13/01/2009

  • Christanity vs. Mormonism

    Inspired by a Reformed brother's posting the Christian testimony of a former Mormon missionary, I am reposting an excerpt each from my 2 LDS Membership removal letters that addresses certain teachings of the Mormon religion, that re-affirms of true Christianity and the one true Church, and that repudiates false religions and churches.   The biblical Truth therein would also address all other false religions especially those that masquerade under the descriptor "Christian".    Hopefully this week, I will post a long article on Divine Revelation.

    (To the Catholic who, yesterday, requested one verse supporting Sola Scriptura in the Bible:  #17 is the first part of my answer to you with several verses.  Please expect the 2nd part of my answer hopefully this week.)

     

    My Letter #1 Excerpt

    1.  The true Gospel (and by necessary implication, the identity of God) is of first and primary importance.  Anything else (the organization of the Church, the name of Jesus Christ in a church’s name, apostolic and priesthood succession, how to love our neighbor, the “Great Apostasy”, Visions and Apparitions, miracles, the mode of Baptism, the use of water in the Lord’s Supper, the plethora of non-LDS churches, supposed medical and scientific evidence, et cetera) matters worse than nothing if a church does not teach the true Gospel.   If a church does not follow the true Gospel of Jesus Christ or follows a foreign god, then that church is a false church and a synagogue of Satan under God’s TWICE-SAID damning curse.  It is interesting to note that the verse in Galatians effectively means human OR ANGEL.   (1.Corinthians 15:1-3; Galatians 1:7-12, Matthew 7:15-23)

     

    2.  God is indeed Triune and is not dependent on any other person for creating the angels, human souls/spirits, and the rest of the seen and unseen Universe and spiritual realms.   It is interesting to note that 2.Nephi 31:21, Alma 11:44, Mosiah 15:4-5, Mormon 7:7, D&C 20:28, and Moses 1:20 are, individually and collectively, Trinitarian passages which Joseph Smith Jr. and the LDS Church repudiate in one later D&C passage (D&C 121) and extra-scriptural teaching and effectively rejects those parts of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.   Either the Godhead is Triune (one God) or three separate God-beings; it canNOT be both.   (As I have mentioned, God is Triune: 3 God-persons in 1 God-being.)  Hence, the LDS Church and its extra-biblical Scriptures self-contradict each other when it comes to the identity of God, and its official anti-Trinitarian claim and teaching are false.   (Isaiah 44:24, Psalm 33:6; Nehemiah 9:6; Deuteronomy 6:4, Mark 12:29 and 32, James 2:19; Matthew 11:25-27, John 1:18, 2 Timothy 1:2; John 1:1, John 5:17-22, John 8:53-58, John 10:27-30, John 14:7-11, John 20:28-29, Romans 9:5, Philippians 2:6-7, Hebrews 1:8 and 10-12; Acts 5:3-4, 2 Corinthians 2:9-13; Matthew 28:19, Luke 3:21-22, John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:5-7, John 17:25, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Peter 1:2)

     

    3.  God has always been without any gods or “Heavenly Fathers” before or after Him. (Isaiah 43:10-11; Isaiah 44: 6,8; Isaiah 46:5, 9; Isaiah 42:8; John 8:58)

     

    4.  Each Person of the Godhead, including Jesus Christ, has been and will always be eternal God and did not advance from mere spirit beings to Godhood either in the spirit realm or having to go through mortal human life.  The Godhead has lived and will live literally from infinite time to inifinite time.  The Godhead has no beginning and no end.   Hence, contrary to what “Prophets” Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Lorenzo Snow taught; the Father did not go through a mortal life on this or another planet or star, and He has no Heavenly Father, Heavenly Grandfather, Heavenly Great-grandfather, et cetera.   The LDS notion of God’s eternity can also be disproven in a very simple manner through Transcendental Mathematics (the mathematics dealing with infinity and other non-linear functions).   (Colossians 1-2; Isaiah 9:6, John 1:1, John 8:53-58, John 10:27-30, John 17:5, John 20:28-29, Hebrews 1:10-12, Revelation 1:1 and 8 and 11; Habukuk 1:11; Malachi 3:6; Psalm 90:2; Numbers 23:19; Rom. 1:20-25; Rev. 9:16; Hosea 11:9; Psalm 119:142)

