Mormonism

Amen. I love to hear you guys sing. I love the gospel truth we get to sing about,! that Christ has saved us. And even though the suffering wasn't ours that he bore on the cross, we get to share in the victory that he purchased for us.

So tonight, we're continuing. This is our next to last stop in this Denominations, Doctrines, and Deceived tour. Next week, we'll be looking at why we're Baptist, which isn't in the Deceived category, but is in the Denominations category.

Tonight, we're covering our final group of the Deceived. We're covering Mormonism or the LDS Church. More explanation on that to come.

This is the most strange and, I would argue, most pagan group that we will cover. In this series, it's the most pagan group we have in town that still claims to be Christian.

So it's not the most pagan group in general, but the most pagan one that claims to be Christian. Lacey and I have had a lot of experience with Mormonism.

We've had probably a dozen Mormon missionaries over the years total come by our house. We've been able to have extended conversations with about the gospel and about doctrine, about who God is, about who Christ is.

We've had friends growing up in high school who were Mormons that we would interact with and talk to and that we grew up with. A couple of our friends are here tonight.

Next to Lacey is Stella. Stella, can you wave? So she, by God's grace, is a former Mormon. And then Paige is next to her who actually grew up Jehovah's Witness. But Stella is here.

Lacey probably knows more about Mormonism than I do, just from her studying it personally and interactions she's had. And then Stella was inside it. So those ladies are going to fact check me after I'm done, okay? So they're going to let me know how close I was to getting it right.

But as always, I want to be as accurate as possible. I want to be fair in explaining to you things that they actually believe.

And so there are going to be some direct statements I make about their doctrines and about who they are and what they believe. And again, I just want to do my best to be clear and accurate in what they actually believe and not be distracting or not just kind of attack straw men that they don't actually believe in.

But I want to faithfully represent what they believe. Mormons, in general, have the same vocabulary as us, but a different dictionary. Same vocabulary, different dictionary.

And so if you talk to a Mormon, they will use the same terms we do. They will say they love Jesus Christ of Nazareth. They will call him Lord. They will call him Savior. They will say that we're saved by grace.

They will say they believe the Bible. They will say that there's one true God. They will say that they love the church that Jesus Christ established in the first century. And really, in all of those phrases, they mean something different than what we mean when we say those words.

And so the terminology is the same. What they mean when using those words is different. And most of the core Mormon doctrines, so most of the things that make Mormons Mormons, aren't actually in the Bible.

And so they will draw them from the Book of Mormon. They will draw them from what their prophets teach, from what their presidents speak authoritatively, that they put on the same level as Scripture. And most of those distinguishing doctrines aren't in the Bible.

And a lot of them aren't even in the Book of Mormon. A lot of them are from these church leaders that they view as completely authoritative. Mormons will tell you they love the Bible.

Lace and I have had a lot of Mormons say, We love the Bible. We love the Bible as much as you do. But they have a very, very low view of it when it comes down to it. They esteem the Book of Mormon more highly than they esteem the Bible, even if they say they love the Bible as much.

And they really esteem what their leaders say over really both of those documents. Definitely over the Bible and even over the Book of Mormon itself.

They have a low view of the Bible. They don't view it as inerrant. So they think it's got errors in it. They don't think it's complete either. And so when Revelation 22 says, If anyone adds to the words of this book, the plagues written herein will be applied to them.

And if anyone takes away from the words of this book, their share in the tree of life will be taken away as well. And they say, Ah, John was just kidding probably.

They don't think that's the final. Thanks Luke. They don't think that's the final word that the Lord has spoken. They think that God is continuing to reveal himself. And so they have the Book of Mormon.

They have their leaders that they think God is continuing to speak through. So they do not think that the Bible is complete. And they think that what we have of the Bible has been corrupted throughout time. That it's been changed and translated so many times that this isn't an accurate reflection of what was originally communicated.

And so they think that through their church leadership, God's continuing to reveal himself in authoritative ways through their church leadership, starting with a guy named Joseph Smith.

So that was kind of the introduction. Moving into number one now, the background of Mormonism. The background of Mormonism. And as always, we'll kind of go background, some positives, and then thirdly, some specific beliefs.

So the background of Mormonism. Joseph Smith is the founder of Mormonism. He's the first Mormon. He lived from 1805 to 1844. He's a very interesting person.

