|
GUEST ARTICLE
Mitt Romney
Christian or Cultist?
and
the media frenzy
about a Dallas Pastor saying
Mormons are
not Christians.
Ed Decker
At a recent Perry rally, Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress described the Mormon religion as a "cult," agreeing
with about 75% of Christian pastors throughout the country.
His sin was saying it publicly in a political meeting.
The immediate and
relentless media response was to beat the issue to death,
all the while bashing the pastor and others like him
for expressing their opinion publicly.
Fuller Seminary
President, Richard Mouw, a staunch defender of the Mormon
Church, said this about that:
Some
prominent evangelical pastors have been telling their constituents
not to support Mitt Romney's bid for the presidential nomination.
Because Romney is Mormon, they say, to cast a vote for
him is to promote the cause of a cult….. I beg to differ….. While I am not prepared to reclassify Mormonism as possessing undeniably
Christian theology, I do accept many of my Mormon friends
as genuine followers of the Jesus whom I worship as the
divine Savior.
Richard
J. Mouw, Special to CNN October 9th,
2011
The Problem
with DR. Mouw and other Christian leaders like David Barton
is that they don't seem to realize that their Mormon friends
play the word/definition game with them, all the while
smiling like they are best of friends.
When I was
a Mormon, we called men like Mouw and Barton "Hirelings
of Satan." Now, in the new, friendlier "Emergent" Mormon
Church they are brothers. Seems more like a pack of those
ravening wolves the Scriptures warn us about. One of the
signs of a cult is that its adherents can tell a lie and
smile at you the whole time they practice their "heavenly
deception."
The Mormons
know from a hundred examples in history that if you tell
a lie long enough, it somehow makes it true.
A lie is a lie is a lie is a lie until it isn't
a lie any more
This weekend, Newt Gingrich said
because of the Federal and Supreme courts have taken constitutional power away the Executive and Legislative Branches of government,
they have the power to
say that 2 plus 2 is 5 and it would become the law of
the land But is still doesn't make it so..
Some lies that are now being accepted as truths
Islam Koran and Islam teach a religion of peace and respects all people
Israel Aggressors/murderers and occupiers of Palestinian lands
Congress: we know what we are doing. Your best interests are #1 concern
Mormonism: We are Christians, just like you.
Let's Look at the Facts:
I am going to take you through some
of the Mormon truths that they don't share with the Mouws
and the Bartons of the world. So that you cannot be accused
of invention, every statement herein is fully supported
by Mormon Scripture of Legal documents.
The Christianity of Mormonism
They claim:
Only True Christians
Only True Church
Only True Jews
Only True Scripture
Only True Authority
Only true Prophet
Only true priesthood
Only true doctrine
Only Truth
The center of their faith
"as Man
is, god once was, as god is, man may become"
The work of mankind is the Preparation for godhood
:
This is the function and work of
the LDS temples.
The core doctrines of Mormon Christianity
# 1: Nature of God
Achieving Celestial Marriage Manual (abbreviated ACCM), p.129.
God was once a mortal man. He lived on a planet
like our own. He experienced conditions similar to our
own and advanced step by step.
Mormon Doctrine (abbreviated
MD), p.322.
"Further, as the Prophet also taught, there is a
god above the father of our Lord Jesus Christ...If Jesus
Christ was the son of God, and John discovered that God
the Father of Jesus Christ had a father also...Was there
ever a son without a father?"
Doctrine and Covenants ( abbreviated D&C) 130:22.
God has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as
man's.
ACMM, p.129
God is now an exalted man with powers of eternal
increase. He lives in an exalted Marriage relationship.
ACMM, p.129-130.
We are the literal Children of God, a part of his
family unit. We lived with our heavenly parents before
coming to earth.
ACMM, p.4.
...giving birth to spirit children and setting
them on the road to exaltation. And if this is to be
done, you must have an exalted man and an exalted woman.
MD, p.239
God continues to progress, as his creations expand
and his spirit offspring multiply.
#2: Pre-existence and our First Estate
Moses 3:5-7 (Pearl of Great Price, LDS Scripture)
Every form of life was created spiritually in Kolob
first.
Abraham 3:22-23 (Pearl of Great Price)
At first we were all spirit children, living in
the presence of God, our heavenly father.
JESUS THE CHRIST, Apostle James Talmage pp.15-16
Apostle James Talmage's detailed explanation of
the primeval council of the Gods.
Book of Abraham 3:23-28 (Pearl of Great Price /LDS Scripture)
A Council called of all the leading spirits.
