Are Latter Day Saints Really Saints?
Officially known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. in 1830. Their headquarters is in Salt Lake City, Utah – a state that is now 70% Mormon. They claim to now have over 11 million members worldwide, almost half of whom live inside the United States.
They are represented by over 60,000 missionaries in 162 countries in 102 languages. Each of these missionaries have gone through 3-9 weeks of intensive training at the 26 acre Missionary Training Center located in Provo, Utah, which receives 500 new missionaries a week. All boys, once they turn 19 are expected to dedicate two years of their life to missionary service. Over $500 million a year is spent on recruiting which reaps more than 300,000 new converts every year. Many of these (75.3%) claim they were already members of a Christian church before joining Mormonism.
Mormons have more than 100 temples worldwide which are not used for worship. Temples are required for Mormon marriages and for proxy baptisms of ancestors. Only secret, occult rituals for the living and the dead are performed there for the purpose of gaining eternal life.
Unlike most churches, the LDS does not give out a financial statement, even to its own members. However, an April 4, 1997 Time Magazine article gave the following financial details:
“The church’s material triumphs rival even its evangelical advances. With unusual cooperation from the Latter-day Saints hierarchy (which provided some financial figures and a rare look at church businesses), TIME has been able to qualify the church’s extraordinary financial vibrancy. It’s current assets total a minimum of $30 billion. If it were a corporation, its estimated $5.9 billion in annual gross income would place it midway through the FORTUNE 500, a little below Union Carbide and the Paine Webber Group but bigger than Nike and the Gap.”
The LDS also collect at least another $6 billion a year in tithes and offerings from its members. At least 100 companies are controlled by the Mormons, and some estimate its total annual revenue is in excess of $20 billion! The LDS owns 18 radio stations in the U.S. as well as schools, seminaries, clothing mills, insurance companies, and department stores.
Mormons have two official publications, Church News, a weekly 16-page newspaper, and the Ensign, a monthly magazine. They have four books of Scripture: the Bible, the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.
• Their Beliefs Concerning The CHURCH
In The Pearl of Great Price, book 2, Extracts from the History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet verses 18-20 Smith states, “My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right that I might know which to join....I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt... He again forbade me to join any of them...”
On April 16, 1830, Joseph Smith and his two brothers, Hyrum and Samuel, along with Oliver Cowdery and David and Peter Whitmer Jr., officially founded “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” The phrase “of Latter-day Saints” was selected in order to single out Mormonism as a latter day restoration of the early church that Jesus organized. The LDS claim to be the “only true church” and the only church with the authority to act in God’s name. They do not accept any other church’s baptisms. According to their teachings, their baptism is the only one recognized by the Lord. Mormons do not claim to be Protestants or Catholic. They claim to be a divine restoration of Christ’s true church. And therefore, reject the validity of any other church. Mormons believe that the original gospel was contaminated by errors and lost from the earth. They teach there was an apostasy and the true church ceased to exist on earth and that this state of apostasy "still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" of the Mormon Church (Gospel Principles, pp. 105-106; Mormon Doctrine, p. 44). . According to Bruce R. McConkie one of their past apostles (Mormon Doctrine, p. 635) Mormonism is the restoration of the true church in this latter day.
The Bible teaches and orthodox Christians through the ages have believed that the Church was divinely established by Jesus and could never and will never disappear from the earth. True Christians believe that the church will endure forever. That is because the church is indestructible. Christians acknowledge that there have been times of corruption and apostasy within the Church, but believe there has always been Christians who have held fast to the biblical essentials.
This doctrine is called the perpetuity OF THE CHURCH
Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” (NIV)
“Perpetuity” means that the doctrines of God’s Word have remained intact since the beginning and that there have always been churches throughout the world since the first one in Jerusalem who have taught them.
Jude 1:3, “Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you about the salvation we all share together. But I felt the need to write to you about something else: I want to encourage you to fight hard for the faith that God gave his holy people. God gave this faith once, and it is good for all time.” (ICB)
Matthew 28:20, “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (NLT)
Ephesians 3:21, “May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.” (NLT)
Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore, we must be thankful that we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Because we are thankful, we must serve God with fear and awe in a way that pleases him.” (GW)
In recent years Mormons have sought to be known as Christians, preferring not to be included with Christian denominations. In the past Mormons have preferred to be called “saints.” However, they have spent millions of dollars in an intense “PR” campaign aimed at moving them into the mainstream of Christianity. In early 2001 just before the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Mormons let it be known that they no longer wanted to be referred to as “the Mormon Church,” the Latter-day Saints Church” or as the “LDS Church.” Instead they now want to be known as “The church of Jesus Christ,” or simply as “The Church.”
