Mormonism - Cults & The Occult Lesson # 2

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All right, so tonight we're going to continue our study of the cults and the occult so this will be lesson two on Mormonism also known as this is the official name the
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Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints but most people know them as The Mormons so this religion was founded by a man named who knows what's his name?
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Yeah, that's why I hear a lot of people say it John's it's actually Joseph Smith who was born in Vermont in 1805
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So Joseph Smith is the one who founded and discovered this religion
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Mormonism Why are they called Mormons? Well, it's based on their holy book, which is the book of Mormons Now Mormons do believe in the
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Bible they will tell you they believe in the Bible usually it's the King James version of the Bible But really if you pin them down, they believe the
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Bible has been corrupted So the King James version of the Bible they say is true
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So much as it lines up with the book of Mormon So you can see that the writings of Joseph Smith the book of Mormon.
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This is their real authority So let's start out by talking about the book of Mormon a little bit.
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Who wrote the book of Mormon a Non -mormon me. This is what
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I would say that it's a fictional novel written by Joseph Smith But according to Smith himself, he claims that an angel gave it to him
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So here's the story according to Joseph Smith The first author of the book of Mormon was a prophet named
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Nephi Who left Jerusalem with his family about 600 BC and sailed to the
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Americas? Nephi then passed the record to his younger brother Jacob Who then gave it to his son
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Enosh and each author? Always gave the record of the book of Mormon to someone they trusted and again
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I think this is all complete fabrication. I don't believe any of this actually happened, but after hundreds of years
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Smith claimed that the record was given to a man named Mormon So there was an actual guy at some point according to Joseph Smith named
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Mormon who was a prophet and military leader So Mormon condensed all of these writings into one volume.
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He engraved them on what who knows? Golden plates thin sheets of metal and Before he died
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Mormon passed the plates to his son Moroni Moroni added a few words and then buried the plates and we're gonna watch a video a little later that will hopefully
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Kind of stick in your mind to help you understand what they believe So the plates were buried and in 1823
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Joseph Smith the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints He claims that Moroni appeared to him in his bedroom in The form of an angel and told him where the plates were buried.
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So Joseph Smith he went he found the plates and then Through the power of God and I guess there are some magic what we might call magic
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Glasses, he was able to translate them into what we now have today the
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English Version of the Book of Mormon. So the Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra, New York in 1830 and then you know, the rest is history.
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So let's turn to Matthew chapter 16 This is a church so we want to compare all of these things against what the
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Bible says because the Bible is our authority they may have different authorities, but Just a quick summary of Mormon beliefs
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They believe that the true church was founded by Jesus himself
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But went apostate After the death of the Apostle so very early on maybe around the end of the first century
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They say the true church went apostate. You know what that means? Yeah, it means that the the church fell away from the truth
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So basically from the first century right up until the 18th century the true faith the true
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Christian faith ceased to exist until God the
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Father get this God the Father in bodily form According to Joseph Smith appeared to him along with Jesus also in bodily form
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Appeared to Joseph Smith while he was walking out in the woods in upstate, New York so as the story goes they
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Gave to Joseph Smith restored to him the true priesthood
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Therefore at that time the true church was restored So Christianity didn't exist from end of the first century about there right up until 18 20 18 30 around that time okay, so How do we compare that to what the
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Bible says I was thinking about this look at Matthew 16 verse 18 This is
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Jesus When Peter made that great confession of faith, you know, thou art the
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Christ the son of the Living God This is what Jesus said to Peter He said and I also say to you that you are
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Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades or the gates of hell shall not prevail
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Against it. So when I read that I find it really hard to believe that the true church basically the gates of hell prevailed for about 1 ,700 years
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So when I see the teachings of Jesus the church is going to endure the church is going to continue
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But according to Smith the church just fell away and ceased to exist very very early on Now there's a few different takes on Joseph Smith some say that he was just a con man
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That he dabbled in occult practices He used seer stones apparently he would have a
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Like a top hat and he would look into it and block out all the light and try to see visions and things like that He was trying to seek out hidden treasure.
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So many people would simply view him as a con man and Since he lived in a time of great religious fervor
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When he got into religion, he was getting into religion just as a way to scam people
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So his new venture because it it just took off He became a successful cult leader so much so that he had political ambitions
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Apparently he even thought about running for president so many people would view Joseph Smith as just purely a con man who who found success and religion in all the pursuit of power and wealth
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Others believe though that he was more sincere Apparently his brother died a very well.
