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Random Thought - How to tell if it is a Religion or a Cult ~ Vanity
02/13/2014 | GraceG

Posted on 02/13/2014 7:14:06 PM PST by GraceG

So I was involved in a philosophical discussion with a friend and the subject came up where they wondered what is the difference between a Religion and a Cult.

Thinking about it I came up with a easy way to tell the difference between the two.

Here it is: A Religion that doesn't let a member of it become an apostate of that Religion without any sort of harassment, injury or death is by definition not a Religion but is indeed a Cult. Also if the Religion in question forces or coerces a member of the family to distance them selves from other member who are not believers, it is also a Cult.

So basically to be a Religion one must:

1. Be able to leave it without any sort of harassment. 2. Should not force you to leave or distance yourself from your non-believer family members


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous; Religion
KEYWORDS: cult; religion
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To: teppe

Read #30, foolish Mormon. Israel declares their God is One, yet they use the plural form for His name as One God. Spittle your blasphemies somewhere else for a while, dead one.


61 posted on 02/14/2014 7:09:18 AM PST by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: teppe
"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;

***

again Elsie you were told hundreds of times JoD is not doctrine it is a News report of the day so those who could not attend got recap of the meetings.

Also at the beginning in every new dispensation there was the ordinance of the plural marriage.

and was withdrawn from the earth when the Lord's mission was completed.

This the last dispensation there will be no others, we are living in the Latter Days.

If any want to learn accurately about the LDS history and doctrine there is a Series call the Joseph Smith papers which were worked on by LDS as well non LDS Scholars.

The Joseph Smith Papers grants listeners a window into the life and personality of the prophet, Joseph Smith. His journal writings include doctrinal teachings and revelations as well as accounts of daily encounters and significant spiritual experiences, such as the First Vision and the Kirtland Temple dedication.?

Where Else Can I Find the Mormon Channel?

62 posted on 02/14/2014 7:17:49 AM PST by restornu
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To: .45 Long Colt
I know I am a weak sinner. It would scare me to think it was up to me to persevere.

I agree.

Now; just WHAT does 'persevere' mean?

Some would say "do good works".

I say "continue to trust in the Lord."


Luke 18:13

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

63 posted on 02/14/2014 8:08:45 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: .45 Long Colt
I know I am a weak sinner. It would scare me to think it was up to me to persevere.

I agree.

Now; just WHAT does 'persevere' mean?

Some would say "do good works".

I say "continue to trust in the Lord."


Luke 18:13

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’


SOMEone was PROUD of what they DID...

64 posted on 02/14/2014 8:09:31 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
again Elsie you were told hundreds of times JoD is not doctrine

You'd rather I post your SCRIPTURE??

Ok then!!!


feel free to substitute restornu anywhere you find EMMA...)


THE
DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
SECTION 132
51–57, Emma Smith is counseled (commanded) to be faithful and true; 58–66, Laws governing the plurality of wives are set forth.
 
51 Verily, I say unto you: A commandment I give unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself and partake not of that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to aprove you all, as I did Abraham, and that I might require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice.
52 And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, areceive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said they were pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God.
53 For I am the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things; for he hath been afaithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will strengthen him.
54 And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide and acleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be bdestroyed, saith the Lord; for I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my law.
55 But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant Joseph do all things for her, even as he hath said; and I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him an ahundredfold in this world, of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives and children, and crowns of beternal lives in the eternal worlds.
56 And again, verily I say, let mine handmaid aforgive my servant Joseph his trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses, wherein she has trespassed against me; and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her, and multiply her, and make her heart to brejoice.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Whatever HAPPENED to Emma???
 
Eliza was a devout Mormon.
 
At age 38, she became Joseph Smith's 14th plural wife (in addition to Smith's lawful wife, Emma).
 
In 1842, after learning Eliza was pregnant, Emma Smith beat Eliza with a broomstick and
knocked her down a flight of stairs, causing Eliza to miscarry Smith's baby.
Wow!!
 
I guess ol' Emma got VAPORIZED by GOD!!!
 
We know that multiply him thing sure didn't work out!          
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Joseph_Smith,_Jr.

65 posted on 02/14/2014 8:11:44 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
again Elsie you were told hundreds of times JoD is not doctrine

And..

