Mormonism: A Creed From Hell — Stephen Hamilton

Paul's Warning About False Religion and Doctrines of Demons

1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 1, a verse that we have often used in connection with false religion and cults and isms. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

And it is true that the Apostle Paul here is speaking of a particular aspect of false doctrine. I believe that he is referring particularly to errors that were known in his day, but of course the words have a wider application.

And we know that even in our time there are those who have departed from the faith, who have given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons or doctrines of devils as it is here. There are those who speak lies in hypocrisy.

Often times they are deceived by their own lies, however there are other times when they deliberately speak lies in order to cover over something that they know themselves to be wrong. And it is a feature of Maori Mormonism as we are calling it, that they do speak lies and often times they speak lies in hypocrisy.

There was a so called Apostle of Mormonism of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints called LeGrand Richards, who in a letter in 1966 said this,. There is a statement often repeated in the church, and while it is not in one of the standard church works, it is accepted as church doctrine and it is, As man is, God once was.

As God is, man may become. As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become. So in other words, according to this Mormon doctrine, God is merely an exalted man. That man is really God brought down to a human level.

Mormon Teaching About God as an Exalted Man

Now because of this belief, and it is a Mormon belief, that God is actually an exalted man, Mormon leaders teach that God had both a mother and a wife. Now this is unspeakable blasphemy, but this is what the Mormons, or the Latter Day Saints as they like to call themselves, actually believe.

Adam, you see, is the God of the Mormons. They are quite clear about this. Adam is the God of the Mormons and the only God with whom they have to do. And that is actually a statement that was made by Brigham Young, one of the early Mormon leaders.

And concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, as we shall note, the Mormons teach that he was the son of Adam and Mary. They also teach that Jesus Christ was a polygamist himself and that Mary and Martha and Mary Magdalene were his plural wives.

It is really hard to speak about these things without becoming angry. But these are facts, facts that we need to know and we need to let others know. Because the Mormons want to present themselves as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

That they are the Church of Jesus Christ for this day. But continuing along this particular theme of God having a mother and a wife, although Mormons do not officially worship God's wife, they do teach that she is our eternal mother.

Now while this seems to be such a blasphemous and evil thing, and it is, we should not forget that the system of Romanism exalts Mary to a position that the Bible doesn't give her, which is mother of God.

So the idea that God has a mother is not something that is to be found only in Mormonism. There are many others besides who believe that God has a mother. President Joseph Fielding Smith, that is a different Joseph Smith from the infamous one, but he perhaps should be equally infamous because of what he taught.

Here is what he said, the fact that there is no reference to a mother in the Book of Mormon or the doctrines and covenants, which is another Mormon publication, is not sufficient proof that no such thing as a mother did exist then, does not common sense teach us or tell us that we must have had a mother there.

And this thought that we have both a mother and a father in heaven, which of course is very suitable to the feminists as well, there are many people who want to change the Bible and have actually done so to make it gender free.

They don't want any idea of God being he, they want God to be equally he or she, gender free. Well, the Mormons are into that because there is a Mormon hymn which is called, Oh My Father, now listen to this, I had learned to call thee father through thy spirit from on high, but until the key of knowledge was restored I knew not why.

In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare, truth is reason, truth eternal tells me I have a mother there. That's blasphemy, that's blasphemy, but this is Mormon teaching. Now, look at what the scripture says in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 6.

One God, the Father, Against Mormon Polytheism

Paul says,. But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. There is but one God, the Father. John tells us, 1 John chapter 2 verse 18, Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.

And there are many Antichrists, and included among them are those who profess to be following Christ, i .e. the Mormons and others in the cults. Now, one of many confused areas of Mormon doctrine is that which deals with the Holy Spirit.

Interestingly, other cults are equally confused on that matter. The Jehovah's Witnesses, falsely so called, believe that the Holy Spirit is not a person, but an influence or a power or a force, even a fluid, Holy Spirit rather than the Holy Spirit.

So, someone was filled with Holy Spirit, it means that they were filled with some sort of a liquid, something like that. Well, the Mormons say that the Holy Spirit is, quote, the mind, unquote, of the Father and the Son.

The Mormon Church teaches that the Holy Spirit does not have a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit with a spirit body only, whatever that means. Quoting Fielding Smith again, here is what he says, As a spirit personage, the Holy Ghost has size and dimensions.

