Secrets Mormons Don't Want You To Know (9 page)

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Authors: Richard Benson,Cindy Benson

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DO MORMON LEADERS HATE CHRISTIANITY?

Secret 133

Book of Mormon:

“Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the Church of the Lamb of God [i.e.. the Mormon Church] and the other is the church of the devil [i.e.. the Christian Church]; wherefore whosoever belongeth not to the church of the lamb of God belongeth to that great church; which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.”
320

Brigham Young:

(Second prophet of the Mormon church)

“The Christian world, so called, are heathens as to their knowledge of the salvation of God.”
321

“With regard to true theology a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world.”
322

“When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness.”
323

“…he that confesseth not that Jesus has come in the flesh and sent Joseph Smith with the fullness of the Gospel to this generation, is not of God, but is anti-christ.”
324

John Taylor:

(Third prophet of the Mormon church)

“Christianity… is a perfect pack of nonsense… it is as corrupt as hell; and the Devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century.”
325

“What! are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute beast.”
326

Orson Pratt:

(Mormon apostle)

“Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the ‘whore of Babylon’ whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt 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.”
327

Bruce McConkie:

“Believers in the doctrines of modern Christendom will reap damnation to their souls.”
328

What the Bible says:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

MORMON TEMPLES

Secret 134

Mormonism teaches that temples are required to administer secret ordinances:

“Certain gospel ordinances are of such a sacred and holy nature that the Lord authorizes their performance only in holy sanctuaries prepared and dedicated for that very purpose… Baptism for the dead… is a temple ordinance, an ordinance of salvation. All other temple ordinances—washings, anointings, endowments, sealings—pertain to exaltation within the celestial kingdom… All of these ordinances of exaltation are performed in the temples for both the living and the dead… They were given in modern times to the Prophet Joseph Smith by revelation…”
329

What the Bible says:

“Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me?”

(Acts 7:48-49)

Temples are not necessary today. During the Old Testament, they were used for the animal sacrifices that covered the people’s sins. When Jesus was crucified, the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom, signifying an end to the Old Testament sacrifices, since Jesus became our final atoning sacrifice.

See also 2 Chronicles 2:6, Acts 17:24, Revelation 21:22.

MORMON CONTRADICTIONS

Secret 135

Mormonism contradicts the Bible and its own documents:
1.
The Book of Mormon says God is a “Spirit”
330
but other Mormon teaching says he has “a body of flesh and bones.”
331
2.
The Book of Mormon says “…the decrees of God are unalterable…”
332
but Doctrine and Covenants 56:4 says, “I, the Lord, command and revoke as it seemeth me good…”
3.
The Pearl of Great Price says “…there is no God beside me…”
333
But in 1938, Joseph Fielding Smith declared that you must “…learn how to be God’s yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you.”
334
4.
Mormon scripture says, “For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting…”
335
Yet the founder of the religion contradicts that,

“We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil, so that you may see… he was once a man like us…”
336

5.
One Mormon scripture states:

“…the Lord hath said that he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell…”
337

But another Mormon scripture teaches:

“…the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false.”
338

6.
The Book of Mormon plainly states:

“Mary… shall be overshadowed and conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost…”
339

“And behold, he shall be born of Mary… who shall be overshadowed and conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost…”
340

But Mormonism also teaches:

“Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers…”
341

7.
Genesis 5:23 says Enoch was 365 years old when God took him to heaven, but Doctrine and Covenants 107:49 contradicts the Bible, saying he was 430 years old when he was translated.
8.
Mormon scripture says Jesus was born in Jerusalem,”
342
but the Bible says He was born in Bethlehem.”
343
9.
One Mormon scripture teaches that man did NOT pre-exist by saying that “man in the beginning was created after the image of God,
344
while another Mormon scripture says Man DID pre-exist: “Man was also in the beginning with God.”
345
THE SPIRIT WORLD

Secret 136

Mormonism teaches that before being born on earth, we are born and grow up in the spirit world as the spirit children of God and one of His wives, possessing divine attributes inherited from our Heavenly Father and Mother:

“Before we were born we lived with our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. We were their spirit children.”
346

