SHOULD CHRISTIANS ASSENT TO MORMON DEMANDS TO SEE THEM AS CHRISTIANS? [Vanity]

The Romney campaign and its surrogates, ( including some on FR) are using the comment of a Christian pastor against Rick Perry and anyone else who mentions mormonism. It was done in '08 against Huckabee.

The issue of why Christians do not see mormonism as Christian is front and center.

There was a comment posted recently here featuring the mormon hymn "Praise to the Man" (Joseph Smith) and I recalled that while I was a member of the mormon church singing hymns many time whose subject was NOT God or Christ Another in particular lauded the pioneer trek across the plains..."Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel".

Compare the LDS hymbook with that of any Christian congregation’s hymnbook for an awakening regarding who/what is worshipped in mormon services. We find many laudatory “hymns” for Joseph Smith, Zion, Latter-day Saints, etc...
..

Mormonism is “self”-centered...not CHRIST-CENTERED!

HYMNS FROM THE LDS HYMNBOOK

41 posted on 10/18/2011 11:37:10 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

If mormons demand to see me as a Christian, I have no problem with that.

Oh; they do all right!

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 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).

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).

42 posted on 10/18/2011 11:39:25 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

It’s funny that people are so concerned with whether Mitt Romney is a Christian, that they seem to forget that he is not a Conservative.

And 'what people' would that be?

Heck; what PERSON would that be?

43 posted on 10/18/2011 11:41:13 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

What’s offensive to me is posting VANITIES!!!

44 posted on 10/18/2011 11:42:26 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

Not quite...

45 posted on 10/18/2011 11:43:51 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

I DEMAND that you stop discussing the religion of the candidates!

46 posted on 10/18/2011 11:44:32 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

If Romney was smart; he'd convert!

After all; what's not to like about CHRISTIANITY?

It would solve that ONE problem!

And, you get to eat MEAT during warm weather!!

47 posted on 10/18/2011 11:46:26 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

There is enough to dislike about Mitt Romney without bringing his religion into it. Discussing the religion of the candidates only serves to discredit the conservative movement in the eyes of the rest of the voters.

It actually gives Mitt Romney an excuse to disregard pressures from the conservative right.

Not that I brought up Mitt and his religion, but you're saying that Mitt will bring religion into politics and ignore conservatives based on religion.

48 posted on 10/18/2011 11:46:45 AM PDT by aruanan

I can only state my own witness for Christ and let others decide for themselves.

Got a witness of the Church you'd like to share?

49 posted on 10/18/2011 11:47:32 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

I know many mormons who will not listen to Christian radio, watch Christian programming on television or read Christian publications/books. Will not, under any circumstance, acknowledge the Cross.

For some reason, Mormons don't use the crucifix--one never sees one atop a Mormon church. When I run into Mormon missionaries, I always ask them why they don't use the crucifix, as do most if not all Christian denominations, but I have never been given a satisfactory answer.

50 posted on 10/18/2011 11:48:53 AM PDT by Fiji Hill

But only One shall Judge, and He is my Savior, Jesus Christ...who knows the heart and is mighty to save.

HMMmmm...

"He (Joseph Smith) is the man through whom God has spoken... yet I would not like to call him a savior, though in a certain capacity he was a god to us, and is to the nations of the earth, and will continue to be."

- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:321

"You call us fools; but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a god..."

- Herber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 5:88

"If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass by him [Joseph Smith]; if we enter our glory, it will be through the authority he has received. We cannot get around him [Joseph Smith]"
- (as quoted in 1988 Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, p. 142)

There is "no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith. If Joseph Smith was verily a prophet, and if he told the truth...no man can reject that testimony without incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter the kingdom of God"

- Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.190

"I tell you, Joseph holds the keys, and none of us can get into the celestial kingdom without passing by him. We have not got rid of him, but he stands there as the sentinel, holding the keys of the kingdom of God; and there are many of them beside him. I tell you, if we get past those who have mingled with us, and know us best, and have a right to know us best, probably we can pass all other sentinels as far as it is necessary, or as far as we may desire. But I tell you, the pinch will be with those that have mingled with us, stood next to us, weighed our spirits, tried us, and proven us: there will be a pinch, in my view, to get past them. The others, perhaps, will say, If brother Joseph is satisfied with you, you may pass. If it is all right with him, it is all right with me. Then if Joseph shall say to a man, or if brother Brigham say to a man, I forgive you your sins, "Whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them;" if you who have suffered and felt the weight of transgression—if you have generosity enough to forgive the sinner, I will forgive him: you cannot have more generosity than I have. I have given you power to forgive sins, and when the Lord gives a gift, he does not take it back again."

- Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 6, p.154-155

"It is because the Lord called Joseph Smith that salvation is again available to mortal men.... If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the restoration, there would be no salvation,"

- Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 396, 670

They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work.

He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon.

He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood.

As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun.

Who has made this so?

Have I?

Have this people?

Have the world?

No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it.

If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph.

If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass.

Can you pass without his inspection?

No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times.

In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet.

They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent?

They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they?

Brigham Young,

--JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, vol. 8, p. 224

51 posted on 10/18/2011 11:49:00 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

To: Retired Greyhound

How did you get to Minnesota?

52 posted on 10/18/2011 11:51:33 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

After all, how many mainstream Mormons want the world to associate fundamentalist polygamist Mormons with them?

SHOULD the world ASSENT TO MORMON DEMANDS TO SEE THEM AS the ONLY ones worthy to be called MORMON?

http://newsroom.lds.org/additional-resource/media-letter

53 posted on 10/18/2011 11:54:25 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

To: colorcountry

Think he’ll get the point?

54 posted on 10/18/2011 11:56:24 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

LOL, I took the plane.

55 posted on 10/18/2011 11:56:28 AM PDT by Retired Greyhound (.)

To: colorcountry

In a bizarre hunting accident, three Utah Christian Bowhunters managed to shoot each other while hunting.

According to unnamed sources, the three apparently were circling in on what they thought was a very large buck, when in fact they were stalking themselves in the dense tamerisk undergrowth.

Indentification found on one of the unfortunate hunters indicated that he was a also a member in good standing of a group known as the Flyin Inmen.

BE SAFE!!!

56 posted on 10/18/2011 12:02:00 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

To: Retired Greyhound

57 posted on 10/18/2011 12:02:52 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

How do we know you are a Christian?

58 posted on 10/18/2011 12:04:14 PM PDT by starlifter (Pullum sapit)

Think he’ll get the point?

Hopefully he'll get the point and not the broadhead. ;)

59 posted on 10/18/2011 12:04:56 PM PDT by colorcountry (Comforting lies are not your friends. Painful truths are not your enemies.)

To: colorcountry

What's that, Ma'am?

No; we are NOT bowhunters; but when we return from mission; we'll BE hunted as beaus!

60 posted on 10/18/2011 12:05:13 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)

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