Lesson #1 "On Mormonism"

Intro Question: Leo Tolstoy, the famous author of War & Peace and Anna Karenina said of Mormonism, “It’s the quintessential __________ religion.”  What is the blank:  A) Heretical B) American C) Western or D) works-based? Correct answer is: B) American.

                  If you’ve ever taken a writing class in college you may have heard of a great little book called “Eats, shoots & leaves” written by a BBC radio 4 host Lynne Truss.

The title comes from a story were once upon a time, “a panda walks into a pub…He orders a sandwich, he eats it, then he draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.
"But, why?" asks the confused, surviving waitress amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the door; the panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"Well, I'm a panda," he says in his best tough-guy voice. "Look it up."

The waitress turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds the explanation, under the header of panda it says, “Panda: A large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

The error, of course in the story, is that the manual should have said pandas eat shoots & leaves (with no commas) instead of eats, shoots & leaves.  This is an example to us as well because even a little error can completely change the application of a passage.  Like Jay recently talked about Jesus-himself would stress that even the most minute punctuation of a passage is important to rightly understanding it (Matt 5:18).

This is a great example of why studying Mormonism is important for Christians because as I hope we’ll see today that just a few small errors or ½ truths (all of which are still common in churches today) can lead people into a completely different religion.

So what we’re gonna do today?  I’ll start out with a brief history of Mormonism, and then we’ll double back & review just a few of the specific differences between Christianity & Mormon theology & see why they are important.

Feel free to interrupt me at any time with questions, okay?

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Brief History of Mormons:

1820 NY- The movement was founded by Joseph Smith in about 1820, in only 10-20 years it had separated from the rest of Protestant Christianity.  Joseph Smith claimed to be led by an angel to find buried golden plates (or tablets) & in a reverse to Charismatic “speaking in tongues” Smith is said to have been divinely enabled to translate the unknown language into English.  The name Mormon comes from this Book of Mormon translated by Smith.  The word Mormon like “Christian” was initially a pejorative but is now more commonly accepted.  The Book was supposedly a history of BC Jews that had left the Middle East & moved to America, before Christ was born.  Today there is generally no support amongst mainstream historians or archaeologists for the historicity of the Book of Mormon.  Scientist have even gone as far as DNA sequencing to review any genetic correlations between Jews & Native Americans, there appears to be none.

1820 “First Vision” – Smith claimed a vision of both God & Jesus Christ where he asked them which denomination he should join & God told him none of them because they were all wrong.  Please be wary of anyone who says 2000 years of Christianity, they were all wrong, trust me instead. By 1830 Smith said God would use him to re-establish the True Church & that his Book of Mormon would establish correct doctrine for this new corrected version of Christianity.

1830 OH - In 1830 tensions between New England Christians & the new Mormons worsened & the Mormons left NY for Kirkland, OH then continuing to move West & hoping to establish a new version of the city of Jerusalem called Zion in Jackson County, MO.  Can anyone guess what metro city this is today? (Independence).

1833 MO - In 1833 violent conflicts with Missourians resulted in an “extermination order” from the governor expelling all Mormons from the state of MO.  The governor claimed that the Mormons had committed "open and avowed defiance of the laws", and had "made war upon the people of this State," Governor Boggs directed that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies of Missouri, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description". The Mormons left or were driven from MO to IL, establishing the city of Nauvoo in 1844. (Please note that the city is Nauvoo, not Naboo which is a planet from Star Wars ep. 1).    

1844 IL (died) - Tensions between Mormons & non-Mormons in IL lead to Smith & his brother being charged with treason & being killed by an angry mob.  It was at this point that Mormons split into 3 forms: LDS Mormons being the most common, however there are also even more conservative Mormon Fundamentalists which still practice polygamy today & more liberal Cultural Mormons, who are very moral, like other Mormons, but don’t necessarily follow Mormon theology.  The LDS Mormons choose Brigham Young as their new prophet/leader who moved the LDS Mormons from IL to the Utah territory.  There they were free to openly practice a form of polygamy (Does anyone know what this is? plural marriage), called polygyny, (anyone want to guess what polygyny is?) which allowed for multiple wives a practice Smith had founded back when they lived in Nauvoo, IL.  This polygyny & polygamy are illegal because both cause bigamy, which is when a married person marries another additional spouse.

