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    Logo
    Understanding the True
    Origins of Mormonism

    The Incredible Story of a Race of Celestial Beings
    that once Came to the Earth...

    by Clare Gregory


    Chapter 5
    False Testimony Process

    In approaching the LDS debate I have chosen to avoid endless Biblical justification for truth, although it is necessary to quote the Bible in some chapters to contrast and illustrate the LDS theology. But in most cases I will simply use logic and reason to make my point. From experience I have learned that if something is absurd or illogical, it is usually also false. However, sometimes what appears to be absurd does become logical if we change the underlying assumptions we are making. Therefore, in order to understand this book completely, I need to lay down a few key assumptions.

    I declare without reservation that LDS theology is illogical, and therefore, the LDS Church can not be what it claims to be. Some may be thinking that believing in God is not logical or rational in the first place, and thus, no one can prove any religion to be true or false by reasoning. I challenge this assertion. It is true I can not prove the existence of God by reason. But if I make an assumption that there is a God, that He always tells the truth, that the truth is logical, and that both true and false angels can appear to people, then I can prove that the LDS religion is not true based on those four simple assumptions. How? By proving that the LDS theology which supposedly came from God is not logical. If the theology is not logical, then it must be a lie, for I assume the truth is always logical. To assume otherwise is to declare that God is irrational in His thoughts, which is absurd.

    If you disagree with my core assumptions, then this book becomes illogical and will make no sense at all. For example, if you do not believe in God nor believe we can even rationally assume there is a God, then my logic will have no foundation in your mind, and you will disagree with the entire book. Or if you believe God can lie in certain justifiable circumstances or that the truth can be illogical or irrational, then your God of Truth is different that what I assume to be true, and my logic also falls apart, and our resulting conclusions will disagree.

    The Human Mind and Assumptions

    The mind works with assumptions continuously. From these assumptions thoughts are built and our religious theology is developed over time using different experiences and beliefs. The mind simply believes thoughts and images whatever they are—either true or false. For example: Is the sun going to rise tomorrow? I can argue we do not know. It is an assumption we all make, and we build our lives on that belief. On the other hand, the sun came up yesterday, and I saw it--that is a fact, not an assumption. Or I can see the sun right now--that also is a fact, not an assumption. But suppose I was in the house all day today and didn't see the sun at all. It's not a fact to me. I didn't see it. Neither do we know from experience and testing that the sun came up 1000 years ago. We assume it did based on reason and experience. (I have never seen a day when the sun did NOT rise. I assume therefore the sun also rose in the sky 1000 years ago.)

    I bring this point up because many people have trouble with believing in God and fail to understand that our belief in many instances is just an assumption we make. We assume there is a God. We assume there is not a God. Who’s right? Only time will tell for sure. We will all know when we are dead. Pretty simple. But to argue over “believing in God or not” is like arguing human beings never make assumptions, and therefore, we should not believe in God until we are dead and know for sure! “Prove to me that God exists, and then I will believe.” If a person believes this is true, they believe an irrational lie. Everyone knows we can’t prove one way or another whether God exists. So why insist on using the false logic?

    But believing without proof goes much deeper than bad logic. The issue is centered on the way the human mind operates. The human mind was created to believe. It thinks. It sees. It makes assumptions. The mind requires no evidence to believe anything. It’s simply a matter of choice. When people finally grasp this true fact, they can discover the power of belief and choice. They discover the joy of making deliberate and rational assumptions about life and themselves. They can find pleasure creating theories and testing them against reality, refining and changing assumptions when observable facts contradict their theories. They find freedom of mind and thought like never before.

    Become Like Little Children

    Little children are the best demonstration of how the human mind was created to operate. Little children simply believe what they see and hear is true. They require no evidence, facts, or statistics to believe. They make assumptions about life all the time. Sometimes we see children form the most silly thoughts from what they have seen or heard, but they still believe them. It’s a pleasure to be around small children for they are free and operate with a high degree of creativity and joy. They are happy. They don’t concern themselves much about being “right or wrong” and are teachable. All of us were once just like this, using our minds as they were intended to be used--to simply believe what we hear and see and to make intelligent assumptions about life. But then something happens. One day we suddenly observe that adults lie. We also realize we are prone to believe bad assumptions and misunderstand. It causes pain, and we get hurt. We then become much more cautious in our belief systems. We create protective barriers and mental walls. We require credible evidence before we believe. Where did that idea come from? Who said it? Is he or she credible? What’s the track record? Does she hold a degree? Is he honest? Does he have experience? Can I trust the information? What does the test or study prove to be true? What are the facts? And so on.

