One Session Overview of Mormonism
Mormonism was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr., after publishing the Book of Mormon in 1829. It is one of the larger cults of Christianity in the world, with over 20 million members. While conversions have slowed greatly in America, they are growing because of conversions oversees and a high birth rate. There have been around 200 offshoots of Joseph Smith's original religion, but today 90% of Mormons belong to the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), and most of the remainder belong to the Missouri-based Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (RLDS).
While the different groups believe different things, and even many LDS do not always "toe the line" in their doctrine, the rest of this paper discusses the official teachings of the LDS church, along with three very significant changes.
Historical Context of Mormonism
Around the time of Joseph Smith there were so many revivals and new religions in the northeast U.S. that upper NY was called the "burnt-over district".
You are encouraged to go on the web and look up some of these events and groups.
Freemasonry was very popular in America. Joseph Smith was briefly a mason, and some of the secret rituals in Mormonism and masonry are the same.
A strange doctrine is "British-Israelism", the belief that most of the British, and hence Americans and Canadians, are descendents of the lost ten tribes of Israel. Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews (1823) and Solomon Spaulding's work both promoted this view. Mormonism teaches that not only did the British come from the lost tribes of Israel, but the Indians came over, from the time of Jeremiah, and are from the lost tribes of Israel too. They were cursed with dark skin because of their ancestor's disobedience.
Major Differences from Biblical Christianity
Mormonism has many differences, but there are four central problems.
1. Different God: Mormonism has historically taught that God was once a man, and white males can become just like God is now. (blacks too since 1978)
2. Different Jesus: Mormonism has taught that Jesus is a created being, who some writers said was the spirit-brother of Lucifer.
3. Different Salvation: saved by grace+works. Jesus' death on the cross paid for our sins, and by our lives we pay Him back. They believe in three heavens, with bad Mormons and good Christians going to the middle heaven, where Jesus is. Many Mormons aspire to be a god themselves, without 1000's of spirit wives with children who worship him as god.
4. Different Scripture: In addition to the Bible.
The Book of Mormon claims to be a history of the good Nephites and evil Lamanites, who came to the New World from Judea. It actually has little Mormon doctrine. Today's Book of Mormon has 1,000's of changes from the original.
Doctrines and Covenants has false prophecies.
The Pearl of Price contains the basis of the anti-black doctrine is in the Book of Abraham, which was "supernaturally" translated from Egyptian papyrii. He also copied the pictures and hieroglyphs, and the translation was bogus.
While not scripture, the Journal of Discourses records the sermons of early Mormon leaders. The Changing World of Mormonism by Jerald and Sandra Tanner document problems in Mormonism.
Mormon Missionaries
Mormon young men often go on a mission for 18 months to two years, after first attending "seminary" to learn what to say to unsettle naïve Christians. Following are many of their arguments and how to respond to them. Now that we have briefly touched on their history, in class we will focus on the more interesting part, how to witness to Mormons.
LDS Tricks for Naive Christians
How can you trust the Bible today. Do you know there are over 200,000 known changes in it?
That figure includes even one-letter changes in over 20,000 manuscripts. That is roughly 10 per manuscript, which is amazingly good. That compares to over 4,000 changes in the Book of Mormon and many in the Doctrines and Covenants. As one Mormon said, Joseph Smith wrote it, and Joseph Smith had the write to change it. That is the point: Joseph Smith wrote it and not God.
Two examples of trivial contradictions in the Bible are Ezra 2 vs. Neh 7 and Matt 27:9. With corrupt scripture and a corrupt Medieval Church, true Christianity was not on the earth as John Wesley, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others said. That is why God needed to refound the Church with Joseph Smith, and that is why the Mormon church is the only one with the true authority.
God gave His word without error, and He preserved His word without significant error. Ps 119:89-91, Isa 55:11, and Mark 13:31 promise, and archaeology confirms, that God preserves His word. Though many have fulfilled 2 Pet 2:1-3 and 1 Tim 4:1-3, every age had believers (such as the Waldenses in the Middle Ages). Our authority comes straight from Christ dwelling within us, and not indirectly through a convicted occult practitioner and proved counterfeit. The issue is not authority and organization, but following the right Jesus and the right God.
If you are a member of a Christian church, then which one is the true one? There are over 2,000 different churches making that claim.
