By Ed Enochs
The Evangelical Debate Society
The Evangelical Debate Society
“ Test the Spirits whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the World" 1 John 4:1.
If you have your Bibles, I would like you to turn with me please to Deuteronomy 13: 1-5 which reads,
If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them," you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him
Then is 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 we read,
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
We live difficult times for the Bible believing Christian, all around us there are secular and humanistic forces of evil that are attempting to stop the Church from being the salt and light to our dying world. All around us there are forces of great wickedness attempting to destroy America and silence Christians once and for all and render the true Church ineffective in its mission to be ambassadors of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are living in days which many scholars and astute observers of our troubled times have called the Postmodern and Post Christian era of Western Civilization, where most people living in our world
No longer believe in the notions of absolute truth and morality.
The resultant effect of this wanton disregard of truth and righteousness has been the almost complete disintegration of this once proud nation based on the authority of God’s Word.
The country whose currency reads “In God we Trust” has become the playground of the devil and our nation is crumbling under the weight of our sin and rebellion against God.
Homosexuality, terrorism, violent crime, child exploitation, abortion, euthanasia and many, many other societal evils are threatening to destroy from within us and the hostile forces of Terrorist Islam, are threatening to destroy us from the outside.
In these dark days before the return of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ needs to rise up to the challenge of the upper call which is in Christ Jesus and reach every man, woman and Child with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately there is another challenge that faces the Christian Church in America and that is the rise of false religions and cults that are deceiving millions of people around us.
In today’s colloquial vernacular, the heretical groups of people I am referring to are known as Cults, or false religious groups who profess to be a variety of Biblical Christianity, but are in reality an unscriptural organization energized by the flesh and Satan, dedicated to the promotion of grave distortions of essential Christian Theology such as the absolutely crucial and non- negotiable doctrines of the Trinity, Justification by grace through faith in Christ alone, the inerrancy, infallibility, inspiration and exclusive authority of Holy Scripture and the absolute necessity of repentance and holiness of life in the lives of true believers.
I say this, because experts in the study of heresy, cults and false teachings, gifted Christian apologists have delineated that there are certain doctrinal tendencies and characteristics of a cult that make it an organization of satanic deception.
The Greek word for a heretic is aihretikos, and while the concept is mentioned throughout the Bible, the Apostle Paul specifically use this Greek word in Titus 3:10 when he says,
Have nothing to do with people who continue to teach false doctrine after you have warned them once or twice.
The term is also used in 1 Corinthians 11:19 and Galatians 5:20 to factions and 2 Peter 2 :1-2 refer to those who bring in destructive heresies.
According the exhaustive multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive referece on the English Language, The term “Cult”
Heretic, Heresy –One who maintains theological and religious opinions that are at variance with the orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church.
Heresy is a theological doctrine or system rejected as false by the historic Christian Church
The Greek term Hairesis denotes a teaching contrary to the body of Doctrine communicated by Christ and His apostles.
And contrary to the sentiments and misunderstandings of out postmodern and religiously liberal friends, that postulate conspiracy theories like the Da Vinci Code and the believe that original church did not have a fixed set of doctrines and that the concept of false teaching, false teachers, apostates was a latter edition to Christianity, it is clear that the Scriptures teach these concepts and we as Bible based Christians must be on guard about false teachers and heretics coming into the body of Christ in wait to deceive God’s flock,
In Jeremiah 14:14 says,
“The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds”
Jude 3 and 4 says,
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus also warned about the coming of false, false prophets teachers and false Christ’s in the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 when he said,
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)
“see that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray.
Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect”
The Apostle Paul said in Acts chapter 20,
I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
In 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul also warns,
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
In 2 Peter chapter 2, the Apostle Peter 2
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
1 John 4 says
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
The Apostle Jude spoke of these heretics in verses 3 and 4 of that one chapter book,
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In all actuality the Bible is replete with examples of false teachers and false prophets who attempt to deceive the people of God in order to deceive, from Genesis to Revelation there are Biblical examples,
Moses warned against them,
The Prophets Cried out against them,
Jesus exhorted against them,
The Apostles under the inspiration of God the Spirit taught against them,
The totality of Biblical revelation warns God’s people of false teachers, of false prophets, heresies and cults that lie in wait to deceive,
Be careful Church of God , be careful!
