Mormonism
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
The purpose of this page will be dedicated to expose errors that I find to be very persuasive evidence as showing Mormonism or otherwise known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be false.
As an early Christian, many years ago, I almost was persuaded to believe that Mormonism was true. In all honesty, I almost became a Mormon, but before I did, I wanted to do some research to find out what Mormons truly believed before I committed myself to Mormonism. I am very thankful that I did, because The Book of Mormon is not another Testament of Jesus Christ as it claims to be. I had come to learn that from the outside it seems to be a Christian church, full of loving, compassionate, and friendly people, only wanting to do much good throughout communities. The fact of the matter is that lurking within, is a distorted view of very bizarre beliefs that do not hold any evidential support for their claims.
I have had pretty lengthy dialogues with elders of the Mormon Church using this information. Not one has had a rebuttal worth noting, especially when it comes to archaeological evidence, and their were a few that actually left the Mormon Church - praise God. Many Mormons are very sincere in what they believe, but most do not know the inside errors of what they believe, but worth noting before going any further is that being sincere in believing something does not make what you believe to be true.
If you are a Mormon who is reading this, I pray that the Lord will open your heart to the truth, and that this information may help you understand the errors. I understand that leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may in fact disrupt your whole world view and you may end up leaving family and friends behind that are Mormons, but many Mormons have done this before you in the past, and will continue to do so in the future, rather wanting to live for the truth and not a lie. My prayers are with you.
What this page will include is a brief analysis of:
The history of Mormonism and its claims/EXPOSED
The claim that the Bible cannot be trusted/EXPOSED
The Book of Abraham - one of the books in the Pearl of Great Price/EXPOSED
Archeological evidence/EXPOSED
Racism/EXPOSED
* Although I have done extensive research and have accumulated a lot of notes on this subject, a lot of the information I am going to share is from:
“Risen Jesus” – The Ministry of Dr. Michael Licona, unless otherwise noted.
Dr. Licona wrote a book called:
“Behold, I Stand At The Door And Knock”
He had no intention of writing the book; he was only sharing the information with church groups. Many within these groups strongly encouraged him to put the information into book form, and he hopes that it proves helpful.
Although “All rights reserved”, he gives permission to print all or part of the publication, provided that fair credit is given to the author. I am only sharing "in part" from his valuable research that I found to be beneficial resources for this page.
He does extensive research and you are free to download your own copy of “Behold, I Stand At The Door And Knock” at:
https://www.risenjesus.com/wp-content/uploads/behold-i-stand-at-the-door-and-knock.pdf
Check out his ministry while you are on his website, he is a phenomenal apologist, and shares quite a bit of useful information.
The History of Mormonism and its claims/EXPOSED
Founder: Joseph Smith, Jr
In 1830 Joseph Smith, Jr. “claimed” he had several experiences, during which God, Jesus, and the angel Moroni gave him instructions. Part of the instructions was to dig up some gold plates buried by the angel Moroni around A. D. 400 on a hill just outside of Smith’s town of Palmyra, New York. Smith dug up the plates, claimed they were written in “Reformed Egyptian,” and that God had given him the ability to translate them. This translation became known as the Book of Mormon, an account of the ancient inhabitants of North America between 600 B. C. and A. D. 400.
Joseph was at a point in his life where he was ready to sink into despair and abandon himself to destruction. He then saw a “pillar of light” over his head with the brightness of the sun and then it fell upon him. The brightness and glory defied all description, and the two Personages stood above him in the air. They spoke to him, calling him by name and said pointing to the other "This is My beloved Son, hear Him!"
Joseph’s whole object was to inquire of the Lord to know which of all the sects was right, and to know which one to join.
He asked the Personages who stood before him in the light, which of all the sects were right? He was answered that he must not join any of them, for they were all wrong, the creeds were an abomination, the professors were all corrupt, and that they teach doctrines of the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.’
Then days later an angel named Moroni appeared to Joseph as “bright as a flash of lightning” and then told him of a “book” deposited and buried, written on them gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fullness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior.” All of this is contained in the book of Mormon.
