That is inane there is a different between a thief and an annoying boor!
But... Which is WHICH??
(The Great Plaster Joseph Smith)
Posted on 11/08/2010 3:37:09 PM PST by delacoert
The Bible predicts a dreadful fate for liars. For instance, while banished on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John saw that "all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8). Similarly, the beloved disciple writes, liars are doomed to an eternity outside of God's presence (Revelation 22:15). Because Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44), lying is extremely serious sin. As a full-time Mormon missionary from 1975 to 1977, I lied for the church countless times. Like my colleagues in the South Dakota-Rapid City Mission, which served the Dakotas and adjacent areas, I spoke truthfully about my background, but touted many Mormon teachings that contradict the Bible. After my mission ended, however, I examined these doctrines more closely. The harder I tried to reconcile the contradictions, the more evident they became. So, after extensive prayer and study, I resigned my church membership in 1984. Cheated and betrayed, I lacked spiritual life for the next 17 years. But God, knowing those who are His (John 10:14; 2 Timothy 2:19), drew me to Christ (John 6:44) and saved me in 2001. My spiritual emptiness was replaced by the abundant life only the Savior can give (John 10:10). And now, like millions of Christians worldwide, I have everlasting life through my faith in Him (John 3:36; 6:47). I can't remember all of my missionary lies. Some were small, others grandiose, but all were false and misleading. Here are ten I'll never forget. Of all my lies, this was the most frequent. I learned it well while in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which was my first assignment. A standard door-to-door proselyting pitch began with, "We represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Interrupting, many people said they had their own religion. "Oh, we're not trying to convert you," I responded. "We're sharing a message for all faiths." But Mormon missionaries have one overriding goal, and that's to bring converts into the church. Clearly, this was the purpose of my mission. I didn't trade the Southern California sunshine for the Dakota snow merely to build interfaith relations. My calling was to teach the church-approved missionary lessons and then baptize the people I taught. According to their eighth Article of Faith, Mormons accept the Bible as the word of God only when it's translated correctly. How convenient for a missionary. When a non-Mormon's interpretation of scripture differed from mine, I frequently blamed faulty Bible translation. And since I believed the Bible was missing "many plain and precious things," as the Book of Mormon claims in 1 Nephi 13:28-29, I urged prospective converts not to trust it completely. And yet, Mormon proof texts had few translation problems. Throughout my mission, I used only those Bible verses that steered prospects away from their church and toward Mormonism. But what kind of Christian believes that an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving God gave mankind an inadequate version of His word. Actually, the Bible is more than sufficient. With its 66 books, 1,189 chapters and nearly 740,000 words, it's the divine road map to eternal life through Jesus Christ. For decades, the Mormon Church has tried to blend with mainstream Christianity. Accordingly, during my mission a quarter-century ago, I worked hard to convince prospects that Mormons believe in the biblical Jesus. But Paul warned of deceivers who would lure Christians away from "the simplicity that is in Christ." These false teachers preached "another Jesus" and "another gospel" (2 Corinthians 11: 3-4) and were accursed (see Galatians 1:8-9). How interesting that Paul also cautions against false apostles, such as those in the Mormon Church (2 Corinthians 11:13-14). So which Jesus and gospel do Mormons preach? While a missionary, I taught that Christ was the firstborn spirit child of the Father in a premortal life. (The remainder of humanity was born as spirits later in this "pre-existence.") But I didn't tell prospects this was a literal birth, the result of literal fathering, as Mormon prophets and apostles have claimed. If asked, I taught that the devil was born as one of God's noble spirit sons during the pre-existence, but had rebelled and started a war in heaven. Consistent with Mormon doctrine, then, Christ and Satan are spirit brothers. But the Bible teaches that Christ is God (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; John 1:1), that He has always been God (Psalm 90:2), and that He always will be God (Hebrews 13:8). Born into mortality some 2,000 years ago, Jesus is "God... manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16). He is far grander and holier than "our Elder