He does not fill the immensity of space and cannot be everywhere present in person at the same time. So, there is a flat denial, a straight out denial of the omnipresence of God. It's right there. He does not fill the immensity of space.

He cannot be everywhere present in person at the same time. Well, let's look at what the Bible says. Psalm 139. Let's hear what the Holy Spirit says about the Holy Spirit. It would be far more sensible for us to do that than to take what some man says that the Holy Spirit does, or what he is.

Psalm 139, and we'll read from verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. And so on. It's very clear from this portion that God is omnipresent. That God is everywhere present at one and the same time.

The psalmist puts it like this. If we put it into the vernacular, how am I going to get away from your spirit? How am I going to flee from God's presence if I go up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there.

If I could dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. I can't even hide in the darkness from the Lord. The Lord is everywhere present.

We believe that He actually does at must because He is God. Fill every single point of space in His fullness at one and the same time. Now, this statement, the Holy Ghost is not a personage of flesh and bones, and in this respect, differs from the Father and the Son.

It's also blasphemous because he's teaching that the Father is not a spirit, that the Father does have flesh and bones. Now, here's what this fielding smith says. I have never troubled myself about the Holy Ghost, whether sometime He will have a body or not, because it is not in any way essential to my salvation.

And that's, by the way, pages 38 and 39 of the Doctrine of Salvation, Volume 1. So, it doesn't really matter what you believe about the Holy Spirit. He may or may not have a body. He may in the future have a body or not, but it really doesn't matter.

It's not essential to my salvation. The Holy Ghost doesn't really matter when it comes to salvation. That is so puerile as to really need no comment. Of course, Mormons are unable to explain why it is that the Father should have a body and the Spirit have none.

They claim that a body is essential, that it's necessary for eternal progression, and yet the Mormon Church teaches that the Holy Ghost became a God without a body. So, there's more confused and heretical teaching.

They say one thing at one time and one thing at another time, and when you show them how diverse these two opinions are, yet they're both from their own writings, they look at you as if you are the idiot and not them.

It's amazing how people can be shown clearly the hypocrisy and the inconsistency of their position, but yet still hold to it. Let me show you something else about their creed. A man called Milton R. Hunter said, the crowning gospel ordinance requisite for Godhood is celestial marriage.

Celestial Marriage and the Inconsistency of Mormon Godhood

Obedience to this law is absolutely necessary to obtain the highest exaltation in the kingdom of God. So, you have to go in for this celestial marriage in order to be exalted in God's kingdom. According to Mormon teaching then, it would have been impossible for the Holy Ghost to obtain Godhood, for he had no body for celestial marriage.

So, again you see the foolishness of their position. Now, this Adam God doctrine that I hinted at just a few moments ago, that Adam is the God of the Mormons and the only God with whom they have to do, this doctrine was actually a natural outgrowth of their teaching of a plurality of gods.

But it's interesting that this was not publicly taught until 1852, sometime after the Mormon church began. And again, that's a feature of many false religions. One of the great boasts of the Roman Catholic system is Semper Idem, that we are always the same.

But, if you study many of their doctrines, you'll find that they are of comparatively recent origin. For example, the infallibility of the papacy was only set down as a dogma of the church in 1870. The idea of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, the belief that she went to heaven without dying, was only set forth by Pius XII, I believe it was, in 1950.

So, it's only for the last 55 years or so that that has been a doctrine of the church. The Mormons are similar to the extent that they have taught things through the ages and then have conveniently abandoned them or else added something else to them which completely changes the original doctrine.

Here's what the Book of Mormon says in the curiously named book, 2 Nephi. Chapter 2, verse 25, Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy. That sounds like gobbledygook to me, but that's what you'll find in the Book of Mormon.

That's a direct quote from the book. Adam fell that men might be, so we wouldn't have any existence without the fall, and men are that they might have joy. Now, Joseph Fielding Smith, the aforementioned, said, quote, the fall of man came as a blessing in disguise.

That's a novel concept, isn't it? That sin against God was a blessing in disguise. That sounds like the devil. Anyway, he goes on to say, I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin.