And by interesting, I mean wicked. He's very, very immoral. He twists scripture. He undermines the glory of Christ. And we'll see that in very specific ways.

But in 1820, when he was 14 years old, he had what Mormons referred to as the first vision. And so he was kind of frustrated with the church he was at.

His family was Presbyterian, but they had kind of bounced around different churches. He was frustrated by all the differences between these churches. And so he went out into the woods and prayed. He was by himself in the woods and was asking the Lord to please reveal himself to Joseph and show him what the true church was.

And so as he's praying this prayer as a 14-year-old, two people appeared to him. They descended from the sky in a pillar of light. One of these beings claimed to be God the Father.

And this being claiming to be God the Father pointed at the other being and said, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. And Joseph Smith asked a question and said, what church should I be a part of?

What group should I belong to? And this being claiming to be the son of God said, every church is hopelessly corrupt. There is no faithful church.

And so with that, Joseph Smith was tasked with starting a new church, starting a new group, a true group, restoring the purity of the church that had been lost for the previous 1,800 years.

And so Joseph Smith was tasked with starting a new church, a true church that's founded on the true gospel. And so if you ask Mormons, they will tell you that from the time of the apostles to the time of Joseph Smith, the gospel was completely lost.

The Bible was corrupted. There was no faithful church. There was no faithful Christian witness throughout that entire time. If you've got your Bibles, open with me to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew chapter 16. Jesus is teaching his disciples here.

He's taking them away from the crowds. And he's going to ask them a question, who do the crowds say that I am? And they're going to give several answers to the crowds. Are saying about Christ.

And he's going to say, but who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says in verse 18 of Matthew chapter 16, he says, I tell you, you are Peter.

And on this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And so what Jesus is promising here is that he is going to build his church and death and hell will not defeat it.

Death and hell will not slow it down because Christ himself will continually build his church through the message of the gospel. And if you talk to a Mormon and you say, okay, so Jesus promises to build this church.

And I'll say, yes, we see that in the text. We believe that. And you tell the Mormon, so you're claiming that Christ said he would build his church.

And for 1700 years, he wasn't building his church. That looks like the gates of hell prevailing against the church, which Christ specifically said would not happen.

And they'll say, yeah, if I was just reading the text, I would think that that wouldn't have happened, but that seems to be how it's happened. And so just that fact in general doesn't square with what Christ himself said about his church.

And then Smith had another vision three years later in which the angel Moroni, which isn't mentioned anywhere in scripture, but an angel named Moroni, told him that there were some sacred stones, some tablets that were written on that he would need to find and translate into English.

And he allegedly found these stone tablets made of gold and translated them. And what he translated was the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ.

That's what the Book of Mormon is called, the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. And this book tells the story of how the lost tribes of Israel migrated to America in the 6th century BC, so the 500s BC.

The Book of Mormon also describes Christ's work in the United States after his resurrection. And so according to Mormon teaching, Christ died, rose again, was with his disciples 40 days, 40 nights, instructing them about the kingdom.

They saw him ascend to what they thought was heaven, but he was just catching a flight to the US, baby. So he came from Israel. They don't know when exactly it happened.

Some say a year after his resurrection. Some say after that 40 days, he came to the United States and preached the gospel to the Native Americans who happened to be the lost tribes of Israel.

Smith continued to receive revelation, telling them to move, that they would kind of inherit the promised land in the United States. But the promised land was kind of a moving target because God kept updating his plan.

Really, the Mormons were getting kicked out of these states because of some of their practices. But they moved from New York, where Joseph Smith was from, to Ohio, to Missouri, to Illinois, and eventually under the leadership of a guy named Brigham Young, to Utah, where they built Salt Lake City.

And if you've ever heard of BYU, it's Brigham Young University, named after this early leader of the Mormon church. If you'll go with me now real quickly to 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

Who was it that appeared to Joseph Smith? He would claim it was God the Father and Christ.

That's what the beings who appeared to him claimed as well. But based on their message, based on what they said, based on who Joseph Smith was, I think we have to come to a different conclusion.

And so Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3, speaks to this, speaks to the deception of Satan. And we think these were beings of light that appeared to Joseph Smith. They had a positive message for him.