They have even changed the emphasis in the way they present the title of their church. For instance, in the past it used to be (notice the emphasis) “The CHURCH of JESUS CHRIST of LATTER-DAY SAINTS.” Now they want to be known as (notice emphasis) The CHURCH of JESUS CHRIST of LATTER-DAY SAINTS. Focusing on Jesus Christ’s name is an attempt to present Mormons as a part of mainstream Christianity. The fact is Mormons believe they are the only true Christians and true church on earth today.
• Their Beliefs Concerning GOD
A.W. Tozer once said, “What we believe about God is the most important thing about us.”
• The god of Mormonism is a MAN
Hosea 11:9, “For I am God, and not man– the Holy One among you.” (NIV)
The fifth LDS President Lorenzo Snow coined the expression, "As man is, God once was, as God is, man may be" (Articles of Faith, pg. 430).
In Mormon theology, the god of planet Earth is believed to have once been a man from another planet, who through self-effort and the help of his own father-god, was appointed by a counsel of gods in the heavens to his high position as the god of planet Earth, and now has a physical, resurrected glorified body.
At the center of this theology is the belief that God is literally a procreating father who is married to a Mrs. God, or divine mother.
Mormonism teaches that through the atonement of Christ and by their good deeds and “holy” living, people can one day become gods themselves, and with their multiplicity of “goddess wives,” in heaven populate their own planets with what are called “spirit children.” The first of these spirit children to be born in heaven was Jesus and the second was the Devil. Mormons believe that Jesus and the Devil are spirit brothers and that we are all born as siblings in heaven.
Brigham Young said in Journal of Discourses, Vol 4, p. 216, “In the spirit world their spirits were first begotten and brought forth, and they lived there with their parents for ages before they came here.”
Mormon women however are unable to become gods unless they marry a man. This is what the celestial marriage and Mormon temple vows are all about. In secret Masonic-like rituals, Mormon spouses have their marriages sealed for time and eternity in the temple. This provides a way for woman to become gods as well as a way for reproducing spirit children to populate other planets in the future.
Joseph Smith once stated in a sermon published in Times and Seasons, August 15, 1844, pp. 613-614, that "God Himself who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is a man like unto one of yourselves..." He also declared in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345-346 that “God Himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man.”
LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie wrote, "The Father is a glorified, perfected resurrected, exalted man who worked out his own salvation by obedience to the same laws he has given to us so that we may do the same" (A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pg. 64).
• The god of Mormonism is not ONE
Deuteronomy 6:4, “The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (NASB-U)
Isaiah 43:10, “The Lord says, "...I chose you so you would know and believe me. I chose you so you would understand that I am the true God. There was no God before me, and there will be no God after me.” (ICB)
Mormons believe in a plurality of gods and not in “one God.”
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, stated, "I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods" (History of the Church 6:474).
In Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.370 Joseph Smith states, “I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a spirit; and these three constitute three personages and three Gods.”
Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt taught, "We were begotten by our Father in Heaven; the person of our Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His Father; and again, He was begotten by a still more ancient Father, and so one, from one generation to generation" (The Seer, pg. 132).
Brigham Young once stated in Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7. P. 238, that, “God’sexist, and we had better strive to be prepared to be one with them.”
• The god of Mormonism is not PERFECT
Deuteronomy 32:4, “"The Lord is your mighty defender, perfect and just in all his ways; Your God is faithful and true; he does what is right and fair.” (TEV)
Concerning the perfection of God, Talmage once again stated in Doctrines and Covenants, p. 529, that "The Eternal Father is a progressive being . . . the capacity of eternal increase."
• The god of Mormonism is not omnipotent
Omnipotence literally means “all-powerful.” When we speak of God as omnipotent, this should be understood to mean that God can do anything that is consistent with His character. Since God is a perfect being, He is incapable of acting in a less than perfect
way.
Psalm 147:5, “How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!” (NLT)
Luke 1:37, “But nothing is impossible for God.” (GW)
Mormons go so far as to say that it is possible for their god to even cease from being god.
Mormon author W. Cleon Skousen stated that God is God only because another force sustains him as such. He wrote, "Through modern revelation we learn that the universe is filled with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain Him as such...since God ’acquired’ the honor and sustaining influence of ’all things’ it follows as a corollary that if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence or ’sense of justice’ of these intelligences, they would promptly withdraw their support, and the ’power’ of God would disintegrate...’He would cease to be God’" (The First 2,000 Years, pp. 355-356).