Brother," as Mormons dub Him. Jesus and Satan aren't spirit brothers, and true Christians don't believe such blasphemy. I usually told this lie during the first of seven 30-minute missionary lessons, which presented the Joseph Smith story. According to our script, Smith prayed in 1820 about which church to join. He claimed the Father and Son appeared and told him that all Christian churches of the day were wrong. Smith said he was forbidden to join any of them, that their creeds were abominable and their professors all corrupt. "They draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me," the Lord allegedly added. "They teach for doctrines the commandments of men" (Joseph Smith — History, verse 19). In subsequent lessons, I told prospects that Mormonism is the true church God restored through Smith. But the Bible says such a restoration was unnecessary. Admittedly, there was partial apostasy after Christ's resurrection, but never a complete falling away. In fact, shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18). During my mission, however, I argued that the gates of hell did prevail against Christ's church. Shortly after renouncing Mormonism, I learned a scriptural death blow to notions of universal apostasy. Addressing Ephesian believers 30 years after the Ascension, the Apostle Paul writes, "Unto [God] be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (Ephesians 3:21). God received glory in the Christian church from the time of Paul's writing to the present day, and He will receive such glory throughout all succeeding generations. Therefore, the church must exist from Paul's day throughout eternity. This annihilates Mormon claims of complete apostasy and makes restoration of Christ's church impossible. Whether in wintry Winnipeg or the balmy Black Hills of Rapid City, I criticized Christians because their church lacked a living prophet. Mormons claim the true church must have one. My favorite Bible proof text to back this claim was Amos 3:7, which reads, "Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." When prospective converts remained skeptical of living prophets, I quoted Ephesians 4:11-14, which apparently requires living apostles and prophets until believers unify in the faith and understand Christ completely. However, writing in the past tense, Paul is actually referring to apostles and prophets of Jesus' day. Otherwise, verse 11 would read that the Lord "is giving" or "will give" apostles and prophets. Of course, God did reveal His will through Old Testament prophets, as Amos 3:7 affirms. But for the last 2,000 years, He has spoken to believers through Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2). The truth about Mormonism's living prophets is further illuminated in Deuteronomy 18:22. "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord," the scripture reads, "if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him." Isaiah 8:20 contains a similar warning: "To the law and the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." False prophets who led ancient Israel astray received the death penalty (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:20), and all who profess to be living prophets should consider the consequences. Mormon prophets might appear grandfatherly and sincere, but they're not God's living oracles. Since the Mormon Church was founded in 1830, its prophets have uttered a striking number of false prophecies. (See chapter 14 of Jerald and Sandra Tanner's "The Changing World of Mormonism.") Joseph Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon is the most correct book on earth, adding that man would become closer to God by following its precepts than by obeying any other book ("History of the Church," Vol. 4, p. 461). Replace "Book of Mormon" with "the Bible" and Smith would have told the truth. When teaching missionary lessons, I boldly maintained that the Book of Mormon is scripture. I spent myriad hours convincing prospects that it's a sacred record of Christ's activities in the western hemisphere. Yet many Christians I contacted realized the book "borrows" heavily from the Bible and other sources. And in stark contrast to the Old and New Testaments, virtually no archaeological and anthropological evidence supports the Book of Mormon. Why not? Because it's fiction. When Christians want to read scripture, they turn to the Bible. More than any other Mormon lie, this undermines Christ's atonement, which is the most sacred doctrine of the Bible. Mormons usually equate salvation with resurrection. Likewise, they refer to eternal life as "exaltation." I did both while teaching prospective converts. I relished the church's third Article of Faith, which claims, "through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel." Trying to bridge the doctrinal divide between Mormons and Christians, I emphasized that salvation is by grace "after all we can do" (2 Nephi 