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1 Worlds Colliding – Christianity Vs. the Great Isms Part 3 – Christian

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1 Worlds Colliding – Christianity Vs. the Great Isms Part 3 – Christian Worlds Colliding – Christianity vs. the Great Isms Part 3 – Christian Heresies Class 10 – Mormonism February 9, 2020 “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become” – Lorenzo Snow, former president of the Mormon Church Introduction to Mormonism Shady historical and theological background • The Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS – the Mormons) founded by Joseph Smith of Palmyra, NY • Joseph yearned to know which of the religious beliefs of his day were correct • In 1823, Smith received the golden plates from the Angel Moroni • Smith claims to have translated the Book of Mormon from ancient golden plates from reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics by means of the Urim and Thummin (1827-29) • He sought the Restoration of the Kingdom of God, the Restoration of the Gospel, and the Restoration of the Church • Accuses the church of the Great Apostasy • Not since the time of the Apostles has there been a true Church that contains the true Gospel • Smith’s family “destitute of moral character” • There exists no contemporary pro-Mormon statements from reliable and informed sources who knew the Smith family and Joseph intimately • Smith murdered by a mob in 1844 • Brigham Young led flock from MO to Salt Lake City • Charismatic founder followed by a shrewd organizer…Religion Made in America! Mormonism is a heretical cult whose followers are on the path of destruction! 2 Corinthians 11:4 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Galatians 1:6-7 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. New Revelation – the Mormon Bible (The Standard Works) • The King James Version insofar as it is correctly translated • Doctrine and Covenants • The Pearl of Great Price • Book of Mormon The Story of the Ancient People • Two American continent civilizations • Arrived in Central America & Peru • Christ visited and revealed himself to the Nephites The Book of Mormon fails biblically, historically, and scientifically 1 Scientific Evidence Against the Book of Mormon • There has never been a language comparable to reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics • The vast and advanced civilizations along with their many cities have never been identified from archaeological evidence across the Americas. • No iron, steel, brass, gold and silver coins, metal, swords, breast-plates, arm shields, armor, horses and chariots, or silk have ever been found in pre-colonial archeological sites. • Cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, and donkeys were introduced in the Americas by the Europeans in post-Columbian times. Elephants never existed on the continent. • American Indians show no trace of Jewish ancestry The Book of Mormon has undergone extensive correction since its initial publication in 1830: • I Nephi 19:16-20:1 – more than 50 changes since the original: words have dropped, spelling corrected, and phrases added • More than 2000 changes to be found in the Book of Mormon over 131 years • All three witnesses that appear at the front of the Book of Mormon (Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris) apostasized the Mormon faith. Plagiarisms – The King James Version • Book of Mormon contains 25,000 words from the King James Bible including many verbatim quotations • In Acts 3, Peter preaches at Pentecost, paraphrasing Deuteronomy 18:15-19. While writing III Nephi, Joseph Smith puts Peter’s words in the mouth of Christ preaching to the Nephites, hundreds of years before Peter’s sermon as recorded in Acts! Anachronisms and Contradictions • Jews were forbidden to eat pork yet Nephi, an orthodox Jew, kept swine • The Jaredites enjoyed “glass” windows in the large ship in which they crossed the ocean along with steel and a compass, long before these items had been invented • Failed prophecy by Smith regarding the American Civil War Where did the Book of Mormon come from? • An expansion on the writings of Solomon Spaulding, a retired minister who was known to have written a number of “romances” with Biblical backgrounds The Mormon Gospel • The God of Mormonism was once a man like us. He lived on his own planet and had a god over him (and so on into eternity past). Through perfect obedience, he achieved exaltation to godhood. He had a wife and millions of spirit-children with her. Jesus and Lucifer were brothers, who fought over the best way to deal with Earth. Lucifer rebelled and was cast out of heaven. Jesus was awarded the office of Savior for Earth. • All people pre-existed and came to earth to earn our exaltation and become gods like the God of the Bible. We will have wives and spirit-children just as God does if we are perfect enough in this life to gain that privilege. One day we will be as powerful as he is. • Depending on how obedient we are, we will ultimately end up in one of three eternal Kingdoms: o The Telestial Kingdom (those who reject the Book of Mormon) o The Terrestrial Kingdom o The Celestial Kingdom (for the most faithful Mormons) • Mormons believe that the family unit will endure into the eternal age, in denial of Jesus’ teaching that there is no marriage or procreation in heaven. 2 The Mormon Doctrine of God • “God was once as we are now, an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens…I say, if you were to see Him today, you would see Him like a man in form – like yourselves and all the person, image and very form of man.” • Mormon theology is polytheistic, teaching that the universe is inhabited by different gods who procreate spirit children which are in turn clothed with bodies on different planets, Adam-god being the god of this planet. • Joseph Smith began as a Unitarian, progressed to tri-theism and graduated into full-fledged polytheism. • Elohim and Jehovah are two separate gods, Jesus (Jehovah) was begotten by Adam (Elohim) Mormons are happy to be considered just another Christian evangelical denomination while hiding that they accept the verdict of their founder Joseph Smith that the Latter Day Saints are “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth,” the only church with which God is “well pleased.” • The goal of Mormonism is to become a god • For the Christian, man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. • Brigham Young and Joseph Smith both urged their followers to compare the teachings of the Mormon Church to the Bible. • Mormon missionaries are trained not to be critical of Christianity or to be argumentative. The Mormon view of God vs. the Biblical View of God • Mormon teaching holds to a belief in “an infinite number of holy personages, drawn from worlds without number, who have passed on to exaltation and are gods.” – Bruce McConkie, LDS Apostle • God was once a “finite being” and was “fallen” as Adam was. – Brigham Young • “Jesus Christ was his God and the Father of Jesus Christ was Adam.” – LDS Prophet Wilford Woodruff • In some places the Book of Mormon affirms the Trinity and the oneness of God, counter to the teaching of the LDS founders, prophets, and apostles. o “the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one…” – Nephi 11:27 • Mosiah 15:2-5 also indicates that Jesus is both the Father and the Son • Alma 11 affirms that there is no plurality of gods and that Jesus the Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father are one. • Jesus Christ is the Creator of all that exists (John 1; Colossians 1; Hebrews 1) • Isaiah 40; 44; 45; 46 affirm that God is the only one and true God. Isaiah 44:8 “Is there a God beside me? There is no Rock; I know not any? Isaiah 45:21 “And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none beside me.” • Satan was the first to suggest that man can become like God. • God is not a man (Numbers 23:19; I Samuel 15:29; Hosea 11:9; Malachi 3:6) • The Adam-God doctrine of Mormon Church theology is the outgrowth of their polytheism, and forces Mormons to deny not only the Trinity of God as revealed in Scripture but the immaterial nature of God as pure spirit. • Mormons try to conceal their polytheism under a ruse of monotheism. 3 The Virgin Birth • Mormon teaching is akin to the Greek & Roman gods in which the immortal gods had children by mortal women. • Adam-God is the father of Jesus Creation • Our spirits were created in the pre-existence by God the Father and our eternal Mother. • Matter is self-existent and eternal in nature. • Most Mormons now reject the Adam-God doctrine and deny that it was ever taught by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. • The LDS position has moved from suppression of this teaching to outright denial. Sin • LDS teaches that one can only sin if he is aware of the law • The Bible teaches that we are sinners even if ignorant of the law, sinful from birth • LDS teaches that Jesus died for the original sin of Adam and Eve, so all humanity has already been cleansed of original sin. Parents do not pass on a sin nature to their children.
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