Apologetics Session 38- Defending Against Mormonism

Who would like to open us in prayer? Oh, you volunteered someone, so you have to do it,

Rich. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in knowing you, Lord God, and being privileged to be called your children because of the work of our

Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Lord God, we exalt you, we honor you, we love you, Lord Jesus.

And Lord God, I just pray you anoint Jeff tonight to teach us about the errors of Mormonism so we can confront those that believe in it and we can lead many

Mormons to Christ in the process. I pray you, Lord God, be exalted in all things for we ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. When I say Mormonism, what are some images that come to mind?

Lancaster. What's that? Lancaster. Lancaster, interesting.

Mormonism in Lancaster. Utah. What else? Certainly Utah is more common. The Golden Plates.

The special underwear. The special underwear, okay. What else?

Temple in D .C. That big temple in D .C. while you're driving down the highway? Joseph Smith.

Joseph Smith, right. Alright, my goal this evening is not to give the perfect and most wide -ranging overview of Mormonism.

It's not to inform, you know, as much as possible or refute every possible thing like Mormon underwear.

Although that is actually tied to the temple priesthood and the certain Melchizedekian and Aaronic priesthood that they think that they have.

They wear special underwear because they think they're priests. But my goal is to put the finger on the crucial spots.

The things about Mormonism that are most egregious or most against the gospel, the things that need to be refuted in order for a person to be saved.

In other words, we're not going to focus on the fact that they don't drink coffee or tea. Because I don't drink coffee or tea either.

You know? So what? But what we're going to do is talk about the doctrine of God, the gospel, the doctrine of scripture, and a couple of other things along those lines that are just really the most crucial differences between Mormonism, which is why we should unapologetically say that Mormonism is a cult.

It is an absolute denial of the gospel. Now, how many of you are familiar with The Chosen?

TV show. Okay. We as an elder board have not stood against or for it at this point.

We're in a wait and see mode. There are some warning signals related to Mormonism. At one point

Dallas Jenkins said that Mormons worship the same Jesus. But then he retracted that and said that it was only the certain

Mormons that he knew and they don't really hold to all the doctrines of Mormonism. So he tried to walk it back.

We know that VidAngel is a Mormon company. But they're not owned by the church.

It's just Mormons who happen to have a company. So how much do you want Mormon actors and Mormon producers and salespeople?

You're part of the world, right? You're a TV show. So it's kind of questionable how far you can go in employing those kind of people.

The key, I think, is that Dallas Jenkins claims to be evangelical and his script writers do as well, although they do have a

Roman Catholic involved in that. But they say that they do not endorse Mormonism. So we're at a wait and see kind of mode with that.

But you can see that Mormonism wants to be recognized as Christianity.

They don't want to be known as a cult, obviously. But they also don't want to be known as a different religion. They claim to be

Christian, which is why we must defend genuine Christianity, the faith, Jude 1 -3, which has been once and for all handed down to the saints, against a counterfeit that masquerades as if it's the same thing.

So today what we're going to do is just look at the most crucial differences, and I think some of them will be eye -popping.

Now, as a general overview before we do that, you need to know that Mormonism started around the year 1820 when

Joseph Smith claims to have been visited by two personages, one being

God the Father, the other being Jesus the Son. Okay, yes.

So his claim is that God the Father and Jesus the Son are both men, and they're separate, different gods.

From then he developed a theology. He claims that at some point in the early 1800s, upstate

New York, he was able to discover golden plates which were buried by American Indians, maybe the mound builders or something like that, but they were of a certain tribe that were relating to God because Jesus had visited the new world and left them with these scriptures.

And those entrusted with these scriptures, which were engraved on golden plates, the world was going corrupt, and so they hid them, they buried them.

And he was the restorer who found them. And then supposedly the Book of Mormon is a translation of what he found.

Now a few things you need to know about Joseph Smith prior to this. He was a treasure hunter.

He was interested in discovering treasure. He was even on trial for defrauding people, promising to recover treasures.

He had spent much time in occultic kind of practices along those lines. When he claims to have discovered these plates, he has witnesses that say that they saw them.

Oliver Cowdrey and a couple of others. However, upon investigation, they later said they only saw them with spiritual eyes, not physical eyes, and they never saw them or were able to discern for sure whether it was true.

In fact, when Smith was translating, he wasn't looking at these big plates of gold and reading the language by some gift of interpretation.

He would take a top hat, a black top hat, and bury his face into it with a seer stone at the bottom of the top hat.

And from there he would recite while one other would write down what he was saying. So it was more of an occultic practice than even any kind of translation as we would know it.

So this is kind of the concept that he recovered this restored gospel that brought things back to the way they were prior to the corruption of Christianity.

And the big idea here is that sometime shortly after the apostles, Christianity fell into an apostasy and the genuine message was lost.

And here is Joseph Smith as the restorer of genuine Christianity. So it's part of the restoration movement, which was common in the 1800s.

So he fashions himself as a prophet and he begins to gather followers. They move from place to place and tend to get run out.

For example, in Ohio it was a banking scandal. Later on it had to do with his sexual transgressions because at one point he was tarred and feathered because of his behavior.

And it was basically a cult that moved from place to place and gathered steam around the personality of the prophet.

So what else do you guys know about or have questions about the idea of Mormonism, the big plan here before we get into refuting it?

Anything else need to be said or questions you have so far? That men can become a god. We're getting there.

That'll be the first part. Maybe about the Birmingham Massacre. Yeah, the

Mountain Meadows Massacre. Yeah, there was a group of traveling people that they considered a threat and they came upon them and massacred them.

Largest massacre of travelers in U .S. history. We'll rule our own solar systems in glory.

