Joseph Smith Was NOT a Martyr

In February 1847, nearly three years after the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred, he appeared to President Brigham Young and gave him this message:

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, pg.98

Two things wrong with this statement:

First, Joseph Smith was not a martyr — he shot back. And he wasn’t imprisoned or killed for his faith. He was charge with inciting a riot destroying the Nauvoo Expositor. Other charges were fornication and polygamy. Additionally, he was charged with treason against the state of Illinois for calling out the Nauvoo militia to prevent his arrest. It was this last charge that got him jailed.

Second, The dead do not appear to living people to speak to them, especially if they are people who are condemned to everlasting destruction in Hell, such as Smith

Joseph Smith's False Teachings About John the Baptist

John [the Baptist], at that time, was the only legal administrator in the affairs of the kingdom there was then on the earth, and holding the keys of power. The Jews had to obey his instructions or be damned, by their own law; and Christ Himself fulfilled all righteousness in becoming obedient to the law which He had given to Moses on the mount, and thereby magnified it and made it honorable, instead of destroying it. The son of Zacharias wrested the keys, the kingdom, the power, the glory from the Jews, by the holy anointing and decree of heaven, and these three reasons constitute him the greatest prophet born of a woman. ...

The Lord promised Zacharias that he should have a son who was a descendent of Aaron, the Lord having promised that the priesthood should continue with Aaron and his seed throughout their generations. Let no man take this honor upon himself, except he be called of God, as was Aaron, and Aaron received his call by revelation. ...

The people need not wait for the days of Pentecost to find the kingdom of God, for John had it with him, and he came forth from the wilderness crying out, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is night at hand," as much as to say, "Out here I have got the kingdom of God and I am coming after you; I have got the kingdom of God, and you can get it, and I am coming after you; and if you don't receive it, you will be damned;" ...

There was a legal administrator, and those that were baptized were subjects for a king; and also the laws and oracles of God were there; therefore the kingdom of God was there; for no man could have better authority to administer than John; and our Savior submitted to that authority Himself, by being baptized by John; therefore the kingdom of God was set up on the earth, even in the days of John...

Whenever men can find out the will of God and find an administrator legally authorized from God, there is the kingdom of God; but where these are not, the kingdom of God is not. All the ordinances, systems, and administrations on the earth are of no use to the children of men, unless they are ordained and authorized of God; for nothing will save a man but a legal administrator; for none others will be acknowledged either by God or angels. ...

John held the Aaronic Priesthood, and was a legal administrator, and the forerunner of Christ, and came to prepare the way before him....John was a priest after the order of Aaron before Christ....

The keys of the Aaronic Priesthood were committed unto him....

The Savior said unto John, "I must be baptized by you. Why so? To answer my decrees"....Jesus had no legal administrator [except] John.

There is no salvation between the two lids of the Bible without a legal administrator.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, pg.81-85

WOW! What a lot of unbiblical nonsense! Let’s look at the errors/lies in this teaching:

1) There was no such thing biblically as someone who was a “legal administrator” of anything so John the Baptist didn’t hold such and office, nor did he have any “keys” to the Kingdom of 

God, nor was he even suggesting that "Out here I have got the kingdom of God and I am coming after you; I have got the kingdom of God, and you can get it, and I am coming after you; and if you don't receive it, you will be damned;" …. This is nothing but an unbiblical invention by Joseph Smith.

2) John didn’t “wrest” anything from the Jews and he had no “decree from heaven,” nor were Jews required to “obey his instructions or be damned.” None of this will be found in the Bible.

3) Jesus did not give Moses the Law; God wrote—inscribed—the Law on the tablets (Exodus 31:18).

4) Where in the Bible does it say that a priest was called by revelation from God? Where in the Bible does it say John was a priest? Just being a descendent of Levi (the tribe which had the priests) doesn’t make one a priest, and nothing in the Bible hints at John being a priest.

The real teachings of the New Testament regarding priests is that Christians have no priests, that Christians are a priesthood of believers with Jesus as our great high priest.  (1 Peter 2:4-5)

There is absolutely no biblical warrant for any priesthood among Christians.