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He I don't know how old he was when his brother died But the local Presbyterian minister at his brother's funeral preached essentially that his brother what was in hell and that Troubled Joseph Smith he didn't accept that so he started to seek
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God He felt that you know this denomination teaches one thing this denomination teaches something else and you know, he really wanted to know the truth and he started to Through some of these practices and seeking
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God or practicing the occult. Some people believe that he actually did start to experience
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The supernatural that being supernatural beings did come to him.
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So these are kind of the two Viewpoints, there's people who believe Joseph Smith was a true prophet
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So Mormons would view him one way others would view him just as a con man This is all made up and then some people would say well
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I think he was sincere and I think he actually did experience some things but That was not actually the truth that was given to him
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Here's the interesting thing about that theory. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said to the
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Galatians in Galatians chapter 1? He said if anyone preaches any other gospel to you
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He said let them be accursed and he said even if an angel from heaven Preaches any other gospel let them be anathema
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So you have Mormonism and you have Islam two major religions
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One was founded in the 7th century one in the 19th century both
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Muhammad and Joseph Smith claimed that angels came to them and gave them the teachings of their religion.
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I Tend to think that he was just a con man But if he did actually experience some being some angel
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According to the Apostle Paul, it really wouldn't matter that's still a different gospel and Paul taught the church that they are not to Accept it whatever the motivation was whatever actually happened
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Joseph Smith said that he prayed to God this is his claim and I just want to make this statement because some some people will see this online and they'll think that I'm Just out looking to criticize
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Another church or another thing. First of all, they're not a church They're they're not a New Testament church, it's a completely different religion but We are not looking to criticize them.
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This is what Joseph Smith claimed He's the one who said that all Christian churches all
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Christian creeds were an abomination to God So that was his statement
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Not ours Okay So he claimed that he sought the Lord and that God appeared to him and said
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Joseph Smith don't join any of the churches Because they are all an abomination to me.
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So I will restore the true church to you, sir So now it's again
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Mormons believe that that actually took place Of course, I don't if I did believe it.
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I'd be a Mormon, right? So Any questions so far? All right, so Joseph Smith started this
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Religion, he continued to teach really bizarre doctrines. We'll see some of that in a moment
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The early Mormons they spoke in gibberish and they called it the gift of tongues
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They claimed to receive visions and experience miracles Joseph Smith claimed to be a true prophet of God getting direct revelation from God and Since many people believed in him and believed his words.
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He he really became untouchable as Either the head of the religion or as I would view him a cult leader
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How many of you can think of some other cult leaders of recent years that were seen as kind of untouchable?
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Like do not speak against the Lord's anointed this man is not to be questioned
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Jim Jones, okay David Koresh now in fairness.
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I do want to say those Those situations with Jim Jones. He led his 900 followers into a mass suicide
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There's a comet Apparently tonight that you can see in the sky if you have binoculars that remember
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Heaven's Gate that cult Back in 2001 with a hale -bopp comet again, they're they had a cult leader and they led the people into mass suicide
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Mormonism is not a cult in that sense. So I want to be fair Mormons Today are typically just kind of like regular people
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There's they're not a cult in that extreme sense of the word, but I would identify them as a theological cult
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But they're not out, you know doing nobody's dying as far as I'm aware so Joseph Smith became very powerful though and like most cult leaders
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What do they do when they when someone gets that powerful and they cannot be questioned like this man is basically like God What happens they start to abuse authority?