Okay, yeah, we'll get to that in a minute. Polygamy. What's that? Polygamy. Polygamy, yeah.

That's a big one in the Archangel. When you read the Book of Mormon you won't find much any of that stuff.

No historical basis for it. Well, no, no. You won't find much any of the polygamy or the multiple gods.

The Book of Mormon is essentially an introduction that gets you interested. And then there are later revelations that come more in the 1840s.

The Pearl of Great Price and especially the Book of Abraham within the Pearl of Great Price and this book called

Doctrine and Covenants. And this is where the deeper things of God and then especially

Joseph Smith's King Follett Discourse where he's preaching at a funeral and begins to reveal some of these deeper things about there being a plurality of gods.

So let's get into that. Let's get into refuting. Yeah, Mike. Also, before I forget, I've heard you mention, use this term before, with heaven and hell how they view outer darkness.

There's no hell. I think they use that term. I don't know what that is. They have three levels of glory.

The celestial glory and the terrestrial meaning this world and then something in between which name escapes me.

I forget. But you can go to any three of them. And hell is only reserved for like the worst apostates that you could imagine like the

Judas Iscariots or apostates from Mormonism. Like a purgatory type setup.

Yeah, I think the terrestrial would be lesser and the celestial glory, if you get to that third level, that's where you can be with your spirit wife creating new worlds.

So let's get into that. Alright, so Mormonism at the Book of Mormon seems like it's only a story about Jesus coming to the new world after he accomplished his work in Asia Minor there in Palestine.

He then kind of flew to the new world and revealed these same doctrines to the

American Indians. And the record of that was then buried on plates and it seems like kind of fanciful.

Joseph Smith used to tell these tales for years growing up and his mom would talk about how he loved to talk about the

Indians and he just had an imagination. You'd think maybe it's not that harmful.

It's a big deal, you know. Well, he's creating new scripture. That's a big deal. But let's get into where this then goes next.

Here's a quote. Joseph Smith says, These three, referring to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, constitute three distinct personages and three gods.

Three gods. Very explicitly denying the Trinity that there's only one God existing in three persons within the one

God. He says that there is a Father, a Son, and a Spirit and each three, each of the three, are separate gods.

Yes. Hence, the doctrine of a plurality of gods is as prominent in the

Bible as any other doctrine. He says in History of the Church, Volume 6, page 474,

In the beginning, the head of the gods called a council of the gods and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and people it.

So prior to the creation of the world, he has the god of this planet counseling together with other gods.

So we can recognize now he does not view the world as existing even under the three so -called gods,

Father, Son, and Spirit, but there's other gods involved. Well, what of the god of this planet, the one we call

Elohim or Yahweh, Jehovah? He says this in Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, page 3,

God himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man.

We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea and will take away and do away the veil so that you may see and that he was once a man like us, yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did.

So now notice the way Smith is thinking. Jesus Christ is the son of God and by that he means that the heavenly father procreated with the heavenly mother to bring

Jesus into being. And prior to that then, God the father was once a man on a different planet and he has exalted to this place to populate his own planet with the spirit wife.

You see what happens? So that God, the God of this world, is actually the son of a prior

God and wife. And this is an infinite regression of gods procreating gods.

Now what would that of course mean for the Mormon living on planet earth now and you can think back to the

Garden of Eden, what the serpent said? You can be your own gods.

This is a demonic lie against the true God and it is absolutely the claim that you

Mormon can exalt to become a God of another planet with your spirit wife which is the reason for the temple rituals.

Now what they actually do in the temple, you can watch on YouTube because people have snuck cameras in.

There are secret handshakes. There are secret passwords, secret names given to progress into the celestial room.

But these are borrowed from Mormonism, I'm from masonry. He was a 33rd degree mason.

He learned these things from masonry and the secret passwords to get there. But the reason,

Joseph Smith, but the reason why he's bringing the temple into this is that by a temple sealing ceremony, a husband and wife can be united forever for the future populating of a planet.

So the temple is not like you and I would think about a church. It's not where you go to pray and preach and hear the word and relate to God by prayer.

It is rather a place where men and women can be sealed in eternal marriages and have an eternal family.

So it's very cultic behavior what happens in the temple. We got to tour the Philadelphia one before it opened.

But this is the concept here. The appointment of Jesus to be the savior of the world was contested by one of the other sons of God.

He was called Lucifer, son of the morning. Haughty, ambitious, covetous of power and glory.

The spirit brother of Jesus desperately tried to become the savior of mankind.

The idea is that Jesus's brother, the second born, was Lucifer. So Acantia Colossians says that Jesus is the creator of everything.

Heavenly beings and spiritual beings as well as us, Jesus is an offspring and so is

Lucifer. God chose, not Satan, Lucifer's plan, but Jesus's plan and that's why the devil fell into rebellion and rages because God did not elect him to be the savior, but elected the firstborn,

Jesus, to be the savior. Now, the next test is what, the next slide is what

I'm going to call the Deuteronomy 13 1 -3 test. So Phil, would you turn to Deuteronomy 13 1 -3 and throughout this presentation, we are going to defend the faith against the lies of the devil because these are the lies of the enemy and don't be mistaken.

When we were at Princeton, we've shared the gospel. One of the young men was Mormon. There's maybe 50 or 60 there at Princeton, but around this country, there's millions, 15 million.

If you go to Salt Lake City, it's half the city. I was thinking the things he got, for example, what you were just saying about Jesus and Satan, Lucifer.

I was thinking that Jacob and Esau, they got that story there and put it into Christ and Satan. The same principle and you look and think he probably got it from there.

I think you're right, yeah. Yeah, it's incredible. So Phil, would you read Deuteronomy 13 1 -3?