Oh, Contradictions!

Looking back into my early posts about contractions in LDS publications, I seem to have missed one important one.  It was brought to my attention by an article on the Life After Ministry blog, which I highly recommend for anyone questioning the teachings of Mormonism.

So, Mormons, how do you explain the following contradictory commands of God?

D&C 49:16:  Wherefore it is lawful that he [man] should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation.

This actually agrees with the Bible and the Book of Mormon teaching on marriage.

However, D&C 132 permits multiple wives and claims that God commanded Abraham to take Hagar for a second wife and that David’s wives and concubines were given to him by God.  Beginning at vs.51 it discusses how God gave other wives to Joseph Smith and if his wife Emma didn’t accept it she would be destroyed! The interesting thing is that throughout the remainder of D&C132 “God” says these men shall take “virgins” for their wives and yet Smith took other men’s wives!  Brigham Young agreed with and taught (and practiced) the doctrine of polygamy.

This contradiction came about because Joseph Smith was trying to cover up his serial adultery and his apostles, being likewise desirous of sex with many women, continued to teach it. 

I’ve written a few articles about God’s view of polygamy and problems which arise from such immorality:

God’s View of Polygamy.

Mormon Women Fear Eternal Polygamy.

Loveless Mormon Marriages.

Sexual Abuse in the Mormon Church.

The Mormon God vs the Christian God

 God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His power, was to make Himself visible,--I say, if you were to see Him today, you would see Him like a man in form--like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God, and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed with Him, as one man talks and communes with another...

Cited in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, pg 40. Originally in History of the Church Vol.6

The Bible tells REAL Christians that God is spirit, not man. But Smith taught that God was once a man who worked his way to exaltation and now lives near the star Kolob (some say it’s a planet but I’ll address that in a later post). The real God lives outside His creation but is always acting within His creation.

Adam was not "in the very fashion, image, and likeness of God” because God is not now nor ever was a man. One can walk and talk with God in prayer, and some patriarchs actually heard God’s voice. And, if you note, Genesis 1:26 says Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (KJV, emphasis added).

 

John MacArthur’s commentary explains the true meaning of “likeness” and “image” of God in Genesis 1:26:

1:26: Us…Our. This is the first clear indication of the triunity of God (cf. 3:22; 11:7). The very name of God, Elohim (1:1) is a plural form of El. The plural pronouns introduce  plurality of relationships in the Godhead. They suggest both communion and consultation among members of the Trinity. They also signify perfect agreement and clear purpose. man. The crowning point of creation, a living human, was made in God’s image to rule creation. Our image…likeness. This speaks of the creation of Adam in terms that are uniquely personal. It establishes a personal relationship between God and man that does not exist with any other aspect of creation. It is the very thing that makes humanity different from every other created animal. It explains why the Bible places so much stress on God’s hands-on creation of Adam. He fashioned this creature in a special way—to bear the stamp of His own likeness. It suggests that God was, in essence, the pattern for the personhood of man. The image of God is personhood [MY emphasis], and personhood can function only in the context of relationships. Man’s capacity for intimate, personal relationships needed fulfillment. Most important, man was designed to have a personal relationship with God. … In his rational life, he was like God in that he could reason and had intellect will, and emotion.  In the moral sense, he was like God because he was good and sinless. However, it did not bestow deity upon man.

As MacArthur—and multitudes of Christian commentators—notes, God was never a man so His image/likeness in man had to do with his spirituality, his personhood, his ability to have relationships, etc. Mormon theology gives all mankind the ability to work themselves to godhood. Christian (and Jewish) theology, as taught in the Bible, has ONE eternal and spiritual God and none of mankind will ever be a god.

More Mormon Blasphemy

Now, brethren, this is a consolation to us all. Believe in God, believe in Jesus, and believe in Joseph his Prophet, and in Brigham his successor. And I add, “If you will believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Christ, and Joseph was a Prophet, and that Brigham was his successor, you shall be saved in the kingdom of God,” which I pray, in the name of Jesus, may be the case. Amen.

