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Guess Who?
Mormon Reasearch Ministry ^ | Mormon Reasearch Ministry

Posted on 11/14/2012 10:44:44 PM PST by reaganaut

Members of the LDS Church are familiar with the charge that Mormonism isn't a Christian faith. They hear it often enough, but they really don't understand why people think that. "We are Christians," Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley insisted. "We have the name of Jesus Christ right in the name of our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We follow Christ. We worship Him. We love Him. He is the center of all we do"("Inspirational Thoughts," Liahona, June 1999, 3; 2 Nephi 25:24-29).

In the summer of 2005 we asked Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois to take a quiz we called "Guess Who?" The quiz consisted of 15 relatively recent statements made by LDS leaders; we asked the participants to see if they could determine who their Church leaders were talking about. We invite you to take the same quiz. The answers will be at the end; see if you can do this without scrolling down for the answers.

His teachings "are the foundation of our faith. Everything we have is a lengthened shadow of [him]."

"I pray we may learn from his example, that we might incorporate into our lives the great principles which he so beautifully taught; that we ourselves might emulate him;..."

"I honor and revere [his] name... I delight to hear it; I love it. I love his doctrine... I am his witness."

"He died for those he loved. He reigns in the realms above."

"The more I learn of him, the more I love and revere him."

"I look to him. I love him. I seek to follow him."

"He not only gave us joy, happiness and opportunity here, but also a great hope in the life to come."

"Today, this Sabbath day, in many thousands of congregations, perhaps as many as twenty-one thousand, in many areas of the earth, our people have sung or will sing the praises of [him]."

"Of noble seed, of heavenly birth, he came to bless the sons of earth."

He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief."

"Church members are interested in learning more about [him] because they love him and they love the gospel he brought forth."

"How great indeed is our debt to him. ...Great is his glory,... We stand in reverence before him... Let us not forget him. Let not his memory be forgotten in the celebration of Christmas."

"...and he shall stand in due time on the earth, in the flesh, and fulfill that to which he is appointed."

"The light, provided to the world by [him], illuminates the confusion, clarifies the principles of the gospel, and helps lead men and women to their own eternal reward, if they will but endure to the end."

The "work that has been carried out by President Young and his brethren [of the Twelve] has been in accordance with the plans, and designs, and Spirit, and instructions of [him]."

How did you do?

If you thought these statements were about Jesus—the One Mormons claim to worship and adore, the One they say is the center of all they do—you are incorrect. In each statement above, the speaker was talking about Joseph Smith.

Quotes with References

His teachings "are the foundation of our faith. Everything we have is a lengthened shadow of [him]." (15th President Gordon B. Hinckley, Church News, 3/19/2005, p.3.)

"I pray we may learn from his example, that we might incorporate into our lives the great principles which he so beautifully taught; that we ourselves might emulate him;..." (Thomas Monson (First Presidency), Ensign, 6/1994, p.7.)

"I honor and revere [his] name... I delight to hear it; I love it. I love his doctrine... I am his witness." (2nd President Brigham Young, quoted in Ensign, 1/1996, p.7.)

"He died for those he loved. He reigns in the realms above." (3rd President John Taylor, Hymns #296, "The Seer, Joseph, The Seer." While this hymn was written in the 18th century, it is still in use as evidenced by its performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the 175th Semi-Annual General Conference of the LDS Church in October, 2005.)

"The more I learn of him, the more I love and revere him." (Apostle Joseph B. Wirthlin, Church News, 2/19/2005, p.5.)

"I look to him. I love him. I seek to follow him." (15th Gordon B. Hinckley, Church News, 12/13/2003, p.3.)

"He not only gave us joy, happiness and opportunity here, but also a great hope in the life to come." (Apostle L. Tom Perry, Church News, 7/3/1993, p.4.)

"Today, this Sabbath day, in many thousands of congregations, perhaps as many as twenty-one thousand, in many areas of the earth, our people have sung or will sing the praises of [him]." (15th President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, 9/1994, p.62.)

"Of noble seed, of heavenly birth, he came to bless the sons of earth." (John Taylor, Hymns #296, "The Seer, Joseph, The Seer.")

He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." (BYU Professor Robert Millet, Ensign, 9/1994, p.19.)

"Church members are interested in learning more about [him] because they love him and they love the gospel he brought forth." (LDS Church Historian Glen M. Leonard, Church News, 12/6/1997, p.4.)

"How great indeed is our debt to him. ...Great is his glory,... We stand in reverence before him... Let us not forget him. Let not his memory be forgotten in the celebration of Christmas." (15th President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, 12/1997, p.2.)

"...and he shall stand in due time on the earth, in the flesh, and fulfill that to which he is appointed." (Church News, 7/19/1994, p.5.)

"The light, provided to the world by [him], illuminates the confusion, clarifies the principles of the gospel, and helps lead men and women to their own eternal reward, if they will but endure to the end." (Church News, 12/13/1997, p.16.)