• The god of Mormonism is not omnipresent
Psalm 139:7-8, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.” (NASB-U)
Brigham Young said, "Some would have us believe that God is present everywhere. It is not so" (Journal of Discourses 6:345).
Concerning the omnipresence of God, LDS Apostle James Talmage stated in Doctrine and Covenants, p. 48, that "God is not omnipresent . . . cannot be physically present in more than one place at a time."
• The god of Mormonism is not immutable
Malachi 3:6, “I am the Lord, and I do not change.” (TEV)
LDS Apostle Orson Hyde, "God our Heavenly Father was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we are, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is" (Journal of Discourses 1:123).
As Christians we believe that God is unchanging. The God of the Bible is constant and unchangeable in both His revelation and response to mankind.
• The god of Mormonism is not ETERNAL
Psalm 41:13, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel. He has always been, and he will always be. Amen and amen.” (ICB)
Brigham Young preached: “It appears ridiculous to the world, under their darkened and erroneous traditions, that God has once been a finite being” (Desert News, Nov. 16, 1859, p. 290).
Concerning God the Eternal Father, the Mormon Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p. 3, says "We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity, I will refute that idea . . . he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did."
• The god of Mormonism is ADAM
Numbers 23:19, “God is no mere human!” (CEV)
Joseph Smith taught this Adam-God doctrine when he said, "Daniel in his seventh chapter speaks of the Ancient of Days, he means the oldest man, our Father Adam..." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 157).
On April 9, 1852, Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), rose to the pulpit of the Salt Lake Tabernacle and announced, that Adam was Michael the Archangel, and that he was also the Ancient of Days. Young went on to conclude that Adam was, in fact, "our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do."
In this sermon, Young clearly claimed his teachings to be "doctrine." In his closing remarks, he warns, "Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they will prove their salvation or damnation."
It is recorded in the Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 50, that Brigham Young said "When our father Adam came in the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize 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’s first counselor, Heber C. Kimball, declared on June 29, 1856, "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this earth--the first man. That first man sent his own Son to redeem the world, to redeem his brethren; his life was taken, his blood shed, that our sins might be remitted. That Son called twelve men and ordained them to be Apostles, and when he departed the keys of the kingdom were deposited with three of those twelve, viz.: Peter, James, and John" (Journal of Discourses 4:1).
Young’s position on this matter was very controversial among some LDS members. Yet, to put their minds at ease he assured them that he received this teaching from God himself.
In a sermon delivered on June 8, 1873 and printed in the Desert Weekly News on June 18, 1873 Young stated, "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which is revealed to them, and which God revealed to me -- namely that Adam is our father and God...Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children who have or ever will come upon the earth"
• Their belief concerning SCRIPTURE
Mormons teach that the canon of Scripture was not closed when the Bible was completed. In fact, they have five sources of authority from which they receive God’s revelation.
• The first is the BIBLE
2 Timothy 3:16, “The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right.” (TLB)
Joseph Smith stated in Pearl of Great Price, Articles of Faith, 8-9 (1842), “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”
Mormons believe that, “The Bible is considered usable, but suspect due to its many errors and missing parts” (Articles of Faith No 8, Ensign, January 1989, pp. 25, 27).
Concerning the infallibility and final authority of the Bible, Wallace Bennett stated in his book Why I Am A Mormon, p. 159, that "We recognize the Bible’s limitations as well as its value. We do not ascribe final authority to any of its statements because we believe that God has re-established the authority to speak in His name and has given it again to righteous men."
• Second, they rely on the Book of Mormon
According to their book History of the Church, vol 4, p 461, the Book of Mormon is more correct than the Bible. In their Articles of Faith, Mormons emphatically say that the Book of Mormon is the word of God without qualifying this statement as they do with the Bible. If the Bible disagrees with the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon is considered correct while the Bible is considered in error.
The Book of Mormon believed by Joseph Smith to be “inspired by God,” is the most famous of “Mormon scriptures.” Smith tells the story that an angel named Moroni first appeared to him in 1823 and showed him some “golden plates” hidden in a hillside near Palmyra, New York. In 1827 Moroni commanded Smith to translate the reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics (no such language exists) on the plates into English. The Book of Mormon was then published in 1830.
Joseph Smith once stated that the Book of Mormon was “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other bool” (History of the Church, vol 4 p. 461).