    Mental growth is healthy and normal. A person would be an absolute idiot to continue being like a child and believe everything anyone speaks “is the truth”. That is not reality. Human beings lie all the time. They make mistakes. And we learn this is reality. As we grow older, we try to strike a balance between believing what we hear at face value and taking the time to research the facts personally to validate whether the idea is true or just a bunch of hot air, or worse, a deliberate lie. The fastest and easiest way to believe in something is to find a credible source that can be trusted and has already been through all the research and has done the difficult thinking for us. Then we just follow the leader. The danger in this approach, however, is we fail to understand the processes of the mind, and we actually lose our identity to some degree by playing follow the leader. We don’t mentally grow. There is no substitute for personal choice. We find out who we are in the process of honest evaluation of belief and choice, and we develop a personal identity in that process. It is the foundation of understanding who we really are. If we pass our thinking and choice to someone else, then we remain trapped inside ourselves, unable to come out and express our true beliefs—what we like and don’t like. To grow, really grow, we must look at our own feelings and thoughts honestly, understanding exactly what we believe and the specific assumptions we are making vs. what we know to be the “facts”. It’s a process of self-discovery. And the closer we can become to having the free mind of a little child, the more creative and happier we will be. We can do this by making assumptions deliberately and moving intelligently forward on those assumptions.

    The Pain and Horror of Believing A Lie

    It is painful to trust and serve something we believe is true with all of our hearts, only to discover later it is a lie. When this happens we will require evidence and credible facts to believe again. It takes time to recover from the shock of believing a lie. The amount of evidence we will require for healing will be determined by how badly we have been hurt. This process is normal. We all go through it. However, if we require too much evidence before we believe anything, it becomes an unhealthy mental prison. The subject of God and religion is probably one of the world’s largest mental prisons. The mind really does not require any evidence to believe, and if we continue to require tangible evidence before we believe in God, then our minds will get frustrated for not making a decision one way or another. God would prefer us to be either “hot or cold” rather than “lukewarm”. (Rev 3:15.) It is better for His sake and ours to decide to believe in Him or not, rather than waiting for an unreasonable amount of evidence to come to our shore before deciding. By making an assumption we can start making reasonable conclusions about God and life. Whether we believe or disbelieve in God is NOT the issue. The issue is getting our minds working the way they were intended and created to operate. They need to believe in SOMETHING. And for heaven’s sake, we should believe in that something because WE believe it, not because some “credible source” believes it! Even if that source is GOD HIMSELF. Blind trust in God is placing our mind on a “credible source” or is “proven evidence” that we can trust. It is not really a personal choice. It can slow us down. To believe something just because “the Bible or Book of Mormon says so” is unhealthy. It shifts our responsibility of belief and examination of truth to God as though our choices and identity belong to Him, when they do not. Rather, we should say: “I believe the Bible or Book of Mormon because I choose to believe in them. I like what I believe.” Our belief and choice should belong to us. It is our free agency.

    The biggest weakness with being “lukewarm” in our decision about God and waiting for more evidence before we will choose to believe or not is that such action goes contrary to our very nature. The LDS process of reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know the Church is true is a form of sign-seeking for evidence, rather than just studying and observing what we see, and then either choosing to believe and get baptized or not believe. If we believe the message of Joseph Smith and like it, agreeing with the historical facts and theology, then why force a “testimony process” on the mind? Why can’t a person just choose to believe the message? I could understand praying to God to form a relationship with Him, accepting to obey His will, and praising Him. But to pray and ask if God tells us the truth is illogical nonsense. Of course He tells the truth. Why ask Him? The approach and method binds the mind into something it was never created to handle. Evidence is intended to provide only mental feedback to guide the decision making process. That is all. It is not suppose to replace the mind. Evidence or proof should never be used as the foundation of belief. By refusing to believe until we “see all the facts that prove we are right”, the creative process of the mind breaks down, and we form mental prisons. We clog our minds with indecision and doubt. Doubt is the opposite of belief. If we fail to make a choice to believe in something, whatever it is, then the opposite will automatically occur. We will doubt. If we base our belief completely on evidence and not our choice, then underneath our belief will always be doubt. The evidence made the choice for us. Why shouldn’t we doubt? It’s like putting handcuffs on our minds. Over time our minds become lead weights, creating mental blocks that can cause unnecessary stress and complicate our lives. Rather than our mind serving us, we become slaves to the mind, refusing to believe anything no matter how many facts we find to feed it. How much evidence do we require before we will choose to believe one way or another? So what do we do? Stop believing anything we see or hear? Do we become skeptical and doubt everything until the “truth” is proven before our eyes? Such chronic skeptics find little happiness they once knew as little children. Such thought processes bind us to despair and bondage.