The collection of ancient writings were engraved on golden plates by ancient prophets, in a language known as ‘reformed Egyptian’ and were buried in a hill in Wayne County, New York. The writings were said to describe a people whom God had led from Jerusalem to the Western Hemisphere 600 years before Jesus’ birth.
Joseph Smith then took the plates and was directed to translate them into English and this is where The Book of Mormon came from.
EXPOSED:
Joseph Smith's vision said that “He then saw a pillar of light over his head with the brightness of the sun and then it fell upon him. The brightness and glory defied all description, as well as with the angel Maroni days later revealing and appearing to Joseph Smith as bright as a flash of lightning.”
Joseph Smith said it was an ‘angel clothed in light’ that gave him ‘another testament’, which turns out to be another ‘gospel’ entirely. Rather than the “good news” that Jesus paid for our sin on the Cross of Calvary, this “other Jesus” whom Joseph Smith preaches involves a lifelong labor and process to ‘earn’ salvation; a salvation by works and not by faith alone.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 - ‘But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
Paul who is the author of this letter is clearly cautioning believers to reject any message that differs from the true Gospel as revealed in the Word of God.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 –““For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
The Book of Mormon states:
2 Nephi 25:23 – “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
This contradicts everything about Jesus. The Bible makes it very clear that salvation has nothing to do with our works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”
Titus 3:5 - “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”
The claim that the Bible cannot be trusted/EXPOSED
Mormonism
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
Sources of Authority –
The Bible (King James Version - KJV)
or preferably
(Joseph Smith's Translation - JST)
only 2 translations are accepted
The Book of Mormon
The Pearl of Great Price
Doctrine and Covenants
The Articles of Faith, verse 8 – “We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
The other claim is that the Bible is missing “many plain parts.”
1 Nephi 13:26 - “And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.”
“The Bible, as it has been transmitted over the centuries, has suffered the loss of many plain and precious parts” (“Letter Reaffirms Use of King James Version of Bible,” Church News, June 20, 1992, p.3).
In his book As Translated Correctly, Mormon Apostle Mark E. Petersen wrote, “Many insertions were made, some of them ‘slanted’ for selfish purposes, while at times deliberate falsifications and fabrications were perpetrated” (p.4).
In 2003, Mormon Apostle Neil Maxwell insisted, “By faulty transmission, many ‘plain and precious things’ were ‘taken away’ or ‘kept back’ from reaching what later composed our precious Holy Bible”
(“The Wondrous Restoration,” Ensign, April 2003, p.35).
Mormons claim that the Bible has been corrupted over the years as evidenced by the many different translations.
Bible preferably used by Mormons –
(JST) - Joseph Smith Translation,
(IV) Inspired Version.
This is the King James Version (translated “correctly” with over 600 corrections.)
Joseph Smith considered this work to be "a branch of his calling" as a prophet. He was murdered before it was complete, though most of his work on it was performed about a decade previous. During the process of translation, when he came across troubling biblical issues, Smith often dictated revelations relevant to himself, his associates, or the church. Smith's Translation was a “work in progress” throughout his ministry.
Some parts of the revision were completed from beginning to end, some parts were revised more than once, and other parts were revised one verse at a time.
The manuscripts were written, re-written, and in some cases, additional edits were written.
Skeptics view this style as evidence that Smith's Translation was not inspired; however, supporters of Smith's Translation see this as representing “a gradual, developing inspiration.”
EXPOSED:
The question at hand is, "Can we trust the Bible?"
I'm telling you right now, the Bible we have today IS reliable!
Check out these facts:
The New Testament
Most if not all of the New Testament was originally written in Greek.
Greek Manuscripts - "Approximately 5,000 manuscripts of the New Testament have survived in the original language." (Bruce M. Metzger. The Text Of The New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 36.)
Ancient Versions - By the second century, the New Testament was being translated into different languages. Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and other translations provide valuable sources from which to compare.