They wanted him to do good in the world. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, starting in verse 3. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

And so these people are leaving what Paul taught them. They're receiving these other spirits, receiving these other messages. And skip down to verse 12 with me. Talking about the false teachers, we'll actually start in verse 13.

He says, For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And so these false teachers were pretending to be apostles, and they really had no standing in the church.

And here's what Paul says in verse 14. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

righteousness, their end, will correspond with their deeds. What Paul is saying is you do not judge anyone based on the experience they bring you or based on what your eyes see.

What you evaluate them by is the message they deliver. And Paul is saying, Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light to deceive and to trick and to ensnare people.

And the people he sends do the same thing. And so what does Paul say? Evaluate them by what they say. Are they preaching the same Christ? Are they talking about the same gospel that the Bible proclaims?

And so based on what the content of the message those men delivered to Joseph Smith, based on what Paul says here in 2 Corinthians 11, we need to conclude that two demons were the ones who visited Joseph Smith in those visions.

That he received demonic revelation and a demonic commissioning to begin this new church which claimed that the gospel that the church was preaching was false.

Joseph Smith as a person was highly immoral. He was highly sexually immoral. He was known to send married men on mission. So missionaries even to this day will usually go on a mission for two years.

He would send men on mission and while those men were gone he would secretly marry their wives. And so he had a wife that he married legally and we don't know the total count at the end of the day but it's safe to say that between 30 and 40 women married him before he died.

And so he had 30 to 40 additional wives to his first wife and many of those his wife, his actual wife didn't even know about. Many of these women about half of them were already married to someone else and so he'd send their husband away for a couple of years.

He might survive he might not and he would secretly marry them while the husbands were away. One of those wives was a 14 year old girl. So really this guy should have been put to death really.

He was highly highly immoral highly deceptive but that's just a brief glimpse of Joseph Smith. Mormonism claims to be the only true church.

They were originally called Mormons now they reject that name and want to be called LDS Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints LDS. So they've kind of pivoted on that they used to say we're not Christian we're distinct from Christianity and now they're saying no we are Christians and so call us Christians and so they've changed their unchangeable doctrine several times on a lot of those things.

Mormonism is the first American grown religion. It started here it centers here America baby entrepreneurship creativity it's probably the worst thing America has ever produced including Taylor Swift.

It okay all right all right all right so probably one of the worst things America has ever produced time change is a close second but not as bad as Mormonism.

the only Mormon church in Mustang it's on Czech Hall in between 152 and 89th maybe you've driven past it there is a massive Mormon temple in Yukon in Surrey Hills so if you ever golf at Surrey Hills you'll see like the the spooky temple kind of there are lots of famous Mormons like half of them are on Dancing with the Stars this season but lots of famous Mormons in the world okay let's get into some positives of Mormonism so number two positives of Mormonism number one they're evangelistic they're evangelistic now they don't understand the gospel obviously but they do get out and share about what they believe and so I think that's commendable I think that's brave you'll see them riding on bikes in their uniform white button up shirt that's short sleeve a tie a badge that says elder so and so they go out door to door and will share what they believe when they're on their mission number two they're family oriented family oriented they view children as a gift which I agree with that's good they view they have a weird view of children we'll get into that in a minute but they're very family oriented if you leave the Mormon church you'll get cut off from your family completely but if you stay

Mormon they're nice to you and family oriented number three they have good morals they have good morals we'll get into some of their motivation behind those morals they think they're working their way to heaven they're earning the right to become gods themselves but in the day to day you would want to have a Mormon as your neighbor they're very nice very kind overall good moral people good citizens and we'll get into some of their motivation behind that shortly okay so those are three positives of Mormonism thirdly let's get into some specific beliefs specific beliefs we've talked a bit already about their view of the Bible and the Book of Mormon and as I mentioned much of what they believe isn't actually in the Bible or the Book of Mormon much of what they believe has come from their prophets but they do believe the Bible has been corrupted they've got a weak historical argument for that the Bible is an incredibly reliable historical document compared to other documents we have from history but firstly their specific belief let's talk about mankind mankind and as you think about trying to figure out someone's world view what they believe about this world and who we are you can ask several questions who are we as human beings how did we get here what are we supposed to do where are we going questions like that will be very helpful in understanding what someone thinks about us and about our world and Mormons have a very interesting view of mankind and our origins so they believe in something that's called the pre-existence has anyone heard of this before the pre-existence so they think that every human being all of us in here are human beings if you didn't know we existed before the world began we're not created we are spirit beings that are eternal along with God we took on bodies we kind of became incarnate at some point in time for most of you in the last 18 years and but before that we existed with God in his presence living in spiritual life as spiritual beings and the location of this existence was on a massive star called Kolob that's where God lives that's where God dwells according to Mormons and God dwells there alongside of his wife who's called