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So Joseph Smith he practiced polygamy he was secretly sleeping with the wives of his church members
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Wherever Mormons would settle they all voted as a block. So when they moved into an area
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They were basically able to take over the town because they all voted how Joseph Smith told them to vote and because of their behavior and with the strange doctrine and Rumors of polygamy wherever they went the local townspeople you can imagine
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They wouldn't go over well today. It really didn't go over. Well back in the 1800s
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So when they came into town, they were really seen as kind of a scourge Upon the community they were corrupting the community
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Joseph Smith he was arrested. He was accused of all sorts of different things from disorderly conduct to banking fraud to fornication
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Back when that was against the law polygamy He threatened a judge apparently and he was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and he was also charged with treason and Finally, he and his brother were arrested in Carthage, Illinois For inciting a riot and as they were awaiting trial in the jail
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Someone smuggled in a few handguns gave Joseph Smith and his brother some guns
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Basically, the townspeople showed up, you know, obviously there's gonna be two sides to this story
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But Joseph Smith died in a shootout with the local townspeople, so Even if it was self -defense
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Which it's questionable whether it was because if you're sneaking in guns to the guy, he's probably trying to break out
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Who knows what he's planning to do? Even if you give him the benefit of every doubt and say he only shot back in self -defense compare that to the life and ministry of Jesus and I think that says a lot so Smith is now dead and if it wasn't for his charismatic successor
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Brigham Young who knows Brigham Young you've heard of Brigham Young University So that's a
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Mormon college If it wasn't for Brigham Young After Smith died the religion probably would have not continued but Brigham Young He led the people to Utah and his steady hand of leadership kept things going they migrated out to the
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Great Salt Lake and found a safe place where the the cult just continued to grow and If it wasn't for Brigham Young if Joseph Smith hadn't died
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His behavior was becoming more and more erratic and his Beliefs were changing so Mormonism probably would have died out if Joseph Smith lived just another 10 or 15 years, but you know, that's that's speculation and In studying for this it got me to thinking
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You know, every false prophet is a potential cult leader. You realize that Every false prophet out there
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Potentially is a cult leader like this It's just that most of their churches and most of their movements never really grow
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They never really go anywhere and even when they do grow they die out. They usually die out with the death of their founders.
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So Mormons will of course look to defend Joseph Smith. So they will say that some of these things
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Some of the things that we talked about tonight They'll say that they're not accurate or they'll say
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Joseph Smith didn't commit those crimes he was framed and I do have to say that I wasn't there and Religious persecution does happen.
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So he might not have been guilty of all the things that he was charged with but When we look into what the
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Mormon Church teaches there's no question that this is anything but or it's it's
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What am I trying to say? It's well, it's not biblical Christianity.
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It's far. It's far from it Does anyone know of anyone today who is accepting
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Mormonism as a legitimate form of Christianity Yeah, who do you want to share?
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Like people, you know or someone yeah Do they do they think that they're
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Christians and you're a Christian and we're all Christians or do they think that they're the true church And you're lost.
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Do you know how they view it? Yeah, right now there's a real push for Mormons to try to blend in and to be accepted that hey
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We're all Christians. We have some differences, but it's it's pretty much the same. So They've they've made a lot of inroads
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Mormons Today they really want to distance themselves From the things that happened in the past One thing everybody knows about Mormons is they practice polygamy
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Right, which they did up until Utah they were Utah was granted a state and part of the deal was the federal government
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Said you can have Utah Utah will be a state, but you have to Stop practicing polygamy and that's something that they agreed to so There are still some
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Mormon groups that practice polygamy, but they have changed. Okay, that's the point they have changed With time so some of them would want to distance themselves from Joseph Smith and their original beliefs many of you remember back in 2012 when
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Mitt Romney ran for president a lot of talk about Mormonism because he he was a
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Mormon So it kind of brought the subject into the forefront and ever since then
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Because you know, how many I don't know how many names I want it's public knowledge
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So I'll just say it Joel Osteen affirmed Mormonism as a valid form of Christianity around that time
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Mitt Romney was running for president. So he went on TV and they asked him Do you think
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Christians should vote for a Mormon and he said, you know, I'm pretty broad
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I there's some differences, but I think he's a true Christian So at least in Joel Osteen's opinion
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Mormonism is close enough Who's familiar today with the chosen this is probably the hottest
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Evangelical trend right now a TV series called the chosen okay,
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I I saw the first season or the first season or two and if you like it, hey, I'm not I'm not against you but Just know that the chosen is being funded to a large degree by the
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LDS Church So there's Mormon actors. There's Mormons in production and Mormons are funding the project so the the co
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Writer and producer the founder of the chosen series is a man named
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Dallas Jenkins, he's the son of Jerry Jenkins from the left -behind novels a lot of people
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Oh, he's the son of Jerry Jenkins. He must be solid. Well, that's what people say with, you know
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You know Charles Stanley and he has his son Andy Stanley if people do well, yeah, he's the son of Charles Stanley He must be solid wrong
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That's not the way The Apple falls far from the tree sometimes. But anyways
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Bottom line is Dallas Jenkins. He's on record saying that Mormons are brothers and sisters in Christ So and then one one more thing back after the death before the death of Billy Graham Taught radio personality
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Glenn Beck who is a Mormon Glenn Beck went and had a personal meeting with Billy Graham and after the meeting the
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Billy Graham Evangelistic Association removed Mormonism from their list of cults and it was around that same time that Romney was running for president.