1890 Ends LDS Polygamy – Almost 50 years later; it wasn’t until the 1890 Manifesto after years of vigorous opposition of Mormon teachings by the US Congress, that Congress dis-incorporated the LDS’ church status & wars between US troops & Mormon legionnaires & militias broke out which finally brought about LDS abandonment of polygamy which they had to do for Utah to be able to join the Union as a state, a ban on polygamy was forced into their state constitution, Article 3 section 1: The Utah State constitution which states: Perfect toleration of religious sentiment is guaranteed. No inhabitant of this State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; but polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohibited.  And honestly that pretty well brings us up today….any Mormon history questions before we move into Mormon theology?

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Theology errors:

Remember how I said it only took a few small errors to end up in a completely different religion.  You have to envision theology like a ship with a bad rudder or compass which can cause a ship to end up completely off course.

Authority –

Quote: “The Book of Mormon is more correct than the Bible,” (History of the Church, 4:461). Why is this quote dangerous?  What does this passage say about how Mormon’s view authority?

Mormons accept the Old & New Testament using the KJV as their official text (like KJV only Baptists) Mormons believe the Bible is mostly accurate but that you have to look to Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon because wherever the Book of Mormon disagrees with the Bible, the Bible is wrong.  This is much like Catholics who, we’ve mentioned, added the Apocrypha to the Bible & then accepted doctrines only found in the Apocrypha over the teachings of Scripture.  The whole of a Mormon Bible collects the regular KJV Bible, the Book of Mormon, a book of saying & prophecies called Doctrines & Covenants & the Pearl of Great Price. The church characterizes the Book of Mormon as "the most correct of any book on earth and the keystone of [their] religion.”

Another source of authoritative doctrine is the pronouncements of its current Apostles and members of the First Presidency. The church teaches that the First Presidency (the church's president and his counselors) as well as the Quorum of Twelve Apostles are prophets and that their teachings are generally given under inspiration from God through the Holy Spirit. Members of the church acknowledge them regularly as prophets and seers—this is done publicly twice a year at the church's worldwide general conference.

Like Charismatics, Mormons believe in Continuous Revelations meaning that their leaders continue to expound God’s perspective on any issue at hand via “I feel like the Lord is telling me to say…” or by claiming visions or visitations from angels & relaying direct conversations with persons from heaven.

This is also similar to the Visions & visitations claimed by Catholics who take visions of Saints or Mary as well as the Pope speaking ex-cathedra as scriptural or dogmatic. Do you guys know what ex-cathedra means?

Ex-cathedra means when the Pope speaks from his office of as Shepherd & Teacher of all Christendom, due to his supreme apostolic authority he can define any doctrine concerning faith or morals intended to be held by the whole of Christianity.

So the note of caution to us is do we take anything ideas, thought, feelings and place them above or equal to the Bible as authoritative.

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God –

Quote: “Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are only one God. I say that is a strange God [anyhow] -- three in one and one in three…It is a curious organization… All are crammed into one God according to sectarianism (Christian faith). It would make the biggest God in all the world. He would be a wonderfully big God – he would be a giant or a monster,” (Joseph Smith, Teachings, p.372). What are your initial thoughts about this Mormon view of God?

This is the hard part about studying Mormonism because the will use “Christian” terms but have their own different meaning for them live Sovereignty or Trinity.

Mormonism is distinctly non-Trinitarian, the LDS teaches that Elohim, Jesus Christ & the Holy Spirit are 3 separate & distinct beings, & while Elohim & JC have perfect physical bodies, the HS only has a spiritual body, and even though these are distinct beings Mormons uses Christian language of “One God or the Godhead”, because they believe these 3 different people are still unified in singular purpose, action & thought.

Elohim is literally the father of the spirits of all men & women and these spirits existed prior to their mortal existence. Mormons believe JC is literally the firstborn son of Elohim, explaining what “Son of God” means.  

Further all humans (as spiritual children of God) can themselves earn the right to become gods themselves through Mormonism’s moral obedience (process called theosis or exaltation). 

While in Kirkland, OH Joseph Smith established ceremonies, which he stated the Lord had revealed to him, to allow righteous people to become gods.

 “After you become a good Mormon, you have the potential of becoming a god,” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345-347, 354).