... you been SHOWN hundreds of times that NONE of your precious Temple Rituals are not SCRIPTURAL: but you STILL swear by them!!!

66 posted on 02/14/2014 8:13:20 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
...and was withdrawn from the earth when the Lord's mission was completed.

I think you are either trying to fool unsuspecting lurkers or are VERY ill informed of your own chosen religion.

Which is it?


 
 
 
OFFICIAL DECLARATION—1

To Whom It May Concern:

Press dispatches having been sent for political purposes, from Salt Lake City, which have been widely published, to the effect that the Utah Commission, in their recent report to the Secretary of the Interior, allege that plural marriages are still being solemnized and that forty or more such marriages have been contracted in Utah since last June or during the past year, also that in public discourses the leaders of the Church have taught, encouraged and urged the continuance of the practice of polygamy

I, therefore, as President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do hereby, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges are false. We are not teaching polygamy or plural marriage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice, and I deny that either forty or any other number of plural marriages have during that period been solemnized in our Temples or in any other place in the Territory.

One case has been reported, in which the parties allege that the marriage was performed in the Endowment House, in Salt Lake City, in the Spring of 1889, but I have not been able to learn who performed the ceremony; whatever was done in this matter was without my knowledge. In consequence of this alleged occurrence the Endowment House was, by my instructions, taken down without delay.

Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.

There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.

WILFORD WOODRUFF
President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 




President Lorenzo Snow offered the following:

“I move that, recognizing Wilford Woodruff as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the only man on the earth at the present time who holds the keys of the sealing ordinances, we consider him fully authorized by virtue of his position to issue the Manifesto which has been read in our hearing, and which is dated September 24th, 1890, and that as a Church in General Conference assembled, we accept his declaration concerning plural marriages as authoritative and binding.”

The vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous.

Salt Lake City, Utah, October 6, 1890.







 

EXCERPTS FROM THREE ADDRESSES BY
PRESIDENT WILFORD WOODRUFF
REGARDING THE MANIFESTO

The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. (Sixty-first Semiannual General Conference of the Church, Monday, October 6, 1890, Salt Lake City, Utah. Reported in Deseret Evening News, October 11, 1890, p. 2.)

It matters not who lives or who dies, or who is called to lead this Church, they have got to lead it by the inspiration of Almighty God. If they do not do it that way, they cannot do it at all. . . .

I have had some revelations of late, and very important ones to me, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me. Let me bring your minds to what is termed the manifesto. . . .

The Lord has told me to ask the Latter-day Saints a question, and He also told me that if they would listen to what I said to them and answer the question put to them, by the Spirit and power of God, they would all answer alike, and they would all believe alike with regard to this matter.

The question is this: Which is the wisest course for the Latter-day Saints to pursue—to continue to attempt to practice plural marriage, with the laws of the nation against it and the opposition of sixty millions of people, and at the cost of the confiscation and loss of all the Temples, and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead, and the imprisonment of the First Presidency and Twelve and the heads of families in the Church, and the confiscation of personal property of the people (all of which of themselves would stop the practice); or, after doing and suffering what we have through our adherence to this principle to cease the practice and submit to the law, and through doing so leave the Prophets, Apostles and fathers at home, so that they can instruct the people and attend to the duties of the Church, and also leave the Temples in the hands of the Saints, so that they can attend to the ordinances of the Gospel, both for the living and the dead?

The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place
if we did not stop this practice. If we had not stopped it, you would have had no use for . . . any of the men in this temple at Logan; for all ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel, and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice. Now, the question is, whether it should be stopped in this manner, or in the way the Lord has manifested to us, and leave our Prophets and Apostles and fathers free men, and the temples in the hands of the people, so that the dead may be redeemed. A large number has already been delivered from the prison house in the spirit world by this people, and shall the work go on or stop? This is the question I lay before the Latter-day Saints. You have to judge for yourselves. I want you to answer it for yourselves. I shall not answer it; but I say to you that that is exactly the condition we as a people would have been in had we not taken the course we have.

. . . I saw exactly what would come to pass if there was not something done. I have had this spirit upon me for a long time. But I want to say this: I should have let all the temples go out of our hands; I should have gone to prison myself, and let every other man go there, had not the God of heaven commanded me to do what I did do; and when the hour came that I was commanded to do that, it was all clear to me. I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write. . . .