This is the first test of a so -called prophet and this is important for us to discern whether this is of God.

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, let us go after another god which you have not known and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the

Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Okay. So even if he were to come doing miracles and he claimed to have healed someone's arm, he claimed to be a revelator who received the plates and all these miraculous dreams and visions, even if he does things that blow your mind, if he tells you to chase a god other than the

God of Israel, as the Shema says, the Lord our God is one God.

Or as Isaiah 43 11 says, and I'm going to present this to you as the key verse to go to first when refuting a

Mormon. All right? And when helping a Mormon come to the true saving faith. Isaiah 43 11.

Drew, would you read that? You can just read it right off the screen. Before me there was no god formed and there will be none after me.

I, even I am the Lord and there is no savior besides me. Amen.

Isaiah 43 11, I've used probably a hundred times because when I was in the city I would run into a lot of Mormons.

They had their little missionary station and time and again, it is the strongest punch that we can level.

And our goal is not to harm the person, but to knock the lie right out of them. And this verse right here is truth from God.

Before me there was no god formed and there will be none after me. I, even

I am the Lord and there is no savior besides me. So mark that in your brain as the go -to verse to begin with because the goal of Mormonism is to teach other gods that were formed prior and this directly refutes that.

Forgive me, so I know in several other places in the Bible it states like outright that God is eternal.

Yeah. But what does after me imply in this situation? Yeah, so this is,

Isaiah 40 through 48 is the trial of false gods. And the false gods here are fake gods of the nations.

They're idols. And you'll hear Isaiah in these passages, the next chapter, speaking about how they take a block of wood and they chop it up and they form it into an idol.

And then they use the remainder of the wood to burn, to make fire, to keep themselves warm. And then the next day they turn and they worship the idol that they made with their own hands.

And the same wood that they used to warm themselves has become their god. And how absurd that is.

God is putting the false gods on trial. And so he's saying there's no god after me.

I am the one and only. I'm the first and the last, the alpha, the omega. Anything else is just an idol.

So there's nothing else to come. Don't be looking for another god. There is only the one true god.

Everything else is the idols of the nations. That's the context of Isaiah 40 all the way through 48.

Yeah. Alright. So the first test of a prophet is if he teaches other gods, right?

Now, what is it that prophets do? They prophesy.

They speak for God, quote unquote. And so that could be foretelling or it could be foretelling.

And suppose prophets cannot help but prophesy and begin to foretell things.

And this then becomes the second test of a prophet given to us in the Bible. So, prophecies.

Let's look at some of Joseph Smith's. And the test will come from Deuteronomy 18, 20 to 22.

But let's look at what he said first. In Doctrine and Covenants 84 verses 4 and then 31 cited here, but the whole

D &C 84, he says this, Verily this is the word of the

Lord that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints beginning at this place as he stood in Independence, Missouri.

They had run out of Ohio and now they're in Missouri. Even the place of the temple which temple shall be reared in this generation in this generation upon the consecrated spot as I have appointed.

Well, tourists like to go to that spot and what they find is it remains as it was then an empty grass field.

He claimed it would be in this generation in Independence, Missouri. It's written in their quote -unquote

Scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 84 and it never came to pass let alone in that generation that was the one in which he was speaking.

Another one. Joseph Smith prophesied the return of Christ by the year 1891.

History of the Church, Volume 2, page 189. He predicted that the nations of the world would be dragged into the

American Civil War. D &C 87, 1 to 3. He foresaw a civil war coming which there was a civil war but the nations of the world did not come into it.

He foretold that the end times signs in the skies will happen in not many days because remember, they're the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints. Latter -day Saints. That's the concept there. So here is the test of a prophet.

Deuteronomy 18, 20 to 22. John, would you mind reading that? You can read right off the screen. If you don't mind.

Or is it? But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods that same prophet shall die.

And if you say in your heart how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?

When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord if the word does not come to pass or come true that is a word that the

Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously you need not be afraid of him.

Amen. So false prophecies indicate that the prophet is false.

I have brought up D &C 84 to Mormons before and none of them that I have spoken to about that had heard.

They had heard of it but they never considered that it said in this generation because their answer was well it will still happen the temple is going to be built there.

And then I showed them that it said in this generation he said I don't know I'll have to get back to you on that. But that's you know.

It's hard man. Just think about if you were a Mormon kid just raised to believe this stuff your whole life and you've never had these things tested.

You're indoctrinated by your whole family and it's just kind of what you know. So the third test of a prophet is from Matthew 7 you guys will know it.

Beware of false prophets they come in sheep's clothing you will know them by your by their fruit.

All right. Joseph Smith's sexual immorality was found out in the cases of Nancy Miranda Johnson.

Nancy Miranda Johnson is one of the reasons that he well is the primary reason that Joseph Smith was physically tarred and feathered.

Now the Mormon Church in their Sunday school curriculum will claim that he was the victim of this and look how our prophet was persecuted.

But his uncle the uncle of Nancy Miranda Johnson is the one who did this to him because of his immorality with her and that's why that happened.

Also Eliza Winters Mrs. Hill Fanny Alger and Miriam and Rhoda Stoll.

Well you say okay it's real easy for people to claim remember the whole Me Too movement? Believe women if they say that this happened then you just believe them.

Do we think that way? No. As Christians just because someone is accused of something and he was accused something like 20 something times that doesn't mean that he actually did it.

Right? Okay. So because Proverbs 18 and 17 says one man seems right when he presents his case until the other comes to examine him.

There has to be due process cross -examination. Well here's some evidence that it's actually true regarding Fanny Alger.

