Who Do Mormons Worship?

or that reflects my understanding of what the church teaches so we use the word Jesus but like you said you disagree so one of the concerns that we have for you as Latter -day

Saints is there's a test of a prophet in Deuteronomy 13 chapter 13 it basically says this if a prophet or a dreamer of dreams comes among you and he has miracles and signs like the fruit looks good looks legit right but he leads you after other gods that you don't know then he's a false prophet so in just that one thought experiment just that one question can you see how there's a difference between what

I would say about Jesus and what you would say yeah no I haven't okay yeah it's like we don't actually experience or see like God it's like Jesus taking or like giving glory right so on that no there's another one for you to consider

Joseph taught that God became a god and that you can become one too if you're faithful right like you got a temple get get endowed endure to the end all that kind of stuff but in Isaiah 43 10 says that before me there was no

God form neither shall there be after me so what we see there is there's a collision between what

Joseph Smith taught and what the Bible taught yeah it gets messy with the interpretations for sure well what would you say what would you say the valid interpretation

I am not well read enough of the Bible okay so I just quoted it what do you think about it no

I mean it says a lot of like what you say makes sense do you think it's a contradiction a little bit okay so how do we figure out who's right experiences really through life yeah honestly okay because I feel like the right person could convince you of the wrong thing so I feel like just everyone has to be their own judge interesting okay let me ask you this there's a guy in Siberia his name is

Vasari on he claims to be Jesus in the flesh reincarnated he's written 17 volumes of scripture he leads a church called the

Church of the Last Testament Wow so the question I would have for you is very similar on those credentials could you acknowledge that he is

Jesus Christ really okay so I can see why that but but can they both be right is the question and both what

Joseph Smith taught with temples and all this because the Vasari on guy he doesn't acknowledge these things he doesn't teach him he doesn't build temples and stuff so the question is if we say who's like right and you said experiences there's like 10 ,000 people that live up there they built like their own private community of mountains pretty intense right but but they seriously believe that he's

Jesus just like you guys seriously believe in the validity of the temple and all that kind of stuff so how would you like settle it

I wouldn't say I think there's truth in a lot of religions and I think people could sit around arguing about what is the one true like all day there's gonna be a different of opinions and what was your name by the way

I'm Craig Craig nice to meet you I was like I should get this guy's yeah yeah I mean what we believe you know as Latter -day

Saints is but there's truth in a lot of churches because there's pieces of truth but don't you guys also believe you're the one true church and everyone else is of the church of the devil not necessarily so it says in DNC one and Nephi that's fair there's a lot of terminology that is a little bit extreme and out of the times so you don't agree with that I have to read that because in second

Nephi I was reading it extreme well that's what it says in second Nephi it says that there's two churches the church of the lamb and the church of the devil and it calls it the great abominable church the whore of all the earth you know like pretty extreme language but if you're making an

X like an exclusive truth claim I don't have a problem with that like I think we can like just be frank about right like yeah your church teaches it okay yeah you know

I wouldn't say every other churches like up the double down right but what in the first vision that Joseph Smith got what what did

God tell him all the churches are wrong yeah right so wouldn't you then to settle the collision wouldn't you appeal to like the first vision and be like well despite what this guy says can't be true because Joseph Smith got the revelation as a

Latter -day Saint wouldn't you just wouldn't you appeal to that maybe would that be fair okay so in a similar way

I would point to the scriptures and I would say that the scriptures kind of transcend time and person where you know

I could die today my opinion doesn't matter right it won't matter tomorrow won't matter in a year but God's Word is persistent through the ages and it doesn't change so when

God's Word says that there were no gods before him and that there won't be any after you can rest in that because that's timeless truth but when you have someone who comes along and contradicts it that's how you know according to God's standards that there are false prophets so if if Joseph was a fallen prophet it actually says in verses 4 & 5 of Deuteronomy 13 it commands you not to listen to them because the

Lord is testing you to see if you love him with all your mind mind strength so the challenge

I would have for you is check it out let me give you this one too just so you can look up the references later check it out give

Joseph Smith an examination in light of scripture because if what I've told you is correct and you are banking on this to some degree it's better for you to figure it out like get to the bottom of it before you get married because when you get married and have kids well there's a lot more on the line right you're responsible for other people's lives so I would say check them out read it we're here every

Thursday if you got questions we wouldn't mind you know having a chat with you again but yeah just the parting thought to leave you with check out chapters of Isaiah 40 through 45 in there there's a lot of verses where God testifies about himself the exclusivity of him where he says there's only one

God only one God but according to the church and the purpose of the temple the whole point is to become a

God right so that's a different message it's a different way to God so I would encourage you to wrestle with that wrestle with the

Word of God and really think about it yeah no I would say there's a lot that if we just knew for a fact because of what was written it's like what would be the point of faith if you just knew everything everything made perfect sense we knew what we were going to be in a million years yeah that's that's interesting yeah

I would say because the Bible often calls people sheep I don't know if you know anything about sheep they're really stupid

I'm really stupid and they tend to not listen they need a lot of instruction and repetition so in the same way you know that the

Word of God is clear that you shall not lie or steal it's also clear when it says don't worship other gods whether that be you know like a statue or even yourself right you know something right and what this points to ultimately is you receiving worship something yeah if the claims of the church are true that would be the end result you would be exalted and you would receive worship but what

God says is that he doesn't share his glory with anyone yeah so what what that would mean is the rules of the game are set and it means there's no path forward so I don't know if you've ever seen like the carrot on a stick you know someone like chasing after it yeah if I may be bold I would say that's kind of what you're chasing if you listen to what the prophets are teaching because according to what

God testified this is his testimony no one else will make it and he doesn't even know of any other gods so if that's true you know

I would say wrestle with the word and if necessary repent of the

Mormonism that you believe in because I think you recognize the collision I could have a conversation with someone more well -read more well -educated like yourself just be at a loss of like factual things but I just know like just from what

I've the piece that I felt I just always have faith okay one other thing

I'll leave you with and I'll really let you go scripture does talk about how God sends deceiving spirits to let people believe their delusions another passage you could look at would be first Kings 22 talks about King Ahab where a lying spirit goes down and tells him if you go to war you'll succeed

God says okay go do it and you will succeed in deceiving him so he goes to battle and he dies but he believed it with all his heart so the issue is not whether you've had an experience to believe it it's whether or not it agrees with God's Word so I would challenge you to to put the experience aside and say let the