DANGERS OF MORMON CULT TEACHINGS (1)
Danger of Mormonism
We all need to be a lot more aware on how dangerous the Mormon teachings are. We are surprised in one sense that anyone would even believe in these doctrines. Although we have not gone into the weaknesses of the founder Joseph Smith's life, let it be said that he was charged by the law on speculation. His teachings are totally opposed to the Christian scriptures and that anyone who affirms Christ Jesus must deny Mormonism in its entirety. When Mormonism's mask is stripped away, we see something more akin to the eastern religions. This material is heavily documented and encourages you to explore further as necessary.
Mormonism is not a Christian cult but a completely different religion.
Summary of Mormon Teaching
"Mormonism teaches that trillions of planets scattered throughout the cosmos are ruled by countless gods who once were human like us. They say that long ago, on one of these planets, to an unidentified god and one of his goddess wives, a spirit child named Elohim was conceived. This spirit child was later born to human parents who gave him a physical body. Through obedience to Mormon teaching, death, and resurrection, he proved himself worthy and was elevated to godhood as his father before him. Mormons believe that Elohim is their Heavenly Father and that he lives with his many wives on a planet near a mysterious star called Kolob. There the god of Mormonism and his wives, through endless Celestial sex, produced billions of spirit children.(2) To decide their destiny, the head of the Mormon gods called a great heavenly council meeting. Both of Elohim’s eldest sons were there, Lucifer and his brother Jesus."
"A plan was presented to build planet Earth where the spirit children would be sent to take on mortal bodies and learn good from evil. Lucifer stood and made his bid for becoming savior of this new world. Wanting the glory for himself, he planned to force everyone to become gods. Opposing the idea, the Mormon Jesus suggested giving man his freedom of choice as on other planets. The vote that followed approved the proposal of the Mormon Jesus who would become savior of the planet Earth. Enraged, Lucifer cunningly convinced one-third of the spirits destined for earth to fight with him and revolt. Thus Lucifer became the devil and his followers the demons. Sent to this world, they would forever be denied bodies of flesh and bone. Those who remained neutral in the battle were cursed to be born with black skin. This is the Mormon explanation for the Negro race.(3) The spirits that fought most valiantly against Lucifer would be born into Mormon families on planet Earth. These would be the lighter-skinned people, or ‘white and delightsome,’ as the Book of Mormon describes them."
| "Moroni 10:4 says that if you pray with a sincere heart and real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest it to you by the Holy Ghost... You will get a burning in the bosom and know its true." {Decker, p. 57} |
"Early Mormon prophets taught that Elohim and one of his goddess wives came to the earth as Adam and Eve to start the human race. Thousands of years later, Elohim in human form once again journeyed to earth from the star base Kolob, this time to have physical relations with the Virgin Mary in order to provide Jesus with a physical body.(4) Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde taught that after Jesus Christ grew to manhood, he took at least three wives– Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene. Through these wives the Mormon Jesus supposedly fathered a number of children before he was crucified. Mormon founder Joseph Smith is supposedly one of his descendants."(5)
"According to the Book of Mormon, after his resurrection Jesus came to the Americas to preach to the Indians, who the Mormons believe are really Israelites. Thus the Jesus of Mormonism established his church in the Americas as he had in Palestine. By the year 421 A.D., the dark-skinned Israelites, known as the Lamanites, had destroyed all of the white-skinned Nephites in a number of great battles. The Nephites’ records were supposedly written on golden plates buried by Moroni, the last living Nephite, in the Hill Cummorah. 1400 years later a young treasure-seeker named Joseph Smith, who was known for his tall tales, claimed to have uncovered the same gold plates near his home in upstate New York. He is now honored by Mormons as a prophet because he claimed to have had visions from the spirit world in which he was commanded to organize the Mormon Church because all Christian creeds were an abomination. It was Joseph Smith who originated most of these peculiar doctrines which millions today believe to be true."
"By maintaining a rigid code of financial and moral requirements, and through performing secret temple rituals for themselves and the dead, the Latter-day Saints hope to prove their worthiness and thus become gods. The Mormons teach that everyone must stand at the final judgment before Joseph Smith, the Mormon Jesus, and Elohim.(6) Those Mormons who were sealed in the eternal marriage ceremony expect to become polygamous gods in the Celestial Kingdom, rule over other planets, and spawn new families throughout eternity. The Mormons thank God for Joseph Smith, who claimed that he had done more for us than any other man, including Jesus Christ. The Mormons claim that he died as a martyr and shed his blood for us so that we too may become Gods."