It is not always a sin to transgress a law. We can hardly look upon anything resulting in such benefits as being a sin in the sense in which we consider a sin. I think that statement in itself would be enough to damn the entire system and just say, look, this is so ungodly a belief as to really deserve no time to be given to it to refute it.

It's so off the chart. But this is Mormon teaching and doctrine. By the way, that quote comes from the aforementioned Doctrine of Salvation of all names. Doctrine of Salvation. So here we are. The fall of man was a blessing in disguise.

The Biblical Doctrine of Sin and the Fall

Neither the part Eve took nor what Adam did was a sin. So when the Bible says in Romans chapter 5 that by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.

That's not correct. According to Fielding Smith, that's not correct. It's not a sin to transgress a law. Well, excuse me, but the Holy Spirit said in 1 John chapter 3 verse 4 Whoso commiteth sin transgresseth also the law for sin is the transgression of the law.

That's a classic Biblical definition of sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. The breaking of the law. Of course, it's also a failure to live up to God's commandments. It's a failure to come up to the glory of God.

To the standard of God. Sin is the transgression of the law. Not according to Fielding Smith. No, no. It is not always a sin to transgress a law. We can hardly look upon anything resulting in such benefits as being a sin in the sense in which we consider a sin.

So look around you today at the state of this world and you think to yourself What benefits we have had accrued to us as a result of the fall? Well, I don't see any benefit that sin has brought to us and the Scripture certainly doesn't teach such a thing.

Just go back to Genesis chapter 3. Isn't it interesting that in Genesis chapter 3 the devil himself denies what God has said. He contradicts it. And isn't it interesting that that portion that talks about what the devil said about God.

He said to Eve, look, God says you're going to die. You shall not surely die. That's not true. God didn't really mean that. God's afraid that when you eat the fruit your eyes will be opened and you'll just be as God knowing good and evil.

Now, it's interesting that that's the very portion that the Mormons are denying. Genesis chapter 3 verse 17. And unto Adam he said, that's the Lord, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying thou shalt not eat of it.

Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Now look at verses 23 and 24. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to tell the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. The Bible makes it absolutely clear in that portion that Adam and Eve sinned against the Lord.

Broke the commandments of God and all men, their posterity ever since have been under the curse. Now there is another scripture which speaks of the sin of Adam and Eve. 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 14.

1 Timothy 2 verse 14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. So for Joseph Fielding Smith to say I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin. He must then have never found it necessary to quote 1 Timothy 2 verse 14.

Because the Bible tells us there that Eve was in the transgression. Mormons reject the idea that man's condition is best described by depravity. They say Adam fell, but he fell in the right direction.

He fell in the right direction. He fell towards the goal. Now how unscriptural is that? How necessary it is to teach that to turn the Bible on its head. And that's exactly what Mormonism does. It turns the Bible completely on its head.

They avoid at all cost using the word sin to describe Adam's disobedience to God's law since that would be too extreme. You don't want to talk about something as being a sin that brought such benefits to mankind.

And yet, as I've already quoted in Romans chapter 5, there is this whole issue of sin being transferred to Adam's posterity because of his sin in the garden. To Mormons, the fall, you see, is upward. It's actually not a fall, it's sort of a leap higher.

It's unbelievable, isn't it? But this is what Mormonism teaches. In preaching forth this doctrine, Brigham Young, one of those early leaders said, quote, Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile.

The Adam-God Doctrine and the Creator-Creature Distinction

When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is Michael the archangel, the ancient of days, about whom holy men have written and spoken.

He is our father and our God. Unquote. And that is from his journal of discourses. Brigham Young teaching that Adam is our father and our God. He was really saying Adam is the God and father of the human family.

And, of course, to teach that is in gross contradiction to the holy scriptures because God's word tells us that Adam was the first man. He was created by God and that as a result of the fall, all have come under condemnation.

It's quite clear as we go back there to the book of Genesis and really to even take time to refute this seems to be unnecessary because it's so anti-scriptural, it's so contradictory to the whole of the teaching of the Bible that you could just as well say, look, there's the Bible, throw it out.

You know, just forget all about it and just have the book of Mormon because all that they're teaching here in relation to these things, is completely foreign to the word of God. But let's see what the Bible actually says.

