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?
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