[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]
Part 3:
MORMONISM:
THE WORD & WISDOM OF MAN
-LDS DOCTRINES OF GOD, CHRIST AND MAN-
Continued from PART 2.....
D. The God Of Mormonism. (Chart 31)
1. LDS: God is an exalted man.
"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret." (Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church, VI:305).
a. God was not always God.
"We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the veil, so that you may see." (Ibid.)
b. God once lived on an earth.
"These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are simple. It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible." (Ibid.)
The Bible: GOD IS NOT A MAN - (Num. 23:19).
a. Gen. 1:26-27 - Not physical appearance, but having the attributes of His nature such as will, intelligence, emotion, volition (2:7).
b. Psa. 90:2 - The Eternal One (always God)!
c. Isa. 31:3 - God and Egyptians contrasted - Not the same!
2. LDS: God's nature is changeable -- He has progressed to where He now is.
"Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, and mortal like ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is." (Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, I:123).
"God himself is increasing and progressing in knowledge, power, and dominion, and will do so, worlds without end." (Apostle Wilford Woodruff, 1857, Journal of Discourses, VI:120).
a. Book of Mormon: God does not change! - Moroni 8:18; Mormon 9:9-10.
b. Current LDS authorities reject idea that God is NOW increasing in knowledge, truth, etc.
"It should be realized that God is not progressing in knowledge, truth, virtue, wisdom, or any of the attributes of godliness. He has already gained there things in their fulness. But he is progressing in the sense that his creations increase, his dominions expand, his spirit offspring multiply, and more kingdoms are added to his domains." (Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 239)
c. Which LDS apostle taught the truth, & which taught error here?
The Bible: GOD'S NATURE DOES NOT CHANGE.
a. "For I, Jehovah, change not......" (God's nature & character) - Malachi 3:6.
b. God has changed His mind at times depending upon a change in man - 1 Samuel 15:28-29, 35 (v. 11).
3. LDS: God the Father has a tangible body of flesh and bones.
"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones; but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22)
"There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure; and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." (Doctrine & Covenants 131:7-8)
The Bible: GOD DOES NOT HAVE A TANGIBLE BODY.
-God is Spirit - not flesh and bones! (Jno. 4:24; Lk. 24:39)
-No form revealed to avoid sin! (Deut. 4:15-16, 19, 23)
4. There are many Gods of many worlds.
"I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have selected this text (Rev. 1:6, jrp) for that express purpose. I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods.
"Paul says there are Gods many and Lords many. I want to set it forth in a plain and simple manner; but to us there is but one God -- that is pertaining to us;.......
"Some say I do not interpret the scripture the same as they do. They say it means the heathen's gods......You know and I testify that Paul had no allusion to the heathen gods." (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, VI:474-475).
-The Book of Mormon teaches there is one God! (Alma 11:26-31)
The Bible: ONLY ONE GOD, NOT MANY.
-Isa. 43:10 (none before/after); Isa. 44:6.
5. The God of Mormonism is not the God of the Bible!
6. "No Mormon truly believes the Bible, and a true
Bible believer cannot be a Mormon!"
E. The Christ Of Mormonism (Chart 32).
1. The Firstborn of the Father.
"Christ is the Firstborn, meaning that he was the first Spirit Child born to God the Father in pre-existence." (Mormon Doctrine, McConkie, 281)
The Bible: "FIRSTBORN CONVEYS THE PREEMINENCE OF CHRIST."
a. Of Israel - Exo. 4:22 (given a place over the nations) - Not
the first nation to exist!
b. Of Messiah - Psa. 89:26-27 - "My firstborn....the
highest of the kings of the earth!"
c. Preeminent over all things (i.e., creation, church, death)
- Col. 1:15-18.
d. Not a "Spirit Child" - Blasphemous assertion!
2. Not Eternally God (deity).
a. "By obedience and devotion to the truth he attained that
pinnacle of intelligence which ranked him as a God, as the Lord Omnipotent, while yet in
his pre-existent state." (Ibid., 129)
b. Logical extension of Jesus being the first "spirit
child" of the Father.
The Bible: CHRIST IS ETERNAL GOD (DEITY).
-John 8:57-58 - "I am" (Exo. 3:14) - The eternally-existing
One!