DOCUMENTATION FOR MORMON DOCTRINE
FROM LATTER DAY SAINTS’ MATERIAL
The Nature of God
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Achieving Celestial Marriage Manual {ACCM}, 1976, p. 129L/R
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God was once a mortal man. He lived on a planet like our own. He experienced conditions similar to our own and advanced step by step.
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Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine {MD}, 1966, 322R
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"Further, as the Prophet also taught, there is a "god above the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.... If Jesus Christ was the son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a father, you may suppose that he had a father also. Was there ever a son without a father?” (quoting Joseph Smith).
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ACMM page 3
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"What you are saying is that God became God by obedience to the Gospel program, which culminates in eternal marriage. Yes."
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Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) 130:22
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God has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s.
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ACMM page 129L
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God is now an exalted man with powers of eternal increase. He lives in an exalted Marriage relationship.
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ACMM 129R, 130L
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We are the literal Children of God, a part of his family unit. We lived with our heavenly parents before coming to earth.
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ACMM page 4RL
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... Giving birth to spirit children and setting them on the road to exaltation. And if this is to be done, you must have an exalted man and exalted woman.
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MD page 239L
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God continues to progress, as his own creations expand and his spirit offspring multiply.
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PREEXISTENCE AND OUR FIRST ESTATE
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Moses 3:5-7, Pearl of Great Pric (PGP)
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Every form of life was created spiritually in Kolob first.
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Abraham 3:22,23 PGP
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In the beginning we were all spirit children, living in the presence of God, our heavenly father.
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Jesus the Christ, James Talmage, 1968, pages 15-16
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James Talmage's detailed explanation of the primeval council of the Gods.
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Abraham 3:23-28 PGP
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Council called of all the leading spirits.
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Abraham 4:25,26 PGP
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God proposed a plan for our progression.
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Abraham 3:24-26 PGP; D&C 29:39, John 16:28 KJV, Jeremiah 1:5 KJV
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That plan was for us to come to earth, and gain physical bodies, to learn good from evil and to have the free agency to choose which path we each wanted to follow.
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Moses 4:1-4 PGP, Abraham 3:27-28 PGP; Isaiah 14:12-17 KJV
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Lucifer, our elder brother who desired glory, stood up and proposed his own plan.
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Spencer W. Kimball, "Jesus of Nazareth," in Ensign, Dec. 1980 (First Presidency message), pages 3-5.
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His trials were continuous. Perhaps his brother, Lucifer, had heard him say when he was still but a lad of 12, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:49).
Then came the time when Satan thought to trip him. Their encounter in the previous world had been on more equal terms, but now Jesus was young and Satan was experienced.
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Moses 4:1-3 PGP
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Lucifer's plan was to take away our free agency, force us to obey all the law. He wanted us to worship him.
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Moses 4:2 PGP
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Jesus stood and offered himself as our sin offering, giving man his free agency and the chance to attain eternal glory, or godhood with heavenly father.
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Abraham 3:28 PGP
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All the council voted No to Lucifer and Yes to Jesus.
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Abraham 3:28 PGP, D&C 29:36-37, Revelation 12:7-9
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Lucifer, very angry, persuaded one third of the spirit children to follow him and rebel against God and the plan of Jesus. They were cast from God’s presence and sent to this earth without bodies of flesh and blood.
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MD page 828, D&C 29:36-41
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Describes the war in heaven, Lucifer sent here where he continues to battle against the saints.
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Moses 5:16-41 PGP; MD pages 526-28; Moses 7:8-22 PGP
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Those who were least valiant in preexistence are known in mortality as Negroes. They came to earth through lineage of Cain, with black skins.
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Creation of the Earth and Our Second Estate
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D&C 77:12; Moses 1:39 PGP; Abraham 3:19 PGP
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The earth was created, in the same fashion of many worlds, populated by intelligent people, in his image. Man would always be learning and growing.
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Abraham 3:2-8 PGP
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God tells Abraham about the control center, Kolob.
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Moses 6:51-68 PGP; Moses 3:17 PGP; Genesis 3:4,5 KJV; Moses 4:12,13 PGP
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The Garden of Eden story. Tells of the many gods involved.
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Private letter dated Feb. 19, 1981, p. 6
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Apostle Bruce R. McConkie to Mr. Eugene England at BYU: "Yes, President Young did teach that Adam was the father of our spirits, and all the related things that the cultists ascribe to him." McConkie then denies it is true, even though it is documented in church records.
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2 Nephi 9:25-26 Book of Mormon, Alma 42:17-21 BOM
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The earth is controlled by laws. If we break one of them we must be punished.
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Moses 4:29-31 PGP
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Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden.