     

    5.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are all Uncreate. (John 8:58; Genesis 1:1-2 with John 1:1-3, Psalm 104:30, Revelation 1:4-5 with 4:11)

     

    6.  The only true God (i.e, the Triune Christian God) is omnipresent in the fullest sense of the word. Each Personage of the Triune Godhead can be wholly and simultaneously present at any location.  (Isaiah 66:1; Jeremiah 23:23-24)

     

    7.  Since Lucifer is a created being and Christ is not a created being; Lucifer (who later fell in rebellious pride against God and became Satan) is not the spirit brother of Christ or of any human.   Humans and angels are indeed not interchangeable unlike the LDS teaching on the Archangel Michael becoming Adam, Noah appearing as the Archangel Gabriel to Blessed Mary, and the character Moroni in 400 AD appearing as the Angel Moroni to Joseph Smith, Jr., in the 1820’s.  Revelation 14:6 does not refer to Moroni.  (Genesis 3:24; Exodus 25:20, Psalm 128:2-5, Colossian 2:15, Rev. 14:6)

     

    8.  The true Gospel is the following.  Christ died for our sins to save us by Grace Alone through Living Faith Alone (God’s instrument and gift, not a work) by Christ alone.  Salvation is the full and entire economy/order of salvation from pre-creation Election to Justification to Glorification.  (Glorification is similar to but not the same as LDS Exaltation.)  No part of that salvation is dependent on any of our works or so-called LDS “Gospel laws” (or “First Principles”) except that “Gospel law” of faith.  Our works, even any Sacrament or ordinance (being a sacred work of man) or fasting, done in righteousness are reckoned as debt and like filthy cloth and does not merit or qualify us for salvation whether in whole or in part.  Any claim to a work saving us nullifies the Grace of God and entirely repudiates Faith.    James 2:24 does not pertain to justification before God, and John 3:5 does not indicate that Baptism is required for salvation.  (Ephesians 2:1-8; Luke 23:43; Isaiah 64:6; Romans 4:2-4; Titus 3:5; Galatians 3:6; Romans 4:9; Romans 11:6; Acts 16:30-31; Romans 3:28; Galatians 3:10; Romans 10:9; James 2:23; Gal. 5:4; Romans 10:9; Romans 4:13-14; Genesis 15:6; Romans 9:11-12; Romans 9:16; Romans 3:20-21; Galatians 2:15-16; Matthew 15:28; Mark 10:52; Matthew 9:22; Romans 9:31-33; Matthew 23:23; Matthew 23:13; Luke 11:52; Hebrews 11:4; Romans 4:6; Acts 10:43; Philipians 3:9; Luke 18:9-14; John 5:24; Acts 15:9; 1.Peter 1:5; 2.Timothy 1:9; John 3:36)

     

    11.  Not all humans are Elect since some humans do not have faith in the one true God, and without faith it is impossible to please God (and be saved).  (Matthew 11:25-26, Romans 9:11-13 and 18 and 20-23, Romans 11:7-8, Hebrews 11:6; 1 Peter 2:8, Jude 4)

     

    12.  Contrary to the LDS church’s teaching of Universal Atonement and Universal Salvation, although Jesus has the ability to atone for the sins of the whole world, the Atonement is effectual only for the Elect who turn to Him for salvation.  (1.John 2:1-2; Hebrews 7:24-26; John 10:11, 14-15; John 10:26-29; John 6:37, 44; John 8:47)

     

    13.  Unconditional Election occurred without respect to any created being or choice of man as God is not a respecter of persons.  (Romans 9)

     

    14.  Only the Elect go to Heaven. (Matthew 25:31-46)

     

    15.  Contrary to the LDS church, when we die, we go straight to God who assigns the Elect to Heaven and the Reprobate to Hell (Hell being the equivalent to the Mormon Outer Darkness) and we never through any intermediate Purgatory or Spirit Prison or intermediate Paradise, and there is no 2nd chance to accept the Gospel and thereby no way to do vicarious ordinances for the dead.  Hence, vicarious ordinances (even the ones I’ve done at the _____ Temple) are also not true.  (Heb. 9:27, Luke 16:19-31; Matthew 25:1-10; Psalm 49:6,7; Matthew 26:1-10)