I leave this with you, for you to contemplate and consider. The Lord is at work with us.
(Cache Stake Conference, Logan, Utah, Sunday, November 1, 1891. Reported in Deseret Weekly, November 14, 1891.)
 
 
 

Now I will tell you what was manifested to me and what the Son of God performed in this thing. . . . All these things would have come to pass, as God Almighty lives, had not that Manifesto been given. Therefore, the Son of God felt disposed to have that thing presented to the Church and to the world for purposes in his own mind. The Lord had decreed the establishment of Zion. He had decreed the finishing of this temple. He had decreed that the salvation of the living and the dead should be given in these valleys of the mountains. And Almighty God decreed that the Devil should not thwart it. If you can understand that, that is a key to it.
 
(From a discourse at the sixth session of the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple, April 1893. Typescript of Dedicatory Services, Archives, Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.)
 

 
 
 
 
What kind of  'Leadership' is THIS???
 
compared to...
 
 
 
 
Hebrews 11:35-40
 35.  Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
 36.  Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
 37.  They were stoned ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--
 38.  the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. 
 
 
or compared to...
 

Acts 4:19.  But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.
 


 
So much for an 'Everlasting Covenant' that thundered out of Heaven!!!
 
Well; it DID last about 47 years!
 



 
Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriage...
I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws..."

~ Wilford Woodruff, 4th LDS President

 


67 posted on 02/14/2014 8:15:10 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu

Your GOD didn’t tell ANYONE to ‘withdraw’ anything in the above!


68 posted on 02/14/2014 8:15:39 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
If any want to learn accurately about the LDS history and doctrine one can start at the BEGINNING....





"Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes than he would take a sentance and it would apper in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on. But if it was not Spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was marvelous. Thus was the hol [whole] translated."
---Joseph Knight's journal.


"In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us."
(History of the RLDS Church, 8 vols.
(Independence, Missouri: Herald House,1951),
"Last Testimony of Sister Emma [Smith Bidamon]," 3:356.

"I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, were present during the translation. . . . He [Joseph Smith] did not use the plates in translation."
---(David Whitmer,
as published in the "Kansas City Journal," June 5, 1881,
and reprinted in the RLDS "Journal of History", vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.

In an 1885 interview, Zenas H. Gurley, then the editor of the RLDS Saints Herald, asked Whitmer if Joseph had used his "Peep stone" to do the translation. Whitmer replied:

"... he used a stone called a "Seers stone," the "Interpreters" having been taken away from him because of transgression. The "Interpreters" were taken from Joseph after he allowed Martin Harris to carry away the 116 pages of Ms [manuscript] of the Book of Mormon as a punishment, but he was allowed to go on and translate by use of a "Seers stone" which he had, and which he placed in a hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original character appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English."


"Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say 'Written,' and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."
(Edward Stevenson, "One of the Three Witnesses,"
reprinted from Deseret News, 30 Nov. 1881
in Millennial Star, 44 (6 Feb. 1882): 86-87.)

In 1879, Michael Morse, Emma Smith's brother-in-law, stated:
 
 "When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon [I] had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating word after word, while the scribes Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other wrote it down."
(W.W. Blair interview with Michael Morse,
Saints Herald, vol. 26, no. 12
June 15, 1879,  pp. 190-91.)


Joseph Smith's brother William also testified to the "face in the hat" version:
 
"The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in the stone by the power of God"
("A New Witness for Christ in America,"
Francis W. Kirkham, 2:417.)


"The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret was the same manner as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, while the book of plates were at the same time hid in the woods."
---Isaac Hale (Emma Smith's father's) affidavit, 1834.




69 posted on 02/14/2014 8:16:50 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
...one can start at the BEGINNING....



and then move on to...



The following are the LYING images that MORMONism has produced, KNOWING that they represent something FALSE!!
 
 
   
                                 

70 posted on 02/14/2014 8:17:56 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: restornu
...when the Lord's mission was completed.

I guess when you typed that you are waiting for MORE from the Lord; that was a

typo?


71 posted on 02/14/2014 8:18:53 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

Elsie it is you who don’t understand and keep bearing false hood.