Heavenly Mother so they call God Heavenly Father they call his wife Heavenly Mother who's also spiritual being Heavenly Father is married to Heavenly Mother and through their marriage they gave birth to all of us they're spirit children and we are allegedly those children according to Mormonism and so has anyone ever like met someone and you've been friends for like maybe a day and you're like I feel like I've known them for a long time anyone had that just kind of you click pretty quickly the Mormons would say that someone said no I'll pray for you whoever that was the Mormons would look at that and say you know what must have we must have been friends in the pre-existence like we became friends so we must have been friends for so long before this that's why we're clicking right now and so that's that's how they would think about this they believe so heavily in the pre-existence and so in the pre-existence God somehow knew that one day humanity would need a savior and there were two people volunteering as tribute

Jesus and Lucifer they were brothers of course according to Mormonism and so Jesus' plan was to save them like he did Lucifer's plan was to take away free will and enslave them to God God chose Jesus' plan over Lucifer Lucifer got mad revolted from heaven and became a demon and so he became Satan he took other beings with the spirit beings with him who became the fallen angels never to be able to take on human bodies was their fate after their rebellion in the pre-existence there were spirit children who were brave and who were righteous there were also spirit children who were cowardly and wicked and when they all became humans the brave and the righteous ones were given white skin and the cowardly and wicked ones were given black skin this is official Mormon doctrine and so yeah it's shocking like that's incredibly incredibly racist all right focus back in focus back in that should be shocking to us and in the book of Mormon it teaches that if black people repented of their sin they would become quote white and delightsome and that's in 2nd Nephi chapter 30 verse 6 if you would like to do your own research so incredibly racist black people weren't allowed in the Mormon church for a long long time and you have to remember our own country was steeped in racism for a long time so that wasn't necessarily out of step with other places in our country but they've now changed the book of Mormon they've changed the unchangeable document that never changes except when they change it they changed it in 1981 to instead say becoming white and delightsome they'll become pure and delightsome and so this is some of the deep prejudice and racism that runs through

Mormonism we don't remember any of the pre-existence according to Mormon teaching because God gave us like amnesia basically he put a veil of forgetfulness over us so that we don't remember exactly what happened or how we got here but according to Mormonism that's our origin as mankind we're spirit kids of the Godfather and Heavenly Mother which is clearly completely wrong and contrary to what the Bible teaches about who God is and who we are secondly let's look at their view of God their view of God they call him Heavenly Father which isn't necessarily a bad title we Jesus taught us to pray to our Father who is in Heaven and so they call him Heavenly Father and so I think if you're speaking to a Mormon it's fine to refer to God as Heavenly Father we can kind of meet them there we have a very different view of who he is but that title itself isn't necessarily bad they believe that God wasn't always God but became God and how do they think that he became God they think that he became God through obedience to the law that God became God through obedience to the law and they believe that God is just an exalted man so he has a body just like Jesus they think that he's just a human who obeyed enough and enough and enough and was exalted and exalted and exalted and now he's God and so they will teach you that we're made in the image of God we have bodies and so therefore

God has a body he's just like us in every way he's just an exalted man I want you to write down a few references we won't be able to look at all of them but write down Psalm 90 verse 2 Psalm 90 verse 2 in this psalm Moses writes before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth from everlasting to everlasting you are God Moses is saying before you created anything before you brought forth the mountains from eternity past to all the way into eternity future you are God God has never become God he is God he has always been God he always will be God if you want to write down numbers 23 verse 19 God says I am not a man that I should lie very clearly

