archeological professors at Brigham Young University question and refute the Book of Mormon, the church simply fires them, and goes on as though all is well.

They have become an ideological movement based on a fable. Many of the inner core of Mormonism have bought into the myth and nothing short of a change of heart in the leadership will alter that. As author Fawn Brodie said in her book No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, "The moving power of Mormonism was a fable — one that few converts stopped to question, for its meaning seemed profound and its inspiration was contagious."

A False Gospel
What those who defend Mormon teachings often fail to realize is that their doctrine has perverted the gospel of Christ. Paul told the Galatians that if anyone, even an "angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8). Joseph Smith claimed that Moroni, an "angel from heaven," revealed to him the hidden location of the manuscript of the Book of Mormon. From this revelation, and the latter ones that inspired the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrines and Covenants (D&C), Smith supposedly restored the real gospel of Jesus Christ.

This gospel that the Mormons promote is quite different from that of the biblical model. The Mormon gospel alters the identity and preeminence of Jesus Christ, emphasizes works over grace, justifies the fall of mankind, and elevates the station of the individual to possible godhood. This is a total corruption of the gospel taught by Paul and the other authors of the Bible. If the Apostles Paul, Peter, James, and John were alive today, they would be using every means they had to fight the perversion of the gospel promoted by the Mormon church.

A Strange New Trend
An amazing new trend today is the desire of the LDS leadership to be accepted by mainline Christianity. This is astonishing when you consider the fact that Joseph Smith was so hostile to mainline Christianity. He, in fact, said that he was forbidden by the Father and the Son (in person) to join any Christian denomination because "they were all wrong . . . their creeds were an abomination in his [God's] sight . . . that those professors were all corrupt" (book of Joseph Smith 2:19, in the Pearl of Great Price). Despite this, his modern day descendants are pushing for acceptance. They don’t want Christians to simply "tolerate" them as we might a Muslim, Moonie, or Jehovah’s Witness; they want Christianity to openly embrace them.

However, this will remain impossible as long as the Mormon leadership is unwilling to instigate an honest evaluation of their books which are filled with errors, contradictions, and fabrications. The original Book of Mormon — which they call the most correct of any book in the world — has been changed over 3,900 times because of major and minor errors and contradictions. The book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price has been debunked as a total fraud. The D&C has numerous false prophecies and contradictions. All of the books are at variance with the Bible in regard to crucial historic Christian doctrine.

In their quest for acceptance, the Mormon leadership seem to be shuffling their feet today on the doctrines of whether men can becomes gods and whether God the Father was once a man. Since these doctrines are perhaps the most abrasive to Christianity, there may be a shift in thinking occurring, but more likely it is an attempt to obfuscate the issue. When the president of LDS, Gordon B. Hinckley, was interviewed by Time Magazine in the August 4, 1997 issue, they asked about this doctrine. Here’s how they reported his reaction:

At first, Hinckley seemed to qualify the idea that men could become gods, suggesting that "it’s of course an ideal. It’s a hope for a wishful thing." But later he affirmed, "yes, of course, they can . ." On whether his church still holds that God the Father was once a man, he sounded uncertain. "I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it . . . I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don’t know a lot about it, and I don’t think others know a lot about it."

It is unfathomable to think that the current president is not in touch with the strong historic teachings of his own church on these points. Joseph Smith said, "God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is a man like unto one of yourselves, that is the great secret . . . You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves" (Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, pages 613-614). Since the time of Smith, numerous Mormon apostles have embraced the doctrine and taught on it.

The Challenge to Christians
Today, there is a great battle occurring on the borders of Christianity. New religious movements, such as Mormonism, are trying to pass themselves off as Christians with a greater truth. The number one target of these religious movements are new or ungrounded Christians. Much of the evangelism of Mormons is done via TV commercials, by friendship outreach, or door to door missionaries.

Often Christians don’t think they know enough to witness to Mormons or those in other cults, but they have a greater weapon than they sometimes realize — the Spirit of Christ within (1 John 4:4). Also, the Mormon missionaries come with a weakness — an Achilles' heal — in that each one has an emptiness that can only be filled by a personal salvation relationship with the true Jesus Christ. The Mormons say they have a "testimony" but it’s for Joseph Smith and the LDS Church, not about a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians need to be a light to them and expose the darkness in a compassionate way.

We must remember that Mormons are not enemies of God’s people, as was Goliath. They aren’t just another notch on our belt when we refute them successfully. Rather, they are misguided, confused, and lost people for whom Jesus Christ died on the cross. Christians need to rise up all across America today in prayer, love, and witness to reach Mormons. Wouldn’t it be incredible if the J.W.'s and Mormons had to cease their door-to-door witnessing because too many of their workers were getting saved by well-equipped, loving Christians at home?