Book of Abraham 4:25-26
God proposed
a plan for our progression. [Ed: to a council of "higher Gods for their
approval]
Book of Abraham 3:24-26, Doctrine & Covenants 29:39.
That plan was for us to come to earth, gain physical
bodies, learn good from evil and have the free agency
to choose which we wanted to follow.
Moses 4:1-4, Abraham 3:27-28 (Pearl of Great Price)
Lucifer, our elder brother who desired the glory
for himself, stood up and proposed his own plan.
Ensign (official Church magazine), December, 1980, pp.3-5.
"Jesus of Nazareth", Spencer W.
Kimball, First Presidency Message:
"His [Jesus'] trials were continuous. Perhaps
his brother, Lucifer, had heard him say when he was still
but a lad of 12, 'Whist ye not that I must be about my
Father's business?'" (Luke 2:49)
"...Then came the time when Satan thought
to trip him. Their encounter in the previous world had
been on more equal terms, but now Jesus was young and
Satan was experienced."
Moses 4:1-3 (Pearl of Great Price)
Lucifer's plan was to take away our free agency,
force us to obey all the law. He wanted us to worship
him.
Moses 4:2
Jesus stood and offered himself as our sin-offering,
giving man his free agency and the chance to attain eternal
glory, or godhood with heavenly father.
Abraham 3:28
All the council voted No to Lucifer and Yes to
Jesus.
Abraham 3:28, D&C 29:36-37.
Lucifer, very angry, persuaded one-third of the
spirit children to follow him and rebel against God and
the plan of Jesus. They were cast from God's presence
and sent to this earth without bodies of flesh and bone.
MD, p.828, D&C 29:36-41
Describes the war in heaven, Lucifer sent here
to earth where he continues to battle against the saints.
MD, pp.526-528, Moses 5:16-41, 7:8-22.
Those who were least valiant in the pre-existence
are known in mortality as negroes. They came to earth
through the lineage of Cain, with black skin.
#3: The Creation of the Earth and our Second Estate
D&C 77:12, Moses 1:39, Abraham 3:19.
The earth was created, in the same fashion of many
worlds, populated by intelligent people, in his image.
Man would always be learning and growing.
Abraham 2:28
God tells Abraham about the "heavenly" control
center, Kolob.
2 Nephi 9:25-26, Alma 42:17-21.
The earth is controlled by eternal laws. If we
break one, we must be punished.
Moses 4:29-31
Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden.
Moses 5:6-9
They learn that their transgression was necessary
that man might live. Adam is baptized, received the Holy
Ghost and the priesthood. He becomes the first patriarch.
MD, p.546-547.
Our Lord is the only Son of the Father in the flesh.
Each word is to be understood literally. Christ was begotten
by an immortal father in the same way that mortal men
are begotten by mortal fathers.[ Ed: what
this means is that God has sex with his daughter Mary]
MD, p.742.
God is an immortal personage, an
exalted man...Christ is his literal son...there
is nothing figurative about his paternity...He was
begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural
course of events.
ACMM, p.235.
The Lord is now sending the Choicest Spirits to
earth. "I see an improvement each few years in the
young people of the church. I believe that you are the
cream of all the spirits in the hosts of heaven and God
has sent you here to do a great work." Mark E. Peterson
(apostle) BYU address.
#4: GODHOOD Our Third Estate
MD, p.321
That exaltation which the saints of all ages have
so devoutly sought is Godhood itself.
MD, p.321
"You have got to learn how to be gods yourselves...the
same as all gods have done before you." (quoting
Joseph Smith)
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, (HC) vol.6, p.306, by Joseph Smith.
My Father worked out His Kingdom with fear and
trembling, and I must do the same; and when I get my
kingdom, I shall present it to my Father, so that He
may obtain Kingdom upon Kingdom, and it will exalt Him
in glory. He will then take a higher exaltation, and
I will take His place, and thereby become exalted myself.
ACMM, p.3.
If God became God by obedience to all of the gospel
law with the crowning point being the celestial law of
marriage, then that's the only way I can become a god.
[answer] Right! [Ed: he had
to earn his godhood and be approved for godhood by his
god]
ACMM, p.203.
(12-15) The endowment is the celestial course of
instruction...being enabled to give them the key words,
the signs and tokens, pertaining to the priesthood and
gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.
D&C 124:28-36; 127:128; 128:15
Baptism for the dead/keys to the holy priesthood
ordained so you may receive honor and glory. For their
salvation [the dead] is necessary and essential to our
salvation.
D&C 131.
Three degrees of glory, celestial the highest.