Don’t follow them.
Don’t listen to them.
Don’t heed their message
Beware of the false prophets!
Beware of false teachers!
They are coming for you!
They are gunning for you!
Time after time after time people of God, I have see professing, Bible believing Evangelical, blood bought Christians be led away by deception, led away into false teachings by the cults!
I say these things to warn you
I say these things to plead with you!
Study your Bibles, know the teachings of historic Christianity,
Because the cults and false teachers are coming for you, they are gunning for you, they are running for you!
Don’t heed their false teachings, don’t abide by their false Gospel, if you do, it shows that you were never amongst God’s people in the first Place,
As First John 2:18-19 says,
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
There are three chacteristics of a false prophet and a false teacher and a cult I want to warn you about,
A Heretic, false prophet, false teacher and the cults will do one of three things, most of the time they will deviate on one of these three absolutely essential doctrines of the historic Christian faith, often times these false teachers and cults will be guilty of deviating from all three of these fundamentals of historic and Biblical Christianity,
1. A False teacher will deny the historic doctrine of the Trinity and proclaim to you a false view of God and His eternal nature.
As Evangelical, Bible believing and blood bought, holy Ghost filled Christians we stand with the historic Christian Church and believe that there is one true God and in God exists three distinct persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A Cult will deny the doctrine of the Trinity and they will normally confuse and convolute the persons of the Godhead and they will normally deny the Deity of Christ and teaching something heretical about Jesus Christ. Most of these cults will say that they believe in Jesus Christ, but the Jesus of the cults and false teachers is not the Jesus of the Bible, but a false Jesus of manmade and satanic origin.
As Evangelical believers in the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity we come to belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, not because the Ecumentical Creeds teach this, the Creeds are vastly important, but are only authority is the Bible and it teaches that there is one true and living God, yet it also calls the Father God, then the Bible calls the Son God and it also calls the Son God, the only deduction we can receive from Holy Scripture is that there is one God and in God exists three distinct persons who share the same spiritual substance and nature, The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
2. Secondly, a cult, false teacher and false prophet will be guilty of grevious heresy regarding the way a person is saved. They will deny that we are justified by gracr through faith in Jesus Christ alone. They will often teach that we are declared righteous, or justified before God by a synergitic combination of works and grace working together, But the Bible teaches that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone based on the authority of the Bible alone. Cults, heretics, false teachers and false prophets teach against this and argue that we are saved through our good works.
The Bible says “For by grace you have been saved, though faith, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast”
And “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and reknewal of the Holy Spirit”
3. A Cult, false prophet, false teacher and heretics often have a heretical view of Scripture and will either replace the authority of the Bible with their own religious books that they claim have equal or superior authority than that of the Bible, and these false teachers will often say that the Bible is not suffiecent, that the Bible is not complete, that we need additional revelation, but the historic Christian church believes in the exclusive authority, inerrancy, inspiration and infallibility of the Bible alone. (Isaiah 40:8 and 2 Timothy 3:15-17).
These three specific things, a massive departure from the
-Nature of God
-The Nature of Salvation
-The Nature of Biblical Departure
Now, unfortunately one of these cults that is doing the work of the devil and leading many down the path to a Christless eternity in hell is the massive and internationally powerful cult known as the Church of Jesus Christ latter day Saints or known to many of us as the Mormon Church.
I have been sharing my faith with Mormons for over twenty years now and have been very, very burdened for the salvation of our Mormon friends, who have been truly deceived by Satan.
There are now over 12 million Mormons around the world and their numbers are growing and growing and growing each and every day as more than 60,000 young and enthusiastic Mormon missionaries take the False Gospel of Joseph Smith to all corners of the world.
I have done extensive outreach to the Mormon Church in California , Hawaii and Utah and I have seen Mormon Culture up close and person and I have personally been invited to speak in a theology class at the Mormon owned and operated Brigham Young University in Provo Utah .