    The LDS Testimony Process

    The reason a “LDS testimony” is so difficult to break is that a person goes through the process of looking for evidence to believe in based on feelings and a spiritual experience. They are clearly told what evidence to look for in a testimony. When that evidence comes as promised, they are then instructed to believe that the evidence proves the Church is true. And once we believe in this paradigm, then the mind settles into knowledge. The mind believes it is a fact. It is no longer a belief or an assumption. This is why I testified on several occasions that I knew the Church were true as well as I could see and know my hand was in front of me. At that moment of testimony the Holy Spirit filled me with so much love for others and enlightening my mind with truth that I logically assumed, because of my LDS training, that the spiritual experience proved the LDS Church is true. But did it? No. It just proved that I had a spiritual experience. Catholics, Protestants, and Hindus have many spiritual experiences, and many of them also assume and believe that the religion they belong to is true because of them. But what these religions don’t have that the LDS Church does is a formal testimony process in which the believer is expected to use. The process changes belief in to knowledge based on spiritual experiences. This testimony process is what makes the LDS mind almost impenetrable to change once the false testimony process has been experienced and the conclusions reach are believed to be true. Once believed, to unlearn the error requires unraveling the process and understanding clearly that the approach is contrary to the nature of the human mind, and then, starting all over from scratch with belief and assumptions. Those who have fallen for the false process can be completely devastated when they discover that the LDS Church is false. They may not have a clear understanding of what happened and how they were deceived. Some never recover. They become skeptical of all religions and settle into a mind frame of believing only what the see, hear, and think. Their God becomes reason and facts, refusing to become duped by religious babble again.

    I will now prove to the LDS Church that the testimony process described above is bogus and why. When we gain knowledge of a fact that something has happened or is true, then we know. I know, for example, that I’m here today writing this book. This is an indisputable fact, not an assumption. Tomorrow or the next day or in one year, if someone asks me what I did today, I will not be confused. I will not doubt. Ever! I know what happened. The LDS testimony process described above is a mental sham. For when our spiritual temperatures inside change, and the trials of life or something we read challenges our testimonies, we feel DOUBT. This doubt and disbelief is the signal that proves that we do not “know” what we claim we know. Why? Because we have chosen to believe our testimony is true, but we have masked that belief on top of a spiritual experience we have been trained to believe proves we are right, and therefore, we know the church is true. But it is not knowledge; it is belief. And we are lying every time we say we know the LDS Church is true. If it were true, then no doubts would ever creep into our mind about the Church. Not even one. We would truly know. But what do we do with our doubts? What is the Church training? We stop and think about our spiritual experience that is the basis of our testimony. We consider all the good things in the Church. We pull out the Book of Mormon again and read it. We go home teaching. And so on. Then we conclude mentally that we do know because the doubts flee. But what did we really do? By our actions we have simply chosen to believe again. But rather than seeing this truth, we assume again we “know” the Church is true based on the bogus testimony process that is founded on the evidence we believe in. Then we go share that knowledge with someone else. And when we do that our mind believes even more the lie we share with others! We become excellent actors, believing in a false process that has deceived us, and we teach others to do the same thing! What a mess!

    If we truly want to be a Latter-day Saint, great! There are many truths in the Church. But we ought to simply be truthful and believe it and tell others we believe it rather than we “know” the church is true. Be honest. Then the mind will be free to operate the way it is intended to. It won’t get bogged down into a silly testimony process that vacillates with one’s feelings and spiritual experiences from day to day, week to week, and year to year. We won’t have knowledge one day, then doubts the next. Indeed, if we remove the evidence foundation and choose simply to believe in Joseph Smith, the doubts will be much easier to manage. Belief will be an independent choice: “Yes, I understand polygamy issue. I see all the conflicts in doctrine and history. But considering all that I still choose to believe in Joseph Smith in spite of the conflicts. I like what he said about this or that. I believe it is true. This or that doctrine is right in line with the Bible.” This is the way the mind was intended to operate, and a person will be much freer to believe the truth and discover error with an open mind of belief. However, we will doubt the LDS Church because its foundation is false. And those doubts will lead your mind to the truth as you struggle to believe in contradictions. Someday it may get so uncomfortable we may leave the LDS Church, being unwilling to be a part of so much error and realizing we belong to a Church that teaches its members to believe in the harmful and false testimony process I’ve just described.

    Not everyone goes through the same experience in the Church. Some never play the game and put on the actor’s suite. They just sit in Church and wonder why they don’t “know the Church is true” like everyone else seems to know. Guess what! Surprise! Those who are witnessing really don’t know what they are doing or saying. Be glad that you had enough integrity and honesty to not stand up and parrot the same process like those you see. Be happy you never got caught in the false testimony process. You need not feel guilty any more for your personal honesty. Pat yourself on the back for not following the blinded crowd.

    Others may know full well that they only bore testimony because their parents whispered what to say in their ears and they believed it. Perhaps you too were sincere and honest as a child and believed. Don’t let the errors of a false process that your parents believe make you bitter and mistrust everyone. Retrace your assumptions, change what you don’t like, and open your mind up to belief and trust again.

    Finally, to those who still believe the Church is true but are reading this book out of curiosity, consider my story that follows and the theological assumptions I’ve had to change. You may need to go through a similar process of your own someday. I sincerely hope my approach to the LDS Church will benefit you.