I'm not a man he separates himself over and over and over again so there's just two references two more references in the New Testament one is 1st Timothy 1 17 1st Timothy 1 17 and then Colossians 1 15 1st Timothy 1 17 and Colossians 1 15 both of these texts use the word invisible to describe the nature of God he does not have a body John 4 24 says God is spirit and so God does not have a body 1st Timothy 1 Colossians 1 describe him as invisible and so they're wrong on who their doctrine of God is Mormons would claim that they only worship one God but they're actually polytheistic Brigham Young said this how many gods there are I don't know but there never was a time when there were not gods and worlds so one of their founders openly embracing polytheism

Lacey and I had some Mormon missionaries in our house one time and they've been talking about God and I asked them is Heavenly Father the only God and the response from one of the missionaries was he's the only God we've known and I said is he the only God we've known or the only God who has ever existed and one of the missionaries said it's been great talking to you guys we've got to go and they left and so they know what they believe they know it's contrary to scripture and they're unwilling to acknowledge that to Christians they want to deceive they want to trick they want to ensnare they also believe that one day we will ourself become gods through obedience and inherit our own worlds and be Heavenly Father to those worlds okay number three Jesus we've already touched on some of this we've got to go quickly through many of these things but

Jesus was the brother of Lucifer as I mentioned and he's our brother as well he was the first child that Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother had and then Lucifer was somewhere in the mix and we were too Jesus just like God became divine but wasn't always divine he became divine of course through obedience to the law according to Mormon doctrine Jesus had multiple wives he was married to Mary Martha and Mary Magdalene they believe that the way Jesus was born the way he was incarnate was that Heavenly Father came down walked the earth hooked up with the Virgin Mary who then gave birth to Jesus that's how they think Jesus was became incarnate in this world after his resurrection they believe he went to the United States as I mentioned and preached to the Native Americans who were the lost tribes of Israel so I think that Jesus is basically just God 2.0 like God obeyed and became God

Jesus obeyed became God and that's the trajectory that we are on as well if we continue to obey alright number four according to Mormon teaching you must be baptized in order to be saved and they believe they're so consistent with this that they believe that if you are dead and had not been baptized there's no chance you'll go to heaven now they've got an interesting view of heaven that we'll talk about at the end so what they do is they perform baptisms for the dead and so if you have a dead relative who was not a Mormon you can kind of identify as that relative and be baptized for them and what happens is if you're baptized for a dead person that dead person is set free from their eternal whatever they're in and they're given a choice to either accept that baptism or reject it for themselves and so they keep very detailed genealogical records and will get baptized for their relatives pretty regularly just so they make sure they have a chance to accept that baptism or reject it for themselves in the afterlife number five marriage they believe that marriage is sacred that it's a gift from God

I would agree with that that's where our agreement ends they believe that marriage exists for all time and eternity and so you get married to your spouse and you guys will be married forever and ever even into the afterlife and in fact if you guys are faithful you'll continue to be exalted until you guys become a heavenly father and heavenly mother yourself and you guys become divine yourselves and give birth to other worlds and other soon to be gods when they would be gods in the future they don't officially adopt polygamy now meaning having multiple spouses but originally they did embrace polygamy as I mentioned Joseph Smith was very sexually immoral having 30 or 40 additional wives to his first one and Mormon teaching in general is highly sexual in nature and that's part of their afterlife that's part of how we began to exist that's part of how

Christ came into the world that's part of what Joseph Smith really lived for during his time here on this earth it's not pure it's highly immoral it's disgusting and vile and something that God hates number six salvation and the afterlife salvation and the afterlife and I recognize these are broad categories but these these two do fit together in Mormonism they believe that you are saved through good works and so basically you just do good stuff and you get saved you do good stuff and that that helps your afterlife be more highly exalted!

and so you keep doing good stuff keep doing more and more and more and one day you will become a God and much of the book of Mormon is actually plagiarized from the Bible from the King James Version so that's kind of funny but here's one example you can hear the borrowed language but also see the deviation from it so Ephesians 2.8.9 says for by grace you have been saved through faith in 2 Nephi chapter 25 it says for we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do so there's a little bit of borrowing from Ephesians 2 but the Mormons are basically teaching yeah we're saved by grace after we do a bunch of stuff God's grace saves us after we just do a lot after we work hard after we do good and so they would claim to be saved by grace but what they mean by grace is not at all what the Bible means by grace and what is it that they obey?