“We forget that we have a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother who are even more concerned, probably, than our earthly father and mother…”
347

“in the former life we were spirits.”
348

“in the first stage, man was an eternally existent being termed an intelligence. In that sphere of existence each individual was naturally conscious… The next realm where man dwelt was the spirit world… numerous sons and daughters were begotten and born of heavenly parents into that eternal family in the spirit world. In the likeness of God Himself, these spirit children were organized, possessing divine, eternal, and godlike attributes, inherited from their Heavenly Father and Mother. There in the spirit world they were reared to maturity, becoming grown spirit men and women prior to coming upon this earth.”
349

“Our spirit bodies had their beginning in pre-existence when we were born as the spirit children of God our Father. Through that birth process spirit element was organized into intelligent entities. The bodies so created have all the parts of mortal bodies… We had spirit bodies in pre–existence… ”
350

What the Bible says:

This is a totally unbiblical Mormon doctrine.

Secret 137

Mormonism teaches that we are literal children of God, not spiritual sons and daughters:

“…the Gods were to be parents of spirit children just as our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother were the parents of the people of this earth.”
351

“Our spirit bodies had their beginning in pre–existence when we were born as the spirit children of God our Father… All men in pre–existence were the spirit children of God our Father, an exalted, glorified, and perfected Man.”
352

“The Father of Jesus is our Father also… Jesus, however is the Firstborn among all the sons of God… He is our elder brother… All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity… man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents… Man is the child of God, formed in the divine image and endowed with divine attributes, and even as the infant son of an earthly father and mother is capable in due time of becoming a man, so the undeveloped offspring of celestial parentage is capable, by experience through ages and aeons, of evolving into a God.”
353

What the Bible says:

We are all God’s
creation
, but we are not all His
children.
We are by nature the children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) and are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). We become God’s child only through faith in Jesus Christ:

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” (John 1:12)

“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself…”

(Ephesians 1:5)

See also Galatians 3:26; 4:5.

Secret 138

Mormonism teaches that animals, fish and plants all existed
as spirit entities before they were created on the earth:

“Animals, fowls, fishes, plants, and all forms of life were first created as distinct spirit entities in pre–existence before they were created ‘naturally upon the face of the earth.’ That is, they lived as spirit entities before coming to this earth; they were spirit animals, spirit birds, and so forth… All men in pre–existence were the spirit children of God our Father, an exalted, glorified, and perfected Man.”
354

What the Bible says:

Another totally unbiblical Mormon doctrine.

MORMON TEACHINGS ABOUT MAN

Secret 139

Mormonism teaches that man always existed:

“Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.”
355

“All the fools and learned and wise men from the beginning of creation, who say that the spirit of man had a beginning, prove that it must have an end; and if that doctrine is true, then the doctrine of annihilation would be true. But if I am right, I might with boldness proclaim from the house–tops that God never had the power to create the spirit of man at all. God himself could not create himself. Intelligence is eternal and exists upon a self–existent principle.”
356

“That matter or element is self–existent and eternal in nature, creation being merely the organization and reorganization of that substance… and if there had been no self–existent spirit element, there would have been no substance from which those spirit bodies could have been organized.”
357

“In the former life we were spirits.”
358

What the Bible says:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27)

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7)

See also Isaiah 44:2, Psalm 139:14, Ephesians 2:10, Zechariah 12:1.

Secret 140

Mormonism teaches that man is not born with a sin nature:

“…modern Christendom has the false doctrine of original sin.”
359

“…wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin…”
360

“Children who develop normally become accountable when ‘eight years old…’”
361

What the Bible says:

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:5)

See also Ecclesiastes 7:20, James 2:10, Romans 3:23; 6:23, 1 John 1:8.

A thought: Why are kids baptized at age 8 for remission of sins if they aren’t accountable for any sin until age 8?

