MORMON CHURCH
P.O. Box 30700
Salt Lake City, Utah 84150
Gentlemen:
I read with much interest your attractive 8-page advertisement in
the October issue of Reader's Digest. Some of the things I read in your
advertisement immediately brought some questions to mind on my part. I
am no authority on the Mormon religion. However, I have spent
considerable time with the Bible. This is what prompts the questions, and
especially since you mentioned that the Bible was one of the "Mormon's
sacred books" and since you stated that the Mormons were committed
to spreading "the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people, everywhere."
I read on the fourth page of your advertisement: "The
Mormon doctrine of Eternal Marriage holds that Mormon marriages are
forever: Men and women, married in a Mormon Temple, form a holy
relationship that will endure beyond the grave, in reunion with each other,
and in life everlasting with God and the Savior."
This brings another question. Have you never read the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:23-30? Your teaching is just
opposite of what He taught in the Bible (and you claim the Bible as one
or your "sacred books"). Notice in detail: "The same day came to him the
Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother
shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there was
with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife,
deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife to his brother: Likewise the
second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman
died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the
seven? For they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, "Ye do
err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the
resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the
angels in heaven"
Furthermore, you continued in your advertisement by speaking
about "baptism by proxy" which the Mormon Church practiced and
saying that the deceased wife of this man could join him in his conversion
and in Eternal Marriage.
If I read the Bible correctly, it seems to me that the nature and guilt
of sin is personal (Romans 3:23, etc) and consequently salvation must be
on a personal basis. The great commission instructed that the gospel be
preached to every person, and "He that believes and is baptized shall be
saved" (Mark 16:15, 16). "EVERYONE" was to repent and be
baptized (Acts 2:38). They were further admonished: "Save
YOURSELVES from this untoward generation" (Acts 2:40). Peter said,
"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that YOUR SINS may be
blotted out"(Acts 3:19). Acts 17:30 states that "ALL MEN
EVERYWHERE" are commanded to repent because "ALL MEN" must
personally face God in judgement. Paul says that in the Day of Judgment
"EVERY KNEE shall bow " and "EVERY TONGUE confess to God.
So then EVERYONE of us shall give account of himself to God "
(Romans 14:11,12). No one can accept Christ for us, be baptized for us,
nor live our lives for us. It is a personal matter. And when death comes,
no one can die for us, for each of us must "walk that lonesome valley."
Your advertisement in more ways than one leaves me confused.
You quote the great commission, "Go you therefore, and teach all
nations." And speak of the "commitment to spread the gospel of Jesus
Christ to all people, everywhere" by the Mormon Church. You call the
Bible a "sacred book." BUT THEN you speak of "the divine revelations
that led him (Joseph Smith) to establish the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints" (in the last century).
This seems like a great contradiction to me since you claim to be
working under the great commission and to be spreading the gospel
commissioned by Christ. The preaching orders involved preaching what
was revealed to them in the first century and it involved "teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I HAVE COMMANDED you" (what
Christ commanded, Matthew 28:18-20). They were to preach the
message that was commissioned then (at that time) "unto the end of the
world (age)." That commission was not to preach a "revelation" that
came along hundreds of years later. Jesus had told his disciples that the
Holy Spirit would guide them into ALL TRUTH (John 16:13; 14:26).
This the Holy Spirit did, and it has been written down in the New
Testament Scriptures. Jude wrote that the faith had once and for all been
delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). We are warned that if we add to or
take from the book of the Holy Scriptures the plagues mentioned therein
will be added to us and our names taken from the book of life
(Revelation 22:18,19). The inspired apostle Paul declared, "But though
we, or AN ANGEL from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed" (Galatians
1:8). It looks to me like all these Scriptures should tell us something.
Then to add to the confusion, it is said that Joseph Smith
established the "Church of Jesus Christ" in the last century about 1900
years removed from Christ. I humbly say this doesn't make sense to me
for Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, "I will build My church; and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it." Christ established his church in the first
century. From Acts 2:47 onward it is spoken of as a reality, something in
existence then (Acts 2:47; 8:1; Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2; etc.).
The "gates of hell" would not prevail against His church.
These are some things that caught my attention in your ad in the
October issue of the Reader's Digest. Like I said, I don't know much
about the Mormon religion , but I have studied the Bible. My knowledge
of the Bible has prompted me to ask these questions. IF you folks
believe the Bible to be the Word of God, perhaps it would be good to
clear up the confusion. The Reader's Digest is read by millions of people
and the relationship of the Mormon religion to the Christianity of the New
Testament is not clear especially to me.
(God's completed revelation) in the form of the Bible, the New
Testament. The Holy Spirit guided the apostles into "ALL TRUTH"
(John 16:13). The revelation was made to the apostles and prophets in
the early church (Ephesians 3:5), and is now recorded in the Holy
Scriptures. We have already pointed out from II Timothy 3:16 and 17
that the Scriptures are "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect,
THROUGHLY FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOOD WORKS." Peter
tells us that "His [God's] divine power hath given unto us ALL THINGS
that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that
hath called us to glory and virtue" (II Peter 1:3). According to Jude 3, the
faith has once and for all been delivered to the saints. The New
Testament is called an "everlasting covenant" (Hebrews 13:20). In other
words, Christianity is a completed religion, God's final revelation to man,
and the Bible is a closed book (no more is to be added). Consider
Galatians 1:8 and Revelation 22:18 and 19. (to go back to top)
Sincerely,
James E. Gibbons
Source: http://web.infoave.net/~jgibbons/ed-bymor.htm
10 false prophecies by J.Smith
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