The one who claimed that he saw Smith and Fanny Alger in a barn together and in the act was named

Oliver Cowdery. Significant. Because Oliver Cowdery is one of the three witnesses in the introduction to the

Book of Mormon. He's one of the three witnesses that first claimed that he yeah

I hefted the plates which under this rap he said he felt the weight of it who knows what Joseph had under there but at one point he testified to Smith having received the golden plates later in life he was among and was excommunicated for trying to discredit the prophet but his name remains in the cover of the book.

Furthermore Emma Smith which is the wife caught Joseph in a barn and in a letter dated

January 21st sorry that's yeah Oliver Cowdery's words were a dirty nasty filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger's.

That's testimony of one of the three witnesses but Joseph's own wife reported the affairs and the polygamy to William McClellan in August 28th 1847

Joseph died around 1844 1845 something like that after he died she left the church and reported his polygamy.

Interesting. You'll find out later why she didn't leave earlier. According to Leviticus 18 18 verse 18 you shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister

Seems pretty reasonable right? Especially at the same time. So Joseph Smith claims that he wasn't having sexual relations with his 32 wives.

Is that all? Of course all Mormons will admit that he did have the 32 wives but a simple problem according to Leviticus 18 18 even if it was true that he never consummated the marriage with these two he was married to both

Emily and Eliza Partridge. Two sisters and other sisters as well. Helen Mar Kimball was only 14 years old when

Smith married her and her journal has been discovered in which she thought it was only to be a ceremonial marriage and she was very uncomfortable when it turned out that sex was expected of her.

14 year old girl whose name is Helen Mar Kimball and whose journal records these things.

Now here is a relic of the past it is held at the

George Albert Smith family papers special collection Marriott Library, University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah.

It's dated 18 August 1842. Signature of the document in the handwriting of Joseph Smith.

This is a letter that Joseph wrote to one of his spirit wives. The only thing to be careful of is to find out when

Emma comes. Then you cannot be safe but when she is not here then there is the most perfect safety.

Only be careful to escape observation as much as possible. I know it is a heroic undertaking but so much the greater friendship and the more joy.

When I see you I will tell you all my plans. I cannot write them on paper. Burn this letter as soon as you read it.

Keep it all locked up in your breast. My life depends upon it. I close my letter. I think

Emma won't come tonight. If she don't, don't fail to come tonight. I subscribe myself. Your most obedient and affectionate companion and friend,

Joseph Smith. Evidence. This is not just She did not burn it.

This is not just hearsay me too movement kind of stuff. This was exactly what the 32 wives was all about.

Now the works of the flesh are evident. Here is the test of fruit, right? When Jesus taught us you will know them by your fruit.

What are the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, dear spouse, gentleness, self -control.

And what are the fruit of the flesh? They're evident. Who would like to read that for us?

Someone with good eyes or glasses? Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The first three are related to sexual immorality as, you know, impurity, sensuality, and that is the first test of a false prophet.

Muhammad, false prophet. Multiple wives. And taking children, Aisha as young as eight years old.

Yeah, all of these things, it's obvious. Now what about sorcery? When they arrested

Joseph Smith in Illinois and they threw him in jail.

He had a gun in his pocket supplied by one of the Mormons. And a mob that was angry with him because of all this polygamy came to him to try and kill him, to lynch him.

And he went down fighting. He shot somebody and killed him on his way down. Ended up falling out of a window.

And what did they discover in his pocket? A Jupiter Talisman. Which is an occultic symbol.

Which he held on his person his whole life. From the beginning of his life when he was a treasure hunter and using seer stones, which he called the

Urim and the Thummim. He was equating these to the Old Testament symbols. He was an occultist.

Which explains a lot. But that sorcery is apparent in idolatry, enmity, strife and jealousy.

You should read the King Follett Discourse where he says that there are so many gods and that Elohim was once a man and all of these things.

He was preaching a funeral and the majority of the sermon was him lambasting other preachers.

He was a rival to the Campbellites. Who were the first restorationists before he picked up on the church went into apostasy.

The Stone Campbell movement. He was trying to pick off from their flock. He was jealous, given to fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions and envy and all of the things of this nature.

So the test of fruit he fails miserably. And when speaking to a Mormon it is okay to bring up the moral character of the so called prophet.

Fannie Algar, the testimony of his own wife and of one of the three witnesses. Next. Would they kick back on that though?

With guys like Abraham or David? In particular? Yes. And what would you say to that?

We have recorded of David's adultery and he's still called a prophet. We have Psalm 51 which is his repentance.

But you have no evidence of Joseph Smith repenting of his polygamy. And they'll say well in the

Old Testament there was polygamy. God for some reason looked over it, right?

However, the New Testament is the new covenant in the blood of Jesus. And the qualifications of an elder in the book of Titus is husband of one wife.

So even to be a New Testament elder he's not qualified based on taking wives.

So that's where you push back to their push back. So the next element is the doctrine of Scripture.

Because all of this started with him considering himself a revelator. Someone who brings revelation.

Smith fancied himself a revelator. Now, now that certain scholars, Egyptologists can translate

Michael Chandler's artifact, the book of Abraham can be tested. You say, well what's that all about?

After the book of Mormon in the 1840s he wrote another book of Scripture called the

Pearl of Great Price. One section of that is called the book of Abraham. And he claimed that this

Egyptian artifact that they bought from Michael Chandler, a traveling salesman who would go from place to place he had, the church had bought it for $2 ,400 and Smith claims to translate it.

Now realize, in the 1840s no one on planet Earth could read

Egyptian hieroglyphics. So his translation of the book of Abraham was regarded as plausible.