25:23). What classic Mormon double-talk. Unmistakably, the Bible says eternal life is a gift from God (Romans 5:15; 6:23) to those who believe in Christ (John 6:47), call upon Him (Romans 10:13) and receive Him as Lord and Savior (John 1:12). Contrary to Mormon dogma, this gift cannot be awarded meritoriously. Equally clear is that salvation results from God's grace through each believer's faith, not from obeying a checklist of laws and ordinances (Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5). All who confess Christ and believe in Him from the heart shall be saved (Romans 10:8-13). Most Mormons know little about imputed righteousness — and neither did I during my mission. Essentially, as Christians know, the Lord credits believers with His perfect righteousness and charges their transgressions to His sinless spiritual "account." Paul explains this doctrine masterfully in Romans 4 and 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. When teaching the Mormon gospel, though, I emphatically denied imputed righteousness, which is the essence of the atonement. I stressed that eternal life is earned by perfect obedience to all gospel laws and ordinances. Yet the Bible says that "there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (Ecclesiastes 7:20). As the Psalmist writes: "They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Psalm 14:3; compare Romans 3:10-18). How many Mormons perfectly obey all gospel laws? None. As the Bible asserts, even the church's current prophet can't keep God's laws thoroughly enough to merit heaven (1 John 1:8). And if he can't, how can anyone else? Given its explosive nature, this tenet was rarely shared with prospective converts. Missionaries try to entice people into Mormonism gradually, and presenting the doctrine of plural gods is seldom the best way. Several contacts learned the concept from their pastors or read about it on their own, but it was new to most prospects. "Our Father in heaven loves us so much," I often said, parroting our lesson script, "that He provided a plan [Mormonism] for us to become like him." I didn't mention that Mormon godhood includes spirit procreation throughout eternity. Neither did I hint that the Mormon God was formerly a mortal man, had lived on an earth like ours, and had earned salvation through good works. However, such polytheism strips God of glory and sovereignty. No wonder the Bible condemns it so strongly. When discussing plural gods on my mission, I sidestepped Isaiah 44:8 whenever possible. "Is there a God beside me?" the passage reads. "Yea, there is no God; I know not any." Other verses amply testify that only one God exists in the universe (Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 6:4; Isaiah 43:10-11; 45:21-23). When confronted with these scriptures as a missionary, I usually countered with, "Those verses mean we worship only one God, that there's only one God to us." And if that failed, I lied further: "The Bible isn't clear on this subject. Fortunately, the Lord told Joseph Smith that mortals can become gods." Smith might have had a revelation, but not from God. One of my favorite missionary scriptures was John 3:5. "Verily, verily I say unto you," the Savior explains, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." To Mormon missionaries everywhere, being born of water means baptism into the Mormon Church. Birth of the Spirit refers to the gift of the Holy Ghost, allegedly bestowed after baptism. Unfortunately, during my mission, I didn't know what it means to be born again. I completely misinterpreted Paul's declaration that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17; compare Galatians 6:15). According to the Bible, believers in Christ are reborn spiritually as sons and daughters of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1-2). They experience a complete Christian conversion of mind and heart. Membership in a church organization might foster social activity and fellowship, but it's not spiritual rebirth. I participated in well over 100 Mormon temple ceremonies from 1975 to 1982, including my own marriage in 1977. Based heavily on freemasonry, temple rites are the church's most carefully guarded secrets. And "celestial marriage," which supposedly weds men and women eternally, is probably the most important temple ordinance. While a missionary, I frequently told prospects they needed temple marriage to gain eternal life. Yet the Lord says marriage between men and women is irrelevant to the hereafter. "The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage," He declares. "But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage… for they are equal unto the angels...." (Luke 20:34-36.) The Bible does teach eternal marriage, but not the Mormon version. The union is between Christ, the Bridegroom, and His collective body of believers, who are the bride (Matthew 25:1-13; John 3:29; Romans 7:4; 