Did They Really Say That?!?

Normally I only post one citation at a time to examine, but this time I’m going “plural.”  For all of these quotes my “hat” is “tipped” to Life After Ministry.

There is no way to make sense out of life without a knowledge of the doctrine of premortal life. The idea that mortal birth is the beginning is preposterous. There is no way to explain life if you believe that.

Boyd K. Packer, “The Mystery of Life,” Ensign, 10/83.

Well, can a single Mormon show me from scripture where people first exist as spirit children of a man-god and then are born mortal? If that was so, why do we not remember a pre-mortal existence? And if man was already existing as a spirit, then why did God have to create man — i.e., Adam and Eve? It is really quite easy to make sense out of life by reading what the Bible says about our beginnings, our need to please God while living, and the FACT that there is no chance of salvation after death.

The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think that they [Jesus and his followers] were Mormons. 

Jedidiah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses, Vol.1, pp.345-46.

When I read the Bible it tells me two things: (1) Jesus was persecuted by the Pharisees and Sadducees because he up-ended their world of legalistic false teachings. (2) Jesus was not married; nowhere in the Bible does it even hint at such a thing. Not only that, God takes a very dim view of polygamy, as I demonstrated in this article, which means to be a polygamous man Jesus would have to be sinning and therefore not God in the flesh.  By the way, Joseph Smith invented the doctrine of polygamy to cover up his multiple adulterous affairs.

And now, behold, we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according to our manner of speech. And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also; and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had no imperfection in our record.  But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.

Mormon 9:32-34, Book of Mormon.

This one is actually quite funny because of how it is nothing but a way of excusing away mistakes and lies. Never has there been any evidence of a language known as “Reformed Egyptian,” and since the Egyptians were enemies of the Hebrews why would they use their enemy’s language rather than their own? And why is there no evidence of Egyptian or Hebrew found in the Americas at the time these “Hebrew” people were supposedly over here? And why would they alter a language, Hebrew, that would be considered more sacred that Egyptian? And if they needed larger plates, why didn’t they make them larger? And even if they are using another language, why would it have “imperfections” in the transcribing process?

Here Joseph Smith again broke with existing false traditions. It had been taught that God created the earth out of nothing, by the fiat of his word. Instead, Joseph declared that the earth was made from existing materials. That is, the earth was organized rather than created. Latter-day Saints always speak of the “creation” of the earth in that sense. 

John A. Widstoe, Joseph Smith – Seeker After Truth, Prophet of God, pg. 158

Genesis says “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Notice it says “in the beginning;” meaning there was no beginning of previously existing matter to create out of — the creation WAS the beginning.

Some have said that I was very presumptuous to say that Brother Brigham was my God and Saviour, Brother Joseph was his God and the one that gave Joseph the keys of the kingdom was his God which was Peter. Jesus Christ was his God and (the) Father of Jesus Christ was Adam.

Journal of Wilford Woodruff, April 10, 1852.

So according to Woodruff, and the entire LDS, there are multiple gods and multiple saviors. Can the LDS then explain why all through the Bible it says over and over again that there is one God? 1 Timothy 2:5 says there is ONE God, and ONE Savior to mediate between God and man, and that Savior is Jesus Christ.  Isaiah 43:11 says there is only one God, and that there is no other savior. Do the LDS really want another person to be their god and savior?!?!

When it comes to the LDS — the Mormon Church and its leaders — one can never run out of unbiblical, shocking statements.

Random Things About Mormonism

Most of what I am posting on this site is being transferred from my apologetics blog, and so most of my links will be to older articles.  However, the information in these articles is still valid, and well worth knowing. These “Random….” posts will always be a collection of links which were mostly posted on many my weekly “Random Aberrations, Apostasies, and Heresies” articles, because I want to get all my Mormon stuff on one site!  So here goes today’s collection.

Do you suppose that Joseph Smith was fooled by the devil?   I’d say he certainly was — which was how Mormonism was invented.

Joseph Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon was written in “Reformed Egyptian.”  Of course no one has ever discovered such a language, but that doesn’t matter to the Mormon church.  Facts are not to be considered when you want to uphold a false belief system.

Not too many people know this about Mormons, but newlyweds are “punished” by the LDS by not being allowed to have family attend temple weddings.  On top of that, if they have a civil wedding to allow family members to attend, then they are banished from their temple wedding for a year.  Since the LDS consider such weddings to be an important step in their salvation progression, denying the temple wedding for a year could seriously affect their eternal position if they die before they have the wedding!  Of course in the real Christian faith, that is all nonsense anyway.  Just another example of legalisms in cults.

I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but Mormonism is NOT true Christianity!  Mormonism worships another god and another Christ - not those of the Bible.  This is “True Mormonism.”   In fact, as I have pointed out in the past, the Mormon Church actually places Joseph Smith in a position so as to be virtually more important than Christ!

I find it interesting how the Mormons have to revise history to make it appear that Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, was in a great relationship with her husband and even approved of polygamy.  Rather than confess that she left the church over such nonsense, and refused to go to Utah with Brigham Young, the LDS church makes it appear she remained in Illinois for family reasons.  Perhaps they should accept the facts.

There is an excellent graphic at Mormon Infographics demonstrating some of the conflicting accounts of Joseph Smith’s “First Vision” - the vision which is supposedly the foundation of the LDS faith.  I discovered this site last year, and find it to be an excellent resource on the Mormon Church.

Here’s an article demonstrating that science, philosophy and history all prove the LDS to be fraudulent.

A couple of interesting articles from a good site I discovered last year, Markcares’s Weblog.
The first is a good article demonstrating that Mormons do indeed teach works-salvation, no matter how much they claim otherwise.  The other one explains the LDS idea about the atonement of Christ vs the Biblical idea.  Short and sweet.

Some sad information comes from Elizabeth Smart’s statement against the teaching of abstinence - except in context she was talking about the Mormon version which teaches that, if for some reason a woman is not a virgin before marriage, then she is pretty much worthless, even if it was due to rape.  This is a horrible teaching of which I wasn’t aware, since I study mostly Mormon doctrine.  BUT, does it really surprise me that this would come from a system in which men can have many wives?

One of the things I was always sadly amused about with the Mormons is their virtual worship of Joseph Smith.  I have previously seen hymns giving praises to Smith, and now you can see some of them, as well as other hymns teaching heresy, as posted on the blog of Mormon Research Ministry.

I guess that’s enough for today.  Stay tuned for another collection next week.