    No one can write a book on Mormonism’s theology without discussing the principle of personal revelation and spiritual experiences. A Latter-day Saint’s faithfulness, commitment, and testimony hinge on the principle of revelation. This book is different than many other Anti-Mormon books. I gained a testimony of Jesus Christ from the Book of Mormon. I experienced His light and love while I was an active and faithful member of the LDS Church. Therefore, I am not here to disagree with any member of the Church who claims they have a testimony of the Book of Mormon or any truth that exists in Mormonism. However, I also know that in my Mormon experience, I also received false revelations that deceived me as well as impressions that I’m sure were just from the bad fruit juice I drank the night before. Therefore I challenge the LDS members to examine their hearts and determine for themselves the spirit of revelation and what is true and what is not true. The key to truly understanding Mormonism is in knowing how to use the gift of spiritual discernment.

    It took much direct emotional pain and personal suffering for the truth to break through my thick skull and reveal my errors. In my situation, I falsely concluded that because the Book of Mormon contains “truths” about Jesus which the Holy Spirit bore witness to, and I reasoned the LDS Church is true. Since then I’ve learned that this is false logic. Just because I know the Book of Mormon is theologically correct doesn’t prove the LDS Church is true. Theoretically, the Book of Mormon could by 100% theologically correct (although it is not) and the angels that delivered the book could be from hell or heaven. The truthfulness of the Book of Mormon does not prove truthfulness of the LDS Church.

    Truth is Independent

    Let me explain further. All truth is independent. The physical realm can be subdivided into matter, space, energy, and time. We can peal each of these components back further and examine them in detail. For example, let’s look at matter and time. I can look at my house on December 31, 1998 and examine the structure, color, texture, size, model, and the land it sits on. I can determine facts about each of these independent elements. The size of the house does not determine the color. Neither does size determine the exact model, nor the texture, nor the location or land it is built on. Each fact is independent in its own sphere. I can not say, “My house is blue, therefore the lot is one acre.” This is extremely bad logic. Such logic would only be believed by a deranged mind.

    However, LDS theology uses this type of false logic incessantly. We are to pray about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon and have a “spiritual experience”. Then we are deliberately taught to reason that “because I had a spiritual experience, I know the LDS Church is true.” Then we add to the already bad logic even worse logic: “I know the Church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Therefore, I know the priesthood was restored and that modern prophets hold the saving priesthood keys. The bishop is sent from God as well as all Church leaders. The approved LDS Church manuals are all true. Finally, all Church programs are true and lead to eternal life—even the Boy Scout program.” And so on. How extreme could we take the logic? To some members, believing that administering sports programs in the Church are saving gifts from Almighty God, and if we don’t attend and support the Church sponsored basketball or volleyball game, we are not following God. Anyone believing this logic might as well also believe: “our house is painted blue, therefore we own a car.”

    Believing any church is “true” will naturally cause us to start connecting irrational thoughts together in a way that binds us into very stupid notions. We assume the truth is dependent. We connect the facts all together into one mass of substance that has no life nor independence. It becomes mental sludge. And when our mind sees something that is wrong, and we know it is wrong, our minds will not accept the truth: We say: “The Church is true, therefore, this or that must also be true! There must be a mistake in the information. That can not be the correct fact!”

    Member of the Church will experience this mental trap continually, assuming that the LDS theology and testimony process is valid. But the thought process is not logical; it assumes that truth is not independent; and it is therefore false. This bad logic I call “dependent” logic. Each truth depends on another truth. This theological approach is backwards and encourages blind thinking. Spiritual truth is independent just as matter, energy, space, and time—the events and facts of life. These facts stand independently in the physical world. Can you imagine someone saying, “Well, my daughter told the truth, therefore, my son also tells the truth?” That is the logic of the LDS testimony process. It is irrational and false.

    The Cause of Deception

    The deception and false doctrine in the LDS Church can be traced to the confusions caused by Mormons teaching a false pattern of prayer from the LDS testimony process. The pattern looks very simple and straightforward—we pray and ask God whether something is true or not. But I’m about to shine the light on the darkness, and this section will prove to be very disturbing to some Latter-day Saints who have not thought deeply about the principles they have been taught to be true. If we build on principles that are truly Biblical, we will not err. But if we deviate from the strict teachings of Jesus in the Bible, especially regarding prayer and testimony, the devil has power over our minds and he will lead us into error. He catches us in spiritual snares. How much damage has been done to the Latter-day Saints because they firmly believe truth is found in priesthood leaders? When will they learn that the Church is truly operated mostly by human minds, mixed with some Holy Spirit?

