Contending For the Truth That The LDS Deserve

GOD’S WORD:

“Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.” -Proverbs 30:5-6

“This is what the Lord says- Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and the last; apart from me there is no God.” -Isaiah 44:6

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” -Galatians 1:8

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God- not by works so that no man can boast.” -Ephesians 2:8-9

“God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.” -John 4:24

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." -John 14:6

"The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." -Psalms 18:2


JOSEPH SMITH’S WORD:

"I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." -History of the Church, Vol. 4, p. 461

“I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have selected this text for that express purpose. I wish to declare I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. It has been preached by the Elders for fifteen years.I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods. If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold! we have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural: and who can contradict it!” -History of The Church Vol. 6 p. 473-479

"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also, but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." -Doctrine and Covenants 130:22

“You have got to learn to become Gods yourselves, the same as all Gods before you have done.” -Teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith p. 355

"...no man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith." -Journal of Discourses Vol. 7 pp. 282-91

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ,

Please hold fast to God’s word and rebuke these false teachings of Joseph Smith.We are on your side, contending for the truth of God’s word that you deserve!!
Galatians 4:16

What do Mormonism and Chuck E. Cheese have in common?

As a Christian, the study of Mormonism has had many affects on me -- through Mormonism God has touched my heart and life in ways that I would never have thought possible.

Yesterday my family visited a Christian church we'd never been to before. In addition to the reverent worship of God, praise, thanks, and fellowship, the message from this pastor whom I don't know from Adam, was able to reach out and touch me.

During the message about the search for truth, and the hard-fought battle over worldly values to find God's simple plan for us, we looked at how Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. To Esau, he missed the value of his birthright for gratification of his fleshly desire to quench his hunger. The pastor then tied this example to the parable of The Pearl of Great Price, Matthew 13:45-46, where Jesus told of the man who was searching for this thing of value, and when he found it he saw how it was more valuable than everything else he owned -- he then sold everything he owned to obtain this "pearl of great price."

My first reaction was negative. A had a visceral reaction to the words "pearl of great price" because of what I know of the book by the same name.

For me, as a flesh-borne human being struggling with this earth, the writings of Joseph Smith Jr. and my knowledge of them supplanted my ability, for a moment, to appreciate the true pearl and toss it aside. My reaction to hearing the words "pearl of great price" triggered a reaction in me that I had to ponder for hours after the message, until I realized what was going on inside of me.

You see, this reaction was very similar to the first time that I visited Disneyland. Unlike so many California natives, I did not get a chance to go to Disneyland until I was an adult (this was in the 1980's), and drove myself with a friend on the 8 hour trek to kid mecca. While making the rounds on the rides at Disneyland, we finally wended our way to the Hall of Presidents, where I was absolutely left hollow and unimpressed by the animatronic Lincoln -- my jaw was dropped open, I was so absolutely astounded at how unimpressive it was to see this jerky facsimile of the lanky president "speaking" to us. It was the LOW light of my trip to Disneyland.

It wasn't until months later, when attending a nephew's birthday party at the nation-wide chain Chuck E. Cheese that I realized what had happened to me at Disneyland. I was in a moment transported back to the Hall of Presidents, and I realized what had happened.

I had been to Chuck E. Cheese many times. I was an arcade machine junkie as a teen, and sometimes the "fix" had to come from the least desirable source, Chuck E. Cheese (later I would score a job at a movie theater and make friends with the arcade room manager ... and the "freebies" arcade games went into the early morning on more weekend nights than I care to admit). What I had been exposed to at Chuck E. Cheese had affected me in ways I didn't realize. For years, the exposure to the mass-produced, computer-controlled, loud and obnoxious Chuck E. Cheese "animatronic" characters that played for the kids entertainment, had numbed me. The acceptance of the cheap facsimile had spoiled the value of the original.

When I sat at Disneyland for that first time, I was numbed to the Disney presidents. Mind you, these were absolutely ground-breaking technology in their day -- people were literally freaked out by the realism of these "robots" and there were even urban legends started about the Disney engineers working on robotic park staff, etc. In their day, these animatronics were seen as: 1. Realistic, 2. Unfathomable technologically, 3. Educational! These artificial characters were intended to teach the public; to transport the average American back in time, to almost reach out and touch past characters from the founding of our nation, and present "living history" to the public. What I saw was "the Pizza Time Players" -- Crusty the Cat, Jasper T. Jowls, Pasqually, and the Warblettes.

As I sat in church hearing the word of God preached, my mind short-circuited the living Word to justify to myself how what was being teached had nothing to do with the Book of Abraham or the Book of Moses, Papyri, Chandler's mummies and Egyptian funerary amulets. To me, I allowed my knowledge of Mormonism to implant a filter -- a logical branch that is triggered whenever terms used by the LDS Church are mentioned in a Christian setting. Quite honestly, my first reaction to hearing these words uttered, was to roll my eyes. How shameful! I had some real soul searching to do to justify my reaction to the Word of God, and this post is part of the fruit of that journey.

God really reached out to me yesterday and said this to me : If this happens to you, imagine how lost the LDS people are when they hear these terms! How sad for them not to even know the TRUE meaning of these words, at least you can discern them!