“The trinity is three separate Gods: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That these three are separate individuals, physically distinct from each other, is demonstrated by the accepted records of divine dealings with man,” (Articles of Faith, James Talmage p. 35)

“The birth of the Savior was as natural as the births of our own children; it was the result of natural action [intercourse between Mary & Elohim].  He partook of flesh and blood—was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers,” (Journal of Discourses Vol. 8 p. 115)

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The Atoning Gospel –

Quote: “One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation,” (Miracle of Forgiveness, Spencer W. Kimball p .206)

In Mormonism the central part of God’s plan for exaltation (you becoming a god), is the atonement of JC, Mormons believe that the purpose of this earthly life is to learn to make good choses over evil choices.  In this process if Mormons sin then they prove they are unworthy to return to the presence of God. To obtain this state of godhood, the church teaches that one must have faith in Jesus Christ, repent of his or her sins, strive to keep the commandments faithfully, and participate in a sequence of ceremonial covenants called ordinances, which include baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost via the laying on of hands, the endowments (sacramental washings and anointings), and celestial marriage (marriage blessings which extend beyond mortality).

Mormons believe these ordinances are seen as necessary for salvation, but are not in & of themselves sufficient. For example, baptism is required for salvation but being baptized doesn’t mean you will be saved. A baptized person is expected to be obedient to God’s commandments or to repent of each sin committed following baptism & to receive all other needed saving ordinances. Because Mormons require obedience to ordinances in order to be saved, Mormons will often perform ordinances (like baptism) for the dead who failed to obey, these ordnances are performed by “proxy” on behalf of the dead. As Mormons are hyper-Arminian they believe that the dead can accept or reject these proxy ordinances done for them of their own free will.

“We accept Christ’s atonement [The gospel] which consists of laws and ordinances: As these sins are the result of individual acts it is just that forgiveness for them should be conditioned on individual compliance with prescribed requirements –obedience to the laws, commandments and ordinances of the gospel.” (Articles of Faith, p. 79 & Gospel Principles, Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979, p.68.)

Jesus’ sacrifice was not able to cleanse us from all our sins, (murder and repeated adultery are exceptions),” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3 p. 247)

“Good works are necessary for salvation,” (Articles of Faith, James Talmage p.92)

“There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol.1 p. 188)

The blending of works with repentant-faith in order to be saved has been the biggest and most common heresy in all of Christianity from the Judaizes in the NT, to free-will Pelagians in the 400’s,  to free-will semi-Pelagians in 500’s & Arminians in 1600’s AD – this is the biggest argument in Christianity. 

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Mormonism & Christianity

Quote: “If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the Restoration, there would be no salvation. There is no salvation [the context is of the full gospel including exaltation to Godhood] outside the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 670).

Mormons categorize themselves within General Christianity & Mormons self-identify as Christian. However Mormonism’s differences place it outside of the umbrella of Christianity, Mormonism is seen as a heretical different religion, amongst Catholics, Eastern Orthodox & Protestants.

Mormonism believes that they are also the only true form of Christianity since the 1^st Cent AD, according to Mormons (not long after Christ’s ascension) Christianity became corrupted by Greek philosophy, known as the General Apostasy. And they believe that all valid priests ceased following the martyrdom of the Apostles & therefore no true church leader aside from an ordained Mormon leader have valid authority to lead the Church or to administer its ordinances. 

Similarly Catholics believe their popes have a direct line of authority from Peter to today even though there were no Popes prior to 500 AD. Mormons believe that they exemplify the practices of the Early Church & are now the restored version of true Christianity.  

Famous Mormons:

Singer – Marie Osmand

Twilight author – Stephanie Mayer

Senate Majority Leader – Harry Reid

Governor of Mass. & 2012 Presidential Candidate – Mitt Romney

Cowboy Outlaw – Butch Cassidy

So to wrap us up: You’ve got a little taste for the violent history of Mormonism in America & their flight Westward from NY to UT.  And we’ve seen how they distinguish from Protestant theology in 4 big areas: 1 – Authority, the bible’s no enough; 2- God isn’t a trinity its 3 separate guys acting in unison; 3 – their gospel is 1 of works not by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone & 4 – They not only believe they are Christians but that they are the only real Christians thanks to Joseph Smith whom they revere near equal to Christ.