Any/all of the testimony contained in the bom which is not lifted wholesale from the Bible and without change or alteration - is more phony than the Nauvoo “bank notes” once issued by Joey-boy and his bunch of lying grifters.
Jesus Christ has naught to do with the bom or any of the fruadulently concocted doctrines thereof - except reaching out to save sinners in spite of such heresies...
- like for example the one which teaches that Jesus and Lucifer were “spirit brothers”, or the one also mentioned in “Elder” M. Russell Ballard’s book about the eating of the fruit which precipitated the “Fall from Grace” to original sin in the Garden of Eden - being not sin but rather a “wise choice” ...
There have been ordained, Christ-seeking G_d-fearing, and honourable men in my family lineage since at least as far back as the mid 1500s in England - across many denominations over the centuries, and I refuse to accept the blather of a fork-tongued liar like Joseph Smith who says that they were part of any alleged “Apostasy”.
Joe Smith’s breeches were not the only thing about him full of crap..
Wise choice, my left butt cheek! It was wrongful and introduced sin into mankind - nothing less than that, and no amount of revision or neo Arianism mingled with gnosticism and egyptian mysticism can “reinterpret” that.
I cannot imagine myself as anything but happy and fulfilled in a world where the bom did not exist...like the simple majority of true Christians in the world - who have been on this earth continuously testifying to the love of their saviour since the time of Christ’s ministry, I do not regard the bom as anything other than a work of fiction so poorly written and full of contradictions that it has needed more “updating” (not even accounting for grammatical errata and colloquial variances) since 1830, than real scripture ever has, or will.
My testimony is this: Joseph Smith was a liar of constancy and (ill) consequence.
Joseph Smith’s lies, profligacies, and thundering boasts brought down not the honour of martyrdom, but the curses of the Most High of Israel around his head.
He had the temerity to create the shadowy group known as the “Danites” to exact judgment/revenge upon those who opposed/displeased him.
May he (continue to) burn in Hell, right beside “Bring’em” Young, and others like them in authority, who pretended that polygamy - including documented marriages to underage girls, and flings their own wives did not willingly assent to - was a right “divinely” granted to them - the so-called “Law of Abraham” - which was NEVER a law.
They had the audacity to lie about this before publicizing the “revelation” that gave them divine imprimatur, and the dishonesty to defy the authorities (long after signing a contract with the gov’t to stop the practice) by officially solemnizing such unions by virtue of having church representatives at the ceremonies.
I testify that Joseph Smith was a huckster of the utmost capability, a perpetual liar, on whose word I would not rely to know the colour of the sky on a sunny summer day...and that his hubris knew few boundaries. I testify that the organization he founded, “the mormon church” aka “latter day saints”, may include good and kind people who desire to know and serve the real Christ, but that the Christ represented and taught in official church doctrine is in no manner to be regarded the same as the “Only begotten Son of G_d, One in Being with the Father, Through Him all things were made, for us men and for our salvation, he came down from Heaven...by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, For our sake He suffered, died and was buried. On the third day, He rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father...He will come again in Glory to judge the living and the dead and His Kingdom will have no end...”
My first testimony for Christ is to the truth and completeness of Scripture, as represented in the Old and New Testaments, (I accept the Canonical stature of the books of the Apocrypha, because there are no internal contradictions between them and the remainder of all the “books”...) and to the Word which was made Flesh and dwelt among us - through whom we beheld the Glory of the Father, full of grace and peace.
My second Testimony is that I accept Jesus Christ as the Only begotten Son of G_d, and the only Giver of Salvation - into my heart and soul
- Yea, that my sins are forgiven me, His grace is restored unto me, and I am born again, a new creature in Him - and there is nothing I can or may do to earn or improve upon that salvation.
It is a gift of G_d, and the Word says “The gifts and callings of G_d are without repentance...”
I have more I may testify about, but these first two portions are all which are necessary to lead another person to understanding of their own inherently sinful, unacceptable-to-G_d sinful human nature, and to a saving knowledge of the only provision - G_d’s Son and Heir, Jesus Christ.
Like Paul - if all else fails - I lay aside all pretenses and vanities, throw up my hands and claim I “know nothing more than Christ, and Him Crucified...”
Not “Christ, and Him praying in Gethsemane” - Christ and Him Crucified...for only there did He raise his precious, Sacred Head and declare, “It is finished/perfected.”
My Redeemer Lives.
A.A.C.
Well put.