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So it could have been political reasons. I don't know. The point is Mormonism is starting to be seen as just another
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Christian Denomination and as you're going to see in this video Nothing could be further from the truth.
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So so let's watch this is the Mormon cartoon Mormonism teaches that trillions of planets scattered throughout the cosmos are ruled by countless gods
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Who once were human like us? they say that long ago on one of these planets to an unidentified
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God and one of his goddess wives a Spirit child named Elohim was conceived
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This spirit child was later born to human parents who gave him a physical body
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Through obedience to Mormon teaching and death and resurrection He proved himself worthy and was elevated to godhood as his father before him
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Mormons believe that Elohim is their heavenly father and that he lives with his many goddess wives on a planet near a mysterious star called
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Kola Here the God of Mormonism and his wives through endless celestial sex produced billions of spirit children
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To decide their destiny the head of the Mormon gods called a great heavenly council meeting
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Both of Elohim's eldest sons were there Lucifer and his brother
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Jesus a Plan was presented to build planet earth where the spirit children would be sent to take on mortal bodies and learn good from evil
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Lucifer stood and made his bid for becoming savior of this new world Warning the glory for himself.
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He planned to force everyone to become gods Opposing the idea the
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Mormon Jesus suggested giving man his freedom of choice as on other planets
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The vote that followed approved the proposal of the Mormon Jesus who would become savior of the planet earth enraged
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Lucifer cunningly convinced one -third of the spirits destined for earth to fight with him and revolt
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Thus Lucifer became the devil and his followers the demons Sent to this world they would forever be denied bodies of flesh and bone
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Those who remain neutral in the battle were cursed to be born with black skin
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This is the Mormon explanation for the Negro race The spirits that fought most valiantly against Lucifer would be born into Mormon families on planet earth
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These would be the lighter skinned people or white and delights them as the
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Book of Mormon describes them Early Mormon prophets taught that Elohim and one of his goddess wives came to earth as Adam and Eve to start the human race
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Thousands of years later Elohim in human form once again journeyed to earth from the starbase colon
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This time to have sex with the Virgin Mary in order to provide Jesus with a physical body
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After Jesus Christ grew to manhood. He took at least three wives Mary Martha and Mary Magdalene Through these wives the
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Mormon Jesus for whom Joseph Smith claimed direct descent Supposedly fathered a number of children before he was crucified
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According to the Book of Mormon after his resurrection Jesus came to the Americas to preach to the
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Indians who the Mormons believe are really Israelites Thus the
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Jesus of Mormonism established his church in the Americas as he had in Palestine By The year 421 ad the dark -skinned
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Indian Israelites known as Lamanites had destroyed all of the white Nephites in a number of great battles
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The Nephites records were supposedly written on golden plates and buried by Moroni the last living
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Nephite and the hill Camorra 1 ,400 years later a young treasure seeker named
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Joseph Smith who was known for his tall tales Claimed to have uncovered these same gold plates near his home in upstate,
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New York He is now honored by Mormons as a prophet because he claimed to have had visions from the spirit world in which he was
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Commanded to organize the Mormon Church Because all Christian creeds were an abomination
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It was Joseph Smith who originated most of these peculiar doctrines which millions today
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Believe to be true By maintaining a rigid code of financial and moral requirements and through performing secret temple rituals
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For themselves and the dead the latter -day saints hope to prove their worthiness and thus become gods
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The Mormons teach that everyone must stand at the final judgment before Joseph Smith the
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Mormon Jesus and Elohim Those Mormons who were sealed in the eternal marriage ceremony
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Expect to become polygamous gods in the celestial kingdom rule over other planets and spawn new families throughout eternity
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The Mormons thank God for Joseph Smith who claimed that he had done more for us than any other man including
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Jesus Christ The Mormons believe that he died as a martyr shed his blood for us so that we too may become gods
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Okay, so does that sound like Christianity to you Yeah So if you want to watch that again, which
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I know some of you do All you have to do is type Mormon cartoon or banned
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Mormon cartoon you can find it on YouTube and listen, I'm sure I don't want to be fair I'm sure there are
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Mormons who would say. Oh, yeah that part. We don't believe this or technically that's not right
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Because if you put out a video saying Christians believe this this and this like you're not going to get every
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Christian to agree with everything right so But that does summarize their beliefs
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Quite well, so I showed that because that will stick in your head just it'll help you to remember some of the things that uh,
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I'm saying but Yeah, that's that's what they believe that God was once a sinful man
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Living on another planet near the star Kolob The first time
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I heard that I thought no that can't be true Like this is somebody's just making this up to make
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Mormons look bad. I Looked into it. No, it's true. This is really what they believe
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And there's also some speaking of things that have changed Okay, the polygamy that's changed only the fundamentalist
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Mormon compounds that remember that Warren Jeffs Story from years back like there's obviously still some people who do that, but the main church in Salt Lake City.