While on a missions trip to the Mormons in Utah, I had the opportunity to hear the Latter Day Saint president and chief apostle Gordon B. Hinckley speak before an audience of over 20,000 Mormons at one of their annual General Conferences and I have been all over the State of Utah and seen areas of Mormon Territory that very few Evangelicals ever see. I have been in areas of Northern Utah in which the population is close to 98% Mormon, where there is a Mormon congregation literally every 500 yards, where you see the famous angel Moroni statue on the top of endless Mormon churches as far as your eye can see.
Along with Islam, the Mormon Church is among the fastest growing religions in the world. The Mormon Church is amongst the wealthiest religions in the World with tens of billions of dollars worth of accumulated wealth and properties.
I just got back from Hawaii and the Mormon presence on the Island of Oahu is staggering. The Mormon Church owns 500 choice acres of land on that Island where they own the biggest money making attraction of all the Hawaiian Islands known the world famous Polynesian Cultural Center that is staffed by Mormon Students from near by BYU Hawaii and is right down the street from the Mormon Temple in Aiea , Oahu .
Now, many of us have heard about the Mormon Church, possibly we have heard that Mitt Romney, the former Republican Governor of Massachusetts is a devout Mormon and is running for President,
and most of us have seen their young missionaries dressed in their white shirts, black ties riding their bicycles around town, but what is the Mormon Church? What do Mormons Believe? Why do Evangelicals view the Mormon Church as a Cult?
The cult that is now called the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints or the Mormon Church, began in 1830 in upstate New York by a young man named Joseph Smith who according to his written account, began to inquire about what denomination of Christianity he should join.
According to Joseph Smith, Upstate New York was undergoing an intense, fever pitched religious revival with many of the various denominations, including Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists and other Protestant expressions of worship all contentiously vying for allegiance at the expense of one another, so, much so that there was heated arguments, commotion and controversy transpiring throughout the entire region where Joseph Smith dwelled.
Then, according to Joseph Smith, he began to earnestly inquire as to what church he was to join. He then went out into a wooded area near his house in Paylmara New York , according to his verbal and written testimony, in order pray with great fervency in order to ask of God for revelation as to how to proceed.
Then, in one of the most contested events in the history of American religion and a corner stone belief of the entire Mormon Religion, According to Joseph Smith, he saw a great light and heavenly vision in which both God the Father and Jesus Christ, both possessing physical bodies, appeared dramatically with cataclysmic power and allegedly revealed to him that he was not to join any of the “sects” of Christendom, since in their apostate and hypocritical religion, “they honored God with their lips but their hearts were far from Him”
In the Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith says,
When the light rested upon me I bsaw two cPersonages, whose brightness and dglory defy all description, estanding above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My fBeloved gSon. Hear Him!
My object in going to ainquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all awrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those bprofessors were all ccorrupt; that: “they ddraw near to me with their lips, but their ehearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the fcommandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the gpower thereof.” He again forbade me to join with any of them;
From this alleged “First Vision” the young Joseph Smith said that God the Father and Jesus Christ had appeared to Him and revealed to Him that the entire Church has gone apostate and plunged into total darkness and that true Christianity with its special ordinaces, doctrines had to be recovered. According to Joseph Smith, God had called Him to restore the true Church of Jesus Christ which had apostasied upon the closing of the 1st Century.
Evidently this alleged vision was not powerful enough, since according to Joseph Smith and public records including some important court documents proving Joseph Smith was convicted for trying to deceive people out of their money by using an alleged magical occultic “Peep Stone”. Which Smith would put in a hat and get supernatutal guidance in order to find buried treasure and other lost articles.
It can be proven conclusively, that Joseph Smith had fallen away into acts of disrepute and was not active in any Church.
Then, at the age of 25 or so, Joseph Smith said he received another visitation, this time from a being he called the “Angel Moroni” who revealed to him further what God’s incredible plan was for his life, no less than to restore the entire Church of Jesus Christ which had fallen into total apostasy by Joseph Smith’s time period there in New York.