Journal of Discourses 6:229, Joseph Young, Salt Lake City, July 26, 1857

Romans 10:9 has the truth: This is the message of faith we proclaim: if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Notice Paul, in Romans, mentions nothing about Joseph Smith, but Joseph Young didn’t care; he wants you to accept Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as additional saviors!! Both these men were profligate fornicators/adulterers who didn’t have a single prophecy come true, and yet the LDS idolizes them as prophets!  This, of course, is pure blasphemy from the very devil himself.

H/T: Life After Ministry. 

More Book of Mormon Lies

Alma 16:13 tells how the Nephite evangelists “went forth preaching repentance to the people … in their synagogues, which were built after the manner of the Jews.”  The Book of Mormon mentions synagogues twenty-five times. But synagogues were not developed by the Jews until four hundred years after Lehi left Jerusalem. How could the writer have know how the Jews built their synagogues?

Ross Anderson, Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Quick Christian Guide to the Mormon Holy Book, pg.70

Blasphemy by the Mormon Church

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 they were “Mormons.”  

Jedidiah M. Grant, August  7, 1853, Salt Lake City, Journal of Discourses,1: 346.

H/T: Life After Ministry

First, I'd like to see the writings of the so-called "philosophers who rose in that age." Nowhere in any history have I come across this claim by anyone, and I've read a lot of the early ante-Nicene "fathers" -- the early church leaders.  

Since God created marriage for one man and one woman, Jesus (as God in the flesh) would not sin by violating the sanctity of marriage with more than one wife. You might also take a look at LDS teachings which say more than one wife is a sin.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was persecuted because he taught against the Sadducees and Pharisees and declared himself to be God. This teaching that Jesus was a polygamist was invented to justify the fornication and adultery among the leadership of the LDS, a teaching instituted by Joseph Smith in order to justify and facilitate his profligate lifestyle in which he ended up with over 40 wives. In other words, this teaching is just another satanic lie of the LDS.

Oh, and just in case any Mormon wants to claim that Mormons don't teach this any more, I refer you to my previous article responding to that claim (which article includes the above quote).

Journal of Discourses and Mormon Doctrine

I have often been told by Mormons, in their defense of contradictory or denied teachings, that citing from the Journal of Discourses is just citing opinions, that the cited teachers are just expressing their own opinions without any backing from God.

Well, let’s just see what the Publisher’s Prefaces say about the JoD:

Volume 1: “purity of doctrine…theological truth”

Volume 2: “fountain of eternal truth”

Volume 3: “containing the principles of the Gospel of salvation…by the power of the Holy Ghost”

Volume 4: “their words are as the words of God”

Volume 8: “reflector of ‘the light that shines from Zion’s hill’…important instructions”

The Deseret News said the JoD contained “the clear and vigorous exposition of Latter-day Saint doctrine” and “unmistakable authority of divine inspiration.”

D&C 68:4 says, “And whatsoever they [LDS elders] shall speak when moved by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.”

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism says, “The inspired utterances of the President of the Church become binding upon members of the Church whether formally accepted as part of the written canon or not. The living prophet’s inspired words supersede and become more important to Latter-day Saints than the written canon or previous prophetic statements.”

Of course Mormons can always revert to saying that not all the utterances are by being “moved by the Holy Ghost” or “inspired utterances,” but then that begs the question as to how they can determine whether they are or not!

Oh, and then there is the claim that some things taught are not “formal doctrine,” and for that I refer back to what the Encyclopedia of Mormonism says.

The Lies of Mormonism Never Cease

Mormonism Research Ministry posted this article in their “Mormonism in the News” column. It tell tells how the current “prophet/president,” Russell M. Nelson, has made up lies and continues to tell them to somehow enhance his reputation. Well, since Mormonism was built on the lies of Joseph Smith I think that Nelson’s lies are to be expected.  How can you trust your religious beliefs to leaders who lie they way Smith and Nelson, et al, have lied?

Does Temple Participation Offer “Assurance”?