Who knows what it says? So if you just say that you're a revelator and you can, you have the gift of interpretation of tongues, you can read this this artifact from Egypt.

Trouble is, in 1899, the Rosetta Stone was discovered, which gives comparison between other languages and hieroglyphics, unlocking the language and now

Egyptologists can read hieroglyphics and it turns out that the very material that they still have, that the church of Latter Day Saints has in their possession is an

Egyptian funeral rite with no mention of Abraham whatsoever or anything in the fanciful tale contained in the book.

Now I've asked Mormons about this and they say, well, maybe the spirit of interpretation came and that was only something that God used to spur him on, but really it was new revelation.

The problem is, he claimed, and you can see the notes in his journal as he's marking which words and what they mean.

The entire thing is Smith proclaiming to be translating these words. It was a complete lie, and however they try to cover it up, it's evident.

So, obviously, a fraud. Then there was

Wilbur Fulgate. He is the originator of the Kinderhook plate fraud.

The Kinderhook plates were pieces of tin that Wilbur Fulgate had in his barn.

And he lived near Joseph Smith and he thought this was nonsense. And so what he did is he took a chisel and a hammer and he began to chisel out

Chinese -looking characters all over this tin. And he came to the

Mormon church one day saying he's discovered this old plate. What on earth is it? Could the prophet translate it for me?

And he played it up so good he got everybody to believe that he's discovered this or he found it at some garage sale or something.

Broadcast it to the world. However, Joseph Smith then translated it into some scriptural thing that of course validates him as a prophet, as he always would do.

And then Wilbur Fulgate came out of the closet and admitted that he made the plates as nonsense to test to see how

Joseph would handle it. And of course Smith failed the test. Now what would you have done if somebody brought you some tin with random markings all over it and said can you translate this by the spirit?

Or what does it mean? What would you say? You'd check the providence of it. Where it came from. Maybe do some investigation?

Or you'd brush the guy off and say I have no idea what that is. You wouldn't put yourself in that position. You wouldn't just say oh yes, the lord will help me translate this.

But of course he called it comparable to the bible as the book of Mormon. And he said he knew whom the plates belonged to.

A descendant of Ham through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. This is part of Joseph Smith, History of the

Church Volume 5, page 372. Where he translates the fraudulent kinderhook plates which were actually made by Wilbur Fugate.

Alright, this is what is called the Joseph Smith translation. This is very interesting. So Joseph, he's no lazy dude.

He translated the whole bible into the Joseph Smith translation.

So the problem is he didn't know Greek or Hebrew so he kind of went along with the King James and made little changes here and there.

And one of the verses that he hated was Romans 4 -5. Could someone turn to Romans 4 -5 for me?

But before you read it, I want to read the JST which still is the Joseph Smith translation.

JST But to him that seeketh not to be justified by the law of works, but believeth on him who justifieth not the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Righteousness. Joseph Smith translation of Romans 4 -5. Now for you bible students you should be having some alarm bells going off there.

Doesn't quite sound right. Someone got it for me? So, and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

Okay, read that again. Let's see if everybody can compare and contrast. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

Stop right there. Justifies the ungodly. What is the gospel? That ungodly, unrighteous sinners like us are declared righteous, imputed with the righteousness of Christ, not based on our godliness, but based on the merit of Christ Jesus.

Look at the JST. He hated this concept of justification by faith alone.

And in fact, 2 Nephi he takes the language of Ephesians 2 -8 -9 which we know, for by grace you are saved by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anybody should boast.

And the JST it's not in that case the JST, he worked it into the

Book of Mormon. It says for by grace you are saved through faith after all that you can do.

See the difference? If you're working hard, if you become good, then grace makes up the difference because yeah, we're sinners, but it's for the godly, those who have come a long way, that grace makes up the difference after all that you can do.

So you see what he's done here? He's actually turned the gospel entirely on its head with the insertion of the word not because the word not negates the thought.

In fact it's the exact opposite of what the true Bible says. This says believeth on him who justifieth not the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness.

You see what he does? He's a twister of Scripture. He's the serpent himself in the garden.

This is serious serious stuff. Okay. D &C 132 verses 52 -56

This is a test of, first of all Joseph giving new revelation which we know is in and of itself out of bounds right?

But I want you to see the character of the revelation. Again going back to the test of fruit.

If you believed you had plural wives and you wanted to justify that, what would be your biggest hurdle?

Your current wife. And Emma Smith objected mightily to the addition of multiple wives.

And so what did the prophet do? And I find this D &C 132 52 -56 to be one of the clearest revelations of the character of Joseph Smith.

Look what he does to his wife here. Giving new revelation as if God were speaking, he writes this.

This is one of their scriptures. D &C 132 And let my handmaiden Emma Smith receive all those that have been given to my servant

Joseph. Thus says the Lord. And who are virtuous and pure before me and those who are not pure and have said they were pure shall be destroyed, saith the

Lord God. He's telling Emma to accept plural wives.

For I am the Lord thy God and ye shall obey my voice. Wow. Is this the idea of sister wives?

Yeah, that's where, yeah. So all the Warren Jeff stuff, you know, Warren Jeff's that child molester and all that.

The fundamentalist Latter Day Saints are the ones who still believe and practice D &C 132.

The current Mormons made it nicer for America but they believe, okay, fine we'll do it in the next world.

Because they believe that's part of the spirit life later. They haven't changed it in spirit but because it doesn't really work in the culture and then you have the

FLDS, the fundamentalist Latter Day Saints that are actually sticking with the polygamy of D &C 132.

Continue to read on. I am the Lord thy God. He's speaking in the voice of God to bully his wife into accepting polygamy.

And I give unto my servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things.