Joseph Smith, writing in the Pearl of Great Price, then says, the following thing happened to him,
While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a by personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor.
He had on a loose robe of most exquisite a whiteness. It was a whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see into his bosom. Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was a glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me. He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.
He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;
According to Joseph Smith, the angel Moroni led him to a hill side there in upstate New York, where under the hill’s dirt, lay the most extraordinary of finds, the most precious of treasures, that none of his bogus treasure hunts of his previous record had revealed to him and his band of young charlatan’s, according to Joseph Smith, the Angel Moroni had revealed to him that there under the HILL COMORAH, was some golden tablets inscribed with the Ancient lost language known as “Egyptian Hirogriphics which Joseph Smith said he translated with the aid of special glasses called he called, the “Urim and Thummin, and the translation of these alleged “Golden Tablets” is a work Joseph Smith called the “Book of Mormon”, the Most important work of Scripture to the LDS Church.
The Book of Mormon tells of the alleged history of a group of Hebrews that they say migrated from Jerusalem to South America about 600 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
According to the spurious history of Mormonism, the migrating group of ancient Israelites were led by a make believe person they call the prophet named Lehi, who according to the false testimony of the Book of Mormon, directed the ancient Israelites to settle in previously uninhabited Central and South American pristine land.
According to Mormonism, these transplanted ancient Israelites residing in the Southern most part of the America ’s rapidly multiplied through procreation and populated the virgin territory. According to the unsubstantiated and false history of Mormonism, this large group of Israelites eventually became a very large people and ultimately split into two distinct bodies of people. One of these two groups of ancient Israelites would then apostatize from their faith in the Lord God of Israel and for all intents and purposes became a heathen nation.
This group of apostate former Israelites is called the Lamanites, who Mormons argue are the direct ancestors of the indigenous American Indians. Mormons teach that the Lamanites increasingly became a barbaric pagan civilization who grew increasingly corrupt, idolatrous and adversarial against the other group of migrating Israelites they call the Nephites, who attempted to honor the Lord God of Israel by correct worship. The Nephites greatly developed as an advanced people and built great cities, but were ultimately destroyed by the evil Lamanities around 400 B.C.
However, Mormons teach that before this total decimation of the Nephites took place, Jesus Christ appeared in South America and preached and taught amongst the Nephites. The teachings of Christ to the Nephite civilization, according to Mormonism was written on golden plates by the Prophet Mormon. His son, Moroni subsequently made additions to these golden tablets and buried them under a hill in upstate New York where they remained uncovered and undiscovered for 1,400 years until, Moroni, appeared as a resurrected angelic being and revealed himself, the golden tablets and God’s plan to restore the Church to the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, whom they say used miraculous glasses called the Urim and Thummin in which Joseph Smith, in turn translated these golden plates and the result is the most important of LDS Scriptures known as the Book of Mormon.
The Mormons have two additional canonical books they deem to be inspired Scripture called the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrines and Covenants, further outlining Mormon historical narrative and their specific doctrinal beliefs that Evangelical scholars have always deemed heretical on the basis of their spurious Scriptures, radically unbiblical view of the nature and existence of God and their false view of salvation.
The Mormons profess to believe in the authority of the Bible, yet we read in the Eighth Article of the LDS faith, “We believe the Bible is true in so properly translated”, meaning that Mormons believe that many precious truths were lost from the original bible and that with God’s revelation of the LDS Scriptures known as the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants.
It’s important to note that Mormons believe that the entire Church around 100 AD fell away and fell into total darkness upon the death of the last Apostle and was not restored until the coming of Joseph Smith who founded the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day-Saints in 1830 in upstate New York .
Mormons teach that while there were many who believed in Christ since the death of the Apostles, the full teachings of Gospel of Jesus Christ were lost as well as Priesthood authority, including the keys to direct and receive revelation for the Church was taken from the earth. Mormons called this period of when the Church fell away the Great Apostasy and believe the Church and its original teaching were lost and needed to be restored. The restoration of the Gospel occurred according to the LDS faith in the revelation of the Book of Mormon to the Joseph Smith whom they believe was a prophet of God.