3. The Only Begotten Son Of God.
a. "These name-titles all signify that our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh. Each of the words is to be understood literally. Only means only; Begotten means begotten; and Son means son. Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers." (Ibid., 546-547)
b. "And because he dwelleth in the flesh he shall be called the Son of God" (Mosiah 15:2, BOM).
c. "And the Son is a Son is a Son; he is not some transient emanation from a divine essence, but a literal, living offspring from an actual Father. God is the Father; Christ is the Son. The one begat the other....He is the Son of God in the same sense and way that we are the sons of mortal fathers. It is that simple. Christ was born of Mary. He is the Son of God -- the Only Begotten of the Father." (The Promised Messiah, McConkie, 467-468)
The Bible: "ONLY BEGOTTEN" = UNIQUE, ONE OF A KIND.
a. MONOGENES - "Single of its kind, only." - Jn. 1:14
b. Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived miraculously - Lk. 1:30-31, 34-35 (LDS doctrine denies the virgin birth!)
c. "Son of God" - Denotes sameness / equality / having same nature.
(i) Jno. 5:17-18 - Claimed equal nature with God.
4. Jesus Visited The Americas Following His Resurrection (3 Nephi 11-28, BOM).
-Taught the people, appointed 12 apostles, 3 of these Nephite apostles would "never taste of death" (3 Nephi 28:7, emp. jrp).
The Bible: COMPLETE SILENCE!
a. Acts 1:1-3 - Appeared & taught apostles for 40 days.
b. Acts 1:9-11 - Ascended into heaven.
c. Acts 2:32-33 - 10 days later, at the right hand of God in heaven!
d. It just doesn't fit!
5. The Christ of Mormonism is NOT the Christ of the Bible!
6. "No Mormon truly believes the Bible, and a true
Bible believer cannot be a Mormon!"
F. Mormonism And Man. (Chart 33)
1. Men and women were pre-mortal, spirit children of God.
(Chart 38)
"Life for you did not begin here on earth. You lived before you
were born;....We all once lived in the presence of God, the Eternal Father. In the world
before your earth life you were a spirit child of His. With this divine parentage, your
destiny through righteous living, is to become like your Father in Heaven and return to
his presence." (The Purpose of Life, pamphlet, 2)
"Man was also in the beginning with God." (Doctrine & Covenants 93:29)
The Bible: MAN WAS CREATED ON THE 6TH DAY OF CREATION.
a. Gen. 1:27, 31 - God created man - Not given birth in a spirit world
prior to it!
b. Zech. 12:1 - God forms the spirit within man, not in a pre-mortal
existence!
2. Man's Life On Earth Is A Period Of Probation To Prove Yourself Worthy Of Further Progression.
-"To the end that you might further progress, God, in pre-earth life, presented his plan of salvation whereby you would be permitted to come to earth, to gain a physical body, and to mature in righteousness so that you could prepare to someday dwell again with him. You would be born into this earthly existence without memory of your pre-earthly past so that you could live by faith and have freedom to choose between good and evil." (Your Pre-Earth Life, pamphlet, 6-7)
The Bible: When Man Will Obey & Honor God, He Will Be Rewarded With Eternal Life.
a. Eccl. 12:13-14 - Fear God and obey Him - Judged.
b. Life of faith brings eternal blessings - Eph. 2:8; 2 Tim. 4:7-8.
3. Adam's Sin Was A Blessing For Mankind.
a. Enabled our life and joy in this life.
"And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have
fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were
created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created;
and they must have remained for ever, and had no end. And they would have had no children;
wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, fore they knew
no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in
the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are that
they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:22-25)
b. Man would never have known good and evil.
"And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to
prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed by the name of God, for
because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and
again in the flesh I shall see God. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was
glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never
should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which
God giveth unto all the obedient." (Moses 5:10-11, Pearl of Great Price)
The Bible: ADAM'S SIN WAS A CURSE, NOT A BLESSING, ON MANKIND.
a. Spiritual death - Gen. 2:17 (Rom. 5:12).
b. Shame, trials and sufferings - Gen. 3:10, 16-19.
c. Physical death - Gen. 3:19.
d. Man could have known good & experienced joy w/o sinning -- Faith in God's word as He told them what was good and what was evil! (Today!)
4. Man May Become A God.
a. "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become."
b. "And then shall the angels be crowned with the glory of his might, and the saints shall be filled with his glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with him." (Doctrine & Covenants 88:107).
c. "Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; them shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. They shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them." (Doctrine & Covenants 132:20)
The Bible: MAN WILL ALWAYS BE MAN - NEVER BE GOD!
a. 1 Cor. 15:24-28 - Man will never be equal with God.
b. It is sin to turn the creature (man) into an object of worship
(God) - Rom. 1:22-23, 25.
5. The man of Mormonism is NOT the man of the Bible!
6. "No Mormon truly believes the Bible, and a true Bible believer cannot be a Mormon!"