Salvation. Born Again. Grace. The Pearl of Great Price. Testimony. The Holy Ghost. The Trinity. The Holy Bible. Heaven/Hell. The list of words and terms that have been redefined by Joseph Smith in the Mormon religion are almost too numerous to list, and I just scratched the surface.

This message has two parts:
1. LDS people, seek the TRUTH of the Word of God! Search for the true Pearl of Great Price! The truth that only he who dies to himself can live for God (2 Cor 5:15).

2. Christians: Do not allow what you know about Mormonism to stand in the way of your walk with God. Embrace God's word, in spite of the redefined Biblical ideals, the deceptions that the LDS religion has introduced to us, which we are now aware of. A personal testimony is a good and powerful thing. The Pearl of Great Price is NOT a book. Salvation is not for everyone, but only those who accept the free and unmerited GIFT of salvation and the spiritual regeneration/baptism of the Holy Spirit! And the list goes on.

Examine all things; hold fast to what is good! (1Thess 5:21 ; Jer 8:5, Mark 7:4, Mark 7:8, Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 6:18)

Another 9/11 Tragedy

A tragic story where innocent blood was spilled as the result of angry Mormon pioneers.

To Spread the Gospel Or To Make A Buck?

This might be older news to some of you, but I ran across it and figure that it could not be ignored. Deseret Books, an LDS church owned book selling retail store is buying out it’s two chief competitors, Seagull Books and Covenant publishing. Both Seagull and Deseret Book sell primarily religious books and merchandise targeted at members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Covenant is a publishing house for such products. Jenifer K. Nii of the Deseret Morning News wrote in her article on this topic that stated:

“Deseret Book has acquired former competitors Covenant Communications and its sister company, Seagull Book & Tape. Financial details of the transaction were not released. But the deal announced Thursday brings the curtain down on what had been a tumultuous year for the companies, which had been tangled in disputes about merchandising and marketing. The deal was initiated by Seagull and Covenant founder Lewis Kofford and finalized Thursday. "I've been looking for an exit strategy for a number of years," Kofford told the Deseret Morning News. "This presented itself, so I'm very happy with it."

My first question that comes to mind is, why are books stores that sell literature containing theological topics for the LDS church considered competitors? Secondly, again we have the LDS church not wanting to discuss any of its financial fiascos with any type of general public, but more concerning, not even with it’s own members. Thirdly, why was the situation considered to be “tumultuous?”

Further she writes:

“As recently as July 2006, Deseret Book and Seagull Book & Tape said they were in talks "to explore options for addressing the differences that have existed between (the) two companies," which according to Deseret Book executive vice president Jeff Simpson included disagreements about how Seagull merchandised, marketed and promoted Deseret Book products. Earlier in the year, Deseret Book threatened to pull its products from Seagull stores over those same issues. Kofford said Thursday that what started with a meeting between adversaries underwent a transition during the last six months. "It started out as an adversarial situation, but as we started talking, what came out of it on all sides was more of an appreciation," Kofford said. "And as we got into more open communication, the acquisition and the things it offers to the market became something that made sense to all parties."

This seems to show an extreme lack of character by the LDS church. If the primary goal of selling literature to the public in order to share the LDS gospel, then why would it matter how another store with the same intent is discounting product?

Continuing on in the article, Sheri Dew, president and chief executive officer of Deseret Book stated:

“Deseret Book saw a way to reach more customers and a wider market. We knew Covenant well, because they've been our competitors for years. They're strong, and they've tended to be strong where maybe we're not as strong. Each of us has our unique strengths, and this (deal) allows us to expand our ability to reach a broader array of customers, both as a publisher and a retailer."

If one were to evaluate this statement knowing the history and operations of the LDS church, we can simply see that the buy was not to reach a wider market in order to spread the gospel. It was simply a plan to increase sales by monopolizing the industry.

Over all I am sickened to see the Mormon church more concerned in making a buck than spreading their so called Christian message. If the true intent of the LDS church is to sell books in order to promote Jesus, then they would not concern themselves with the neighboring retail stores discounting product. It is extremely evident that the Mormon church is more about making a profit than elevating a relationship with Jesus.

Entire Article

The Podcast.....

Thank you for all of your comments. Due to time contraints we were not able to address each question that was asked. if you feel that you have questions that still need answers, feel free to leave your comments here or contact our ministry:

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Announcement....

A debate is going to be held on the Living Truth Podcast between Jason Bosarge from Josephsmith.com and Eric Hoffman from the One Living Truth Ministry. The topic of discussion will be “Salvation.”
How is salvation received? What must one do in order to be saved? Is salvation given based on works or faith? The debate will held and recorded on Jan 11. 2007. Since a podcast is a recorded audio and unavailable in a live format, questions for either Eric or Jason will have to be submitted prior to the podcast. So if you have any questions for Eric or Jason, please leave them here in the comment section in this post. All questions will remain anonymous unless otherwise specified by the commenter. Please keep your questions specific to the topic of “Salvation.”

Thank you and God bless.