[/ QUOTE ]

[Adam Knowlden]

Mormonism is a cult of Christianity.

It denies several central doctrines of mainstream Christianity.

For example, the trinity thread you posted. They deny the trinity.

Essentially mormons believe they will attain godhood after a period of time. That God the Father was at one time a man who attained Godhood, Jesus and satan are brothers, and the Holy Spirit is not a person.

They do not believe in eteranal ****ation, and believe people can be "baptized" and receive another chance (called baptism of the dead). It is essentially a religion of works. They also add extra books to the bible, such as the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith.

[kokokolo]

I was raised in this church dude, As always I am afraid to just come out and say that you are going to a false church, because I dont want to offend you. People can get defensive when someone says that they believe something thats wrong, As it can come off sounding like an attack on someones intelligence. Just please approach the subject with an open mind. I remember that it hit me like a ton of bricks when I read the new testament and realized that so many of the teaching I had in church were actually the opposite of what the bible clearly states.

[newbuilder]

I don't know much about this religion other than there is something about them going to heaven and becoming gods when they die? They are based in the United States, which is something interesting since they are so close to and in fact living within the same country I live in also.
I also find this point interesting that they are based in Salt Lake City, is that right? And is this in a desert wasteland area?
What other religion is also based in the middle of a desert waste land? Islam?
Christ also went into the desert wilderness to be tempted by the devil, does this at all correlate?

[XenoWang]

What?? Ok, I don't really think the LDS Church's geographical location has to do with anything at all. But in any case, I've studied the Mormon Church before (wrote a term paper on it in fact) and while their history is quite fascinating, their theology is quite obviously not in line with any kind of orthodox Christian religion.

[Crombie]

Mormonism is just another cult founded on the ideas of one man. My first girlfriend was involved with the cult through her mother, and towards the end of our relationship heavily involved. So much so that when I tried to pull her away they aggressively pursued me, and tried to indoctrinate me. When that did not work they used her peers to convince her that I was evil. Unfortunately it ended up working because they brought her mother and sister in on it too.

I will never forget the night we were supposed to spend a Saturday evening watching movies at her house. Essentially the white shirts descended on that location, took my girlfriend out of there, and the only "movie" I was given to watch was one about the Mormon cult.

Plus I was sat down for an "intervention" (not sure what they would call it) to have explained to me that if I did not begin to participate in the cult that my right to see my girlfriend would be "revoked". I was then walked through some of the basics of the Book of Mormon, and given my very own copy.

I successfully used that copy to perform my first version of the "tearing a telephone in half (http://www.heavysports.com/emag/Clay_Edgin/phonebooks.html)" trick after testing it's quality by throwing it out of a vehicle at various speeds, and ripping off it's cover.

[Hooah101]

haha awesome crombie...tearin up satans lies /forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[kokokolo]

thats is a sad sad story. I assume at the time you didnt know the right things at the time apologetics-wise. Looking back I didnt realize how wierd it was until I was done with it. People would always try to pressure me to do stuff for them. Everyone roaming around in Business suits all the time. There was this time is Seminary when the teacher read a verse from the Book of Mormon, and got teary eyed and told us how lucky we were as LDS that God was preparing us to become Gods, of course an alarm was going off in my head.

"Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them," (DC 132:20).

To this day I am still learning new things about this church. I can describe this churches beliefes in a single word
CONFUSING

[Crombie]

No, the United Church I belonged to was not heavy on the apologetics training. We covered the larger Bible stories in Sunday school, were convocated (which mostly involved covering the same stories and visiting the places of worship of other religions), and then expected to attend Church services. I mean I had never even read the complete Old Testament until I started visiting here.

There was not a lot of Bible study at that church, and their views are probably the most liberal of all churches out there. Matter of fact the celebration of our convocation was to be a camping trip where the other young adults brought alcohol, drugs and had sex while our so-called leaders just sighed about how kids would be kids when I brought it up. I was ostracized because I got the leaders to stop them from killing any more mussels in a bed they found.

I mean that trip was so bizarre it was like Lord of the Flies or something. I got real lucky because LDS caught me at a time when I was searching for my faith before I put it aside for a time, and I could easily have been sucked into their lies.

[Adam Knowlden]

Thanks for sharing kokolo, I know it is hard to admit that, but you are taking a stance for Christ bro!

[TForce]

Kind of reminds me of this DJ that I know of. He has this T-shirt with a joke on it that says, "I'm Mormon, I can't."