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They don't encourage polygamy anymore The the racist teachings about why people have black skin
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They got rid of that in 1978, but I've read the Book of Mormon. Those verses are there that they're cursed
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So obviously there's a lot of racist teachings in the Book of Mormon that they would rather not Talk about when they come and knock on your door.
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They want to present themselves as Christians Try to find some common ground
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They want to lure you in and they're gonna save the Kolob stuff for later on once they got their hooks in you okay, and The whole thing
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I just have to say this with the TV show The Chosen Like I said, I watched the first season or two
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Nothing stood out as blatantly You know wrong except it's not accurate great artistic license, but What I'm concerned about is the founder of that show believes that Mormons are brothers and sisters in Christ and he said we worship the same
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Jesus as as They do that. We all worship the same God the same Jesus My concern is people will watch that show for a few years.
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They'll get sucked into it and then he'll slip in the The heresy later on down the road once he's already got people that's the way the cults work
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They don't show up and come out with the the weird stuff right away. They do that later on. So What we want to do is we want to follow the teachings of Scripture first Thessalonians 5 21 says test all things hold fast that which is good, so let's
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Open our Bibles and test some of these beliefs. Let's turn to John chapter 1
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Before we look at this verse the biggest problem with trying to talk to Mormons because the point of this
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This evening is to give you information So that hopefully ideally we want to reach them and get some
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Mormon saved. That's that's the best case situation the problem though with talking to a
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Mormon is they will use the same terminology as As we do they'll talk about Jesus they'll say positive things about the
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Bible, but when they're talking about Jesus, it's a different Jesus They'll talk about God, but it's it's a different God.
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So our God is eternal Right. Our God is spirit Their God was once Some guy living on another point different God, right?
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Obviously so there's the semantic problem that they will use the same terms that we use but they mean
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Something different. So when Mormons believe or when a Mormon tells you that we are children of God What do they mean by that?
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They they mean that we are all spirit children of heavenly father and heavenly mother
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Is that what the Bible means? By child of God look at John 1 11 and 12
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It says that he speaking of Jesus He came to his own in his own did not receive him
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But as many as received him to them He gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name.
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So according to the Bible Only born -again Christians are children of God The world we live in People say well, we're all children of God.
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Well, we're all made in God's image But no, we're not all children of God according to John 1 only believers are children of God But again
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Mormons mean something else that we're spirit babies given, you know human bodies from Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother Mormons teach three levels of heaven basically in the end just about everybody is saved
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They teach heaven is divided into three sections. Do you know where they would get an idea like that?
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Yeah Well Yeah, well the Catholics have purgatory
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Heaven and hell. So yeah, well the Bible actually does talk about the third head
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Remember Paul talks about the third heaven to the Corinthians. So let's turn to Revelation 21
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But they say that there's three tiers of heaven. There's the celestial kingdom. That's the highest
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That's where you can become a god of your own planet someday Then below that is the terrestrial
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Kingdom and then the lowest level of heaven is the telestial t -e -l -e -s -t -i -a -l
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Which I'm pretty sure is a word they made up as far as I can tell But according to the
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LDS Church Only the elite Mormons who go through all the temple rituals
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Only they get the highest level of heaven only they get to dwell in God's presence
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That sounds a lot like another cult teaching Remember the Jehovah's Witnesses in the hundred and forty four thousand.
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They say only the hundred and forty four thousand go to heaven everyone else gets paradise earth and actually most people probably will just cease to exist but Is that is that what the scripture teaches that only a certain few will?