Early Church Fathers - "Within 300 years of Christ, almost 36,000 quotations of the New Testament appear in the writings of the early Church Fathers. Every verse in the New Testament is quoted but eleven."
(Norman L. Geisler & William E. Nix. From God to Us (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981), p. 157.)
Conclusion: Although there are variations in the New Testament manuscripts, there are literally tens of thousands of manuscripts from which to do a comparative study. And when scholars in the field of textual criticism do it, a text of the New Testament can be produced which is better than 99.5% pure to what the originals said. And none of the less than one-half of one percent of what is in question affect any doctrine.
The Old Testament
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew before the New Testament (between 1400-400 B. C.).
Masoretic Text
The text of the Old Testament used by translators of the Bible is referred to as the Masoretic text, named after the Masoretes who meticulously copied and edited the text between A.D. 600-1000.
Dead Sea Scrolls
In 1946, hundreds of scrolls and fragments were found in eleven caves in northern Israel. Texts from every book of the Old Testament were found, with the exception of Esther. Of most importance are two Isaiah scrolls, which are dated between 200-50 B. C. One of them has been wonderfully preserved and contains the book of Isaiah in its entirety. When this text of Isaiah was compared to the book of Isaiah in the Masoretic text, there was nearly a 100% correlation between the two, which indicated that the Hebrew text has been marvelously preserved from a time before Jesus until the present.
Ancient Versions
Two ancient versions are helpful when comparing them to the Hebrew text:
The Septuagint
Is the Greek translation of the Old Testament used in Jesus’ day and is quoted many times by the New Testament writers. If you were to translate the Septuagint back into Hebrew, the similarity to the Masoretic Text is awesome.
The Samaritan Pentateuch
Is the first five books of the Bible which were used by the Samaritans, a group of Jews who permanently separated themselves from the general Jewish population around 500 B. C. The similarities to the Masoretic Text are awesome.
Old Testament verses in the New Testament
The writers of the New Testament cite verses from the Old Testament a total of 330 times. (For a complete listing, see Gleason L. Archer & G. C. Chirichigno. Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament: A Complete Survey (Chicago: Moody Press, 1983).
Most of these citations are from the Septuagint. Others are from the Hebrew texts. Once again there is an incredible correlation to the Old Testament that we have today.
How close can we get to a pure text?
Approximately 90% of the text of the Old Testament is without any variation, regardless of the textual tradition. (Bruce K. Waltke in “The Reliability Of The Old Testament Text,” Willem A. VanGemeren, ed. New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), p. 65.)
Within the remaining 10%, the variances are insignificant, none of which affect any biblical doctrine. Most can be eliminated when certain errors are detected: obvious slips of the pen, an inadequate knowledge of the Hebrew language on the part of the translator, (This was certainly a problem with the Septuagint. For a brief article on the Septuagint, see G. W. Bromiley, ed. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume Four (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993), pp. 400-409.), partisan thinking, (Such changes are obvious within the Samaritan Pentateuch in which the Samaritans made minor changes to justify some of their differences with the Jews.), and different dialects, (As is evident in the Qumran tradition in the Dead Sea Scrolls which contains different spellings and grammatical structures than the standard Hebrew of the day.)
Therefore, when proper textual criticism is conducted, a text with a purity exceeding 95% results. The remaining uncertainties mostly amount to a simple discrepancy in word order. Because of this, when the evidence is considered, we can confidently assert that the Bible in our possession today, both the Old and New Testaments, is a pure and trustworthy text we can rely on.
Conclusion:
Even scholars who do not believe the Bible refuse to levy the charge that the Bible has been corrupted over the years resulting in a text which we cannot be certain of. The Bible is a text which has been preserved with amazing accuracy, far better than any other work of antiquity.
What about all the translations?
The first English Version of the Bible was the King James Version. It has been nearly 400 years since it was produced. The English language has changed considerably over that period of time. The orthography (i.e., the way a word was written) of 1611 is not readable to most of us today as anyone picking up a KJV from 1611 will immediately find. Likewise some spellings and word meanings are different today than four hundred years ago.