For he hath been faithful over a few things and from henceforth I will strengthen him. And I command my handmaiden,

Emma Smith, he names her, to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph and to none else.

But if she will not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed. Saith the

Lord. For I am the Lord thy God and I will destroy her if she abide not in my law. But if she will not abide this commandment, then shall my servant

Joseph do all things for her, even as he hath said. And I will bless him and multiply him and give unto him a hundredfold in this world.

In other words, you're replaceable. Of fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, houses and lands, wives, plural, and children and crowns of eternal lives in the eternal worlds.

And again, verily I say, let my handmaiden forgive my servant Joseph his trespasses, namely

Fanny Alger, when she had caught him. And then shall she be forgiven her trespasses, wherein she has trespassed against me.

And I, the Lord thy God, will bless her and multiply her and make her heart to rejoice. Muhammad used the same tactic.

Let's quote from the actual Quran. Perhaps his Lord, if he divorced you all, would substitute for him wives better than you.

He's yelling at Aisha, you know, in Surah 66. Submitting to Allah, believing, devoutly, obedient, repentant, worshiping, and traveling.

Ones previously married and virgins. You will enter the fire with those who enter.

Just like the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. After all, that's what happens to prophets' wives when they don't submit.

I added that last line. But when did Noah's wife get destroyed?

Muhammad was really not that familiar at all with the scriptures. But he remembered the Lot story. He's basically saying to Aisha, if you don't let this go, then you're going to become like Lot's wife.

And Noah's wife, for good measure. Did she turn into a pillar of salt too? We don't know.

D &C 132 -66. And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily,

I say to you, I will reveal more to you hereafter. Therefore, let this suffice for the present.

Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen. I keep cracking up when I read that. If you read the whole book of Mormon and the

D &C and Pearl of Great Price, it is hilarious. That anyone could believe that this is

God speaking. He signs off like, more later. This will suffice for the present.

Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen. That's how he signed off the plural marriage. D &C 132 -66.

Oh boy. 2 Nephi 27 12 -14.

Wherefore, at that day, when the book shall be delivered. Okay, now listen. This is in the book of Mormon.

Okay? 2 Nephi chapter 27. Who does it sound like as you listen to it?

Wherefore, at the day when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it, save be that three witnesses shall behold it by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered.

And they shall testify to the truth of the book, and the things therein. And there is no other which shall view it, save it be a few according to the will of God, and bear testimony of his word unto the children of men.

For the Lord has said that the words of the faithful shall speak as if it were from the dead. Wherefore, the

Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book, and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good, will he establish his word, and woe be unto him that rejected the word of God.

Okay, clearly this is about Joseph Smith discovering plates of the the hidden book that had been long dead and he's going to have witnesses that will

So if you're reading the book of Mormon 2 Nephi chapter 27 verses 12 to 14, you're saying

Oh! Joseph Smith was prophesied long ago in the

Americas when Jesus visited and gave the book of Mormon, which was subsequently buried and then rediscovered by Joseph Smith.

You're just being carried along like, see? Joseph was prophesied just like Jesus was prophesied.

God confirms his prophets by telling the end from the beginning, right? Trouble is, obviously, there's no book of Mormon before Joseph in 1830.

But here's how the book of Mormon functions. It is the self -validating of a prophet, so -called prophet.

If indeed there had been plain and precious parts of the Bible gone missing, that's what

Joseph Smith claims. Isn't it ironic that these are they that testify of Joseph?

I'm using the language there of John 5 29. Okay. Here's what happened.

Joseph Smith in writing 2 Nephi quoted verbatim 13 chapters out of the book of Isaiah.

13 chapters without missing a word from King James English, which came into being in 1611.

Word for word, King James English for 13 chapters. And he says that certain things went missing from Isaiah that he's restoring.

Now, what was missing from Isaiah that he then restores?

2 Nephi 27 12 to 14. That one part is what

God did not preserve in the book of Isaiah that he is restoring. In other words, as you read through 2

Nephi, hey, that's word for word Isaiah until you get to these three verses which are what he says were missing from Isaiah.

The very part that would validate him as a prophet. It's too rich to even imagine that people believe that.

Jeff, as far as the scriptures go, we know in Revelation it says if anyone adds to the words of these books, the plagues will be added to them.

When I was witnessing out west the last time Joe and I were out west, we ran into a Mormon couple.

They, and I don't remember what verse they were pointing to, but it was a verse in 2 Chronicles, I think, that talked about a hidden book or a secret book.

And basically they jumped off on that to meaning that this whole discovery process was that hidden book.

And I don't remember what verse they were pointing to. I think it's in Isaiah 27 and also in Isaiah 8 where Isaiah says to the testimony and seal it up among the remnant.

When he's saying to Maher, Shalal, Hashbaz and his people that we go to the testimony where everybody else is departing and we're going to seal it up amongst the faithful is basically what they're saying in Isaiah 8 and I think 27 as well.

I'm not sure. But there might be something in Chronicles as well. The key is of course reading it in the context of what it's saying.

But they looked at that as the key to unlocking that we can go here because the

Bible says that there are some hidden books out there and we just found them. That's all there is to it.

That's their point. That's what they're trying to establish. Now the whole idea of, when you read the book of Mormon, when

I was reading it, I think the second time I read it through because I'm trying to witness all these Mormons it clicked like a light bulb.

What was happening here? It was a man in the 1830s writing back in the words of a former prophet to validate his own self and his opinions from the 1830s.

So you'll find them addressing the Calvinism Arminian debate, which comes after the Reformation and was very hot in the 1800s.

And he takes the Arminian side and lambasts Calvinism. The cessationism, continuationism debate.