MORE STRANGE MORMON TEACHINGS

Secret 141

Orson Pratt taught that vegetables have living spirits and are capable of feeling, knowing and rejoicing:

“The spirit of a vegetable is in the same image and likeness of its tabernacle, and of the same magnitude, for it fills every part thereof. It is capable of existing in an organized form before it enters its vegetable house, and also after it departs from it. If the spirit of an apple tree were rendered visible when separated from its natural tabernacle, it would appear in the form, likeness, and magnitude of the natural apple tree; and so it is with the spirit of every other tree, or herb, or blade of grass, its shape, its magnitude, and its appearance, resemble the natural tabernacle intended for its residence… When the spiritual vegetable withdraws, the natural one decays and returns to its original elements; but its spirit, being a living substance, remains in its organized form, capable of happiness in its own sphere, and will again inherit a celestial tabernacle when all things are made new… we are compelled to believe that every vegetable, whether great or small, has a living intelligent spirit capable of feeling, knowing, and rejoicing in its sphere.”
362

Secret 142

Orson Pratt claimed that eternal life could be obtained by eating “celestial vegetables:”

“The celestial vegetables and fruits which grow out of the soil of this redeemed Heaven, constitute the food of the Gods. This food differs from the food derived from the vegetables of a fallen world: the latter… produces flesh and bones of a mortal nature… while the former, or celestial vegetables, are, when digested in the stomach, converted into a fluid, which, in its nature, is spiritual, and which, circulating in the veins and arteries of the celestial male and female, preserves their tabernacles from decay and death. Earthly vegetables form blood, and blood forms flesh and bones; celestial vegetables, when digested, form a spiritual fluid which gives immortality and eternal life…”
363

What the Bible says:

“That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:15)

Secret 143

Mormon doctrine says it’s unsafe to travel on water because
God has cursed the waters:

“For I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger many destructions upon the waters; yea, and especially upon these waters.”
364

“Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning blessed the waters; but in the last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters…”
365

What the Bible says:

Another bizarre unbiblical Mormon doctrine.

Secret 144

Mormonism teaches that earth was conceived by its parent earths:

“Does the earth conceive? It does, and it brings forth. …Where did the earth come from? From its parent earths.”
366

What the Bible says:

“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it…” (Isaiah 45:18)

Secret 145

Mormonism teaches that earth will eventually die and be
resurrected as a celestial sphere:

“…this earth was created first as a spirit, and that it was thereafter clothed upon with tangible, physical element… lt was created (the equivalent of birth); it fell to its present mortal or telestial state; it was baptized by immersion, when the universal flood swept over its entire surface… it will be baptized by fire… it will die; and finally it will be quickened (or resurrected) and become a celestial sphere.”
367

What the Bible says:

The Bible says nothing about the earth dying, being “resurrected” or becoming a “celestial sphere.”

Secret 146

Mormonism teaches members how to tell if they are face to face with the devil:

“If it be the devil as an angel of light, when you ask him to shake hands he will offer you his hand, and you will not feel anything; you may therefore detect him.”
368

What the Bible says:

More Mormon doctrine not taught in the Bible.

Secret 147

Mormonism teaches that spirits must be compressed so they can fit inside infant bodies:

“A great many people have supposed that the spirit which exists in the tabernacle, for instance, of an infant, is of the same size as the infant tabernacle when it enters therein. No one will dispute that it is of the same size when it is enclosed therein; but how large was the spirit before it entered the tabernacle?… When all these spirits were sent forth from the eternal worlds, they were, no doubt, not infants; but when they entered the infant tabernacle, they were under the necessity… of being
compressed
, or diminished in size so that their spirits could be enclosed in infant tabernacles…”
369

What the Bible says:

The Bible says nothing about spirits being compressed.

Secret 148

Mormonism teaches that compressed spirits cause the loss of wisdom and knowledge:

“When Jesus was born into our world, his previous knowledge was taken from Him: this was occasioned by His spiritual body being compressed into a smaller volume than it originally occupied… when this spirit was compressed, so as to be wholly enclosed in an infant tabernacle, it had a tendency to suspend the memory; and the wisdom and knowledge, formerly enjoyed, were forgotten… So it is with man. When he enters a body of flesh, his spirit is so compressed and contracted in infancy that he forgets his former existence…”
370

What the Bible says:

Here, one falsehood is built on top of another falsehood. The Bible never mentions this.

