BI 462 — Modern Day Cults

Tobias England

Mormonism

History

Joseph Smith was born 4th in a family of ten children. He resisted the Presbyterian beliefs of his family and at the age of fifteen had his first vision. When he asked which denomination he should join, he was told that they were all corrupt.[1]

A second vision followed three years later in which he was told of God’s revelation to the native people of the land and shown the place of the gold plates. He eventually obtained them and was given charge to protect and propagate them. On April 6th, 1830 “the church of Christ”, latter named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was formed with six members.[2]

The book now called Doctrine and Covenants was the first book he published and is still a cornerstone of their beliefs. Smith also worked on a revised, or “divinely altered” version of the King James Bible. While Smith was incarcerated for the destruction of unfriendly printing presses, a mob broke into the jail, and he was killed on June 27, 1844. He was succeeded by Brigham Young.

Beliefs

The official web site of the Mormon church (www.mormon.org) states the following about their beliefs:

You may have questions about what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe. Some of the basic beliefs of the Church are:

  • God is our Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants us to return to Him.
  • Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our Savior. He redeems us from death by providing the Resurrection. He saves us from sin as we repent.
  • Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can return to live with God if we keep His commandments.
  • The Holy Ghost helps us to recognize truth.
  • The first principles and ordinances of the gospel are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
  • The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth.
  • The priesthood authority of God exists in His Church today, just as it did in the original Church.
  • The Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God.
  • God reveals His will to prophets today, just as He did anciently.
  • Our life has a sacred purpose.
  • Families can be together forever.
  • Through serving others, we can experience joy and draw closer to God.

They also hold other beliefs that are not so openly articulated. This is a very exclusive religion, claiming that there is “no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith.”[3]

They claim to believe both the Bible and the Book of Mormon, but specifically state, “We believe the bible to be the Word of God in so far as it is translated correctly...” (Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Article 8). At one point, Joseph Smith claimed to be the only person living with a “correct translation”.[4]

One “apostle” of the Mormon church even stated, “Who knows that even one verse of the bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same sense now that it did in the original?”[5] Other sources of authority include the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price, and living prophets.

One of the characteristics of a cult that was studied is demonstrated at this point. It was said that cults tend to have strong, almost dictatorial leadership. Mormons are taught to believe, “When our Leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan—it is God’s plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give directions, it should mark the end of the controversy.”[6] See Hebrews 1:1-2.

Doctrine of God

Joseph Smith wrote, “We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”[7] However, their true beliefs are only partly represented in the above statement. In The King Follett Discourse he gave a more accurate representation of a Mormon’s belief in God. He said,

I am going to inquire after God: for I want you all to know him and be familiar with him...I will go back to the beginning before the world was, to show you what kind of a being God is.

God was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens...I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in a form like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form of a man.

I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil so that you may see.

It is the first principle of the gospel to know for certainty the character of God and to know that we may converse with him as one man with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that god himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ did.

Here the, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you.[8]

This teaching can be refuted from the Book of Mormon. That work says in Alma 11:26-29, “and Zeezrom said unto him: ‘Thou sayest that there is a true and living God?’ And Amulek said: ‘Yea, there is a true and living God’ Now Zeezrom siad, ‘Is there more than one God?’ And he answered, ‘No!’” Also see Alma 11:21,22; 2 Nephi 11:7; 31:21; 3Nephil 11:27, 36; Mosaih 15:1-5; 16:15. Of course, one could also cite Isaiah 43:10 or I Corinthians 8:4. Neither do they believe in Hell, but in three levels of glory.

The Book of Mormon.