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Will be with God look at Revelation 21 1 through 3 Scripture doesn't teach that in the eternal state according to the
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Bible all of the redeemed dwell in God's presence Revelation 21 1 through 3 says now
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I saw a new heaven in a new earth For the first heaven in the first earth had passed away
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And there was no more seed then I John saw the holy city New Jerusalem Coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband
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And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with who?
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men Mankind in general and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people
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God himself will be with them and Be their God so in the eternal state all of the redeemed dwell in God's presence
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Forever there's nothing about okay, this group gets the highest level and then the second tier of heaven and then
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Basically they say if you're if you're basically a good person You'll at least get the lowest level of heaven even if even if you're an atheist
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Even if you're an agnostic you don't have to even believe in God as long as you're not like this
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Serial killer or something you will get into and again a Mormon will kind of quibble with some of this stuff
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But that's essentially what they believe So the Mormon faith is more or less
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Universalistic that most people will be saved most people will get into at least the lowest level of heaven
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One of the things about the cults they almost all all four of the major cults.
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They all deny hell I would argue the founders of Mormonism Jehovah's Witnesses What really drove them at the beginning they wanted
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Christianity without hell So it's questionable whether Mormons believe that anybody ends up lost
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Their view of hell is that yeah if if you're really really bad some people will go there
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But their hell seems to be more like the Catholic version of purgatory where you kind of have to pay for The things you've done wrong, but eventually you will get out
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So within Mormonism most people will be saved see that sounds attractive
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You know, that's that's what people like they meet a Mormon. They seem nice Okay.
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Yeah, some of this stuff is weird, but most people will be saying that people find that attractive
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Is this true? Let's turn to Luke 16. Is this true that people can get out of hell?
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I mean you might wish that were true. You might want that to be true But really the question with everything is what does the
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Bible teach? Luke chapter 16 is The story of the rich man and Lazarus, right?
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We're pretty familiar with this Remember Joseph Smith his brother died in the local
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Presbyterian minister Pretty much preached at the funeral that his brother was in hell So he
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I would argue he was trying to create a religion that didn't have any of that And again, it sounds good.
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And most of us we like the end. We want we want people to be saved, right? But what does the scripture teach look at Luke 16 22 through 26?
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So it was that the beggar Died Lazarus and he was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom
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The rich man also died and was buried and being in torments in Hades or in hell he lifted up his eyes and saw
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Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom then he cried and said father
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Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of His finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame
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But Abraham said son Remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise
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Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and you are
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Tormented and notice this and besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf
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Fixed so that those who want to pass From here to you cannot nor can those from there pass to us
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So does it sound like people can get out? No And even if you view this story as a parable
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The point is still there when a person dies, that's it like it's it's fixed And there's nothing in the
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Bible about anyone getting out of hell Matthew 25 46 Jesus calls it Everlasting punishment.
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So if people get out clearly the punishment really isn't everlasting But this rejection of hell again, it's appealing to people and I think that's that's partially what drove
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Joseph Smith You know, we could keep going this idea that God the Father was once a human being and had a physical body
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I mean, that's one of the the big problems when you watch that cartoon and you know, God the
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Father Elohim He's walking around. He's got a long beard and he's walking around like he's like he's got a body
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Does God have a body? John 4 24 says God is what?
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God is spirit John 1 18 says that no man has ever seen
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God at any time So God does not have a body and yet Joseph Smith says he saw
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God out in the woods in upstate, New York See if I told you if just imagine this for a second
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Let's say I was out in my backyard I'm walking through the woods and Shelburne, Massachusetts And I was on this path and then
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God appeared to me in human form and Jesus and they told me would you believe me? So it's so preposterous
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So why do people believe it? Well You know the more time goes on the larger the church is
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I think there's what 12 11 million Mormons in the United States.
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They're the wealthiest cult by far I mean the wealth of this church is beyond imagination.
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They have so much money. So that gives them legitimacy It's just true the longer religions been around the more people
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You know, if it's one guy saying that he saw God out in the woods, you'd say go home you're drunk
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But if he has 30 ,000 followers all of a sudden people pay attention and that's really
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What takes place? So, all right, let's finish by talking about how to witness to a
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Mormon because Ultimately, this would be our goal. We want to yeah, some of it is silly and Really we're not just looking to poke fun.