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Moses 5:6-9 PGP
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They learn that their transgression was necessary that man might live. Adam is baptized, receives Holy Ghost and the priesthood. He becomes the first patriarch.
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MD 546R-547L
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Our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each word is to be understood literally.... Christ was begotten by an immortal father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers.
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MD 742L
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God is an immortal personage. Christ is his literal son. There is nothing figurative about his paternity. he was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events.
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ACMM page 235L
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The Lord is now sending the Choicest Spirits to earth. "I see an improvement each few years in the young people of the Church. I believe that you are the cream of all the spirits in the hosts of heaven and God has sent you here to do a great work" (Mark E. Petersen, BYU address on Feb 3, 1953).
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Godhood and our Third Estate
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MD 321L
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That exaltation which the saints of all ages have so devoutly sought is Godhood itself.
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MD 321R
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You have got to learn how to be gods yourselves... the same as all gods have done before you (quoting Joseph Smith).
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History of Church, Vol 6, page 306
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My Father worked out His Kingdom with fear and trembling, and I must do the same; and when I get my kingdom, I shall present it to My Father, so that He may obtain Kingdom upon Kingdom, and it will exalt Him in glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and I will take His place, and thereby become exalted myself.
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ACMM page 3R
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If God became God by obedience to all of the gospel law with the crowning point being the celestial law of marriage, then that’s the only way I can become a god.
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ACMM 203L
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The endowment is the celestial course of instruction, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the priesthood and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.
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D&C 124:28-36; 127:128; 128:15ff.
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Baptism for the dead: the keys to the holy priesthood ordained so you may receive honor and glory; for their salvation [the dead] is necessary and essential to our salvation.
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D&C 131
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Three degrees of glory with celestial the highest.
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Moses 1:39 PGP
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This is my work and my glory– to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
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D&C 132:19,20
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Then shall they be Gods, they shall have all power, the angels are subject to them.
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MD 529R, 530L
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Celestial Marriage is the new and everlasting covenant of marriage.
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Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma, (Doubleday, 1984)
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Book relates the aversions that Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, had to the law of plurality of wives.
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Joseph Smith, the Founder
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Come unto Christ, The Melchizedek Priesthood Manual, 1984/1988, pp. 139-45
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If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by him; if we enter into our glory, it will be through the authority that he has received. We cannot get around him.
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D&C 1:17,18; 35:17
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God called Joseph Smith and commanded him to proclaim the gospel. Fullness of gospel sent forth by JS.
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History of the Church Vol. 6, pages 408-9
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I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam.... Neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I.
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Joseph Smith (JS) 2:30-59 PGP
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The story, in Joseph’s own words, of Moroni’s visit, the uncovering of the gold plates, and the eventual translation of the Book of Mormon.
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JS 2:55,56 PGP
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Joseph involved in treasure–seeking.
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JS 2:17-20 PGP
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All Christian creeds were an abomination in his sight.
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D&C 20:1,2
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Joseph Smith commanded to organize the church.
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Even a quick scan over the beliefs of the Mormons or the Latter Day Saints reveals to us that there is little or none similarity between Mormons and Christians. It would be much better to call Mormonism a different religion than a cult.
Footnotes:
1) From the film The God Makers {8 minute illustrated section from the movie}. Text quoted from 'What You Need to Know About Mormons' by Ed Decker, Harvest Pub, 1990, pp.48 -61.
2) "God is an exalted man who once lived on an earth and underwent experiences of mortality.... His marriage partner is our mother in heaven. We are their spirit children, born to them in the bonds of Celestial marriage." [ACCM, p.129-130]. "Have all the people born in this world first been conceived as spirit children–been fathered by Elohim? Of course." pp. 50-51
3) "The Lord forgave them any preexistence punishment in 1978, and now they too can hold the priesthood– which actually was the real punishment, not the skin color. And now blacks can marry in the temple." p. 53
4) "We do believe in the virgin birth.... Mary was certainly a virgin before she was overshadowed by Heavenly Father." pp. 54-55
5) "None of that is currently taught by any authority in the Church. ... Joseph Smith, through personal revelation, told several of the early leaders that they were descendants of Jesus. The rest comes from old speeches in the Journal of Discourses which we don’t accept as doctrinal today." Decker, p. 55.
6) "Joseph Smith holds the keys to this dispensation– he is its head and will be throughout all eternity. Of course he will be at the judgment bar, but I can assure you that he is there as your friend to plead your case if need be. But nobody will go to the Celestial Kingdom without his express approval." p. 60 {Come unto Christ, The Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1983-1986) pp. 139-145.
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