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At the heart of the difference between Christianity and the Mormons is the Mormon belief of “Mormon Law of Eternal Progression”
The Law of Eternal Progression: As Man is God once was, As God is, man may become.
God was once a Man who became a god, and man may now
now follow in god's footsteps, and through Mormon conduct
and secret rituals, become a god.
What the Mormons teach:
“Mormonism teaches that trillions of planets scattered throughout the cosmos are ruled by countless gods who once were human like us. (We say that the lord our God is one)
They say that long ago on one of these planets, to an unidentified god and one of his goddess wives , a spirit child named Elohim (god) was conceived. This spirit child was later born to human parents who gave him a physical body. (We believe that God is a spirit)
Through obedience to Mormon teaching death, and resurrection, Elohim proved himself worthy and was elevated to godhood as his father before him.
Mormons believe that Elohim is their heavenly father and that he lives with his many wives on a planet near a mysterious star called Kolob. Here the god of Mormonism and his wives , through endless celestial sex , produced billions of spirit children who need fleshly bodies. (This is why Mormons try for large families).
To decide their destiny, the head of the Mormon gods called a great heavenly council meeting. Both of Elohim’s eldest sons were there, Jesus and his brother Lucifer.
A plan was presented to build planet earth where the spirit children would be sent to take on moral bodies and learn good from evil. Lucifer stood and made his bid to become savior of the new world. Wanting the glory for himself. , he planned to force everyone to become gods. Opposing the idea, the Mormon Jesus suggested giving man his freedom of choice, as on other planets. The vote that followed approved the proposal of the Mormon Jesus, who would become savior of the planet earth.
Enraged, Lucifer cunningly convinced 1/3 of the spirit children destined for earth (from wedlock of Elohim and his goddesses) to fight with him and revolt. Thus Lucifer became the devil and his followers the demons. Sent to this world in spirit form, they would forever be denied bodies of flesh and bone.
Those who remained neutral in the battle were cursed to be born with black skin. This is the Mormon explanation for the Negro race. The spirits that fought most valiantly against Lucifer would be born into Mormon families on planet earth. These would be the lighter skinned people or “white and delightsome” as the book of Mormon will describe them.
Early Mormon prophets taught that Elohim and one of his goddess wives came to earth as Adam and Eve to start the human race. 1000’s of years later Elohim in human form once again journeyed to earth from the star base Kolob, this time to have sexual relations with the Virgin Mary in order to provide Jesus with a physical body,.
Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde taught that after Jesus Christ grew to manhood he took at least 3 wives: Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene. Through these wives the Mormon Jesus supposedly fathered a number of children b/f he was crucified. Mormon founder Joseph Smith is supposedly one of his descendents.
According to the book of Mormon, after his resurrection, Jesus came to the Americans to preach to the Indians, whom the Mormons believe are really Israelites. Thus the Jesus of Mormonism established his church in the Americas as he had done in the middle east. By the year 421 AD the dark-skinned Israelites, known as the Lamanites, had destroyed all of the white skinned Nephitis in a number of great battles. The Nephites record was supposedly written on golden plates buried in the Hill Cumorah by Moroni, the last living Nephite.
About 1400 years later a young treasure seeker named Joseph Smith claimed to have uncovered the same gold plates near his home in upstate NY. He is now honored by Mormons as a prophet b/c he claimed to have had visions from the spirit world in which he was commanded to organize the Mormon Church b/c all Christian creeds were an abomination. It was Joseph Smith who originated most of these peculiar doctrines which millions today believe to be true.
By maintaining a rigid code of financial and moral requirements, and through performing secret temple rituals for themselves and the dead, the latter day saints hope to prove their worthiness and thus become gods. The Mormons teach that everyone must stand at the final judgment before Joseph Smith, the Mormon Jesus, and Elohim.
Those Mormons who are sealed in the eternal marriage ceremony in LDS temples expect to become polygamous gods or their goddess wives in the celestial kingdom, rule over other planets, and spawn new families through eternity. The Mormons thank God for Joseph Smith, who claimed that he had done more for humanity than any other man, including Jesus Christ. The Mormons claim that Jesus died as a martyr, shedding his blood for us so that we too may become gods.”
In LDS teaching Jesus was the elder brother who pointed the way---but he isn’t THE Way that we Christians understand. Jesus was god of OT, but once he took his physical form, he had to earn his spiritual salvation through works , just as each of us must supposedly do.
According to LDS teaching, Jesus suffered for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane, providing personal salvation (exaltation to godhood) conditional upon our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the LDS gospel. His death provided a general salvation, whereby all of us will be resurrected to be judged for our own works.
Yet in Colossians 2 we read that Jesus removed those laws and ordinances that were against us, nailing them to the cross.
Colossians 2: 13-15
13When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you[ alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Jesus is the LDS savior only in the sense that his death gives the Mormon the means of returning to the head God of this world named Elohim and using the secret keys, handgrips, and passwords learned only in the Mormon temple. These secrets supposedly ensure safe passage through the doorway to personal godhood. There is a secret handshake to give to god and a special name for one’s wife that the husband and wife will alone know. This is the name whereby the husband calls the wife up from the grave at the great resurrection.
Engaging Mormons?
1. Tell them: “This is what the Bible says”
They have 3 sources of authority
Bible
Book of Mormon
Teachings of the Church---apostles and prophets
2. They have a struggle to become worthy.
About 70% of Mormons find the struggle for becoming a god to be hopeless and do not qualify to enter the temple to learn the secret codes and rituals that will allow them to become gods
Secrets: secret name of wife: so you can call her from the grave
Secret handshake to give to God
3. There is much abuse in the LDS families: Utahs’ family size is 2x the national norm. There is pressure to marry young and produce large families to provide bodies for the many spirits out there in t the premortal state waiting to come to this earth.
-Many Mormen women are unhappy. There is much pressure to find a mate, to get pregnant and have a large family. If the large family comes, then she is overwhelmed..
In talking to Mormon’s, use Galations 2: 16: know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Gospel of Jesus Christ
Not our great worthiness
But Christ’s great worthiness.
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