Posted on 05/01/2010 8:33:45 AM PDT by GonzoII
1. Starting with the First Vision, Mormonism teaches that all churches except the Mormon Church are an abomination in the sight of God. "My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join" (Joseph Smith History, 1:18-20)
"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw• near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” He again forbade me to join with any of them;..."
2. The Doctine and Covenants also has Jesus Christ condemning ALL other churches, and especially the "great and abominable church". "And the great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall be cast down by devouring fire, according as it is spoken by the mouth of Ezekiel the prophet, who spoke of these things, which have not come to pass but surely must, as I live, for abominations shall not reign" (D&C 29:21).
3. The Church has a history of identifying the Catholic Church as the great and abominable church.
"The present Christian world exists and continues by division. The MYSTERY of Babylon the great, is mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, and it needs no prophetic vision, to unravel such mysteries. The old church is the mother, and the protestants are the lewd daughters. Alas! alas! what doctrine, what principle, or what scheme, in all, what prayers, what devotion, or what faith, `since the fathers have fallen asleep,' has opened the heavens; has brought men into the presence of God; and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to an innumerable company of angels? The answer is, not any: `There is none in all christendom that doeth good; no, not one' (Apostle John Taylor, Times and Seasons, Vol.6, No.1, p.811).
"Babylon, literally understood, is the gay world; spiritual wickedness, the golden city, and the glory of the world, The priests of Egypt, who received a portion gratis from Pharaoh; the priests of Baal, and the Pharisees, and Sadducees, with their "long robes," among the Jews, are equally included in their mother's family, with the Roman Catholics, Protestants, and all that have not had the keys of the kingdom and power thereof, according to the ordinances of God." - Prophet John Taylor, Times and Seasons, Vol.6, No.1, p.939
"Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the "whore of Babylon" whom the Lord denounces... as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. And any person who shall be so wicked 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 of the unholy and impious act. If any penitent believer desires to obtain forgiveness of sins through baptism, let him beware of having any thing to do with the churches of apostate Christendom, lest he perish in the awful plagues and judgments, denounced against them. The only persons among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people who have authority from Jesus Christ to administer any gospel ordinance are those called and authorized among the Latter-day Saints. Before the restoration of the church of Christ to the earth in the year 1830, there have been no people on the earth for many generations possessing authority from God to minister gospel ordinances. We again repeat. Beware of the hypocritical false teachers and imposters of Babylon! (Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, Vol.2, No.4, p.255)
"A great portion of the oriental country has been preserved from the grossest idolatry, wickedness, confusion, bloodshed, murders, cruelty, and errors in religion that have overspread the rest of the world, under the name of Christianity, or mystery of iniquity. An open defiance of God is no mystery; open drunkenness, and revelling debauchery, and all manner of wickedness and immorality professed by sinners who profess to be nothing else, are no mystery; they do not deceive anybody; but when all manner of wickedness, idolatry, drunkenness, and corruption is cloaked under a sacred name, under an outward sanctity and holiness, and under as high and dignified an appellation as Christian, it is a mystery of iniquity; and that has overspread a great portion of the world, and has borne rule until the present day, sometimes under the name of Roman universality, sometimes under the name of the Greek Church, and at other times under various classes and names."
"Many that were honest have been deceived by this mystery of iniquity, who have esteemed things to be sacred, which were abominably corrupt; and corrupt superstitions have been revered because of the great names and sanctified professions that were attached to them. If such institutions actually professed wickedness, they would go for what they were worth; but when a thing professes to be holy, and takes the name of Christ as its founder, and the holy Prophets and Apostles, to carry out all manner of oppression, all manner of idolatry and idol worship, all manner of priestcraft and kingcraft, and more or less instigating division among nations and governments, all to carry out bloodshed, cruelty, the rack, the inquisition, and holding of men in bondage, ruling them with a red of iron, it is a mystery of iniquity calculated to deceive millions."