2 Corinthians 11:2). I close with a few words about "testimony," which is a missionary's emergency cord. When I couldn't rebut an antagonistic statement scripturally, I fell back on my testimony. For instance, while proselyting in Grand Forks, North Dakota, I was once asked where the Bible mentions the secret undergarments Mormons wear. Caught off guard, I admitted that the Bible says nothing about them. I could merely testify that God revealed the need for these garments through living prophets. But my testimony wasn't based on scripture or other hard evidence. Rather, it was founded on personal revelation, which is extremely subjective. Essentially, my testimony was nothing more than a good feeling about the church and its teachings. In Mormon parlance, it was a "burning in the bosom." But burning or not, it wasn't from God. If you're a Christian, I urge you to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). That faith, the pathway to heaven, is found only in the biblical Jesus (John 14:6). But if you're a Mormon, it's time to prayerfully re-examine your beliefs. Do you know you have everlasting life? No. Can you obey all the commandments perfectly and earn a place in heaven? You can't. I regret the many lies I told during my Mormon mission. When I received Christ, though, I confessed them (and my other sins) and received His forgiveness (1 John 1:9; Colossians 1:13-14). "He that heareth my word," Christ assures us, "and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). 1. We're Not Trying to Convert You
2. The Bible is Insufficient
3. We're the Only True Christians
4. We're the Only True Church
5. We Have a Living Prophet
6. The Book of Mormon is Scripture
7. You're Saved By Works
8. People Can Become Gods
9. You're Born Again By Becoming a Mormon
10. Temple Marriage is Required for Eternal Life
False Testimony
Of course. There's lack of discernment in all groups. Where do you think Mormons & other cults are proselytizing a lot of its converts from? (Christian deonominations)
But it's exactly those people, lacking discernment, and going to these cults, that tends to concentrate gullibility to a higher aspect within certain religious bodies.
You conTINUE to ignore AoF #8.
SHAME on you for posting things that may be UNTRUE.
But you USED to be a PRESBYTERIAN; right?
Your stenographer on break?
What went wrong?
And I keep waiting for you to do just that.
That is inane there is a different between a thief and an annoying boor!
But... Which is WHICH??
When I was in training to serve a Mormon mission, I was told not to mention or discuss or even admit to certain LDS doctrines. That is lying by omission. I was told to do this because ‘if we told the truth, no one would join’.
Furthermore, many former LDS missionaries admit that they either lied by omission or mislead investigators about LDS beliefs. This is often referred to as only giving the ‘preparatory gospel’ or ‘milk before meat’.
There is a lot of lying that goes on by LDS members, missionaries and leadership.
Don't hold you breath. BTW, is that making in personnal?
“Why would any demon want a person to believe in the reality of Jesus Christ?”
Because he has you believing if a false, created christ who is unable to save. Satan wins. Mormons lose - he has you innoculated against the truth.
“Would a demon inspire a person to repent of their sins and follow Jesus?”
He has mormons still trying to be worthy- which means they have NOT repented of the sin of pride. Even if somehow they do repent, the end up believing in a fake Mormon christ who cannot save. Satan wins. Mormons pay a terrible price.
But you allow other, fallible, mortal, human men to tell you what to wear, what to eat, what to drink, how to live and how much money to pony up. In the name of the Lord.
Thank you for your story. Never forget (which many people do) we are saved by grace, and you are now. God bless you. Its sounds like Mormonism is Legalistic.
I am a sinner and it is by the grace of God I have been saved. ^j^
The REAL Good News placemarker ... a new set of dos and don’t doesn’t sound like good news at all, does it!
I don’t see someone who repents of sin tries to serve God as being full of the sin of pride. That is what Jesus wants of his disciples.
Certainly there is no place for boasting in the service of the Lord. We are to acknowledge our weakness before God at all times.
I believe that God gives revelations and commandments through the servants he has chosen. It happened all the way through the Bible. No one said that Noah, Moses, Peter, John, etc. were without fault — but God used them to reveal his will and commandments to man.
Noah believed God (that's faithing, the verb form, in Greek pisteuo) and started building a gigantic boat!
Moses believed God and went back to Egypt to be God's deliverer of the chosen people. [That word 'believed in the King James is actually derived from pisteuo, to faithe.]
