Moroni From the Realms of Glory

You’ve got to be careful what you share online. Over the weekend Facebook and Twitter were suddenly inundated with links to a new recording of the Christmas hymn “Angels From the Realms of Glory” mashed up with “Angels We Have Heard on High.” It was recorded by The Piano Guys and features David Archuleta, a one-time runner up on American Idol. It is a creative recording that intersperses shots of the musicians with video taken to record the world’s largest nativity scene. The song is beautifully sung and the music is rich; it is no surprise that it quickly gained over one million views. Well and good, right? Well, except for one thing: Its purpose is to separate you from Jesus Christ.

This video was produced as a key part of a huge social media campaign called #ShareTheGift—a Mormon evangelistic social media campaign. This campaign is meant to reclaim Christmas as a religious holiday but also to serve as a gateway into Mormonism. At the end of the video is a brief testimony by Steven Sharp Nelson of The Piano Guys who shares what Christmas means to him and who points to a second video titled “He Is the Gift.” This video, in turn, leads to a page at Mormon.org that shares why you, too, ought to become Mormon.

As I said, you’ve got to be careful what you share online. What looks good at a glance may harbor some deep concerns.

I thought a lot about this video over the weekend and want to offer a few reflections on its significance.

This video reminds us that Christians—true Christians who hold to the true gospel of the Bible—are not the only ones who use biblical language and who sing the great hymns of the Christian faith. Mormons sing many of the same hymns as we do, though they often change the lyrics to remove any references to the Trinity or to otherwise make them palatable with Mormon theology. (e.g. Where in “Holy, Holy, Holy” we sing “God in three persons blessed Trinity” they sing “God in his glory, blessed Deity.”) Mormons claim to be Christians and to honor the Bible; they speak of Jesus as their Savior and Redeemer and claim that he is the only begotten son of the Father; they proclaim a gospel of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Spirit, and persevering to the end. But they also deny the doctrine of the Trinity, they deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, and they deny justification by grace alone through faith alone. Though they proclaim that they are Christians, in reality they are Christ-deniers. We do not need to apologize for this and cannot over-emphasize it: Mormons are not Christians. Yet they share just enough of our beliefs that they can masquerade as Christians if we do not look deeper than the surface.

This video also reminds us why Mormonism is a quickly-growing religion. Mormons rarely win and woo converts through their theology. It has been my experience that most Mormons do not know a lot of theology and that most of them do not much care for theology. Mormons win followers through their promise of a better life and through their example of happy, clean-cut individuals and families. And sure enough, this video is full of beautiful people behaving beautifully. There is not a tattoo or body-piercing to be seen, not a hair out of place, not a frown in the crowd. Mormonism does not have to offer theology because it speaks to the realm of felt needs. The great promise of Mormonism is “you can be like us” or, even better, “your family can be like ours.” For many people that is very nearly irresistible.

This video serves as a helpful reminder that Mormons and many others use new media very well. These Mormon evangelistic efforts are always very clever and very compelling. They always give away enough information to make it seem like Mormons are just another friendly group of Christians, and they withhold the information that distinguishes them from true Christians. They speak gladly of the affirmations but tend to hide the denials. This video is powerfully effective at accomplishing its purpose—to serve as an advertisement for Mormonism and to function as a gateway into Mormonism.

Finally, this video reminds us that even good songs can be dangerous. Most years I enjoy watching a performance of Handel’s “Messiah,” and it does not much bother me that few of the musicians involved are Christians. They sing the most God-glorifying words set to sublime music, and do it without a shred of faith in Christ. But there is a substantial difference between God-glorifying music sung by unbelievers and God-glorifying music sung by false teachers who intend to use that music to lead you away from Christ. This performance of “Angels From the Realms of Glory” is meant to turn you away from justification by grace through faith alone and meant to turn you toward the false gospel of Mormonism. The song was not intended to glorify Jesus, but to draw attention to a false representation of him. The song itself is not the problem, of course; the problem is the purpose behind the song and the campaign that generated it.

Here is MORMONism's own creed:

Articles of Faith

The Articles of Faith outline 13 basic points of belief of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Prophet Joseph Smith first wrote them in a letter to John Wentworth, a newspaper editor,
in response to Mr. Wentworth's request to know what members of the Church believed.
They were subsequently published in Church periodicals.
They are now regarded as scripture and included in the Pearl of Great Price.

THE ARTICLES OF FAITH
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 535—541

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
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.
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.
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Joseph Smith

If I rely solely on Jesus Christ for my salvation, what does that make me?

Re: "salvation": The Bible talks about the following aspects those in Christ are saved from:

1. Bondage to Personal Sin (John 8:34; Romans 6) + original sin (Psalm 51:5; Psalm 58:3; Romans 5)
2. Eternal hell (numerous passages spoken by Jesus in Gospels)
3. Satan & darkness of world (Acts 26:18)
4. Fear of death (Hebrews 2:14)
5. Spiritual death (Eph. 2:1-4; Luke 9:62)

So, I guess I'm a little befuddled, Normandy.

Mormonism says we aren't in bondage; we all have free agency.
Mormonism says no such thing as original sin for us to be saved from.
Mormonism doesn't believe in eternal hell -- only temporary spirit prison.
Mormonism says Satan was only your pre-existent spirit brother, not the guy holding supposedly "free agent" people in bondage.

