16 A Look at Mormonism -- Most Interesting Points Plus
More --You Can
Examine
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The Standard Holy
Bible—
Paragraph- 9
Regarding his Father,
Jesus Christ said at John 4:24, “God is a Spirit.” Mormons claim that God is
not a spirit but a personage of bone and flesh. “The thing I want to impress
upon you,” said Joseph Smith in the Logan Journal of
Paragraph-13
Mormonism’s unscriptural conclusion that God has a body of flesh and
bone has led to the claim that God was once a man. Joseph Smith, Jr., said in Times
and Seasons of
The above was sent in by SBT Reader --EXCERPTS from an--1962 WT Article –
SBT Obtained The
Full Article and it is printed after the following.
http://simplebibletruths.net/Images.htm defined and GodHead.htm defined
A Look at Mormonism—Most Interesting Points
THE Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is far from being an insignificant religious
organization. With a membership in 1960 of more than one and a half million, it
is big enough to make its presence felt in this modern world. The zealous
activity of 6,000 full-time missionaries and over 7,000 part-time missionaries
has brought Mormonism into contact with people in many lands who know little or
nothing about it. For their benefit let us take a close look at it.
Claiming to be a
distinctly different religious organization, Mormons vigorously disclaim any
connection with Catholicism and Protestantism. Their founder, Joseph Smith, was
convinced that there was no truth in either of these big religious divisions of
Christendom. Priding themselves in being different from other churches, Mormons
view their church as the restoration of Christ’s church, which they believe was
destroyed when the apostles died. Forgetting that Christ is the main foundation
of his church, or congregation, they conclude that it could not exist without
living apostles as a foundation. They believe that the restoration of Christ’s
church began when Joseph Smith had visions of heavenly messengers.
It was in 1820 that
Joseph Smith had his first vision. He claimed that while alone in the woods he
saw a vision of two bright personages standing above him who told him not to
join any church. These personages, it is claimed, were the heavenly Father and
his Son, Jesus Christ. Three years later he said he had another vision. This
time a heavenly messenger who called himself
Joseph Smith claimed
that he had another vision in 1829, at which time John the Baptist appeared to
him as a heavenly messenger and conferred upon him and his associate, Oliver Cowdery, the priesthood of Aaron, after which they baptized
one another secretly. This claim was made despite the fact that the Bible tells
that the Aaronic priesthood was changed when Jesus
Christ brought the Mosaic law to an end. This vision
and a subsequent one of three apostles are believed to have given these two men
authority to restore the
VIEWS OF THE SCRIPTURES
Mormons acknowledge that
they accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God, but they are quick to
qualify their acceptance by saying: “We believe the Bible to be the word of God
as far as it is translated correctly.” This loophole permits them to reject any
Biblical statement that conflicts with Mormon teaching. Thus Mormon teachings
and writings are made the measuring rod of truth.
Since the days of the
translation of the King James Version of the Bible, knowledge of Bible
languages has greatly improved and thousands of very old Bible manuscripts have
been found. These factors have made possible modern translations of the Bible
with a textual accuracy that is very close to that of the original writings.
The Bible is a dependable guide and needs neither the apocryphal writings of
the Catholic church nor the Book of Mormon to make it
complete.—2 Tim.
Like the Catholic church, which refuses to accept the Bible as the only
authority on religious beliefs, Mormons insist that there are other authorities
equal to the Bible. This view is vital to any religion that has teachings
lacking Biblical support. In the book Why I Am a Mormon,
Wallace F. Bennett expresses the Mormon view when he says: “We recognize the
Bible’s limitations as well as its value. We do not ascribe final authority to
any of its statements because we believe that God has re-established the
authority to speak in his name and has given it again to righteous men.” On the
same subject Joseph Smith, Jr., stated in the Documentary History
of the Church: “I told the brethren that the Book of
Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our
religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by
any other book.” Should not the Bible be the keystone of Christian belief?
