Mormonism #2

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THE CHURCHES/KINGDOMS OF MEN

• In our first study of Mormonism, we noted that it was established by Joseph Smith in the 1820’s and formally organized as a legal entity on April 6, 1830.

• We noted that the basis for the Book of Mormon came from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding titled “A Manuscript Found” that was reworked by Sidney Rigdon and passed off as the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith. See previous lesson, same subject

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THE CHURCHES/KINGDOMS OF MEN

• All churches of men have been established by uninspired men who regulate them by the doctrine and commandments of those men.

• The Lord condemns these divisions or denominations in 1 Cor 1:10 and states that their worship is vain per Matt 15:8-9.

• These men depend upon individual’s lack of knowledge of God’s Word in order to propagate their error. Note Hosea 4:6.

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MORMONISM – KNOWN TODAY AS THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS

• 2 Tim 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, ….KJV

• Eph 3:3-4 ..when ye read ye may understand…• 2 Peter 3:15-16 …some things hard to be

understood…they that are unlearned ….wrest…• 2 Tim 2:15 Study ….rightly dividing the word …• Matt 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things …• John 12:48 …the word that I have spoken, the same

shall judge him in the last day.

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• Joseph Smith claimed that God the Father and His Son appeared to him when he was 14 (1819) saying that the true Church of Jesus Christ was not on the earth and they had chosen Joseph to restore it.

• Three years later, Joseph claimed that God sent the angel Moroni who would tell him where there was a book deposited written upon golden plates which contained the history of the former inhabitants of this continent. He also said the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants.

• See “The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith”

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• From a biblical standpoint these claims are false.• Ex 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no

man see me, and live. KJV• 1 John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time .KJV• Gal 1:6-9 6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called

you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:• 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would

pervert the gospel of Christ.• 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel

unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

• 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. KJV

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CHURCH OF CHRIST-1710• Meetinghouse of the Church of Christ in Rumney Marsh, erected in 1710.

Thomas Cheever, the first settled minister, died December 27, 1749, aged ninety-one years.

• (Thompson Road near Lake Street) Webster Massachusetts • Joseph Smith’s claim that he was told in a vision in 1820 that the Lord’s

church did not exist on the earth and needed to be restored is false as the above official record indicates.

• Remember what the Lord said in Luke 1:33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. KJV

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http://www.historyquest.com/wwwsearchresults.htm?cx=016433190313299604872:rv0zqqyp9m4&cof=FORID:11&q=%22Massachusetts+History%22&btnG=HistoryQuest+It!

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• Mosiah 18:17 and they were called the church of God or the church of Christ from that time forward. (bottom rt side of page 169 says “About B.C. 147”

• In about AD 33, Jesus said per Matt 16:18 “I will build my church…”. In Acts 2:47, on Pentecost AD 33 the Lord added to the church.

• Which record are we to believe? The Bible or the Book of Mormon?

• Note 1 Thess 2:13 on the word of God versus the word of men.

• All Book of Mormon quotes from the 1980 edition.

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• Alma 46:15 ..all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ or Christians, as they were called… (bottom of pg 310 says this occurred in ”B.C. 73”

• Acts 11:26 states that “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch”. This was about 41AD.

• Again, which are we to believe?• Note John 14:26.

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• Helaman 14:20 .. there shall be no light…from the time he shall suffer death for the space of 3 days to the time he shall rise again from the dead.

• Luke 23:44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. KJV

• Again, which record are we to believe.• Note 1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit….

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• Mormon 8:12 Whoso receiveth this record and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know of greater things than these. Behold I am Moroni; and were it possible I would make all things known unto you.

• James 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, …

• 2 Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, …

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• In 1844 Joseph Smith preached a sermon on the doctrine of God. A lengthy extract is quoted in the 2004 manual Presidents of the Church Student Manual:“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man,

and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret…I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form…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.” (See 41 Unique Teachings of the LDS Church by Sandra Tanner, pg 6).

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• The LDS Church teaches that at the end of the world everyone will be resurrected. They also believe that almost everyone will go to heaven, which is divided up into three main levels. Bad people go to the lowest, the Telestial Kingdom (Doctrine and Covenants 76:81-86). Good people, who were not Mormons, will go to the middle level, the Terrestrial Kingdom (D&C 76:71–79). Mormons will go to the highest level, the Celestial Kingdom (D&C 76:50-70).

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• D & C 132:19-22 19 And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, ...Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection; ...and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, ...and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.