Moses 1:39
This is my [God's] work and my glory: to bring
to pass the immortality and eternal life of man
D&C 76:51-60, 70.
vs.51-53 list some of the requirements, vs.54-60,
70 list the rewards. They [temple Mormons] will be Kings
and Priests and Gods
D&C 132:19-20.
Then shall they be Gods, they shall have all power,
the angels are subject to them.
ACMM, pp.131-132.
(1-12) The Lord commands marriage.
(1-13) Exaltation is based on celestial marriage.
(1-14) Then shall they be Gods, because they have
no end.
(1-15) Only resurrected and glorified Beings may
become Parents of Spirit Offspring.
(1-17) Celestial marriage prepares men to be Kings
and Priests unto God.
(1-18) Celestial marriage makes women Queens and
Priestesses to their husbands.
(1-19) Celestial marriage makes it possible for
us to claim our moral children in eternity as well as
to propagate ourselves throughout eternity.
D&C 132:1-7, 27-35, 49, 61-64.
New and Everlasting Covenant [plural marriage]:
Abide or be damned, etc. Law of the Priesthood/also the
name of the temple covenant sworn by all the temple endowment
sisters.
MD, p.529-530.
Celestial marriage is the new and everlasting covenant
of (plural) marriage.
#5: JOSEPH SMITH
Come unto Christ, Melchizedek Priesthood Manual, 1984, pp.126-132.
If we get our salvation, we shall have to pass
by him [Joseph Smith]; if we enter our glory, it will
be through the authority that he has received. We cannot
get around him.
D&C 1:17-18; 35:17.
God called Joseph Smith and commanded him to proclaim
the gospel...Fullness of gospel set forth by Joseph Smith.
HC, vol.6, pp.408-409.
[Joseph Smith speaking] I have more to boast of
than any man ever had. I am the only man that has ever
been able to keep a whole church together since the days
of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by
me. Neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jesus ever did it. I
boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The
followers of Jesus ran away from him; but the Latter-day
Saints never ran away from me yet.
HC, vol.6, p.78.
[Joseph Smith] I combat the error of ages; I meet
the violence of mobs; ...I cut the Gordian knot of powers,
and I solve mathematical problems of universities, with
truth diamond truth; and God is my "right hand man."
HC, vol.6, p.319.
[Joseph Smith] God made Aaron to be the mouthpiece
for the children of Israel, and He will make me to god
to you in His stead, and the Elders to be mouth for me;
and if you don't like it, you must lump it.
LDS Hymn Book, #147, 296, "Praise to the Man"
"Long shall his [Joseph Smith's] blood which
was shed by assassins plead unto heaven while the earth lauds
his fame."
"Joseph the Seer"
"He pleads their cause in the courts above...He
died, he died for those he loved...He reigns, he reigns
in the realms above...Unchanged in death with a Saviour's
love, he pleads their cause in the courts above...The
Saints, The Saints, his only pride, For them he lived,
for them he died."
D&C 135:1-7.
To seal the testimony of this book (The D&C)
and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of
Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Hyrum Smith, the Patriarch...It
shall be said of me, He was murdered in cold blood.
Joseph Smith, History 2:30-59 (Pearl of Great Price)
The story, in Joseph's own words, of the angel
Moroni's visit, the uncovering of the gold plates and
the eventual translation of the Book of Mormon.
Joseph Smith, History 2:55-56.
Joseph involved in treasure seeking.
Joseph Smith, History 2:17-20.
All Christian creeds were an abomination in [the
LDS god's] sight, and all Christian professors were corrupt.
D&C 20:1-2
Joseph Smith commanded to organize the church.
#6: ANOTHER JESUS?
The Christ of Mormonism is not the same Christ
of the Bible.
2 Cor.11:3-5 tells us that there will be those who would teach
a different Christ. Paul says of them, "For such
men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading
as apostles of Christ". There is a Biblical warning
about those who would bring the doctrine of another Jesus
and a simple test. Do the Mormons and their Jesus pass
that test? No.
The Mormons have a difficult time understanding what actually
happened at Calvary. In their pamphlet, WHAT THE
MORMONS THINK OF CHRIST, we see the problem.
In the section, The Blood of Christ (page 22 in the 1976 edition),
we read:
"Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its cleansing
power. Much that is believed and taught on this subject,
however, is such utter nonsense and so palpably false that
to believe it is to lose one's salvation. For instance,
many believe or pretend to believe that if we confess Christ
with our lips and avow that we accept him as our personal
savior, we are thereby saved. They say that his blood,
without any other act than mere belief, makes us clean.