    Satan enjoys nothing more than mixing God’s truth with the carnal mind, spreading half-truths around all kingdoms on earth, binding the children of men into paradigms they think are 100% true, when in reality, they are merely sugar-coated poison. Mormonism is not the only religion or people that Satan uses his power to blind us to the truth found in Jesus. We could pick any religion, examine what is taught, and likely find a half-truth buried somewhere in the doctrine. Satan enjoys controlling human beings in this manner. So I’m not picking on the Mormons, per se. I’m about to share universal principles. And they are related to the most basic of godly principles--our prayer life. If Satan can deceive us on the fundamental principle of prayer, he has defeated us before we even get onto the racetrack. Whereas all religions teach prayer, not everyone understand the dangers of it. For with our prayers we open ourselves up not only to receiving answers from God, but also to potentially being deceived by the devil and false spirit and led down paths of destruction. Knowing this, Jesus gave us the true pattern of prayer as follows:

      “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who are in Heaven, Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive others. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.” (Matt 6:9-13.)

    Do we see the clarity of this instruction and know why it is given? Jesus is NOT instructing us to plead for a “witness of truth”, like the Mormons teach us. Rather, He is instructing us to pray just the opposite. He is asking us to plead that God would not allow us to be DECEIVED by Lucifer. We ask for protection against the destroyer, praying to be delivered from all the demons in hell. God has the power and ability to provide this protection. Why? “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.” There is much more to the Lord’s prayer than many may comprehend. The principles go wide and deep. Let us examine this prayer in detail:

    The true pattern of prayer begins by addressing God as our Heavenly Father. He is a personal God, our Creator and Spiritual Father. He deserves respect and honor for what He has truly done. Praise be to His name! The Kingdom of God is inside each of our hearts, as Jesus taught: “The kingdom of God cometh not by observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For behold, the kingdom of God is in you!” (John 17:20-21.) Jesus teaches we should pray that the Kingdom of God should come. How can the Kingdom of God come to us if it is already in our hearts? Simply put, it needs to come up from beneath. It is like a spring of water hidden beneath the ground of our hearts. We need see it. It needs to come up. Each of us is full of hidden treasures. So, the Kingdom of God comes by reading the Word, and that Word draws up the Water of God already in us. The Holy Spirit ignites an eternal flame, and we see the Kingdom of God. We are born again and see the Kingdom of God, then, we can do the will of God. (John 3:4-5.) Hence, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” This is how angels operate. They move and act on the Light in them, which is the voice of God, the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, or the still waters of God.

      “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be IN HIM a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. (John 4:13-14.)

    With the spiritual kingdom before our eyes, we also the need our daily bread or spiritual nourishment. We feed off the bread of life daily, or the Word of God. But notice, we do not pray and ask God, “Is this Word true?” No, we simply ask for the nourishment we need, and we trust that God will send his spirit like the wind: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and wither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit”. (John 3:7-8.) This Spirit, this wind of understanding and grace, blows as God wills it and as we ask for the bread of life. “Give us this day, our daily bread.” (Matt 5:11.) It is through the prayer of faith that God sends His spiritual winds to feed us His Word, filling our spirits with nourishment and all delightful morsels of tasty truth.

    And forgiveness? How is this accomplished? Do we go through as list of man-made steps to obtain God’s mercy? No! We obtain forgiveness and justification of our sins by learning the principle of mercy ourselves, and forgiving others. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matt 5:7.) Jesus has already won the victory on the cross. He has already forgiven us. He stands with unconditional love to receive us into His open arms. It is our own hardened and darkened hearts that can not feel his mighty love and his unconditional gift of grace. And how do we learn to feel and accept this love? By forgiving ourselves and others—by practicing unconditional forgiveness to all, just as Jesus loves us. No strings attached. No selfish human bargains. Just quiet forgiveness for everyone, even to our vilest enemies. Indeed, we pray for and bless our enemies. Why? Because this is the love Jesus Christ demonstrated on the Cross. Are we not to follow him?

    With forgiveness granted, and feeding daily on the bread of truth, we are set free indeed. But we are still at danger with Satan and his fiends. In our thankful state of praise, completely forgiven, enjoying the promise of eternal glory, we are still quite ignorant of spiritual things and our Biblical knowledge is limited, and by that ignorance Satan can deceive us. As we progress in light, Satan uses greater keys of darkness to deceive us. So He never changes and goes away, no matter how much we grow in truth. If we learn a new truth, Satan has a creative way to twist it. Therefore, the truth can actually be dangerous, if we are not aware of the power of the devil. Paul taught: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph 6:11-12.)

    In the LDS view, much self-discipline and wrestling with the flesh is taught. Self discipline is a constant theme, which is noble. But as True Christians, we understand the battle is truly not with our flesh, but with the Devil, and we are taught to pray the blood of Christ against Satan’s power. We are taught about “prayer intercession” for others, and to ask God to release those who are being influenced by false spirits. And in our personal lives, we plead for God’s discernment against the devil that he might not deceive us, reading the Word as a shield of pure truth. We ask God that he lead us not into Satan’s dark ways, but that we might be delivered from his falsehood and lies. We pray that we might discern the half-truths in our own hearts, exposing the error that we might avoid the damnation of hell. And God is faithful, for with such a sincere prayer, and that we are honestly seeking NOT to be deceived, God will deliver us from all falsehoods and sanctify us. His is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. We belong to God, and He has all power to save us from the devil.