Old Testament (from Hebrew)
King James Version (KJV)
Psalm 5:6 - “Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing.”
To “speak leasing” today might refer to a consumer going to a car dealership and discussing the leasing of an automobile. However, in Elizabethan English, the term “leasing” meant to lie. Modern translations “update” the language.
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“Thou dost destroy those who speak falsehood.”
New International Bible (NIV)
“You destroy those who tell lies.”
New Testament (from Greek)
King James Version (KJV)
1 Corinthians 15:9 – “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
The word “meet” is no longer used in the sense of being “worthy or deserving.”
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
“For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
New International Bible (NIV)
“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
The original text and the meaning of the Greek word remains unchanged, but our English translation of the word should be “updated” as our language changes.
English translations were also created to serve different purposes.
Grammar
If you have studied another language, you know that the grammar of one language is different from the grammar of another. Some translations were made for the purpose of being a literal translation (almost a word for word accuracy). The New American Standard Bible is a good example of such a translation.
Accuracy/Easier to read
Other translations, including, The New International Version attempt to maintain accuracy while putting the message of the original Greek and Hebrew in today’s English vernacular.
Paraphrase
The Living Bible is not a translation but a paraphrase. It attempts to restate the meaning of the verse solely for ease of reading.
Accuracy/Simpler Vocabulary
The New Living Translation seeks to be an accurate translation while promoting a simpler vocabulary.
Conclusion:
So translations are not necessarily scholars disagreeing with one another, but language updates and different objectives.
Final Analysis:
The Mormon Scriptures affirm that Mormons believe the Bible is the Word of God “as far as it is translated correctly” (Doctrine and Covenants, Article of Faith 8).
Since we can now know with a great deal of certainty what the original texts of the Bible said, the linguist can translate the Hebrew and Greek into English. An understanding of the role of different translations reveals that most of them faithfully and accurately render the message of the original languages. The original words of the Bible have been preserved with remarkable purity and that its accuracy has been confirmed by both history and archaeology. The variances among English translations do not call into question the preservation of the Bible over the years.
The Book of Abraham - one of the books in the Pearl of Great Price/EXPOSED
In 1835, Joseph Smith purchased some mummies that were accompanied by ancient Egyptian papyri. He claimed to be able to translate the papyri because they were written in the same language as the Book of Mormon, “Reformed Egyptian.” As he translated the manuscripts, he claimed that part contained the Book of Abraham, a book written by Abraham himself.
The papyri for the Book of Abraham contained some drawings with Egyptian writing that were subsequently published in Times and Seasons, a Mormon newspaper. The papyri were lost after Smith’s death in 1844.
EXPOSED:
In 1967 the papyri were rediscovered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York who returned them to the Mormon Church which confirmed them to be the originals and published them for others to see.
Dialogue:
A Journal of Mormon Thought asked three prominent Egyptologists to translate the papyri. The translations of the Egyptologists could either confirm Joseph Smith as a true prophet or convict him as a charlatan; also if Joseph Smith was terribly wrong in his translation of the Book of Abraham, it follows that he cannot be trusted to have produced an accurate translation of the Book of Mormon, which he himself claimed was in the same language.
John Wilson and Klaus Baer, both Professors of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, and
Richard Parker, a Professor of Egyptology at Brown University, were asked to do the task.
This is the results:
John Wilson said that the text Smith used to translate the Book of Abraham was actually “a related mortuary text of late times, the so-called Book of the Breathings.” The Book of Breathings was an ancient
Egyptian document, which was buried with the dead in order to provide guidance in the afterlife (which explains why Joseph Smith’s papyri were found among the mummies he had purchased). Wilson also claimed that one of the drawings Smith included in the Book of Abraham was actually a hypocephalus, “a cartonnage disk which was placed under the head of a mummy toward the end of ancient Egyptian history.”
Klaus Baer said that the papyri that Smith thought was the Book of Abraham were actually “The Breathing Permit belonging to the priest Hor.”