The following article by Bill McKeever was published in the Mormonism Research Ministry’s “Mormonism Researched” bi-monthly “letter” (September-October 2021).

Since I don’t have the ability on this blog to format the way the article is, where the article cites Mormon sources I will use blue ink.  So then, here is the article by Mr. McKeever.

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Speaking at general conference on April 3, 2021, Henry B. Eyring, second counselor to 17th President Russell M. Nelson, gave a talk titled “I Love to See the Temple.” In that message he said, If you or I  should go to the temple insufficiently pure, we would not be able to see, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the spiritual teaching about the Savior that we can receive in the temple. When we are worthy to receive such teaching, there can grow through our temple experience hope, joy, and optimism throughout out lives. That hope, joy, and optimism are available only through accepting the ordinances performed in holy temples. It is in the temple that we can receive the assurance of loving family connections that will continue after death and last for eternity (Liahona, May2021, 30).

Having an eternal family connection is the desire of the great majority of Latter-day Saints. Ask an LDS member what it is they hope to achieve in the next life and the answer is usually something like, “To be with my family.” This should not surprise us. Sixth President Joseph F. Smith saw this as a “right and privilege” that awaits faithful members: I have the glorious promise of the association of my love ones throughout all eternity. In obedience to this work, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, I shall gather around me my family, my children, my children’s children, until they become as numerous as the seed of Abraham, or as countless s the sands upon the seashore.  For this is my right and privilege, and the right and privilege of every member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who holds the Priesthood and will magnify it in the sight of God (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith, 1998, 386).

According to LDS teaching, Mormon males who qualify for exaltation and “godhood,” are rewarded with the ability to form their own worlds and rule over them just as “Elohim,” the Mormon “Heavenly Father,” rules and reigns over this world. Fifth LDS President Lorenzo Snow stated that those who are faithful to the Mormon Gospel …will progress and develop in knowledge, intelligence and power, in future eternities, until they shall be able to go out into space where there is unorganized matter and call together the necessary elements, and through their knowledge of and control over the laws and powers of nature, to organize matter into worlds on which their posterity may dwell, and over which they shall rule as gods (Lorenzo Snow, Presidents of the Church Student Manual: Religion 345, 2013, 90-91).

Latter-day Saints often speak of an eternity with Heavenly Father, but one can only wonder how this will be if the faithful are scattered all over the proverbial universe populating and ruling over their own worlds. 

Eyring’s promise of a assurance is something temple participation can never guarantee. In Mormonism, celestial exaltation, and the reward of being united with family members, are only granted if all involved keep Celestial Law. Third LDS President John Taylor stated that this requirement is “absolute submission and obedience of the law of God” (Journal of Discourses 26:350). One need only ask Latter-day Saints if they have successfully achieved this in their lifetimes. If not, then going to the temple offers them no such security.

Baptism on behalf of the dead gives the deceased an opportunity to hear the “restored gospel” of Mormonism in the spirit world. Members often spend numerous hours researching their family history so they can be baptized vicariously for their deceased relatives. They are told, “Your effort approaches the spirt of the Savior’s atoning sacrifice—you perform a saving work for others that they cannot do for themselves” (True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference, 2004, 63).

But how can such an effort provide those who are living any assurance of “loving family connections that will continue after death and last for eternity” if the dad can refuse the vicarious work being done on their behalf?

Spencer J. Condie, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, asked what happens if a deceased person didn’t want to repent or desire baptism. He noted that “baptism for the dead offers an opportunity, but it does not override a person’s agency.” That being the case, he concluded, “We simply do not know who among the dead will turn their hearts to the Lord and repent” (The Savior’s Visit to the Spirit World,” Ensign, July 2003, 36).

Eyring’s promise of assurance falls short because no human (with the exception of Jesus) is capable of reaching the high bar of personal worthiness that includes complete obedience to the Lord’s commands. Because of the doctrine of “free agency,” no Latter-day Saint can be sure if the deceased they hope to “save” want to embrace the message of Joseph Smith’s “restored gospel.”