"What is the true doctrine of the blood of Christ? Salvation comes
because of the atonement, and the atonement was wrought
through the shedding of the blood of Christ. In Gethsemane
Christ sweat great drops of blood from every pore when
he conditionally took upon himself the sins of the world,
and then the shedding of his blood was completed upon the
cross."
The LDS Church teaches in its Articles of Faith, Article 3,
"We believe that through the atonement of
Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the
laws and ordinances of the gospel."
The Mormon Jesus has been stripped of his unique Deity and
his sacrifice on the cross has been robbed of its power.
Theirs is a tragically bloodless Christ, whose death only
brought us immortality, NOT eternal life. Their Jesus forces
us under laws, ordinances and an all-too-human priesthood.
This is not the "Good News" of the Bible.
In the early LDS church, there was a more orthodox Christ preached.
But, when Joseph began to teach the strange doctrines of
this different Christ, one without the redemptive powers,
the church could no longer deal with the reality of the
blood of Calvary and its full redemptive work. That was
when the church removed the red wine from the communion
table and went to water. This act literally washed away
the reality of the blood from its basically Christian converts.
The same holds true today. The cross and the blood have
become strangers to the saints.
#7:
Another Salvation
Mormonism
teaches that there are two separate levels of salvation.
Bruce R. McConkie clarifies the LDS distinction between
these two LDS salvations, the general and individual
salvation:
1. Unconditional or general salvation,
that which comes by grace alone without obedience to gospel
law, consists in the mere fact of being resurrected. In
this sense, salvation is synonymous with immortality. This
kind of salvation eventually comes to all mankind, excepting
only the sons of perdition.
2. Conditional or individual salvation,
that which comes by grace coupled with gospel obedience,
consists in receiving an inheritance in the celestial kingdom
of God. This kind of salvation follows faith, repentance,
baptism, receipt of the Holy Ghost, and continued righteousness
to the end of one's mortal probation (Doctrine and Covenants 20:29; 2 Nephi 9:23,24 BOM).
Even those in the celestial kingdom,
however, who do not go on to exaltation will have immortality
only and not eternal life. Along with those of the telestial
and terrestrial worlds they will be "ministering servants,
to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and
an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory." They
will live "separately and singly" in an unmarried
state "without exaltation, in their saved condition,
to all eternity" (Doctrine
and Covenants 132:16-17).
3. Salvation in its true and full sense
is synonymous with exaltation or eternal life and consists
in gaining an inheritance in the highest of the three heavens
within the celestial kingdom. With few exceptions, this
is the salvation of which the scriptures speak. It is the
salvation which the saints seek. . . . This
full salvation is obtained in and through the continuation
of the family unit in eternity, and those who obtain it
are gods (Mormon Doctrine, pp. 669-70).
When Mormons claim to be saved, it only
means that they have gained this general resurrection.
Beyond this, everything in the LDS "plan of salvation" is
by works (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 3:1257).
Thus, to meet a Mormon on his own terms,
one must ask the important question, "Do you have
eternal life?" Mormons believe that eternal life is
exaltation, the highest degree of salvation. Few, if any,
Mormons dare to presume this eternal life.
Jesus bore our
sins at Gethsemane according to Mormonism. The early quotes
are like this one: "Forgiveness is available because
Christ the Lord sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane
as he bore the incalculable weight of the sins of all who
ever had or ever would repent...In a garden called Gethsemane,
outside Jerusalem's walls, in agony beyond compare, he
took upon himself the sins of all men on condition of repentance" (The
Promised Messiah, LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, p. 337 & 552.
#8: MORMONISM :
Christian Churches are all False!
Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2:19.
"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;
and those professors were all corrupt
McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 670.
"This Church is the only true and living church upon the
face of the whole earth." Doctrine and Covenants
1:30. "There is no salvation outside the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 255."All other churches are entirely destitute of all authority from
God; and any person who receives Baptism or the Lord's
Supper from their hands will highly offend God; for He
looks upon them as the most corrupt of all people. Both
Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the whore
of Babylon."
Is
Mormonism Christian?
I
think not!
It
has:
A different God
A different Jesus
A different Holy Spirit
A different Salvation
A different Scripture
A different origin
A different heaven
A different Eternity
Sorry,
Mitt Romney, but you and your church are not Christians!
The
Dallas Pastor was right.
Ed Decker
www.saintsalive.com
ed@saintsalive.com
copyright 2011
You are free to distribute this document,
in whole, with full reference to our website and my email
address. If you have questions, drop me an email.
Distributed by
www.worldviewweekend.com
|