well they have what's called first principles and ordinances first principles and ordinances these are things like the Ten Commandments that are listed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 tithing and the Mormon church will find out how much money you make and they will tell you how much you owe to the church it's like a bill like you owe that if you don't pay it you're in debt to the church chastity something they have to follow purity until marriage and then there's something called the word of wisdom which is kind of like just general guidance on some health stuff some practical wisdom but the word of wisdom prohibits use of tobacco consumption of hot drinks which they interpret as coffee and tea they're historically have been against caffeine as well alcohol and then illegal drugs don't tell them Joseph Smith actually drank alcohol but it's against the law okay so now in the afterlife they've got really four different realms of the afterlife one is the lake of fire this is the lowest level or sometimes they call it outer darkness this is really only reserved for a limited number of people this is where Satan and the demons go after the judge

Satan and demons and there's only one other category of person that goes there former Mormons so if you're a Mormon that leaves the church you get cut off from your family and you suffer with Satan and his demons and if you ask them hey where did Hitler go did he go to this lake of fire is he being punished right now and Mormons will tell you we really can't judge maybe and so they really just think this is Satan demons and former Mormons now they have three kind of levels of heaven one is the lowest one is called the telestial kingdom just sounded out phonetics baby hooked on phonics the telestial kingdom this is for wicked people it's suffering but not like the lake of fire so it's kind of like suffering light I guess second level is the terrestrial kingdom terrestrial kingdom this is for good moral people who aren't Mormons so they're not Mormons but they did their best and the highest level is what they call the celestial kingdom the celestial kingdom this is where worthy and righteous Mormons go and if you make it to the highest level you and your multiple wives will become your own god to your own planet and have lots of spirit children for all eternity this is how god became god he's just one god among many and I've got a couple of quotes here this is from Lorenzo Snow who was a former president he said as man now is god once was as god now is man may become and so there's just they think god became god through obedience and we can do the same thing the phrase god became god by obedience to the law can be found in an official mormon document called achieving a celestial marriage a lot of mormon missionaries don't even know about that but that is an official mormon doctrine that god became god now as you think about that god became god through obedience to the law well who made the law in that scenario the law is something that's outside of god that he conforms to in the bible the way the law is described is this is god's standard that he's communicated not something that he himself conforms to and you ask where is any of this in the bible it's not there they say they love the bible they say they love christ they say they love god but they don't know him and so they don't know what he requires they don't know him or his word and so they cannot love him or his word okay now I want to read some quotes for you that joseph smith said in his final sermon

I just want you to write the name down and then just listen to some of these quotes so it's called the king follet discourse king follet discourse follet is f-o-l-l-e-t-t the mormon missionaries lacey and I have talked to you don't know about this document but it's really the final sermon that joseph smith preached there's a guy with the last name follet who died I don't know why they call him king but they call him king follet and so this is really at the funeral and so these are quotes from that directly from joseph smith and these aren't all quotes that appear next to each other in the sermon but these are all from that sermon all these words from joseph smith god himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man and sits enthroned in the heavens that is a great secret cults always have secret teachings he says I'm 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 that you may see he was once a man like us yes god himself the father of us all dwelt on and earth the same as jesus christ himself did he says you've got to learn how to be gods yourselves the same as all gods have done before you namely by going from one small degree to another and from a small capacity to a great one he says hear it all the ends of the earth for god has told me so and he says the mind or the intelligence which man possesses is co-equal with god himself the intelligence of spirits that's us had no beginning neither will it have an end and he says god never had the power to create the spirit of man at all god himself could not create himself those are all from joseph smith incredibly heretical incredibly contrary to what the bible says incredibly contrary to even what the book of mormons says in certain places this is not biblical joseph smith is a false prophet and when he died in 1844 he has been in hell under the wrath of god ever since he rebelled against god and did not understand the gospel in any way now to conclude very quickly how should you talk to mormons i want to give some practical help for how to talk with mormons what you know tonight is probably more than a lot of mormons know so they're not really well taught in the history of the mormon church or what the mormon church actually teaches joseph smith himself calling some of these things secrets so maybe now you may know more than your mormon friends who go to the mormon church and so just keep that in mind as you're talking to them you may know more than they do number two point them to the bible point them to the bible but recognize they've rejected the bible as an ultimate authority and so point them to the bible recognize they think the bible is corrupt that doesn't mean we can't use it you just need to keep that in mind as you go and i want to read for you if you want to write down isaiah 46 isaiah is a really good book kagan read from chapter 44 earlier isaiah 43 44 45 46 those are great places to go with mormons because they're so clear on who god is but isaiah 46 verses 8 through 11 this is a great place to take a mormon remember this and stand firm recall it to mind you transgressors remember the former things of old for i am god and there is no other i am god and there is none