All of these things he's weighing in on through the words of a former prophet and then prophesying himself.

So basically what he's doing is he's putting his own self and his own theology in the words of former prophets so that he would then get these these converts.

I have one example. This is the last one before we read that thing about adding to Scripture and Revelation.

In the book of Alma, which is one of the books one of the chapter books of the Book of Mormon not the

New Testament he authorizes his own new ecclesiology. So Doctrine of the

Church. Here's a quote from Mosiah 25 21. Therefore they did assemble themselves together in different bodies being called churches every church having their priests and their teachers and every priest preaching the word according as it was delivered to him by the mouth of Alma.

Mosiah 25 21. What's Smith doing there? A couple words to key in on.

Priests and the prophet

Alma. So back in the time of the American Indians you have the revelator

Alma who's the prophet and they're going to establish churches all over using priests who are conferred that authority from Alma.

Sound a little bit like Mormonism? So that's what he's doing. He's putting his newfangled idea into the mouth of former prophets and showing that was how it was back in the

Americas. You see what he's doing? Because in Mormonism the key to understanding it really is the temple and the priesthood.

There was the loss of these things in the first century and the restorer

Joseph is the new prophet and he's restored him this new church with 12 apostles he has his 12 apostles as they still have today and the 70 and Smith was at the top of it then followed by Brigham Young when he died.

There's always one leader of the Mormon church that's kind of the Alma in the old story and so he uses this so called revelation to validate himself so that's really what the

Book of Mormon is. It was Joseph Smith writing a book writing himself into it so that when people read it it would confirm this new thing that he's created.

The temple marriages all of that with the priesthood the Melchizedekian priest which is why they wear the underwear because those are their temple robes.

Alright and then the last slide and we'll summarize somebody read for me Revelation 22 18 to 19.

Anybody got the eyes for that? I'll give it a shot. Thanks. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of the book.

If anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues described in the book and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy

God will take away the share in the Tree of Life and in the Holy City which are described in this book.

So the Bible ends this way with a couple verses later here at the end of the Bible there's a stern warning.

It refers specifically to the Book of Revelation but I think providentially in the ordering of the canon that this would serve as kind of the seal that there's not future revelation.

If someone wants to come and add to the Bible a new book of Mormon or Pearl of Great Price or Doctrine and Covenants let him be accursed.

This is a serious thing. So that's the test of Scripture. So in summary, if you get a chance to talk to a

Mormon these are the tools that you use. You can't just tell them what's in the

Bible although God's word is powerful and it could affect change. Problem is they're reading that same

Bible and they know it quite well, many of them. It's just that they twist and distort what it says.

So they'll nod right along. So you need to have some familiarity with the way they're looking at it. I remember the first time

I witnessed to a Mormon was on a plane when I was in my early twenties and I had no clue what they believed and I just was kind of like what was that?

He seemed to agree with everything I said so I don't even know what the difference is because they don't want you to know the difference.

It's a gradualism for them indoctrinating people into it. They'll start with the Book of Mormon and this idea and they'll really start with eternal families because if you can populate a universe with your wife and be eternally sealed to her and have eternal children, that becomes appealing to many people.

And then they try to look the part of having their lives together and suck people into it.

But they won't come out with the King Follett discourse. So we have to have a knowledge of what they're teaching in order to refute it.

So a few places that you really want to focus. Number one, the doctrine of God.

It's a different God. They're teaching that Elohim had a father and a grandfather and a great grandfather and that going forward, you yourself can become a

God and God's following progressing after you. So it's not the same

God. A great verse to go to, Isaiah 43 11.

Right. Another one of course would be the Shema, Deuteronomy 6 4 I think it's Mark 12 29 that affirms that as well.

But anywhere where that the unity of God as one is taught. In the

Isaiah 40s, all throughout the Bible. A second test, the prophecies that are given.

Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 20 to 22. If anybody prophesies falsely, he's a false prophet and DNC 84 has the false prophecy that the temple would be built in Independence, Missouri in this generation.

A third test, and this is a good place to go to. They'll be uncomfortable, but it's important and that is a test of fruit.

A false prophet is known by fruit according to Jesus in Matthew 7 and the fruit of Joseph Smith's life is emotional abuse of his wife

Emma in DNC 132 where he threatens her with hell if she doesn't accept plural marriage and he tries to browbeat her into agreeing with it.

And the whole idea of these multiple wives, which is so contra the

New Testament. Titus chapter 1. Right. And then lastly the doctrine of Scripture that anyone who adds to Scripture is under a curse and it's very obvious as you read these things that he is just bringing new things to validate himself and contradicting the true word of God.

You could go to Romans 4 .5 show the person Romans 4 .5 right after Isaiah 43 .11 and say this is the word of God.

Now let's go on your phone and show me what Joseph Smith says about Romans 4 .5 and he completely negates it with the word not.

So that's what I found to be the most effective in speaking to Mormons. We have seen Mormons come out of Mormonism and get saved.

When I was at Calvary Chapel Philadelphia, a woman came in and one of the only times

Fran Poltrow gave me the pulpit. I just started talking, I was talking about grace through faith, preaching out of Romans and I just started talking about Mormonism and used that as an example and a

Mormon had come in and she after the service came to the front and explained that and she said how did you know that I would be here?

I don't know, I just used that as an illustration, it came to mind and she repented of Mormonism and has served the

Lord since then. Does it ever bear any fruit to go down the just a discussion of the cross and the sacrifice of Christ and salvation or does it just end up being a rabbit trail?

Well they affirm it you have to know some of the details. They don't affirm, when they take communion they don't take grape juice they take water.