The "work that has been carried out by President Young and his brethren [of the Twelve] has been in accordance with the plans, and designs, and Spirit, and instructions of [him]." (George A. Smith (First Presidency), quoted in Church News, 12/20/1997, p.7.)


TOPICS: Apologetics; Charismatic Christian; Evangelical Christian; History; Mainline Protestant; Ministry/Outreach; Other Christian; Religion & Politics; Worship
KEYWORDS: inman; mormon
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To: chris37
Anyhow, Religion Moderator, I do appreciate your reasonable responses. I know you have a particulary tough job moderating this section, So I’ll not make it any tougher for you. I’ve said what I have to say, so I’ll walk away now.


I detect a disturbance in the Force...





361 posted on 11/16/2012 1:19:32 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: morphing libertarian

Sorry I’m a week or so late; but Happy Anniversary anyway!


362 posted on 11/16/2012 1:21:05 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: morphing libertarian
I din’t know why the owner allows the persistent attacks.

It's called PAYBACK!

MORMONism is a CULT that slanders ALL of Christianity!





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).
 
 
 
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).

363 posted on 11/16/2012 1:22:37 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: chris37
I’m sure that others do not agree with that assessment, but in my life, it’s my opinion that holds the most weight.

We've noticed.

But, you are probably young yet; with a lot more life ahead of you.

You will learn other things as you travel thru that will change your opinions of all kinds of things.

Cheers!

364 posted on 11/16/2012 1:24:48 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: svcw
BUT... is it THE answer??



365 posted on 11/16/2012 1:28:09 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: metmom
Members of the LDS Church are familiar with the charge that Mormonism isn't a Christian faith. They hear it often enough, but they really don't understand why people think that

Could be because they don't KNOW much about their CHOSEN religion!

366 posted on 11/16/2012 1:29:26 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

I would rather become a mormon that spend another minute with you.

Your kind of zealotry should be banned, but then I don’t own the site.

Buzz off.


367 posted on 11/16/2012 1:55:51 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: Elsie

No, I do not, please stop spamming me, please mental fart someone else.

This is my last worded post to you ever, from this point forward if you post to me you will get only the moo cow as a response.


368 posted on 11/16/2012 3:00:51 PM PST by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: Elsie

No, I do not, please stop spamming me, please mental fart someone else.

This is my last worded post to you ever, from this point forward if you post to me you will get only the moo cow as a response.


369 posted on 11/16/2012 3:01:54 PM PST by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: morphing libertarian; Elsie
Your kind of zealotry should be banned, but then I don’t own the site.

Looks like the world is full of control freaks.

Everybody and their brother wants to ban what the Constitution defends, free speech and freedom of religion.

Funny comments to be made by someone who has *libertarian* in their screen name.

Or is live and let live only applicable when you want to do something and not for everyone else when THEY want to do something?

370 posted on 11/16/2012 3:04:55 PM PST by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: morphing libertarian
Your kind of zealotry should be banned, but then I don’t own the site.

So; YOU would like to have control; and limit or end my free speech.

Are you SURE a Conservative site REALLY matches your politics?

Voltaire you ain't!

371 posted on 11/16/2012 3:18:22 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: chris37
No, I do not, please stop spamming me, please mental fart someone else.

Poor baby; cannot stand the heat; eh?

Keep your cow; it is liable to get butchered and eaten.

372 posted on 11/16/2012 3:19:48 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: chris37
This is my last worded post to you ever...

I just LOVE it when a plan comes together!!

373 posted on 11/16/2012 3:20:42 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

This is a conservative site where certain views are not allowed. It is not a purely free speech site.

Your spinning that opens the rest of your posts to suspicion.

Now I promise, no matter what you say or what lie you respond with, we’re done.


374 posted on 11/16/2012 3:29:09 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: metmom

Where did you get the impression this site recognizes free speech. I have read the owners positions and seen dozens banned.

Nice try, no cigar.

As a former libertarian I know that private parties don’t have to grant free speech rights. It’s the owners site and he can do what he wants.


375 posted on 11/16/2012 3:34:49 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: metmom

Where did you get the impression this site recognizes free speech. I have read the owners positions and seen dozens banned.

Nice try, no cigar.

As a former libertarian I know that private parties don’t have to grant free speech rights. It’s the owners site and he can do what he wants.


376 posted on 11/16/2012 3:35:03 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: morphing libertarian

WOW

Retread much ???


377 posted on 11/16/2012 4:14:11 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: morphing libertarian

dozens?
Do you know why people might get banned?


378 posted on 11/16/2012 4:15:15 PM PST by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: svcw

I know several reasons but I have see people banned for being liberal trolls.

The point was we don’t have free speech guarantees in private ownership situations. The owner has made his position know. Do you disagree?


379 posted on 11/16/2012 4:26:02 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: svcw

I know several reasons but I have see people banned for being liberal trolls.

The point was we don’t have free speech guarantees in private ownership situations. The owner has made his position know. Do you disagree?


380 posted on 11/16/2012 4:26:37 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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