"But returning to the general corruption that has prevailed nationally, politically, and religiously, under the name of Christianity, leaving out Christ and his Apostles, I do think there has been no idolatry in the world, under any form or system, that could surpass it. It is the mystery of iniquity, the great whore of all the earth. It has brought the whole earth under a lasting curse, having departed from the laws of God, changed the ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant, in consequence of which the earth is destined to be burned, and few men left" (Apostle Parley P. Pratt, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, p.41)
"How long has this order of things existed, this dreadful apostacy, this class of people that pronounced themselves Zion, or Christians, without any of the characteristics of Zion? It has existed for some sixteen or seventeen centuries. It has spread itself and grown and gone into the four quarters of the earth. It is the great ecclesiastical power that is spoken of by the revelator John, and called by him the most corrupt and most wicked of all the powers of the earth, under the name of spiritual Babylon, or in other words Babel, which signifies confusion. This great and corrupt power is also represented by John as presenting a golden cup to the nations, full of all manner of filthiness and abominations."
"She is termed, in other places, by the same prophet, "The whore of all the earth," making the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Some three centuries ago there came out sortie excellent men, named Martin Lather, John Calvin and many others that might be mentioned, who protested against the wickedness and abominations of the Church wherein they had been educated, and of which they had been members. Because of their protestations against the mother Church they were called Protestants. They pronounced her the whore of all the earth; they declared that she had no authority, that she had none of the blessings and gifts which characterized the ancient Christians. They came out and established other Churches... But among all these Churches where are the characteristics of Zion? We hunt for them in vain" (Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 14, p.346).
"Thrones shall be cast down, and the Ancient of Days shall sit, and the body of the fourth beast (or Babylon) shall be given to the devouring flame, and then shall the remnant of the heathen know that the Lord is God, for they shall see and hear of his judgments, which he shall execute upon the corrupt powers of the earth under the name of modern Christianity, scripturally called "Babylon the Great"—"The whore of all the earth," with whom the nations for centuries have committed fornication, and have drank out of her filthy cup. O Babylon! thou hast decked thyself with costly ornaments! Thou has clothed thyself with the most gaudy apparel! Thy seminaries of learning, and thy theological institutions have been multiplied far and wide. Thy priests are polished with all the refinements of a profound and extensive education. Thy costly and magnificent churches have been erected in great numbers throughout all thy borders. The merchants of the earth have made themselves rich through the abundance of thy luxuries. The learned—the great—the mighty—the kings of the earth, have glorified themselves in thy grand and superb palaces. Thou hast indeed enrobed thyself in the royal splendors of a queen. Thine external appearance has excited the admiration of all nations. But internally thou art rotten with the filth of thy whoredoms" (Apostle Orson Pratt, The Essential Orson Pratt, p.109).
"The Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant church is the great corrupt ecclesiastic power, represented by great Babylon which has made all nations drunk with her wickedness, and she must fall, after she has been warned with the sound of the everlasting gospel. Her overthrow will be by a series of the most terrible judgments which will quickly succeed each other, and sweep over the nations where she has her dominion, and at last she will be utterly burned by fire, for thus hath the Lord spoken. Great, and fearful, and most terrible judgments are decreed upon these corrupt powers, the nations of modern Christendom; for strong is the Lord God who shall execute His fierce wrath upon them, and He will not cease until He has made a full end, and until their names be blotted out from under heaven" ((Apostle Orson Pratt, Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, p.84 - p.85).
The Evangelization Station P.O. Box 267 Angels Camp, California, 95222, USA Telephone: 209-728-5598 E-mail: evangelization@earthlink.net www.evangelizationstation.com Pamphlet 360
End of Elsiethon - time to tend the animals...
The LDS church has since reorganized several times with groups which have broken away from the LDS Church, but still call themselves Mormon. For example, the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has about 250,000 members. The polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is estimated to have between 6,000 and 10,000 members.