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We really do want to reach people With the gospel, so how would you? Talk to a
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Mormon you wouldn't say hey your religions ridiculous And like you wouldn't do that because they're just not going to listen to anything you have to say
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I mean, I don't know maybe as the spirit leads but So in the book cults and the occult by Edmund Bruce, there's a woman named
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Sandra Tanner From her experience as a former Mormon. So this is a former
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LDS person. She gives the following suggestions for how to witness effectively to Mormons Okay, first she says you are already witnessing to your
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LDS friends one way or another So just the way you live the way you talk the things you do the things you don't do
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And that's true for every we are all witnessing to people every moment of every day
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So she says start with a positive witness for Christ So obviously, you know practice what you preach
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Be kind all the rest She says if they say they believe like you which they will do this if they knock on your door or if you know them
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If they say they believe like you ask them to define terms Also ask for references from the
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Bible Always bring the teachings of Scripture to bear that's always true no matter what it is.
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We're talking about What does the Bible say? It doesn't matter how someone feels or what you think in my opinion
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The real issue is what does the Scripture say? We believe the Word of God is powerful, right?
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That's where the power is in the Word of God, so we always need to bring Scripture to bear
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She says beware of LDS teachings and pet arguments so you won't get caught off guard
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So that's why it's helpful to know all this stuff she says make a list of scriptures that refute their claims even memorize them and Keep it in your
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Bible. I know of some things. I probably would say some scriptures I would go to but you know you could just have
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Have your Bible in the back have a page of okay for Mormons. This is This is what
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I would say here's where I would go And that's that's way that way you have it right there, and you could have one page for Catholics Mormons Jehovah's Witnesses and all the rest
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She says stress Christ in the need of committing one's life to him
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The gospel is the good news of Christ's atoning work not a temple system
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So for them just like the Catholic Church. There's all these hoops you need to go through rituals and rites and you know
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She says focus on Christ, which is always good advice. She says don't get sidetracked by defending your
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Denomination ultimately it's not hey our church is better than yours and like that that's not really helpful
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What does the scripture say Focus on Christ. That's what she says their first need is
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Christ. Do we agree with that? Okay, I don't know if it's mentioned in here, but obviously pray for them that goes without saying
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If Mormons say the Bible has been changed to the point it is no longer reliable for doctrine
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Kindly ask them for documentation. She says such claims should be challenged
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And when they say something don't just accept it challenge him, right Challenge them to study the
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Bible if Mormonism is a restoration of Christ Church It should agree with the
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Bible at least one would think Pray for God's love and patience You are to plant and water, but God gives the increase
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Winning a Mormon takes time Challenge them to think for themselves
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Truth should be able to stand up to examination She says
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Sharing is not arguing. You know, don't raise your voice or argue
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You should ask yourself is your love? showing I did that Summary of the four major cults.
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I put that on YouTube last week and somebody left a comment that I was snarky I really don't think
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I was snarky. I had people watch and they say I wasn't so, you know you know, you might make
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I might make a joke about something and they say I see you're not showing love, but If we were to if I were to talk to a
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Mormon face to face, I mean I would not make fun of their religion because I Think no matter who a person is no matter what they believe
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They're still someone worthy of Respect They themselves personally, but you know some of these beliefs pretty far out there.
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I mean, I'm sorry Challenge them to think for themselves
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Share with them how you saw yourself as a sinner separated from God and your repentance
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And turning to Christ for salvation. So let them know that you don't just think you're just high -above everybody else a
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Mormon quickly senses if you are taught up if you are talking from genuine concern and Conviction or if you just want to put down Mormons, so she says check your attitude
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You hinder the work of God if your motive is less Than to share
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Christ's love Okay, and now let's turn to Galatians 1 and that's where we're gonna close You know in times past the way
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People would dialogue with other religions if you look throughout history Yeah it was arguing and shouting and debating and you look at the
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Protestant Reformation and you know tempers flared and that kind of was the way people did it for 1 ,500 years or longer
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I Don't I don't know that there's one right way but I Just my advice they need to know that this is not true
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This is not Christianity This is not the true gospel their
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Jesus is a different Jesus Yes, it's not the
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Christ of Scripture So look at what Paul says in Galatians 1 8 and 9
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Even if you give Joseph Smith the benefit of the doubt and say that he really did
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Encounter an angel in his bedroom, which again, I don't I don't believe that actually happened
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But even if it did this is what Paul said he said but even if we or an angel from heaven
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Preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you. Let him be what?
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Accursed as we have said before So now I say again if anyone preaches any other gospel to you and that you have received