72 posted on 02/14/2014 8:19:23 AM PST by restornu
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To: restornu
Elsie it is you who don’t understand and keep bearing false hood.

What's false; other than your chosen religion?

Sorry; But I WILL keep on BARE ing your religions false beginning, false history, false teachingsd and false prophets.

I am STILL waiting to be CONFOUNDED by you; or any OTHER MORMON.

Ya up to the task???


The

DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS

OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

SECTION 71

Revelation given to Joseph Smith the Prophet and Sidney Rigdon, at Hiram, Ohio, December 1, 1831. HC 1: 238–239. The Prophet had continued to translate the Bible with Sidney Rigdon as his scribe until this revelation was received, at which time it was temporarily laid aside so as to enable them to fulfill the instruction given herein. The brethren were to go forth to preach in order to allay the unfriendly feelings that had developed against the Church as a result of the publication of some newspaper articles by Ezra Booth, who had apostatized.

1–4, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon are sent forth to proclaim the gospel; 5–11, Enemies of the saints shall be confounded.

1 Behold, thus saith the Lord unto you my servants Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon, that the time has verily come that it is necessary and expedient in me that you should open your mouths in proclaiming my gospel, the things of the kingdom, expounding the mysteries thereof out of the scriptures, according to that portion of Spirit and power which shall be given unto you, even as I will.

2 Verily I say unto you, proclaim unto the world in the regions round about, and in the church also, for the space of a season, even until it shall be made known unto you.

3 Verily this is a mission for a season, which I give unto you.

4 Wherefore, labor ye in my vineyard. Call upon the inhabitants of the earth, and bear record, and prepare the way for the commandments and revelations which are to come.

5 Now, behold this is wisdom; whoso readeth, let him understand and receive also;

6 For unto him that receiveth it shall be given more abundantly, even power.

7 Wherefore, confound your enemies; call upon them to meet you both in public and in private; and inasmuch as ye are faithful their shame shall be made manifest.

8 Wherefore, let them bring forth their strong reasons against the Lord.

9 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you—there is no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper;

10 And if any man lift his voice against you he shall be confounded in mine own due time.

11 Wherefore, keep my commandments; they are true and faithful. Even so. Amen.

 

73 posted on 02/14/2014 8:24:08 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

The Prophet had continued to translate the Bible with Sidney Rigdon as his scribe...

YOU are the one; restornu; who will have to give an account to GOD as to WHY you REFUSE to use the JST instead of the flawed KJV.

74 posted on 02/14/2014 8:25:48 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie; teppe

... you been SHOWN hundreds of times that NONE of your precious Temple Rituals are not SCRIPTURAL: but you STILL swear by them!!!

***

There is also no SCRIPTURE knowledge of what took place in the OT temples accept for things like I can also talk about, but the Holy things were never part of the scriptures.

You have hearsay maybe or speculation but that is all it is...


75 posted on 02/14/2014 8:30:37 AM PST by restornu
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To: Elsie

Looking forward to the day....


76 posted on 02/14/2014 8:31:39 AM PST by restornu
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To: Elsie

Wonder who modified wiki on Feb 9, 2014...LOL


77 posted on 02/14/2014 8:35:32 AM PST by restornu
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To: GraceG

1. Have a central leader
2. Alienate members from non-members
3. Strongly discourage anything except blind allegiance
4. Insist on physical acts of obedience
5. Believe they are the only true path.


78 posted on 02/14/2014 8:40:18 AM PST by AppyPappy (Obama: What did I not know and when did I not know it?)
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To: GraceG
Consider what would have happened to somebody in 15th Century Spain who announced he was leaving Christianity to become a Muslim.

Consider what would have happened to a woman in 18th Century New England who announced she was leaving Christianity in favor of worshiping the Earth Mother.

That said, if questioning the beliefs of the group, or its leadership, gets you punished or expelled, then it is a cult. This does not preclude Christian groups from being cults.

79 posted on 02/14/2014 8:42:23 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: DannyTN
Likewise, Jehovah Witnesses are considered a cult because they believe Jesus was not God but just a man. And the salvation message they preach requires more than trust in Jesus.

Judaism does not consider Jesus to be God. Are they a cult?

80 posted on 02/14/2014 8:45:24 AM PST by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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