The scripture at Ezekiel
37:16, 17, is used by Mormons to prove their contention that the Bible and the
Book of Mormon were foretold in prophecy. They claim that the two sticks about
which the prophet Ezekiel speaks represent these two books. But the sticks in
Ezekiel’s prophecy have no reference to books, and this is indicated by Ezekiel
himself. He designated one stick for
CONCEPT OF THE FATHER
Paragraph- 9
Regarding his Father,
Jesus Christ said at John 4:24, “God is a Spirit.” Mormons claim that God is
not a spirit but a personage of bone and flesh. “The thing I want to impress
upon you,” said Joseph Smith in the Logan Journal of
Mormons point to the
Bible statement that man was created in the image of God as proof of their
contention that God has a body of flesh and bones, but this conclusion is not
in harmony with the Scriptures. Being in the image of God does not mean man and
God are similar in substance. Bodies of flesh were designed for life on earth,
not for existence in the spirit realm. That is why Paul said: “The glory of the
heavenly bodies is one sort, and that of the earthly bodies is a different
sort.” (1 Cor. 15:40) Man resembles God because he
images God’s attributes, which make man superior to the beasts.
Nothing is availed by
claiming that the heavenly bodies of God and Christ are flesh and bone rather
than flesh and blood. Bodies of flesh and bone cannot exist without blood, for
the Bible says: “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev.
The resurrected Jesus
Christ did not have a fleshly body when he came into the presence of God after
his ascension. Peter shows that Christ was resurrected with a spirit body, not
a material one of flesh and bones without blood. “Christ died once for all time
concerning sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, that he might lead
you to God, he being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive in the
spirit.” (1 Pet.
3:18) Consider also Paul’s testimony:
“The last Adam became a lifegiving spirit.” (1 Cor 15:45.)
The fleshly bodies Jesus had while on earth after his resurrection were
materializations such as made by angels on numerous occasions down to the first
century. Jesus had the power to materialize a fleshly body.
Paragraph-13
Mormonism’s unscriptural
conclusion that God has a body of flesh and bone has led to the claim that God
was once a man. Joseph Smith, Jr., said in Times and Seasons
of
The conception that
there is a godhead of three Gods, the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost, is also without foundation in the Bible. It teaches that
there is only one God who is and always will be without equal. “There is
actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him;
and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we
through him.” (1 Cor. 8:6) Rather than being
part of a godhead and eventually becoming equal with
the Father, Jesus Christ is a creature who, like other creatures, looks to the
Father as his God and is eternally subject to him. That is why he told Mary: “I
am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your
God.”—John 20:17; 1 Cor. 15:28.
Like Hinduism and
Buddhism, Mormonism believes that a man’s existence extends before the day of
his birth and beyond the day of his death, that it is a long progression. They
base this upon their contention that man’s spirit is immortal. Regarding this,
Stephen L. Richards, one of the Mormon presidents, said: “In their conception,
the spirit of man not only never dies but it lives through states of eternal
progression. Whatever is learned or acquired in one’s life is taken on to a
succeeding life. Condemnation or ‘damning’ is but a
retardation in progression. Goodness accelerates progression—badness
retards it. There is no conceivable limitation to the achievements of the good.
They may ultimately become through progression as intelligent and as omnipotent
as God, himself.” Another Mormon spokesman, James E. Talmage,
stated: “There is in man an immortal spirit that lived as an intelligent being
before the body was formed, and that shall continue to exist as the same
immortal individual after the body has gone to decay.”
The Bible is very plain
in making known the fact that Jesus Christ existed in the spirit realm before
becoming a man. If the same were true for all men, would not the Bible be
equally plain about it? If such a doctrine were true, it would be of such great
importance that the Bible would certainly make mention of it, but it says
nothing about men having a prehuman existence.
Yet Mormons point to a
question asked by Jesus’ disciples regarding a blind man as proof of
preexistence. The scripture they use is John 9:1-3, which says: “Now as he was
passing along he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him:
‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?’ Jesus
answered: ‘Neither this man sinned nor his parents.’”
But Jesus did not say they had the right idea. Rather, he corrected them when
he said that neither the man nor his parents had sinned. Possibly these
disciples believed with some Rabbis that a person can sin in a mother’s womb
before birth. Since their thinking was wrong, their question is no support for
the doctrine of preexistence.
When speaking about Esau
and Jacob the apostle Paul supported the Scriptural view that a man’s existence
begins when he is born and not in any spirit realm before birth. Paul said:
“When they had not yet been born nor had practiced anything good or vile.”