This is another name given for the Book of Breathings. Baer provided a comparison of his translation with Joseph Smith’s. It is quite easy to see that there is not the slightest resemblance between the two. For example:
Baer’s translation: “the” Smith’s translation: “. . . now this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one time who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent directly from the loins of Ham, these virgins were offered up because of their virtue they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or stone, therefore they were killed upon this altar”
Richard Parker, likewise identifies Smith’s Book of Abraham papyri as the Book of Breathings.
These results are absolutely devastating to Mormonism.
Joseph Smith did not have the faintest idea of what he was doing while he was translating the papyri into the Book of Abraham. This certainly brings into question his ability to translate the gold plates into the Book of Mormon, since both the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham were in “Reformed Egyptian.”
Archeological evidence/EXPOSED
There is no archaeological evidence of the Book of Mormon.
EXPOSED:
While the spade of the archaeologist has confirmed many places and peoples mentioned in the Bible, it has not been at all favorable to the Book of Mormon. Although Mormons will confidently assert that archaeology has confirmed the Book of Mormon’s accuracy time and time again, professional archaeologists have arrived at quite a different conclusion.
The Book of Mormon contains many references to animals, plants, metals, and technologies, but the problem is that the archaeological, historical, and scientific communities are generally skeptical about the claims because the references have found no evidence of such claims, like horses, oxen, sheep, swine, goats, wheat, steel, brass, chains, iron, and chariots to name a few.
One claim is that archaeological evidence may exist but that it has not yet been found.
The other is that Joseph Smith used English words in a generic way, sometimes referring to an item other than that which the direct English word would imply.
The Book of Mormon mentions the words steel and iron several times. The problem is that no evidence has been found in North, Central, or South America of iron being hardened anciently to make “steel”.
The Book of Mormon makes numerous references to swords and their use in battle. For example when the remnants of the Jaredites' final battle were discovered, the Book of Mormon narrative states that ‘the blades thereof were cankered with rust.’ It’s kind of hard, or basically impossible for wood to rust, don’t you think?
A Mormon apologist would counter that most references to swords do not speak of the material they were made of, and that they may refer to a number of weapons such a "sword" known and made of obsidian blades that was used by the Aztecs. They were very sharp and could decapitate a man or horse, but there is a huge problem with this counter.”
Obsidian is actually volcanic glass and it cannot rust.
The cities mentioned in the Book of Mormon are imaginary, elephants never existed on this continent, metals have never been found in any of the areas of contemporary civilizations of the New World, are findings by recognized archeologist’s basis on fact that its accounts are not in keeping with the facts of science.
The Book of Mormon is viewed by many mainstream scholars as a work of fiction. Even The National Geographic Society, in a 1988 letter to the Institute for Religious Research, stated:
"Archaeologists and other scholars have long probed the hemisphere's past and the society does not know of anything found so far that has substantiated the Book of Mormon.”
Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in any way as a scientific guide. Smithsonian archaeologists see no direct connection between the archaeology of the New World and the subject matter of the book.
In 1975 Bringham Young University professor Thomas Stuart Ferguson after a 25 year archaeological research funded by the Mormon Church found nothing to back up the flora, fauna, topography, geography, peoples, coins, or settlements of the book, and, in fact, he called the geography of the Book of Mormon “fictional.”
Racism/EXPOSED
EXPOSED:
The god of Mormonism elevates “white” races supreme and has demanded African-Americans and Native Americans as “unrighteous.”
The Book of Mormon describes the Native-American curse as “They were white, and exceeding fair and delightsome; that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them” 2 Nephi 5:21
(Post 1981 editions of The Book of Mormon have deleted the “strength of the racist overtones by changing the word “white”, in the original 1830, to “pure”, (2 Nephi 30:6)
Until 1978, men of African descent were denied the priesthood because of a teaching that they were under a curse for their lack of valiance in their premortal existence. Under this ban they were unable to attain the status of “exaltation.” (godhood.)