like me and how do we know he's god verse 10 he says declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and i will accomplish all my purpose the end of verse 11 i have spoken and i will bring it to pass i have purposed and i will do it and so i would encourage you to open your bible to isaiah 46 when you're talking to a mormon show them that in my experience most of them haven't read the bible i was talking to a missionary one time and i said have you read the bible and he was like oh i love the bible i said have you read the bible he's like oh i've read parts of it i was like i said what parts he said uh uh like genesis up to abraham so through chapter 15 or something and john i was like that's it i thought you said you love the bible like do you why don't you read it more and so they don't know much about the bible so take them to the bible recognize they may say it's corrupt but show them what the truth of the word says number three plant seeds of doubt within their own teachings plant seeds of doubt within their own teachings uh statistics show that most mormons don't leave mormonism until seven years after the gospel was first shared with them and so there's a lot of baggage in leaving the mormon church family will cut you off you'll be completely renounced and so statistics show that it's seven years from the time a mormon hears the gospel to their conversion if they convert at all and so there's some mormons i've heard about in utah that converted to christ because a christian told them hey did you know that joseph smith is a false prophet and they just that thought would not leave them they could not sleep because of that one question and like what what does he mean but why is joseph smith a false prophet and so point out contradictions like the king follet discourse which i just read for you that's contrary to scripture when you're talking to them ask them to show you from the bible and so if they say something crazy just be like hey could you show me where that is in the bible if you don't mind and they can't because it's not in there but let them feel that they can't show you and prove to you i had mentioned that the book of mormon doesn't teach about many things that mormonism claims and so you can point these things out the book of mormon says there's only one god the book of mormon says that god is not a man but he's a spirit the book of mormon does not say that men can become gods the book of mormon condemns polygamy the baptism of the dead is not taught in the book of mormon the pre-existence of man isn't taught in the book of mormon so you can point out some of these contradictions number four when you're talking about the gospel talk about your personal relationship with christ these people do not love god and they they don't understand that god loves them religion for them is just a list of rules they do and do and do and do and hope that god's pleased with them so you're sharing your testimony say jesus loved me and he died for me and now i pray with him i read his word emphasize the personal nature of the relationship we have with christ number five you don't have to be an expert on mormonism to talk to them just ask good questions and ask them to show you from the bible ask good questions and ask them to show you from the bible you don't have to know anything about mormonism to talk to them and have a good conversation with them and so you can just ask things like okay you believe in the book of mormon like do you think that if god actually continued to speak after the bible that what he said would kind of line up with what he had already said that's a good question that you don't really need to know anything about to ask would you expect those things to line up and be the same and like i asked that missionary the one time you say you love the bible have you read the bible and you can say hey friend if you haven't read it you don't know

what it says number six obviously share the gospel with them share the gospel with them and if you just want a simple gospel outline think god man christ and response god is holy we are sinful christ died for us repent and believe just a simple gospel outline share that with them and lastly number seven be joyful be joyful don't be fake don't be like a used car salesman like hey jesus i have no problems anymore because i believe the gospel but be joyful first peter 3 15 says to be ready to share the gospel and to do it with gentleness and respect be kind be courteous be truthful and if you want additional resources there's a guy named jeff durbin d-u-r-b-i-n he is fantastic sharing the gospel with mormons so i'd encourage you to check him out on youtube jeff durbin his ministry is called apologia all right let me pray for us and we'll go to small groups our father we thank you for this day thank you for the truth of the gospel that we are unworthy sinners whom you have had mercy on through christ i pray we'd cling to that message i pray students here would believe that message and we even take it out to the world mormons in particular as we looked at them tonight that they would lord that you would open their eyes that you would bring them to yourself lord give us a sense of pity and a sense of mercy and burden for those who are enslaved by this false teaching and may you open many mormon eyes before your son returns and it's in christ's name we pray amen and we pray that you can find for those who are exposition and they would first we pray and we pray that you can find an return and we pray that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find that you can find