Yet, the book which Joseph Smith declared was “the most correct of any book on earth” has been revised in over 3900 places. Most of these changes were made to correct embarrassing spelling and grammatical errors. However, there have been numerous other changes which affect the doctrinal teachings of the Book of Mormon.
One such change had to do with key passages on Deity in the original 1830 text which were changed in the 1837 edition to reflect Joseph’s Smith’s changing doctrine of Deity. Joseph Smith originally taught that Jesus and the Father were the same person and that God had always been God, but later he developed the idea that the Father and Son were separate God’s and that both had been mortal men.
Also, more than 25,000 words in the Book of Mormon are plagiarized from the 1611 King James version of the Bible, even though the Book of Mormon was supposedly buried in 428 AD nearly 1200 years before the King James English ever came into existence. Even many of the grammatical errors found in the King James Version of the Bible were copied verbatim into the Book of Mormon. Not only that, but some verses such as 1 John 5:7 and Mark 16:16 that are now known to have been copied and added to the Bible by zealous scribes were intentionally copied and added to the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon also claims that American Indians are the lost tribes of Israel who floated across the Atlantic Ocean on rafts. This would be impossible however since Native Americans are of Mongolian decent and Jews are Semitic.
It has been nearly 180 years since Joseph Smith first published the Book of Mormon. As of yet, there is not one artifact that can be identified as being made by the people of the Book of Mormon. Also, there is no official map designating the location of any Book of Mormon city other than those that are also mentioned in the Bible.
• Third, they rely on the Doctrine and Covenants
This book contains 138 sections and two Official Declarations. The first 135 sections contain Joseph Smith’s revelations from 1823 to 1844, section 136 is a revelation by President Brigham Young in 1847, second 138 is one by President Joseph F. Smith in 1918. Declaration No. 1 is dated 1890 and is referred to as “The Manifesto” which declared an end to the practice of polygamy which they had before insisted was commanded by God. Declaration No. 2 is dated 1978 and declared that “all worthy male members” could now hold the priesthood and participate in the temple ceremonies. This ended the Mormon’s ban on blacks to the priesthood which they had before restricted due to a special revelation from Joseph Smith.
• Fourth, they rely on the Pearl of Great Price
This book contains The Book of Moses which is an extract from the translation of the Bible as revealed by Joseph Smith the Prophet, June 1830 – February 1931. It also contains the Book of Abraham which is a translation of what are believed to be some ancient records “that have fallen into our hands from the catacombs of Egypt.” This is actually an Egyptian burial document. It also contains Joseph Smith - the Book of Matthew which is an extract from the translation of the Bible as revealed to Joseph Smith in 1831 on Matthew 23:39 and chapter 24. There is also a History of Joseph Smith and History of the Church. Lastly, it contains the Mormon articles of faith which is a list of 13 specific beliefs of the LDS written in 1842.
• Lastly, they rely on PERSONAL REVELATIONS
Ezra Taft Benson, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church, told an assembly of Mormons at Brigham Young University that "the Prophet is the only man that speaks for the Lord in everything. He can," Benson said, “receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual, including ’civic matters.’” Furthermore, he argued, “...the living Prophet is more vital to us than the Book of Mormon, and his word supersedes the statements of previous Prophets, such as Church founder Joseph Smith, Jr." (Newsweek, Oct. 19, 1981.)
Concerning himself, Joseph Smith, Jr. stated, "I have the truth, and am at the defiance of all the world to contradict me if they can." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p. 10.)
Defining LDS Scripture. Page 55 of the LDS Church manual entitled Gospel Principles reads, “In addition to these four books of scripture, the inspired words of our living prophets become scripture to us. Their words come to us through conferences, Church publications, and instructions to local priesthood leaders.”
According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, “Neither written scripture, nor natural theology, supercedes the ‘living oracles.’” In his “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet” speech given in 1980, Ezra Taft Benson insisted that the “living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.”
In the words of past President Ezra Taft Benson, “Only one man stands as the Lord’s spokesman to the Church and the world, and he is the President of the Church. The words of all other men should be weighed against his inspired words. Though His prophet is mortal, God will not let him lead His Church astray.”
Over the years there have been hundreds of times when Mormon Apostles have contradicted not only what the Bible taught , but also what other Mormon apostles have said and what their other sources of authority teach. These inconsistencies and inaccuracies show us that we can not depend on what Mormons teach.
Proverbs 30:6, “Don’t change what God has said! He will correct you and show that you are a liar.” (CEV)