“This is because the Book of Moses records Cain, the first murder, as the progenitor of the African race, his black skin being the result of the curse by God. On this basis the Mormons avoided and ignored Africans for years in their missionary work, believing that preexistent souls that were considered less than valiant in the “war in heaven” between Christ and Satan were punished by being assigned to black bodies during their mortality. Until 1978 they were denied all of the “blessings” and “privileges” of the priesthood, but revelation of convenience gave them full access to these glories and neatly removed the last major obstacle to the Mormon “evangelism” of Africa and the rest of the free world. The Indians, who are supposedly the descendants of the Lamanites, have allegedly been cursed by the Mormon deity with dark skin as a punishment for the misdeeds of their forefathers. Mormonism, then, is clearly a religion with a shameful history of white supremacist doctrines and practices.” – The Kingdom of the Cults Walter Martin p.251 paragraph 4
Final thoughts:
The Book of Mormon claims to be another witness of Jesus Christ confirming the truths found in the Bible. One passage says that the Book of Mormon:
“shall establish the truth” of the Bible “and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world; and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved” (1 Nephi 13:40).
While the Bible details events in the eastern hemisphere, the Book of Mormon claims to document the lives of the inhabitants of the ancient Americas, written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon. The crowning event is the personal ministry of Jesus among the Nephites soon “after” his Resurrection. It puts forth the doctrines of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.
As the LDS website states an open invitation to all:
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng
“We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
(See Moroni 10:3–5.)
“Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah” (From the Introduction of the Book of Mormon).
They are referring to The Book of Moroni Chapter 10:3-5
Moroni 10:3-5 – “Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”
I have my own personal copies of the Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants, which I have read, and refer to from to time. When I read them I asked and prayed to see if these things are not true, asked with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Jesus to manifest the truth of it to me, by the power of the Holy Ghost that I may know the truth of all things.
With this and the evidence that I have shared on this page, it seems to be clear that either Joseph Smith was an exceptional fictional story teller and deceived many people, maybe even himself, or perhaps he was the one who was deceived in the visions that he saw.
Remember what happened initially in Joseph Smith's vision:
“He then saw a pillar of light over his head with the brightness of the sun and then it fell upon him. The brightness and glory defied all description, as well as with the angel Maroni days later revealing and appearing to Joseph Smith as bright as a flash of lightning.”
Joseph Smith said it was an ‘angel clothed in light’ that gave him ‘another testament’, which turns out to be another ‘gospel’ entirely. Rather than the “good news” that Jesus paid for our sin on the Cross of Calvary, this “other Jesus” whom Joseph Smith preaches involves a lifelong labor and process to ‘earn’ salvation; a salvation by works and not by faith alone.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4 - ‘But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”
Paul who is the author of this letter is clearly cautioning believers to reject any message that differs from the true Gospel as revealed in the Word of God.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 –““For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
The Book of Mormon states:
2 Nephi 25:23 – “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
Mormons believe that Jesus’ Resurrection is their personal guarantee that they and everyone else will also be resurrected. But where they go after death is determined by the number of works they perform in this life and whether they are “good” Mormons.
If you were to ask a Mormon,
“If you were to die at this very moment, where would you go?”
If they are honest, they would have to say,
“I hope that I've done enough good works that I can get to the highest heaven, the Celestial Kingdom.”
Mormons believe that there is a “paradise” or spirit world where all humans go after death. In this spirit world, there are supposedly Mormon missionaries who give you one more chance to accept or reject the message of Mormonism. If you accept, then you are baptized by proxy into the church here on Earth. This is known as baptism for the dead. Those that have accepted LDS teachings go to one of the Mormon heavens (Celestial, Terrestrial or Telestial), depending on their earthly works.
I reject LDS teachings due to Joseph Smith either being only an exceptional fictional story teller or because he himself was deceived. Either way, he was a false prophet or an apostle, a deceitful worker, who transformed himself into an apostle of Christ. As Paul states, “no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
I do pray that this information may help you or someone else who has fallen prey to LDS teachings.