     

    16.  Indeed, after our full salvation is consummated when Christ returns and judges the world, the Elect will receive varying glories in the single Kingdom of Heaven.  Contary to the LDS teaching of the 3 Kingdoms in addition to the Outer Darkness in the afterlife, there is only one Kingdom (i.e, Heaven also known as the City of God), not 3 kingdoms, where the entire Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) reigns and lives.  (Revelation 4, 5, 21)

     

    17.  Contrary to the LDS church; the Protestant Canon of the Bible in its original writings is infallible, inerrant, the Word of God alone, and the only Scripture.   With the one of many examples I stated in #2; the LDS extra-biblical Scriptures (Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price) err and therefore are not infallible and are not the infallible Word of God.   It is interesting to note that in the Title Page’s closing sentence of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith Jr. implies the possibility of errors in the Book of Mormon and later in the Book of Mormon’s Introduction and his later teachings, erroneously claims that it is the most correct of any book (even more correct than the Bible).  (2. Timothy 3:16; Psalm 53:1-3; Rom. 3:23, Rom. 5:12; John 20:30-31; 1.Peter 1:20-21)

     

    18.   Original Sin (Total Depravity) is indeed Truth.   Because of the Fall, we are totally unable to turn to Christ and seek after Christ apart from the inward regeneration of the Holy Ghost.   It is not that we seek after and find God, but rather God sought us and found us who were running as fast as we can from God to Hell.   Because of Adam as the God-appointed federal head of the human family, all men die and are born totally depraved and in a state of sin (original sin).   Even so, through Christ, the Elect are made alive and are saved.   (Romans 6, Psalm 51, Psalm 53)

     

    19.  The LDS Prophets and Apostles from Joseph Smith Jr. to the current “Prophet” Thomas S. Monson are false “Prophets, Seers, and Revelators” and wolves in sheep’s clothing.    Necessarily false prophets who profess Christ and add things to salvation without biblical warrant are blind leading the blind and are also effectively legalistic Pharisees that, as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, bind man’s conscience with unnecessary rules and makes their followers twice as much as children of Hell as themselves.   (Deut. 13:1-3; 18:20-22; Isaiah 41: 22-24; Isaiah 44:25; Jeremiah 14:13-15; Jeremiah 23:32-34; Ezekiel 13:1-10; Ezekiel 22:28; Gal. 1:8-9; Titus 1:16; Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 24:23-25; 2.Corinthians 11:13-15; 2. Peter 2:1-3; 1.John 4:1, Matthew 23)

     

    20.  Visions and miracles can and certainly do happen even in these last days.   Some are truly of Christ such as 2 miraculous physical healings I’ve personally witnessed, but there are some that are not of God but of Satan.  The Bible is clear that in these last days, Satan who can be a powerful impostor of Christ will seek to deceive and apostasize many through counterfeit visions and miracles that mimic the power of God but are in reality the power, sophistry, and deception of Satan.  Visions and miracles alone do not give veracity or basis to a church.  Alas! The LDS church’s sole basis is Joseph Smith Jr.’s First Vision in 1820 and the visionary beings’ telling him that every Christian church at that time is an abomination to the Lord!   According to 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, it rightly says that every church that is not part of the Lord’s Church is part of the Church of Satan.  However, the LDS church accords, in self-contradiction and false ecumenism, the name “Christian” to non-LDS churches (part of Satan’s church in the Book of Mormon’s perspective).   A Christian Church cannot be simultaneously part of Christ’s Church and Satan’s Church.  (Matthew 24:26, Luke 21:7-9, Acts 2:17, 2.Tim. 3:13-14, 2Thess. 2:5-12, Revelation 13:11-13, 18)

     

    21.  Because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has not the true Gospel or the true identity of God,   Joseph Smith Jr.’s First Vision was Satan masquerading as a Heavenly being (masquerading as God the Father and God the Son in that case). (Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 24:23; 2.Corinthians 11:14)

     