Interesting, why is that? They think the passion of Christ was in Gethsemane and his suffering was in the garden and they don't exalt the cross at all.

That's a place of shame and a place where he's being murdered essentially. His vicarious suffering they have as an atonement for sin is in the garden of Gethsemane.

So the answer actually is yes. I think to focus on 1 Corinthians the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

Why is it that your church doesn't have any crosses? Why is it that there's no talk of the message of the cross?

Why do Mormons run from that and put the emphasis on Gethsemane? That's a good place to go.

But they think they have the atonement, they believe Jesus died on the cross they believe he rose from the dead, but they've distorted atonement and they've lost the meaning of vicarious substitutionary atonement.

So yeah, it is good to talk, I mean the message of the cross is power, whether it be to a

Mormon or to anybody. Anytime you talk about the cross is good. Any other questions? We've got just a couple more minutes.

Or thoughts? Yeah. Joseph Smith deserves a

Monty Python. He's a loon! He's a loon. Are you going to do

Joe's Witnesses next? I don't know. Is that next? I have Hinduism and then

Buddhism after that. Hinduism and then Buddhism? Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

Wow. Yeah. Mormonism has continued to grow amazingly.

It's over 13 million now. Jeff Durbin. You've probably seen that where he confronts

Mormons in the street. And it's very good because he's very systematic about the way he approaches it.

And you're right. They're very well versed in going back and he validates, yes you're right but how about this?

Yes you're right, how about that? And he brings them down this trail and so finally they admit that yeah, you're right.

But it took a while. I almost fell over when we were out west because it actually got to the point in our discussion with this man that I was talking to and I said, well what about the prophecy in Ezekiel about the two sticks?

Yeah. And his face lit up like this was the most important piece of scripture in his repertoire.

And he went on for 15 minutes about the two sticks. And I couldn't believe it.

I was like, most people, most believers, Christians, wouldn't even know what I was talking about.

About the two sticks coming back together in Ezekiel. Because they he said to me, he thinks that all the

Mormons are the lost ten tribes that eventually will be brought back together.

But it's like, well wait a you know. And there's a whole issue with that because there's talk about that there was a settlement, right, from the

Mideast over to South America. And then there were elephants and all these metal artifacts.

Well, there were never any elephants. Or horses. And the

DNA from all the Mormon people is white European background and has nothing to do with the

Middle East at all. So there's a lot of fallacies with all those stories, but he's locked up into that.

He was absolute. And if you want a good read, read the Book of Mormons telling of how they crossed from the

Old World to the New World. It's like the story of Noah's Ark. Which has an actual ark that's like physically possible.

Only this is an enclosed wooden ark that functions half the time as a submarine.

It keeps going down underwater and then bobs its way. It's just so scientifically ridiculous that this thing just went underwater and bounced around and they popped out at the

New World after weeks and weeks. I felt that way on the ship sometimes. Yeah, but I bet your ship probably was made of steel and things that could actually submerge.

It would go underwater sometimes. Interesting. The last thing

I want to ask you about because you seem to know just about everything. Wasn't there some sort of a war that Jesus fought with four of the

Mormons down in South America or that was I don't remember what years it was but it was a fairly recent history.

Wasn't there a war somewhere in the Book of Mormon? That's the big concept. There's these two

Indian people groups. Lamanites and Nephites or something.

Whatever they were. One was righteous and the other was wicked. They would clash all the time in these big wars.

Well, the longer somebody would be converted to Christianity the more white and delightsome their skin would become.

They were becoming more white. That's the light -skinned ones that date back to the righteous ones.

The dark -skinned ones all died off in these wars and rebellions. Then it eventually goes down to today.

Then finally the righteous ones were sort of extinguished and all that was left was the buried treasure of that record.

Yeah, it was constant battles in there between these two warring factions of the righteous and the unrighteous.

It's funny with that white and delightsome thing, it wasn't until 1978 that the

Mormons would even allow black people to be priests. To be full

Melchizedekian priests. You'd think that maybe if they had a revelator that this prophet that was leading them would be kind of ahead of the times but they were like way behind the civil rights movement and finally got dragged along when the pressure got so high in 1978.

It's absurd to think that this is of God. Hitler said people will believe any lie if it's fantastic.

Well, there's got to be a spiritual power. I mean, Hitler was a cultic. The Nazi movement was empowered by demons.

Mormonism is demonic. When you're sharing the gospel with them, you have to realize that there is no sanity that would bring a person to believe this.

It's a spiritual. It's a stronghold. That's why in 2 Corinthians 10 3, 4, and 5, we battle not against the flesh.

Then he says the weapons of our warfare are divinely powerful for tearing down strongholds.

Then it says we demolish arguments and make every thought captive to obedience to Christ.

That means when we're doing apologetics, when you're sharing the gospel, you're in spiritual war. You're using the

Word of God as your sword and you're taking these thoughts, these lies captive to make a person obedient to Christ.

That's why we do it for the salvation of souls. Alright, who would like to close us in prayer? Thank you.

Father, thank you so much for this teaching tonight. Thank you Lord for our pastor here who is shepherding us through this

Lord. We pray for these people who are deceived and that are under this demonic cloud there

Lord. We need to have mercy on them. We need to pray for them. We need to disciple them to get them out of there.

We know that many will come if we just present the case correctly. So we thank you

Lord for this education, for this enlightenment. And we pray that we continue to be this force for you

Lord to be the soldier representing you, our Lord and Savior. Give our brothers a great rest of this week

Lord. Be with them, guide them. We know we're in a very dark time in our history

Lord, but you are our Savior, you are our guide, and you are the merciful God who has created all things.

We ask all of this and we're in need of sleep. Amen. Very nice Alright, thank you guys.