    Now, where do we receive any of these truths from the following pattern taught by the LDS missionaries?

      1. Our Heavenly Father
      2. We Thank Thee
      3. We Ask Thee
      4. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

    This formula seems so innocent, but oh, it is so deceptive. In this simplistic view, there is no protection against Satan. There are no clear principles to guide the believer in how to pray or what to pray for. Indeed, the missionaries instruct us to pray to “know whether the Church is true” or to “know whether the Book of Mormon is true”, thus opening a door for deceptive answers. They teach us to “ask” for what we think we need, rather than to pray to know the will of God, which could be just the opposite of what we think we need. It is a human-based approach to prayer, and can lead to selfish, self-righteous petitions to our Father. Indeed James taught, “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon you lusts.” (James 4:2-3.)

    The beginning of repentance is the Cross. It is killing our pride, just like the Israelites killed their animals. They loved their animals, and they mourned their loss. The new birth is not accomplished merely through self-discipline of the flesh, but begins with a changed heart, a renewed mind, which power comes from the Cross of Jesus Christ. It comes by the power of death. A seed must die first, before it spouts forth into life. Jesus died that he might bring us all to life. Unless this is clearly taught before the above prayer pattern is introduced by Mormons, any believer opens himself to being either deceived by his own pride or by demonic forces. Jesus carefully prepared the principles in the Lord’s prayer to protect us against Lucifer’s deceptions.

    Do the Mormons truly understand what they are really doing? How are we going to be properly taught in the principles of prayer if we follow such an “open-ended” pattern as the Mormons teach? A true Christian with a pure heart will not be hurt, for he has been grounded in the truth. But a person with pride and selfishness using the Mormon pattern will ask God for what he wants, not seeing the world through the lens of truth, not asking that the will of God be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And such ignorance breeds darkness and counterfeit light.

    The Mormon missionaries do not teach the truth. They teach half-truths, leading the believer on the path to being deceived by the devil into a half-true gospel of Jesus Christ. A person with pride and selfishness is not taught to pray against the devil, but to pray and ask God whether the Book of Mormon is true. What if the Book truly is inspired by the devil? How will the person become aware of the errors in the LDS Church using the pattern of prayer taught by the LDS missionaries? And the innocent looking 19-year-old missionaries who smile and humbly believe the message they are sharing are certainly harmless, right? They humbly testify over and over that they “know” the Church is true. And they honestly believe it. They are not lying. Certainly, they know what they are talking about, right? No! They are but sheep of two masters. One is the True Shepherd, and the other is a wolf. Beware of half-truths.

    For example, these missionaries teach that God’s forgiveness is granted after we repent and are baptized in water by a proper LDS authority. They don’t teach about the free gift of eternal life or that the highest heavenly reward, or celestial glory, comes by the grace of God and His unconditional love. And yet, God has explained the principle of forgiveness clearly to us by His True Son, which forgiveness is an unconditional act of grace.

    In fact, to ensure we didn’t misunderstand the most important principle taught in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus says at the conclusion: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt 6:14-15.) Does our forgiveness depend on the LDS water baptism? No. Does it depend on our obedience to law? Yes. But what law do we obey? The law of mercy as explained in the Lord’s prayer. The logic of the Lord’s prayer is easy to follow. Let’s review it:

      1) God created us and deserves our praise, thanks, and honor. Hallowed be His name.

      2) The Kingdom of God is in us. It comes to us. We become born again. We see the Father. We obey his will.

      3) We feed off the Word daily, waiting for the wind to blow as we ask God for spiritual bread.

      4) We forgive everyone unconditionally, thus understanding the unconditional love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. He has already won the victory on the cross. He has ALREADY forgiven us. We can not understand this principle nor see it until we also forgive everyone unconditionally like He does.

      5) We pray to avoid deception and to have God deliver us from evil lies we have believed already, or which we may be tempted to believe.

      6) God is the owner of our souls. It’s His Kingdom. He has the power and ability to save us. The glory belongs to Him. We are saved by His grace through faith.

    The Book of Mormon Promise

    Now in contrast, let’s look closely at the Book of Mormon promise. Does the pattern of prayer the Mormons teach fit anywhere into the divine pattern of the Lord’s prayer?

      “And when ye shall receive these things [Book of Mormon], I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you be the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:5-6.)

