The Truth About Mormonism

Mormonism got started primarily by criticizing and attacking Christendom, while seeking to gain converts from out of Christendom. It was Joseph Smith (Mormonism's founder) who instigated such an approach by declaring that the so-called “Christianity” of his day (early 1830s) was COMPLETELY apostate—according to Joseph Smith, they had:

• a wrong concept of God,
• a mangled/perverted Bible,
• a skewed understanding of Jesus,
• a faulty idea of salvation, and
• all their ministers were corrupt.

This is why Mormonism began as the “restored” Christianity—i.e., the true Christianity that had been lost. Early Mormons, including its leaders, sought very hard to distance Mormonism from Christendom/Christianity by attacking it mercilessly.

Only in the recent era, starting post-1890 or so, and especially after 1978-ish, the Mormon church has been seeking to blend into society as just another “Christian” denomination by use of what appears on the surface at least to be misleading statements, unclear language, and undefined terminology.

Nevertheless, if you look hard enough through all the PR, Mormonism still teaches most rigidly that Christendom-Christians don’t have the correct concept of God at all! Christians of Christendom (i.e., not Mormons) allegedly:

1. believe in a false god we worship “in vain,”
2. follow “precepts of men” and
3. are disconnected from the “real God.”
(see Inside Today’s Mormonism, p. 255)

Here's an enlightening quote about not only RCs, but Protestants as well. It's from 1984:

"Of historical and theological significance is the fact that in Paul’s prophecy [2 Thess. 2:1–12] the church structure survives. But God is not at its head, making that church—following the appearance in it of Satan—no longer the church of God. . . . To say that Satan sits in the place of God in Christianity after the time of the Apostles is not to say that all that is in it is satanic. . . . Still, “the power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16) is absent from all but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which the Lord himself has proclaimed to be “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth” (D&C 1:30).
(Kent P. Jackson, "Early Signs of the Apostasy," Ensign, Dec. 1984, pp. 8-9).

I suppose we should all be grateful that not "ALL THAT IS IN" Christendom is satanic, despite the fact that it's not really the church of God at all, but has Satan actually sitting in the place of God. (Read w/ just a hint of sarcasm). It seems to me that we need to stop looking at Mormons as the persecuted ones in our current era, which is a notion that Mormons are consistently seeking to advance—i.e., they are being attacked/persecuted by Christians who seek to point out where the LDS Church diverges significantly from historic Christianity.

The truth is that both the Roman Catholics AND Protestants—since 1830 and the founding of the LDS Church—have been in a DEFENSE mode against relentless attacks by Mormons. I just want to keep things straight here. One of the most offensive, disingenuous, and IMHO, deceptive things I hear Mormons saying ad nauseum—i.e., they are being attacked while they criticize no one else and just preach Jesus. That is simply untrue.

Mormons might not hold official classes about other non-Mormon churches (like mine), or have outreach ministries as such to other church (like mine), or produce teaching materials against other churches (like mine). But that is inconsequential. Mormon attacks against Christendom's churches are built into the whole foundation/sub-structure of the LDS Church (i.e. Mormonism).

The very basis of Mormonism is the apostasy of all other churches in Christendom.You get all of the "Great Apostasy" of Christendom teachings from Day One as a Mormon, and it is essentially taught with every missionary lesson. We even see modern-day Mormon defenders using some of the same attacks as 19th century Mormons, but only using slightly different words.

The following comparison shows that some of Mormonism's staunchest defenders are using strikingly similar language about Christianity as was used by early Mormon founders. (All quotes are taken from "What is the 'Body of Christ,' or Christ's Universal Church?," offered online by the well-known Mormon defense and damage-control organization known as FAIR, the Foundation for Apologetics & Research, which has become notorious for presenting misleading information via the internet in an attempt to counteract critics of the LDS Church).

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21st Century:
"Evangelical Christianity very much resembles a group of children. . . ."
(FAIR, 2008 )

19th Century:
"We may very properly say that the sectarian world do not know anything correctly, so far as pertains to salvation. . . . Ask them what kind of a being our Heavenly Father is, and they cannot tell you so much as Balaam's *** told him. They are more ignorant than children."
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 229)

+++++

21st Century:
"Evangelical Christianity very much resembles a group of children. . . . tossed to and fro . . . confused . . . ill-mannered . . . misbehaving in many instances . . . and are definitely 'carried about with ever wind of doctrine.'"
(FAIR, 2008 )

19th Century:
"The Christian world, I discovered, was like the captain and crew of a vessel on the ocean without a compass, and tossed to and fro whithersoever the wind listed to blow them. When the light came to me, I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 73). ". . . . the professing Christian world are like a ship upon a boisterous ocean without rudder, compass, or pilot, and are tossed hither and thither by every wind of doctrine." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, p. 265).

+++++

21st Century:
"Evangelical Christianity is a body without a brain."
(FAIR, 2008 )

19th Century:
"What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing. . . . Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest fools; they know neither God nor the things of God" (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, p. 225) "Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute beast." (John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, p. 225).

+++++

21st Century:
"They [Evangelical churches] function under the delusion that Jesus Christ is their head, when they deny that a "head" even EXISTS! There is no divine "head" of the modern Evangelical Christian church!"
(FAIR, 2008 ).

19th Century:
"After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christiandom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They belong to Babylon." (George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth, p.324)

+++++

21st Century:
"The differences you see among all the different evil flavors of Evangelical churches today are signs of evil, not strength. As Paul rhetorically asked, 'Is God Divided?' He is not."
(FAIR, 2008 ).

19th Century:
"The Christian world, so called, are heathens as to their knowledge of the salvation of God" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 8, p. 171). "And any person who shall be so wicked as to receive a holy ordinance of the gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent of the unholy and impious act." (Orson Pratt, "The Kingdom of God," no.2, p.6) ". . . all other churches are entirely destitute of all authority from God; and any person who receives baptism or the Lord's supper from their hands will highly offend God, for he looks upon them as the most corrupt people."
(Orson Pratt, The Seer, pg. 255)

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