And Mormonism says we all have a "get-out-of-hell" card as long as when the Mormon spirit missionaries come to us in spirit prison, we accept their proxy baptism and Mormonized "gospel"...So why fear death per Mormonism?

And spiritual death? When has Mormonism emphasized that?

So...I guess I'm still trying to understand what Mormonism portends to be saving anybody from...

What is your salvation from???

Normandy,

I suspect you will be the brunt of attacks from brothers and sister in the faith of Jesus. Will probably say you aren’t christian.

Let’s let Paul state the gospel.. and then compare it to the christian gospel today and see if there are any changes.
Most won’t see a difference.. but there is a difference..

And I suspect Mormons would see the Christian gospel as their own and it originates not in scripture, but in Rome..

Paul, to Corinithians
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

Rome’s gospel
For I delivered to you first of all which I also received, that Christ died for our sins on Good Friday, according to Rome, and that He was buried, and that He rose again on the third day, Easter Sunday, according to Rome..

Maybe not being a Christan is not a bad thing if being a christian means believing Rome’s gospel version.

Salvation from sin, death and the effects of the fall...(and from ensuing post: "I agree with your points 1-5. Spiritual death comes to man because of the Fall and because of sin. After Adam and Eve fell they were cast out of the presence of God, and we are born into this fallen world..."

Normandy, let's just take "the fall" on this given post.

I have a book published by Mormon Church owned Deseret Book Publishing (1990). It's called A Witness of Jesus Christ: The 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Old Testament.

Chapter 9 is contributing by a BYU prof...Robert J. Matthews. He presents a totally distinct picture from how you've presented the Fall so negatively (which, BTW, I do agree with you). What I'm saying though is Mormonism doesn't present the Fall negatively; in fact, just the opposite!

Allow me to quote from Mathews:

"No mention is made in Genesis about how Adam and Eve felt about the Fall and having been cast out of the Garden of Eden. But in the Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 4:912 (Moses :10 & 11), we find both of them rejoicing because of the great new life and spiritual opportunities available to them as a result of the Fall...It is only from latterday revelation that we learn that Adam and Eve would have had no children without the Fall. The bible does not define this and therefore many have looked upon the transgression of Adam as a bad thing, believing that if Adam had not transgressed, the earth would have kept its paradisiacal status and the entire human family could have lived in paradise without sin, death, and so forth. Little do these theorists know or realize that none of the human family would have been born if Adam and Eve had not fallen. The references for this very significant and essential doctrine are 2 Nephi 2:23; Moses 5:11; and Moses 6:48." (p. 142)

Joseph Fielding Smith, the 10th "prophet" of the Church, wrote: "I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin" (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:114)

He also wrote: "Adam and Eve rejoiced in the Fall..." and that Adam's "transgression" "was not a sin in the strict sense." (same source, p. 115...also cited in The Pearl of Great Price Student Manual Religion 327, p. 13)

Lds "apostle" Dallin Oaks at the Fall General Conference in 1993 - republished in the November Ensign of that year -- claimed that "Some Christians condemn Eve for her act, concluding that she and her daughters are somehow flawed by it. Not the Latter-day Saints! Informed by revelation, we celebrate Eve's act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall." ("The Great Plan of Happiness, p. 73 in the November 1993 Ensign.

Other Lds sources also say that minus the Fall, Mormons wouldn't have been able to progress toward godhood!

So here you wisely talk about the many consequences of the Fall-- and rightly so. And yet how has Satan convinced Mormon leaders of what his rebellious mutiny entailed???

Why, per Mormon leadership, you don't need to be "saved" from the effects of the Fall...
...why supposedly sex and procreation were based upon it...
...progression toward godhood was based upon it...
...that it wasn't somehow "sinful"...
...that it was actually "spiritually opportunistic"...
...Eve was "wise" and "courageous" to directly disobey God (I'm sure, Satan would say, like he was!!!)
...And here...Normandy...your leaders are telling you "celebrate" and "rejoice" over their direct disobedience of "the Fall"...

Sorry, Normandy...but you can't eat your cake and have it, too.

You can't claim "salvation" from something supposedly so positive (wise, courageous, spiritually opportunistic, not sinful, something to rejoice in, something to celebrate) ...something that your 10th "prophet" took issue with Christians who claimed that we were "somehow flawed by it"...

If you're not flawed by the Fall -- like Joseph Fielding Smith highlighted -- you don't need to be "saved" from it!

Normandy: Pick your authority: The Bible and obvious experience of life where terrorists murder 136 children in Pakistan and Mormons murder 120 children and their parents in Southern Utah (1857)...or the leaders who orchestrated the Mountain Meadows Massacre slaughter and reinforced the Book of Mormon's take on the Fall and the Pearl of Great Price take on the Fall and your General Authorities who have been spouting the above nonsense ever since!

Maybe not being a Christan is not a bad thing if being a christian means believing Rome’s gospel version.

This sounds quite MORMONlike.

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses

, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).

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Mormons rarely win and woo converts through their theology.

Articles of Faith

Answer QUESTIONS??