    22.  The “Great Apostasy” occurred during the Reformation when the Catholic part of our Lord’s Church (the major part, not the entire Church) apostatized from following AntiChrist who infiltrated the Church even in the Apostles’ time.  The Bible does not indicate that the entire church must apostasize but rather Christ will not let Satan prevail against His Church to the extent of total Apostasy.   Not all of the Church apostatized or fell away. (2.Thessalonians 2:3-5; Matt. 16:18 cf 28:20)

     

    23. Contrary to the LDS Church; the US Constitution is not a divine or inspired document.  Religious liberty, as the US has and the LDS Church supports, is not found in the Bible, and a church is NOT to be politically neutral since the spiritual welfare of the nation is at stake.  The Church and State are to remain separate as to their God-given roles but never to the extent of Disestablishmentarianism (i.e, not establishing true Christian religion as the Nation’s religion), which compromises and maligns Christ, His Church, and His Gospel; introduces and permits a plethora of false religions (including atheism) that do not have the Gospel; negatively affect the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom and His Gospel on the Earth; and are invariably a moral and social threat to the nation.    The nations and their Governments, as they are called (civil) ministers of God by God through Paul, are to uphold and preserve Christ and His Church in the land, to encourage them that do good, to threaten and punish those that do evil, and to suppress all forms of public heresy.  The Church is to address the nation on its spiritual state when the State calls the Church to do so.  Even when the State does not call the Church to address the nation spiritually, the Church is witness of Christ and call all evildoers, even individuals and nations, to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.  (Psalm 2 and Romans 13)

     

    24.   All LDS ordinances (including my Baptism, Confirmation, ______ Priesthood ordination, Baptisms for the Dead, Confirmations for the Dead, and several Priesthood Blessings) are invalid as they have the appearance of godliness but deny the power thereof and are not done with the true commission and authority of Jesus Christ.  (2.Tim 3)

     

    I renounce my LDS creed and strongly re-affirm the following Creeds and attest to their Scriptural truth:  the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the French Confession, the 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Solemn League & Covenant, the Westminster Directory of Family Worship, the Westminster Directory of Publick Worship, and the Form of Presbyterial Church Government.

     I know that my total salvation comes as a free gift of God (Romans 6:23), and that there is absolutely no way that I can earn it, and that even to attempt to do so is to insult the One who offers salvation to me. I have been born again, saved by grace, which is totally inconsistent with the teaching of the Book of Mormon at 2 Nephi 25:23.

    I have also found that the LDS Church has not been open with its people. Joseph Smith was not a true prophet of God, as he violated the Biblical standards of a true prophet as laid down in Deuteronomy 13:1-3 and 18:20-22. He violated the first passage by proclaiming, “...you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you...” (The King Follett Funeral Discourse as recorded in Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pages 345-348). This is in direct violation of what God has said in Isaiah 43:10: “Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” This teaching is causing people to follow after ‘another god’ as Deuteronomy 13:2 said would happen. This alone makes Joseph Smith a false prophet. However, it is quite easy to list a number of false prophecies of Joseph Smith that allow him to qualify under the teaching of Deuteronomy 18:20-22. Some of these would include Doctrine and Covenants section 111, 114, and 124:59-60. The most amazing, however, is the entire Book of Abraham, which is, in reality, the Egyptian Book of Breathings taken from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, all of which is totally pagan material.

    I renounce my LDS creed and strongly re-affirm the following Creeds and attest to their Scriptural truth:  the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, the French Confession, the 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Solemn League & Covenant, the Westminster Directory of Family Worship, the Westminster Directory of Publick Worship, and the Form of Presbyterial Church Government.

     

    My Letter #2 Excerpt

    I likewise strongly re-affirm that (1) the biblically orthodox Protestant churches constitute the one and only true Church of Jesus Christ and exclusively have the ministerial authority to administer the ordinances of God and (2) that all other churches (including biblically heterodox Protestant churches, the Catholic church, and the LDS church) are false churches and synagogues of Satan and do not have any true pastoral, priesthood, or ministerial authority to administer the ordinances of God.   I repudiate, in the strongest yet most charitable terms, the false, heretical doctrines and the pretended, usurping authority of the LDS Church.