Though it is claimed to be the “most accurate book on earth”, this “scripture” has suffered over 3,000 changes from its original text. It is also unverified in every other area. In Handbook of Today’s Religions, Josh McDowell and Don Stewart have compiled the following list of problems for Mormon scholars:

  1. No Book of Mormon cities have been located
  2. No Book of Mormon names have been found in New World inscriptions.
  3. No genuine inscriptions have been found in Hebrew in America.
  4. No genuine inscriptions have been fund in America in Egyptian or anything similar to Egyptian, which could correspond to Joseph Smith’s “reformed Egyptian”.
  5. No ancient copies of the Book of Mormon scriptures have been found.
  6. No ancient inscriptions of any kind in America, which indicate that the ancient inhabitants had Hebrew or Christian beliefs, have been found.
  7. No mention of Book of Mormon persons, nations, or places have ever been found.
  8. No artifacts of any kind, which demonstrates the Book of Mormon is true, have been found.
  9. Rather than finding supportive evidence, Mormon scholars have been forced to retreat from traditional interpretations of the Book of Mormon.[9]

Another highly respected Mormon Scholar, Thomas Stuart Ferguson, who wrote many books trying to defend the Book of Mormon, finally had to admit, that after “25 years of trying to prove Mormonism, [he] had finally come to the conclusion that his work had been in vain. He said that his training in law had taught him how to weight evidence and that the case against Joseph Smith was absolutely devastating and could not be explained away.”[10]

The story told by Joseph Smith indicates that the golden plates that contained the Book of Morning were too sacred for profane eyes. Because of this, he translated it from behind a curtain, calling out the words to Oliver Cowdery. Interestingly, Mr. Smith himself wasn’t even looking at the plates while he was “translating”. He would put his “peeping stones” in a hat, burry his face in it, and waited for words to appear on the stone.[11] Mr. Smith realized that nonbelievers may suggest that these plates never even existed, since no one had seen them, so he had three close friends sign the following statement, “We declare, with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates and the engravings thereon.”[12] Unfortunately for Mormon, these “three witnesses” later renounced Mormonism and declared that this testimony was false.[13]

On the next page of the same book, this wholesale abandonment of reason is excused and even lauded. At the 109th Annual Conference, Antione R. Ivins stated, “Faith to me is the greatest thing in life, and God purposely, I believe, covered up in antiquity the history of this people and the story of the Book of Mormon so that…it would have to rest upon faith…that could be given to us only by God Himself.”

Another problem for Mormon apologists lies in the pedigree of their leadership Joseph Smith wrote on January 17, 1844 that “Blessing given to Joseph Smith III by his father, Joseph Smith, Junior…Blessed of the Lord is my son Joseph who is called the third…. For he shall be my successor to the Presidency of the High Priesthood; a Seer, and a Revelator, and a Prophet, unto the Church; which appointment belongeth to him by blessing, and also by right .” However, history records for us that it was Brigham Young, and not the young Smith, who obtained leadership over the “church”. (Ibid, 84)

Strange Beliefs

The Mormons, due to their training to follow blindly the authority the church places over them, have developed some very strange beliefs. No less than Joseph Smith himself said, “Hell is by no means the place this world of fools suppose it to be, but on the contrary, it is quite an agreeable place.” (Ibid, 76)

He also had his own views of pneumatology. He taught that Mormons were really Jews, and that those called Jews today were really Gentiles. How was this justified? Because “The effect of the Holy Ghost upon a Gentile is to purge out the old blood, and make him actually of the seed of Abraham” (Ibid 79)

[1] Geisler, N. L., Geisler, N. L., & Watkins, W. D. (1989). Worlds apart: A handbook on world views (2nd ed.) (228). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

[2] Fackler, M. (1992). Smith, Joseph. In J. Douglas & P. W. Comfort (Eds.), Who's Who in Christian history (J. Douglas & P. W. Comfort, Ed.) (628). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.

[3] John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Cult Watch. (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1991) 11.

[4] Budziszewski, J. (2009). How to Stay Christian in College. Colorado Springs, CO: TH1NK.

[5] Orson Pratt’s Works, 1891 p. 218

[6] New Era, June 1945, p. 354

[7] Pearl of Great Price, Articles of Faith, p. 59.

[8] Joseph Smith Jr., King Follett Discourse, pp. 8-10

[9] Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Handbook of Today’s Religions (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers, Inc., 1982), 73.

[10] The God Makers by Ed Decker and Dave Hunt, page 91.

[11] Geisler, N. L. (1976). Christian apologetics (374). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

[12] Harper’s Encyclopedia of United States History (B. Lossing, Ed.) (4316). Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library.

[13] Harper’s Encyclopedia of United States History (B. Lossing, Ed.) (4316). Medford, MA: Perseus Digital Library.