Learning about Mormonism

Having spent my high-school years growing up in the Seattle area, I became pretty familiar with Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as they call themselves. The Mormon church is a fascinating cult religion and I feel like God has given me a missional heart towards this people group, perhaps rooted in a visit to the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, UT when I was in college and on a ski trip in Utah.

Now that we live in the Seattle area again, I realize how ever-present Mormonism is here (being so close to the core Mormon states of Utah, Arizona, Idaho, etc.). We have a large Mormon temple which I pass every day on my way to and from work, as well as a large “ward” or community church type place, only a mile or so from our house.

I’m not sure how I came across it, but a year or so ago I began to follow a blog called Mormon Coffee, which is managed by a man named Aaron Shafovaloff, who is called to bring Jesus to Mormons and lives in Salt Lake City. The blog is an amazing resource for learning about the Mormon church, and has led me to do other research and reading, including finishing “Under the Banner of Heaven” a few months ago.

As I have brought many of these things I’ve learned home to share with Kelly, she has encouraged me to share them on my blog. So, while you can learn much more from the Mormon Coffee site (as well as watch Evangelical Christians (including many ex-Mormons) and LDS-defenders discuss the topics), I’ll pop some of the interesting ones on my blog here too.

For example:

• Mormons say of Joseph Smith (founder and prophet): "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it..." (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3)

• And yet you could fill volumes of books (and it’s been done) on the inconsistencies of this man, for example:

• He was a polygamist, having upwards of 49 wives, including many young women who he coerced into marrying him at threat of eternal condemnation to hell (the threat extended to these girls’ extended families as well).

o Smith claimed to be a prophet, claiming to receive revelations from God. This is how he received the Book of Mormon, etc.

o One thing he prophesied (as did the prophet who came after him, Brigham Young): that the moon was inhabited by people that lived to the age of ~1,000, and that thye dressed in the Quaker style. :) (Source: http://www.challengemin.org/moon.html)

o Accordingly, even his mother acknowledged his huge imagination, noting that he made up fascinating stories (that sound a lot like the Book of Mormon) long before he “discovered” the BoM: “During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelling, and their animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them." (History of Joseph Smith by his Mother, 1954 edition, p. 83)

o Prior to “discovering” the BoM, Joseph Smith was arrested and found guilty of scamming people by claiming to be able to use a magical stone to divine hidden treasure:

§ "Prisoner [Joseph Smith] brought before Court March 20, 1826. Prisoner examined: says that he .... had a certain stone which he had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this manner where gold mines were a distance under ground .... he had occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account of its injuring his health, especially his eyes making them sore;...

§ "And therefore the Court find[s] the Defendant guilty. Costs: Warrant, 19c. Complaint upon oath, 25½c. Seven witnesses, 87½ c. Recognisances, 25c. Mittimus, 19c. Recognisances of witnesses, 75c. Suboena, 18c -$2.68." (Frazer's Magazine, February, 1873, pp. 229-30)

o In 1835, Joseph Smith rounded up some Egyptian “plates” and translated them into the Book of Abraham, which is now considered part of Mormon scripture. He did this long before serious Egyptian language study, which was fully developed when one of the plates was discovered by the Mormon Church in 1967. The plates were analyzed by professors who could translate the language, and found them to have nothing to do with Abraham, rather were common funeral directions connected to a random buried Egyptian. So, Joseph Smith, who claimed to be able to translate these plates (the Book of Mormon was supposedly also in Reformed Egyptian when he translated it), had fabricated this lie.

• Mormons believe that if you live a righteous life, you can become a God or Goddess (or God’s wife, it seems). This is why they believe in eternal marriage. Mormon men and women are married “eternally” (despite what Jesus says about this in Matthew 22:30 or Mark 12:25), populating the spirit world with spirit children, who are then “birthed” into the physical world by Godly Mormons.

o A religion that says 1) marry lots of women and 2) populate the world by having lots of sex – now this is certainly a religion invented by a man, right!

• Mormons are not Christians. They are not “little Christs” who worship Him. As example, in the early ‘80s Mormon students at BYU were meeting in the dorms praying “for a special relationship with Jesus.” A famous Mormon leader named Bruce McConkie spoke to them in a sermon on campus and said, clearly:

o “Some ("holier-than- thou" students) begin to pray directly to Christ because of some special friendship they feel has been developed. In this conception a current and unwise book, which advocates gaining a special relationship with Jesus, contains this sentence - quote: "Because the Saviour is our mediator, our prayers go through Christ to the Father, and the Father answers our prayers through his son. " Unquote. This is plain sectarian nonsense. Our prayers are addressed to the Father, and to him only. They do not go through Christ...You have never heard the First Presidency or the Twelve...advocate this excessive zeal that calls for gaining a so called special and personal relationship with Christ...never, never at any time have they taught or endorsed the inordinate and intemperate zeal that encourages endless, sometimes day-long prayers, in order to gain a personal relationship with the Saviour...I wonder if it is not part of Lucifer's system to make people feel they are special friends of Jesus when in fact they are not following the normal and usual pattern of worship found in the true Church." (Bruce McConkie, Speech at BYU on March 2 1982).

o In the same speech, he said “We worship the Father and him only and no one else. We do not worship the Son and we do not worship the Holy Ghost.”

• Why is there confusion about whether Mormons are Christians? They do not worship Him.

Anyway, I hope you find some of these interesting and thought-provoking. I will share more as I come across them and am learning myself. At the end of the day, I don’t hope to have this knowledge end with me. I am hoping it will spring into a deeper heart for share the Gospel of Jesus with Mormons who don’t know the true Jesus.