(Rom.
Likewise the Mormon
belief that a man’s spirit separates from his body at death and continues his
existence in a place called “paradise” where he is given opportunity to hear
the gospel and to repent of his sins finds no support in God’s Word. The Bible
states that the dead cannot think and make decisions. Note what is written at
Psalm 146:4: “His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his
thoughts do perish.” Since his thoughts cease, his spirit could not be
something that continues his conscious existence, but is instead the impersonal
force of life. Another scripture states: “As for the dead, they are conscious
of nothing at all.” (Eccl. 9:5) The hope for the dead is a resurrection, an
awakening from death to life.
Peter’s words at
1 Peter 4:6 do not support the Mormon view either. He was not speaking
about the spirits of dead persons when he said: “For this purpose the good news
was declared also to the dead, that they might be judged as to the flesh from
the standpoint of men.” Since the physically dead are “conscious of nothing at
all,” the dead mentioned here are the same dead Jesus meant when he said: “Let
the dead bury their dead,” and the same ones Paul meant when he said: “It is
you God made alive though you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Living
persons who are dead in God’s eyes because of sins are able to hear the gospel,
to think and to repent. The “spirits in prison” to whom Jesus preached were
fallen angels, not the spirits of dead persons.—Matt.
MARRIAGE
Due to the unscriptural
belief that a man’s conscious existence continues after death, the contention
is made by Mormons that the marriage bond also continues after death. Wallace
Bennett says: “The Mormons believe that when the ceremony is performed in a
temple, by one holding the necessary authority, the union is eternal in
duration and extends beyond death.” There is nothing in the Bible to warrant
this conclusion.
Contrary to Mormon
teaching, the Bible reveals that death dissolves the marriage bond. At Romans
7:2 it is written: “A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is
alive; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law of her husband.”
The marriage bond no longer binds her to him. Note also what Jesus Christ said:
“In the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but
are as angels in heaven.” (Matt. 22:30) Since they become like the angels as
regards marriage, they are single. Brigham Young acknowledged the singleness of
angels when he said: “They are single, without families or kingdoms to reign
over.” The truth of the matter is that death terminates the marriage bond.
MISSIONARY
Much missionary work is
done by the Mormons to spread their beliefs, but nobody in the Mormon church makes missionary work a vocation or permanent
occupation as did Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul. The missionaries are
usually young men in their early twenties who spend two years in countries that
speak English and two and a half years in countries that speak a different
language. After this short stay they return home to resume their own pattern of
life in their community.
During their stay in a
country the missionaries work in pairs, calling from house to house. When a
householder invites them in, they proceed to conduct, in a friendly manner, a
series of lessons in the beliefs of their church with the objective of
converting the householder to their religion. Although the householder may
enjoy their friendliness and come to depend on them for spiritual instruction
and leadership, they are not sufficiently interested in him to stay in the
country beyond the two or two and a half years required of them. When they
leave, the householder is turned over to a new set of missionaries, if a new
set arrives.
There can be no question
about Mormon sincerity in their beliefs, but sincerity does not make their
beliefs true. Truth is not established by personal conviction. Many persons
since the days of the apostles have claimed to have had visions and to be
prophets of God. The firm conviction of those who believed them did not make
the teachings of these persons true. Usually these self-appointed prophets had
to proclaim their own writings as holy scripture in
order to find the support for their teachings that the Bible does not give. The
best protection against such deceptions is to compare religious teachings with
the Bible. Use it as the measuring rod of truth. Follow John’s advice: “Beloved
ones, do not believe every inspired expression, but test the inspired
expressions to see whether they originate with God, because many false prophets
have gone forth into the world.”—1 John 4:1.
WT/4-1-215-220
Sbt-- encourages people to take a closer look at what is written in John4-24.htm and
John4-20-26.htm
Jehovah's Witnesses are an
international Christian denomination whose members
believe that their faith is the restoration of first-century Christianity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses
Restorationism refers to
unaffiliated religious movements that attempted to transcend Protestant
denominationalism and orthodox Christian
creeds to
restore Christianity to its original form.
Sbt gives you access to both—Open B2.htm
BestBiblesPlus.htm
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