That's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. In 2,000 years, those 2,000 supposedly Christian churches include over 200 "Mormon" churches that started within 175 years ago. True Christians are in many Christian denominations, because the true Church is not an organization unified in mere men, but all Christians who believe and obey God's Truth.
In Ezek 37:16-17, are the two pieces of wood the Bible and the Book of Mormon, as Mormons claim?
No, because Ezek 37:18b-28 says it tells already us what these two sticks mean. It means the two peoples (not scriptures) will be joined as one. At that time there was great animosity between Israel and Judah, but they prophecy says they were to be gathered from among the nations where they were scattered, David will reign over them (Ezek 37:24), and they will live in the land where their ancestors lived (Ezek 37:25).
I can't relate to a remote God -- "without body, parts, or passions". Certainly God loves.
Of course. In that phrase passions mean fleshly passions, and the real God never had sex with His creatures – unlike the Mormon god and Mary.
In Gen 1:26-27 God says let us make man in our image. So of course God looks like a man.
Even in Mormon belief, neither Jesus nor the Holy Spirit had a physical body at that time. So "image" cannot be physical body here.
Many passages talk of God's right arm and hands, so God has a body like a man.
Ps 91:4 KJV says God cover's us with his pinions --mother hen's breast feathers. That expression of God's love does not make God look like a bird! Isaiah 44:13 say men worship images in the form of man. If God's body was like man, it should say in God's form.
Both Jesus in John 10:35 and Paul in 1 Cor 8:5 said there were many gods.
1 Cor 8:5 refers to all the idols many believed in. I worship the "only wise God" 1 Tim 1:17 KJV), not a god of this world (2 Cor 4:4, 1 John 5:19).
James 1:3 says if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God, and God will give it. Was it wrong for Joseph Smith to go in the woods to pray to God which religion was correct?
Which first vision? There are at least three conflicting first visions, and the most popular one was made up in part after his death. I do not believe he even had a first vision.
Will you pray with me right know to ask God if Joseph Smith is a true prophet?
Unless you can answer all the objections in The Changing World of Mormonism, why should I pray about a convicted occult worker and proved counterfeiter.
Why do you reject the Biblical practice of baptisms for dead people as 1 Cor 15:29 teaches?
If baptizing for the dead is one of the most important things we can do, like Mormonism teaches, then why are we not once commanded to do this in scripture? Paul said others (they) in 1 Cor 15:29. A cult in Paul's time in Greece, called Cerinthians, baptized for the dead, but nobody ever said Christians were to.
Other points: If someone is worshipping the wrong god, has another Christ (2 Cor 11:4), and has a different salvation, then whether he is right or wrong on other issues does not really matter.
Witnessing to Mormons
One can see four categories of styles of evangelism. Which did Jesus use? What should we use?
Today we will learn a more confrontative approach, combined with Irenic and Kerygmatic aspects too.
Pulling down strongholds – a how to guide
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,…" (1 Cor 10:3-4a)
The Trebuchet approach on God is not a man
If someone you loved were locked away in a castle, you would demolish all the walls if needed to rescue to them. But you do not need to flatten every wall, you only need to make a breach. Here is a way.
1. Focused, bold, persistent prayer; only God converts
2. Build the base: what if their belief was wrong?
3. Ammo: Word of God contradicting their errors
4. Stay out of the way!
5. Call to surrender to God
1. Focused, bold, persistent prayer
Mormons are trapped in a castle that effectively deflects the gospel. We cannot save them; only God can. But we are soldiers, tools God can use to get in. Pray that Satan be bound, that they see leave the darkness of Mormonism and come to the light of the true Christ.
2. Build the base: what if their belief was wrong?
Christians frequently present evidence of the truth of something while neglecting to establish with them the importance of it. Some Mormons believe they must follow what God's Word taught; others do not care so much. Some Mormons are greatly affected when they find out the historical lies Mormon belief requires; others not so much. Find a topic that the particular Mormon agrees they should leave Mormonism if it is true; otherwise move on to another topic.
For example, "Some Muslims blow themselves up serving their god, Canaanites sacrificed their children for their god, and Hindus have left their wife and kids behind for their idols. What do you think are the consequences of someone deliberately turning their back on the True God, the Creator, and following Satan or some other god instead? When they come across the truth, how important is it for them to turn and follow the True God?