    Nowhere in this passage do we see the Book of Mormon promise match the Lord’s prayer. All the danger signs should flash: WARNING! BEWARE. Verse six is true. We learn truth by the Holy Spirit. Our spirit will be attracted to verse 6. BUT, verse five is false because of the first seven words, “And when ye shall receive these things.” To pray about “these things” is not praying about any specific truth at all, and implies praying about the whole message of Joseph Smith from beginning to end. The LDS message is either absolutely true or absolutely false. Such an assumption is absurd, for only God or Satan could be so absolute. It is, therefore, the plural idea of “these things” that clearly exposes this scripture as a deceptive lie. The “plurality of truth” in this scripture denies that fact that all truth is by nature independent and each concept must in stand in it’s own sphere of reference. Truth is placed into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which will come like the wind at the most unexpected times and according to the will of God. We pray: “Give us this day, our daily bread!” The Holy Spirit can not be MANIPULATED by a promise like Moroni 10:5, expecting God to honor such a petition in every instance. At the baptism of Jesus, a white dove flew out of the sky and landed on Jesus completely unexpectedly, which symbolizes this principle of the Holy Spirit. No one can think for God. No matter how much we would like to apply the “scientific method” to spiritual things in order to prove something is true or not, God does not work this way. He has His own agency, His own will, and His own mind that can not be manipulated by a false process. For example, it might be that God’s will is that one person become a Mormon but another is not to become one. Thus, God will enlighten one mind with the Book of Mormon truths, and will be silent with another, depending on who He is teaching and His purposes for them. The false process the Mormons believe in has nothing to do with why God responds to His individual children. He is God. He is not a perfect process that is “100% fool proof” that the Mormon people believe in.

    When trying to understand truth, each concept needs to be examined for the truth it contains, praying that we avoid deceptions, and BELIEVING the truth as it is written. Moroni 10:5 is asking for trouble, for truth is not handled in such a manner by God. Asking if the Book of Mormon or “these things” are true also implies asking if the entire Mormon Church was true from the time Joseph Smith saw Jesus until the present day. That is what is really being asked. But, the Mormon “message or theme” of the restoration is not eternal “truth”. The restoration idea was implemented over TIME and SPACE. The “LDS True Church” or “Restoration” is not the Word of God. These are not the eternal truth of salvation found in Christ. The LDS Church is more related to WHERE a person should be located on the physical earth. “What church should I belong to,” for example, really means, “WHERE should I meet to worship?” It means: “WHERE should I go to get the information I should study and believe about God?” That’s really the appropriate question that should being asked of God and not: “Which Church is true?” or worse: “Is the LDS Church true?”

    Let me explain further. Joseph Smith was a man with a mortal body who lived in time and space. He lived in the United States from 1805 to 1844. Asking whether the restoration message is true or whether Joseph Smith was a prophet is asking God a question he can not truthfully answer. Eternal truth transcends time, space, and prophets and is found only in God and Jesus Christ, his Son. The truth is GOD. Therefore, asking is the “LDS Church true” crosses over the eternal “no time” dimension of God into our temporal world of time and human error. The LDS Church or any church is built and maintained in time and space by HUMAN BEINGS. The question of a “only true church” ignores that only God has the absolute and eternal truth in Him, which no earthly church can possess! So if anyone has prayed about this question and felt they have received an answer from God that the “LDS Church is the only true church on earth”, it can not be from the Holy Spirit. For God does NOT work in the element of time, but is an eternal and omnipotent being.

    Time is only for human beings in the flesh. And such a question to the Lord is carnal and earthy. It would be like asking a human being: Is salt true? Are men true? These are irrational questions. But so is with Mormons: “Is the LDS Church true?” But we have to ask the right questions. For example, should I eat this food? Should I associate with these men? Should I be a Mormon and fellowship with the LDS Church? Will the LDS Church bless my life? See the difference? The question of asking “if the LDS Church is true” mixes the concept of “where I should worship” with the “eternal truth”. It is a “half-true” question. It is a terrible question to ask the Lord. And the question created a half-true LDS religion. Now, it is true, we can ask God if Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith, and God could choose to say, “Yes” truthfully. But that doesn’t mean the “Church is true”. It just means that Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and that is all, no more and no less. Or we could ask God about a specific verse in the Book of Mormon, and the Holy Spirit might enlighten our minds on that eternal principle. But such truth is independent from time and space, and therefore, does not prove the “LDS Church is true” at all. On the other hand, someone else might ask God the exact same questions, and God may simply choose to be silent. We can’t control Him.

    Can we not see why Jesus instructed us in the Lord’s prayer to avoid this praying this kind of prayer? People are going to make the wrong conclusions about God based on their own personal experience and not the truth. In my case, for example, I asked the questions and it took much silence on God’s part and misunderstanding on mine, until the spiritual veil was parted and God showed me the truth about Mormonism. He taught me that I was asking him the wrong questions, and as such, I was causing a lot of confusion in my mind. He taught me I was making a lot of false assumptions, particularly about the LDS prayer pattern and testimony process, which needed to be reversed and corrected. And some questions I’ve asked, He is still choosing to be silent on. But in time, the light will go on. And I’ll either see the truth or the error inside me. So rather than asking whether the “truth is truth”, we should ask for our daily bread and then pray against the devil and ask God that we not be deceived. Then, God will lead us away from error and protect us.