So unless the media can somehow twist information to slander real Christians, LDS won't be in any headlines any time soon. There have always been these little cults, which whose doctrine includes slandering Christians in God's name.
With over 2 Billion members, the Catholic church is the largest Christian denomination in the world, and that makes the church BIG target. The church is under significant attacks from much more dangerous tyrants than LDS.
What blows my mind is that there have been several prophecies in the church, for example, Fatima in 1907, which warned of communist influence on the world, if people didn't "repent and reconcile". She asked that catholics pray for world conversion. The warning of "end times", included attacks on the church, shooting of a Pope, war, and famine.
Who thought about communism in 1907? When John Paull II was shot, that was thought to be a reminder of the the Fatima warnings. The assailant was found to be a Russian collaborator.
The John Paul II, lived recognized the Blessed Lady of Fatima by placing his bullet in the crown of a shrine, dedicated to her. Pope John Paul went on to fight communism, along with Reagan, and others. Once the Soviet Block fell we all thought it was okay.
Now, it's 2010 and my own country is turning red, there are ridiculous assaults on my church with journalistic slurs comparable to that of the Jews before/during WWII, and everyone seems to be in an Orwellian state of denial.
I'd say the Mormon church better worry about what God thinks about them, and stop worrying about "teaching" the faith of other churches.
Prayer and fasting my friends.
That's the means.
Fatima has and continues to be played out. Will we see the era of peace....?...we'll see.
#8: We have more in common than our religion, as in conservatism, and our time would be better spent furthering conservatism than tell each other that our priest or preacher wears combat boots.
This coming from the person who posted this, this, this, this, and let us not forget this (all within the past week)...very interesting.
Rodney King pleas ("Can't we all just get along") during the riot sound just a little insincere coming out of the mouth of one who was screaming "no justice, no peace" five minutes before (a little LA Riot lingo from one who was stationed at March back in the glory days of '92).
i.e., maybe you should follow your own advice.
If there is one thing I despise it is hypocrisy, and we get a lot of it on these threads from the trolls and others...
ANYone can have an ICON!
I go directly to FR when I log in!
So do I with my icon and I never have to log in.
When my desk top opens, I click my little icon twice - just like Dorothy clicking her heels, only I click just twice and I believe she clicked three times - and magically I'm at F.R. News forum, not "everything".
Appears our FRiend has an open mind, and a mouth to match.
Why? I don’t respect witches, satan worshipers, liberals, global warmers, - do you?
JS is greater than Jesus as we have been told by JS's owns words and preached to/by LDS since then. (roll eyes)
Who cares and what difference does it make? I have a number of LDS friends and neighbors that are far more decent and "Christian" in their behavior than many of the so-called mainstream Protestants and Evangelicals on these threads.
Who are these people? Or what is it that you mean by these labels?
If you are going to quote me quote me correctly. I said "so-called" mainstream Protestants and Evangelicals. By these I mean those who troll the Catholic topic threads and will stoop to anything to denigrate Catholics, the Catholic Church, and the Catechism. It means those who will bear any false witness and take any oblique opportunity to imply that child sexual abuse is an exclusively Catholic problem and that it is more prevalent than in any other denomination (which it is not) and that it is an officially sanctioned Church activity....all in the name of sweet baby Jesus and the primacy of St. Paul.
Thank you for your continued documentation of “cunningly devised fables” (2Pe 1:16) which are in contrast with the God and gospel of Scripture
In other words, the usual suspects. ;-D
BTW, well said.
Perfect dialogue............
FR Catholic Apologetics post the most threads regarding Catholic scandals and then attempt to refute them.
My statement was an olive branch in that we have more in common that religion however I will NOT allow YOU or OTHERS justify the systemic child rape and subsequent cover-up that has and continues to occur in the RCC.
So ridicule me all you want, I’m not on the side of pedophiles and their protectors.
So, Judy, do you know what is meant by evangelical or main stream protestant? I don’t.
It was just a question. Still no answer but its ok.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.