Hypothetically speaking, if the Bible and Mormonism showed that you were following a false God, what would you do. Would you stay or leave?"
They likely will ask the same question of you. Tell them that you know your follow the true God, the God of the Bible, but hypothetically speaking, if you were wrong, you would want to follow the truth.
You might have to repeat the question; it is important to get a commitment from them here.
3. Ammo: Word of God contradicting their errors
The important thing is not that you defeat them in argument, but rather show them the Word of God and why they cannot remain where they are. Ex-Mormons I have talked with left Mormonism for different reason; but what they had in common was they had heard the same thing 10 to 11 times before. It was only the 12th-13th time that it finally sunk in and they left. Hence, like a trebuchet, we need to be persistently focused.
Num 23:19 "God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (NKJV)
One time I was talking with a Mormon who sounded almost Biblical, - until I showed him this verse, with no comment. He read it in his Bible and said, "Well, well, that's just wrong!" I felt I had done my job. I showed him the difference between the Mormonism he believed and what the Bible said, and now he has a choice to make.
A similar verse is 1 Sam 15:29 "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent." (NKJV)
Heb 6:13 "For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself," (NKJV)
Isa 45:21 "And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me." (NKJV)
Now while I and the apostle John would say that God knows everything things (1 John 3:20) at the very least one would think that God is fairly smart. If He had a brother god, or sister, or father or mother god, He would certainly at least be aware of that, wouldn't he? Yet Isaiah 44:8b "You are My witnesses, Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.'" (NKJV)
So Mormon theology has always taught that there are many true gods. They will often point to 1 Cor 8:5 where Paul says there were gods many and lords many. Paul was right with the hundreds of idols in the Greek and Roman world, but right after that he said that for us there is one God, and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Around 50,000 Christians were martyred for choosing death rather than sacrificing to another god.
Probably a hundred times I have told Mormons that the Mormon religion is polytheistic. Most of the time with a Mormon the conversation goes like this:
Mormon: "I'm a Mormon, and Mormons are not polytheistic"
Me: "But don't you believe that Mormons who do the right things become exactly like God is now, and many have done so and become gods?"
Mormon: "Yes"
Me: "Then Mormons are polytheistic."
Mormon: "Oh!"
What if someone said Adam was their God?
However, even Mormons will get kicked out of their own church if they believe what their second prophet, Brigham Young, taught in their official record: the Journal of Discourses vol.1 p.50: "Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is Michael, the Archangel, the Ancient of Days! about whom holy men have written and spoken - He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing must hear it, and will know it sooner or later." (italics and small caps in the original)
Journal of Discourses vol.1 p.51. "Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our Father in Heaven."
The God in the Mormon Book of Abraham
Joseph Smith, Jr. claimed to have supernaturally translated one of the Mormon books, the Book of Abraham, from some Egyptian scrolls. We still have the scrolls and have proved that his "translation" of this pagan document was bogus. In particular, here is one of the pictures in the Book of Abraham. Joseph identifies the god "Min" with the god of Mormonism.
Though this was what the Egyptian says, it should be noted that the Mormon Church has never officially said that their god is a copulating bull without equal.
4. Stay out of the way!
It can be easy for the discussion to turn into a "you vs. them" debate. But rather than two "lawyers" arguing, it should be two people who want to follow the truth sharing what they know. So if get a little testy or even angry, that might be a good sign, but remind them that it is not you that are saying these things, but the Bible and their own prophets. Anyone would be disappointed if they found out people they revered as prophets advocated worship of a false god.
5. Call to surrender to God
Getting a person to doubt Mormonism does not mean they are any better off than they were before, if they do not come to Christ. Since they agreed that if they saw they were worshipping the wrong god they must change and follow the right God, and they do not want to worship a created being, or follow someone who said Adam or Min were god, they must worship the true God.
Emphasize the eternal importance of making a decision for the true God, but don't push them too hard to make a decision right in front of you now. They need time to think and study for themselves. Often they will go back to their church, and their leader will tell them not to think. As Mormon elder and later prophet Ezra Taft Benson said, "When the prophet speaks the thinking is done.
by Steven M. Morrison, PhD.