Mormons believe that in the coming of Joseph Smith and the restoration of the Gospel, God reinstitutes many precious truths that had fallen away from the Church in the Great Apostasy they fell upon the entire Church.
According to Mormonism, the Church remained in a state of apostasy and darkness until the coming of Joseph Smith.
An important doctrine of Mormonism, is their belief that God has restored the offices of the 12 apostles, who are called to lead His Church today and the Mormons believe that God directs His church through direct revelation via the office of the head prophet and apostle of the Church today, Gordon B. Hinckley, whom Mormons believe is the head of the Church. Today, the head prophet and apostle of the Church, just as Joseph Smith, Brigham Young were the head apostles and prophets of the Church before him, receive continual direct revelation from God and their revelations and prophetical utterances are considered to be the most authoritative.
The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints also believe in restoration and building of temples where they do their most solemn religious practices such as Temple Marriages where Mormon men and women are sealed together in the LDS temple for time and eternity, priesthood blessings and such unbiblical doctrines as baptism for the dead.
You see the Mormon Church has these large temples they do not let non Mormons enter into after they have been sanctified for holy work, and one of the main functions Mormons do in these Temples is proxy Baptism, or Baptism for the dead.
Since Mormons believe the church fell into total apostasy the people who died from approximately 100 ad until the restoration of the Church in 1830 upon the coming of Joseph Smith, did not receive the necessary requirement for salvation called baptism, which living members do for them in their place in what is called “baptism for the dead”
The Mormon Temples and the LDS Doctrine and practice of Baptism for the dead are directly tied to the Mormon heretical concepts of Preexistence, Eternal Progression and exaltation which ultimately reveals one of the many reasons Evangelicals believe the Mormon Church is a cult that practices serious and grievous heresy. Mormons teach that men may become gods just like their heavenly Father, who Himself is an exalted man. Mormons believe and teach that every single person who has ever lived, lives or shall live had preexistence in a spirit world where their spiritual entity awaits to receive their mortal bodies.
Upon receiving their mortal bodies, all of life is now a challenge to progress to the next level of exaltation. In the next life, because of the atonement of Christ, that He accomplished for all people, upon our death then subsequent resurrection from the dead, Mormons believe that a person will be exalted to either one of three different levels or plains of exaltation, the celestial, telestial or terrestrial levels.
Mormons believe that if a person is faithful to the Mormon plan of salvation, is baptized, obeys the Mormon ordinances he can be exalted to godhood like his heavenly Father before him. This process of men becoming gods is essential to the Mormon plan and this is why the Mormon Church teaches that everyone needs to be baptized either in this life or by the practice of baptism for the dead, to be possibly exalted to godhood.
The Mormons deny the doctrine of the Trinity and ultimately believe that men may become gods in the same way that their heavenly father was faithful to the Mormon plan of salvation and was exalted to godhood we too can follow his path of obedience and become exalted. Mormons believe in a famous saying uttered by one of their original leaders,
“As man is, God once was, and is God is, man may become”
In the famous King Follett discourse given by Joseph Smith himself, the founder of the Mormon church said that there are many “gods”
I will preach on the plurality of Gods . . . I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. . . . Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods
First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heaven, is a man like one of you. That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today and you were to see the great God who holds this world in its orbit and upholds all things by his power, you would see him in the image and very form of a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion and image of God. He received instruction from and walked, talked, and conversed with him as one man talks and communes with another.
Here, then, is eternal life--to know the only wise and true God. And you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves--to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done--by going from a small degree to another, from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you are able to sit in glory as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.
Joseph Smith taught that God was once man who in turn followed the Mormon plan of salvation and became a “god” if we follow the Mormon plan of salvation.
Brigham Young, the Second President of the Mormon Church who succeeded Joseph Smith after he was killed and then led the Mormons to settle in Utah also was a polytheist who said in his Journal of Discourses,
There was never a time when there were not Gods and worlds, and men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, 22-23).
Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt declared:
In the Heaven where our spirits were born, there are many Gods, each one of whom has his own wife or wives which are given to him previous to his redemption; while yet in his mortal state (Orson Pratt, The Seer, 37- 38
Mormons believe that God the Father had a preexistence in the spirit world, subsequently received His mortal body upon his earth, he in turn was faithful to the Mormon Gospel and eternally progressed to a state of exaltation and godhood where we now worship him as God our heavenly father.
According to Mormon theology, this is the plan for us as well, and that if men are faithful to the laws and ordinances of the Mormon faith, we too can become gods like our heavenly father and receive worship as god on our own planet.
Mormons teach that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate “gods” who are one in purpose, directly contradicting the Biblical teaching that there is only one true and living God and in God exists three distinct persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who share the same spiritual essence.
As Jesus Said in Matthew 28:19-20,
The Mormon view is obviously heresy because the Bible teaches that there is only one true and living God,
In the great “Shema” passage of Dueternonomy 6:4, it reads, “Oh hear oh Israel , the Lord your God is one Lord”
Isaiah 43: 1o says, “Before Me there was no god formed and neither shall there be a god after Me, I am the first and the last and besides Me there is no savior”
Mormonism is heretical and a cult because Biblical Christianity is inherently and exclusively monotheistic, and emphatically teaches there is only one true and living God who has existed for eternity.
The Mormon Church is also heretical because they teach that salvation is not by grace alone and deny the Biblical and Evangelical doctrine of Justification alone which teaches that we are justified or declared righteous by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone based on the authority of the Bible alone.
The Mormon Church on the other hand, directly contradicts Biblical Christianity and says in 2 Nephi 25:23 says,
“Salvation is by grace after all we can do”
In the Articles of the Mormon Church we read,
1. We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
2. We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Mormonism is heretical and a cult because it teaches that there are many gods, and that we can become gods, Mormonism is heretical because it teaches that we are saved by our works and denies that salvation is by grace alone as the Bible teaches in:
Ephesians 2:8-10
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Titus 3:5-6,
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”
Through a Biblical and internal critique of the Mormon false religion we see that it is a cult and heretical because it contradicts God’s Word in many, many crucial and non-negotiable areas of doctrinal importance,
Mormonism contradicts God’s word about the monotheistic nature of God and says there are many gods.
Mormonism contradicts God’s word about the monergistic nature of salvation in that the Bible teaches that a person is justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Mormonism contradicts God’s Word about the exclusive inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility and authority of the Scriptures alone.
Mormonism is heretical and a cult because it teaches there are many gods, salvation is by works and that the Bible is a corrupted document that has not been translated down throughout history correctly, Mormonism is a cult because it says the spurious books, The Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrines and Covenants are inspired Scripture when the Bible says it alone is the Word of God. The Mormon Scriptures on the other hand are not the Word of God because they were not inspired by God, they contradict God’s first Word and are filled with many false doctrines and errors that contradict the Bible,
The Bible on the other hand is perfect, it is inspired, infallible, inerrant, self-attesting, self-authenticating and are our only authority in all matters of faith and practice,
The Apostle Paul told Timothy,
2 Timothy 3:15-17
“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:19-21
“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”
After examining the evidence against the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints , the only conclusion we can come to in light of the clear testimony and teachings of Holy Scripture, the Mormon Church is indeed a false religious cult that is deceiving millions of people around the World.
If there are Mormons here today listening to this message, I would like to encourage you to come out of this religious cult here and now, and turn from your sins and false doctrines and place your faith in the one true and living God who sent His only begotten Son in to world to die on the cross and rise again from the dead in order to give all those who sincerely repent and believe in Christ, eternal life through faith in His name.
For us who are true believers in Jesus Christ, it is time to reach Mormons with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ with the same boldness and lack of fear that Mormons use in trying to deceive people with their false Gospel.
As the late great Evangelical cult expert used to say on his Bible Answer Man show,
“Will you do for the truth, what the cults do for a lie?”
May God have mercy on us for being lazy and indifferent in reaching Mormons with His saving Gospel.
May God raise up and army of Christians right here and now from this place that will go into the kingdom of the cults and reach every man, woman and child that has been deceived by the false Gospel of Mormonism with true saving message of Jesus Christ.