Peter was a fisherman and when God called him to follow an itinerant preacher and leave his nets, Peter believed God had a plan and later found that that plan had been prophesied for more than a thousand years and was being carried out in his lifetime!
John the beloved Apostle was just a boy when Jesus began his ministry, but John was the only one who did not run away when Jesus was snatched by the 'authorities' and dragged before Pilate then the Sanhedrin and then back to Pilate, being beaten in the process nearly to death! Because of John's loyalty/faithing, he was the only Apostle not killed in some heinous fashion and he was given the releveation of things to come through to the end of times!
But let's not stop there, what of a Prostitute named Mary? She was so broken and contrite when she met Jesus that she spent what was possibly her last coin to purchase an alabaster bottle of expensive perfume, and she cried over Jesus's feet and wiped her tears with her hair and anointed Jesus Whom she deemed so precious and worthy of her adoration.
Now, let's look at the peepstone diviner who lied and cheater farmers and played sexual predation of married women, Joseph Smith. This known lair and conman made up stories even before he supposedly had revealed by 'an angel of light' the golden plates.
This same lair and conman, JOseph Smith, fabricated an entire text of supposed God-inspired scriptures, containing lengthy word for word passages lifted from the king James Bible, and this same conman's made up texts --using a supposed peepstone in his hat-- have been shown to contradict what the real God-inspired scriptures teach. God is not the author of confusion, so if the Book of Mormon was actually God breathed there would not be contradictions on the order of what exist between the Bible (Old and NEw Testaments) and the book of mormon.
In point of fact, not one credible shred of archaeological or scientific (DNA) data has been found to corroborate this liars claimed 'scriptural' history of this continent as conveyed in the poorly written novel called the book of mormon!
To make matters even more grave concerning this supposed prophet of God, this same Joseph Smith fabricated a lengthy text from what he claimed was Egyptian text written by Abraham, which was soon after found to be completely erroneous rot, not anything like what the Egyptian heiroglyphs conveyed!
This same supposed prophet of God made up whole rituals for temple worship, lifted from the Masonic rituals! ...
And you, Normandy, want us to believe this lying, peepstone divination conman sexual predator of married women was chosen by God to establish ... no, excuse me, to 'RESTORE' true Christinaity to humankind? If it were not so tragic that so many are duped into this conman's deranged cult, it would be laughable!
Normandy, you may not see it, but then you are inside the
Morg. I doubt you could be objective.
The fact that you responded that way tells me you do not
yet apprehend the meaning of the Gospel of Grace. I hope
you do. There is a real Jesus Christ with a real Gospel of
Grace. Don’t settle for the do-it-yourself-mormon-worthiness
gospel.
best,
Dave
peace
No, she is expressing her mind not reading yours.
Give us a break Normandy. For all the fluff Mormons give us about having a "Living Prophet," even if we were still in the Old Testament, God often had 2 or 3 prophets He was speaking through simultaneously (not the "one-at-a-time" mousetrap of Mormonism).
In fact, Elijah hid 100 prophets one time. Does Lds have 100 prophets -- simultaneously?
So the operative word in your comment is "servants" -- plural...and not just sequential serial servants, who give only one canonized "revelation" per century like the Mormon "prophets" did in the 20th century.
I've cited Heb. 1:1-2...and Jesus was confident that the Word He gave His disciples was satisfactory (John 17:8,14,17) -- enough to sanctify them by God's Word even as He was about to leave. So you're now satisfied that Jesus didn't communicate enough?
And of course, the Mormon "prophets" want to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit, who speaks through the prophetic spiritual gifts to and through His world-wide body.
Just frankly, it's pretty sickening that your white god is stuck on having to ONLY pick white gods from a certain elderly generation from one dinky country on planet earth for time immemorial. And it's worse that Mormondom usurps the Holy Spirit's ability to speak to and through His Church just fine, thank you:
when he, the Spirit of truth, comes,
he will guide you into all the truth.
He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears,
and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 16:13-15)
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