    If a person has prayed about a “true church” and received an affirmative answer, it can not be from God. Their feelings are mix-up. Now, granted, it could be that God confirmed by the Holy Spirit that a person should join a particular Church, but that doesn’t mean it is the true Church. It means the will of God intervened and gave direction on WHERE that person should be, independent of eternal truth. Of course, if a person joins the LDS Church and God whispers he belongs there, and he feels God’s Spirit in the Church, what will happen in his mind? Of course he will naturally ASSUME all of the messages that are presented in the LDS Church originate from God, especially considering the theology of modern prophets, Book of Mormon, D&C, saving priesthood, and the required temples. But that’s OK. God knows he misunderstands. But God wants him to be a Mormon for the good things the Church has in it, not the bad things. Many members of the LDS Church see the darkness and pride of the people and just ignore it anyway. God understands perfectly, and will bless the faithful Latter-day Saints that seek His face. And these Saints enjoy the fruits of the kingdom and are quite happy. They are living in the will of God.

    In conclusion, asking God: “Which Church should I join?” has absolutely nothing to do with truth, as the Mormons falsely suppose, but it has to do with the will of God. The will of God, unlike eternal truth, penetrates our earth life and deals appropriately with time and space. God’s will relates perfectly to human beings as we are, giving us guidance and prodding us where we need to be, and at the right time, with the right people who we can share our love with.

    The Book of Mormon

    God will support the truth independently wherever it is found. The Book of Mormon, for example, quotes Matt 5-7 the Sermon on the Mount almost word for word. As we read the Sermon on the Mount, the light in us will testify of true principles whether they are in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, on a bathroom stall, or pasted to a billboard next to a scantily dressed woman. They are the words of Christ. They are true. It is a sinister mind-control technique and insidious logic to persuade a believer that because the Book of Mormon is true, therefore, LDS Church is true and “everything else” associated with it. But the paradigm is strong. Many people can not escape it. When confronted with facts, logic, reason, and overwhelming evidence that the Book of Mormon can not be from God, many resist believing the truth because of their feelings for the Savior and their love for the Word of truth are so strong. When our feelings disagree strongly with common sense, we will not listen to the truth! In order to break free, a person must understand the false logic and testimony process, disconnect from the absurdity, and then look at the truth objectively as independent elements.

    The Book of Mormon is a unique volume of stories and doctrine that teach many profound and compelling truths about Jesus Christ. King Benjamin’s discourse is probably one of the most beautiful passages of holy writing ever penned. But just because his discourse contains many truths about Jesus Christ does not mean that the source of the Book of Mormon is from God. Such reasoning uses dependent logic and is false. Truth is independent. Truth stands by itself. Therefore, to be correct in our analysis of the Book of Mormon, we need to disconnect the source of the Book from the words that are written.

    There are four possible sources of the Book of Mormon:

      1. 100% from God.
      2. 100% from the devil
      3. 100% from man
      4. Some combination of God, man, and the devil.

    This book asserts the correct answer is number 4. Joseph Smith was a human being with a conscience and possessed the light of understanding God had given him, just like the rest of us. But because of his dabbling into the occult to search for treasures, Joseph Smith opened himself up for receiving false manifestations. The devil knew Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820, not declaring that Joseph would restore the only true Church, but that he was forgiven of his sins and was called into the ministry of Christ. Being paranoid of God, the devil concocted a scheme to throw Joseph Smith off course, his poverty and indigent circumstance leading him into occult temptations. False angels delivered the gold plates and assisted in the translation process of the Book of Mormon, as previously identified in my assumptions. They then visited Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and gave them a false priesthood by the laying on of hands. Then by using dependent logic and proclaiming falsely that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of the Mormon religion, these false angels were able to build and entire theology on this false logic. The book of Mormon is the worm of truth on the barbed hook of the priesthood. For if the Book of Mormon is true, then the angels are from God, the priesthood is restored, and the LDS Church is the only true Church on earth.

    I’m here to clarify this error. The Book of Mormon is NOT the keystone of Mormonism. It is the false angels and priesthood they restored. A keystone is the middle stone that holds up a structure. If we remove the stone, the structure will come tumbling down. It is preached over and over that the LDS Church stands or falls on the Book of Mormon. If the book is true, then the restoration message is the greatest news since the time of Christ. If false, the LDS Church is the biggest fraud ever pawned off in human history. And both Mormons and non-Mormons buy into this bad logic. Everyone runs after the Book of Mormon to prove it is true or false. And what happens in terms of understanding the truth about Mormonism? We swallow lies buried with the truth. The reasoning is flawed, so the results are also flawed. And the devil laughs at our folly.


    This page was first created on 23 January 1999
    Last Updated on 16 April 1999
    Created and Maintained by The New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh
    Not all the views expressed in this book are necessarily those of NCAY