Secret 149

More bizarre Mormon doctrines about spirit bodies:

“When a baby dies, it goes back into the spirit world, and the spirit assumes its natural form as an adult, for we were all adults before we were born. When a child is raised in the resurrection, the spirit will enter the body and the body will be the same size as it was when the child died. It will then grow after the resurrection to full maturity to conform to the size of the spirit.”
371

Secret 150

Mormon doctrine says the sin of murder cannot be forgiven:

“And now, behold, I speak unto the church. Thou shalt not kill; and he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the world to come.”
372

What the Bible says:

“…the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

Secret 151

Mormonism says angels are “resurrected personages:”

“There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones…”
373

What the Bible says:

“Thou, even thou, art LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host…” (Nehemiah 9:6)

Secret 152

Mormons are taught to trust their feelings rather than facts:

“But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.”
374

What the Bible says:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

(Jeremiah 17:9)

See also 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 2 Timothy 2:15, Matthew 22:29, Proverbs 14:12; 16:25.

Secret 153

Mormons are ordered to obey their leaders… right or wrong:

The Journal of Discourse commands Mormons to:

“…learn to do as you are told… if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong.”
375

“Any Latter-day Saint who denounces or opposes, whether actively or otherwise, any plan or doctrine advocated by the ‘prophets, seers, and revelators’ of the Church is cultivating the spirit of apostasy… Lucifer… wins a great victory when he can get members of the Church to speak against their leaders and to ‘do their own thinking.’ …When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they propose a plan, it is God’s plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy.”
376

“The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as the President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the program.”
377

Back when Mormons were taught the ridiculous lie that Adam was God, Mormon Elder James A. Little declared:

“I believe in the principle of obedience; and if I am told that Adam is our Father and our God, I just believe it.”
378

What the Bible says:

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.”

(Jeremiah 17:5)

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

Secret 154

Mormonism teaches that Mary had two husbands:

“The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife, but Mary the wife of Joseph had another husband.”
379

What the Bible says:

Nothing in the Bible or history suggests this is true.

Secret 155

Mormonism teaches that some people can’t repent:

“No one can repent on the cross, nor in prison, nor in custody.”
380

What the Bible says:

The Lord said to the thief on the cross next to Him:

“To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

(Luke 23:43)

Secret 156

Mormonism says death-bed repentance is vain:

“Hopes of reward through so-called death-bed repentance are vain.”
381

What the Bible says:

“…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37)

Secret 157

Mormonism teaches that in eternity Cain will rule over Satan:

“…he became the first mortal to be cursed as a son of perdition. As a result of his mortal birth he is assured of a tangible body of flesh and bones in eternity, a fact which will enable him to rule over Satan.”
382

What the Bible says:

Another completely unbiblical Mormon doctrine.

Secret 158

The Book of Mormon’s math problem:

In Ether 6, the Book of Mormon says Jared and his brother boarded barges headed for the “promised land.” The Lord supposedly caused a “furious wind” to blow for 344 days, which delivered them to their destination.

But even if this “furious wind” blew only 10 m.p.h. they would have sailed 82,560 miles, and circled the globe more than three times.

Secret 159

Mormon president: “lying for the Lord?”

In a 1997 newspaper interview, Gordon Hinckley, president of the Mormon church, was asked “…don’t Mormons believe that God was once a man?” Hinckley replied:

“I wouldn’t say that… That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don’t know very much about.”
383

Less than four months later, Hinkley answered the same question in TIME magazine:

“I don’t know that we teach it. I don’t know that we emphasize it… I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don’t know a lot about it, and I don’t think others know a lot about it.”
384

Was Gordon Hinckley lying? Or was the President of the Mormon religion really unfamiliar with this central doctrine of Mormonism that has been taught by Mormons ever since Joseph Smith declared that God was “once a man like us.”
385

You must answer that question for yourself.

Secret 160

The Book of Mormon’s promise to American Indians was dropped because it never came true:

The Book of Mormon used to promise American Indians that when they accepted the Mormon gospel, their skin would turn “white” and delightsome.

“…many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a
white
and a delightsome people.”
386

Since this never happened, in 1981 the text was changed to “pure” and delightsome:

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