The Bible teaches us that God is distinct from Adam. God is distinct from Adam in the book of Genesis. That's so clear from those early chapters when you see how the Bible says, for example, Genesis 2 verse 7, 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.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed. So, the idea that Brigham Young is putting forth that Adam is our father and our God is completely contradicted by the scripture.

God's word doesn't say that Adam was God. God's word says that Adam was the first man and that as a result of Adam's fall, all men have come under condemnation. Another scripture, by the way, that we can look at is Numbers chapter 23.

Numbers chapter 23, verse 19. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent, and so on. Brigham Young says God was the first man. God was Adam. The Bible says God is not a man.

Who do we believe? The suggestion that Adam is to be regarded as God, of course, removes all distinction between creator and creature. And that's something that the devil loves to do. The devil wants men to worship themselves.

He wants men to think of themselves as God. That's the devil's whole purpose. Remember that in Antichrist, this is what the devil seeks to accomplish. He sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God, who is to be worshipped.

And we know that that's something that's spoken of in that classic portion regarding sin in Romans chapter 1. Here's what it says about ungodly men. Verses 22 and 23, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.

And notice what it says here. How descriptive of the Mormon church is this? Romans 1 verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than, and the word in the margin is rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

Amen. Worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. That's what the devil is all about. And that's what the devil has accomplished in the Mormon system. I think Romans 1 and 25 really summarizes their whole position.

By the way, in the year 1856, the Mormons published a hymn entitled, if ever there was a misnomer, it's this, We Believe in Our God. And in that hymn, it is plainly taught that Adam was the father of Christ.

Let me give you the quote. We believe in our God, the great prince of his race, the archangel Michael, the ancient of days, our own father Adam, earth's lord as is plain, who will counsel and fight for his children again.

We believe in his son, Jesus Christ, who in love to his brethren and sisters came down from above. Now that, as I said earlier, is almost unspeakable blasphemy to say that Adam, the creation, is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me read to you from the book of Hosea, chapter 11 and verse 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city.

I am God and not man. God is not Adam. Adam is not God. God created Adam of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man, Adam, became a living soul. Mormon doctrine is shocking blasphemy.

By the way, these are just some of the things that they teach that I've mentioned, but I think it is enough for us to say we can reject that system out of hand as something that is so unspeakably unscriptural and blasphemous as to hardly require any further comment.

Mormon Christology and the Need to Test Doctrine

But we will have further comment on it because I want us to see and to know what it is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so-called, teaches about, for example, the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we're going to find out just how blasphemous and just how unscriptural and how unchristian this so-called Church of Jesus Christ is. You know, it would be something for a system to be set up calling itself anti-Christian, to be quite straightforward about it, and to say, look, we reject all that the Bible says and teaches.

We don't accept in any way, shape, or form that Jesus Christ is God. We're completely against the Bible. We're completely against Christ. That would be honest. But, you know, that's what the Mormons do without saying it, at least up front.

They don't say it up front. It's just when you get into their doctrines and teachings that you realize how unchristian and how unlike Jesus Christ the teachers and the adherents of this system really are.

We'll continue with this thought of the creed of Mormonism the next time in the will of the Lord. But I trust that the Lord will bless us today through His Word, and that we will worship Him as our great Creator and as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer for Deliverance From False Doctrine

Let's have a word of prayer. Father, today we are grieved when we read and when we hear the shocking blasphemies of Mormonism and other false systems. Lord, we pray even today that Thou wilt blow upon this wickedness that is purporting to be the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we think of those that are caught up in this, who are deceived by it. We pray that many would be delivered from it, brought out from among them, to be separated unto Thy true Gospel. Lord, bless us as we would seek to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints.

We thank Thee today that we worship Thee as our God and Father. We rejoice, Lord, in all that Thou hast done for us. Lord, we recognize today that the fall of man was not a good thing, that it was unspeakably evil.

Lord, we pray that Thou wouldst help us to rejoice in what Thou hast done in us to reverse the effects of the fall by giving us a blessed Savior, one who cleanses us from all of our sin. Lord, may we never be found glorifying sin or rejoicing in it or thinking that it's a good thing.

Lord, we know that sin is evil. It is an attack upon our God. And we pray that You'll help us to run from it. And may we be saved from our sins. We ask this, giving thanks for the light and the liberty of Thy Gospel.

In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.