• 20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.

• 21 Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my law ye cannot attain to this glory.

• 22 For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know me. (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19-22)

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• Milton R. Hunter, Pearl of Great Price Commentary, p.144-145:• Later the Prophet Joseph explained what the revelation [D&C 132]

meant by the statement, "which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever." He pointed out that the Gods were to be parents of spirit-children just as our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother were the parents of the people of this earth. Following are the words of the Prophet:

• Except a man and his wife enter into an everlasting covenant and be married for eternity, ...they will cease to increase when they die; that is, they will not have any children after the resurrection. But those who are married by the power and authority of the Priesthood in this life, and continue without committing the sin against the Holy Ghost, will continue to increase and have children in the celestial glory.

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• Milton R. Hunter, LDS Conference Report, April 1949, p.71:

• The Prophet Joseph Smith explained that this continuation of "the seeds" forever and ever, meant the power of procreation; in other words, the power to beget spirit children on the same principle as we were born to our Heavenly Parents, God the Eternal Father and our Eternal Mother. Therefore, a man cannot receive the highest exaltation without a woman, his wife, nor can a woman be exalted without her husband. That is the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the plan of salvation.

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• Journal of Discourses, Vol.2, p.85 - p.86, Orson Hyde, October 6, 1854:

• When the servants of God and their wives go to heaven there is an eternal union, and they will multiply and replenish the world to which they are going.

• Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.2, p.44:• If you want salvation in the fullest, that is exaltation in the

kingdom of God, so that you may become his sons and his daughters, you have got to go into the temple of the Lord and receive these holy ordinances which belong to that house, which cannot be had elsewhere.

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• The following slides from “How the LDS Husband Hopes to Resurrect His Wife According to the LDS Temple Ceremony” By Sandra Tanner.

• Only those who merit the highest part of the Celestial Kingdom will have Eternal Life [the ability to live in a marriage relationship and continue to beget children—see D&C 132:20-24, also see “Mormons Hope to Become Gods of Their Own Worlds”]. All others have immortality [which is defined as the ability to live forever in a single condition, not married and no future children] but do not have Eternal Life. One must be married in the LDS temple and then obey all of the Mormon regulations to get to the highest degree of heaven.

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• The first time a Mormon attends the temple endowment ceremony he/she will be given a new name [usually a Bible name like Peter or Mary or the name of European royalty]. These will supposedly be their names in eternity. The wife must tell her husband her new name, and no one else, as he is supposed to call her up in the resurrection. If he does not call her up she would still resurrect, but not as his wife.

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• LDS Apostle Charles W. Penrose wrote:• In the case of a man marrying a wife in the

everlasting covenant who dies while he continues in the flesh and marries another by the same divine law, each wife will come forth in her order and enter with him into his glory. (Charles W. Penrose, “Mormon” Doctrine Plain and Simple, or Leaves from the Tree of Life, Salt Lake City, 1897, p. 66)

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• LDS Apostle Erastus Snow preached the following on Sunday, October 4, 1857:

• I ask, Can you get into the celestial kingdom without him? Have any of you been there? You will remember that you never got into the celestial kingdom [during the temple ceremony] without the aid of your husband. If you did, it was because your husband was away, and some one had to act proxy for him. No woman will get into the celestial kingdom, except her husband receives her, if she is worthy to have a husband; and if not, somebody will receive her as a servant. (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 291)

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• William Clayton, secretary to Joseph Smith, also discussed some of the temple work in his journals. In the Introduction to An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton we read:

• Clayton described the temple endowment, a ritualized drama of the creation, fall, and redemption of Adam, during which its participants promise obedience and loyalty to the church, and repeat passwords and signs they believe will enable them to enter into the celestial or highest kingdom of heaven. He wrote about washings and anointings, preparatory rituals for the endowment ceremony, and described dramatic role-playing in which church members act out the Garden of Eden story of Adam, Eve, and the serpent.

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• Matt 22:28-30 28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

• 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

• 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. KJV

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• 2 Tim 4:2-4 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

• 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

• 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. KJV

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• 2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. KJV

• 2 Cor 4:2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. KJV

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• Acts 2:37 Men and brethren, what shall we do? KJV• John 8:24 Believe• Lk 13:3 & 5 Repent• Matt 10:32 Confess• Mk 16:16 Baptized• John 8:31-32 Continue faithfully• John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my

words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. KJV

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Mormonism #2