I know a lot of people who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, some of whom I consider to be friends, and none of them are happy with my criticism of the Church and wonder why I can’t leave it well enough alone. Well, I will gladly tell you why I can’t just leave the LDS/Mormon Church well enough alone. If you were to see a person you care about getting taken advantage of wouldn’t you step in and try to stop them from buying a car at 80% interest or stop them from sending their bank account number to that Nigerian prince? If you saw a person about to ingest a deadly poison, drive off a bridge that is out, or any other dangerous and potentially deadly activity, especially if it someone you care about, wouldn’t you do anything and everything you could to save that person or persons from harm or death? Of course you would. Often times the people who need to be saved the most are those who can’t see the error or the potential danger and heartache in their actions and life choices and they are not appreciative or receptive of the efforts to save them.

In the Odyssey by Homer, when the hero Odysseus and his men land on the island of the lotus eaters Odysseus sent three men to investigate the island and they almost immediately got caught into a drug induced stupor that made them loose interest in everything except eating more lotus flowers. When the men were forced by Odysseus to see the truth and come home they were angry and resisted and had to be overpowered, drug aboard the ship and tied up to prevent escape. Even though those men knew that everything they saw on the island was a lie they wept bitterly as the ship left and headed for home. Those men would rather live a dangerous but comforting lie than face the bitter truth.

I know many members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints who gladly tell me that even if they knew for certain that the Church had not one shred of truth they would pretend they didn't know and would still dedicate the rest of their life to the Church. When I asked them if they would still follow it if they knew it would forever deny them entrance into heaven, and they said they would. That, my friends, is the ultimate brainwashing to willingly give up heaven to believe the lie that you will be a god when you die, even knowing that it is a lie and will secure you a place in hell. I weep for those who are thus brainwashed and pray for them daily.

Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” (Matthew 10:28). Jesus is pointing out that the welfare of the soul is more important than that of the body because what happens to the body is temporary but what happens to the soul is eternal.

The LDS Church is a a wolf in sheep's clothing, and while it encourages healthy behavior that may lead to longer life, its doctrine has the potential to send the believer to hell where they will be destroyed. I loudly and without apologetically say that the LDS Church is NOT Christian and its doctrine binds and sends to hell while convincing them that they will not only be saved but will one day be a god. There is no way to support the claim that people will be gods with the Bible without seriously distorting the Bible or taking passages out of context.

The best analogy I can think of for problem of salvation and doctrine of the LDS Church is with a sea full of drowning people. We are all drowning, the entire world, drowning in a sea of sin and suffering, and we cannot survive on out own. Christianity is like a life preserver while we wait for the rescue boat, but those in the Mormon Church say that it is too easy and that we should work for it. Mormons say that if you swim really hard that eventually you will be able to breath under water and instead of a life preserver they give you a heavy anchor and expect you to swim with it but the truth is if a person isn’t willing to let go of the anchor they will be pulled down to the crushing depth of the ocean where there is no return and no chance of salvation.

Despite what the Mormons teach, there is no chance for salvation after death; this life is all the time given man to get right with God, and even the Book of Mormon teaches that, but Joseph Smith significantly changed the doctrine of the Church from what it was when he wrote the Book of Mormon to later include works for the dead.

Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.

For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked, (Alma 34: 31-35).

We are saved by grace through faith on the Lord Jesus and our self righteousness and our good works does not impress God. I would imagine that our best works before God are like when a toddler happily shows his or her parents their poo art on the wall and expects them to be impressed, but they are not impressed and neither is God impressed with our works.

 When my oldest niece was little she would wake up early in the morning before my sister or brother in-law were awake, climb out of her crib and take off her soiled diaper. She would then proceed to dip her fingers in the poo and draw on the walls of her room, and some of the drawing were quite intricate for a person of her age and might have even been impressive if they had been drawn on paper with crayons instead of with poo on the walls. Once the masterpiece was complete my niece excitedly woke her mother to show her the still steaming wall art.

The first time this happened my sister was mortified, which is not the reaction I imagine my niece was expecting. Imagine being in my nieces place, going out of your way to make a work of art and excitedly wake your mother to show her your work, just to have her yell at you instead of appreciating and complimenting your work. Our best works are like filthy rags before God, or poo art, as the case may be.

The denial of grace and the emphasis on works are not the only UN-Biblical doctrine the LDS Church has and one of the more blasphemous doctrines of the LDS Church is that Lucifer, the father of all lies, and Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, are literal brothers. That is correct, the LDS Church believes that the devil and Jesus are biological literal siblings, the same as my sisters and I, the three of us having the same mother and father. Mormons believe that Jesus was just the first of many spiritual children born to our heavenly father and heavenly mother.
When asked about it, most Mormons won't deny it but they do downplay its significance. When asked if they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers a Mormon's typical response is, "Well yes, but they are brothers the same way that Jesus is also my brother. Because God created all of us we are all brothers and sisters, including Jesus and the devil."

Of course, any true believing Mormon doesn't actually believe that God created everything and everyone, they instead believe that he simply assembled us and everything else out of stuff that existed as long as he existed, stuff that he himself did not create nor could create. Mormons believe Jesus, the devil, you, me and everyone else was literally conceived and born by a literal mother and father in heaven.

"When Mormons speak of God as eternal they don't mean that God has always existed in the same form, but that God has lived for so long that it's impossible to imagine a time when God did not exist," (BBC). As I have mentioned in previous episodes, Mormons also don't think that God was always God because they think he was once a man who became a god by following all of the rule set forth by his god, just one god in an endless regression of gods.

Mormons, as well as the Jehovah's Witnesses, say that Jesus did not always exist and that he was created by God. Mormons, however, take it one blasphemous step farther and teach that God was also created by another God, though they don't talk about it often. This significantly diminishes the power and status of God.

The doctrine that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers, and that everyone who has ever been born is also the literal brothers and sisters of Jesus, seriously downgrades the divinity of Jesus and makes humans far more important than they actually are. That false  doctrine makes sinful and flawed humans the same species as God and instead of us being humans needing saving we are baby gods learning to become adult gods. As I mentioned earlier in this series, the LDS Church's view of humanity is that we were created to be gods and that those who follow all the rules of the Church actually will become gods and eventually provide a plan of salvation for their spirit children on their own planet or planets some day.

When I see a worm on the hot sidewalk and throw it into the grass so it won't succumb to desiccation and die I don't do so because the worm deserved it or because of anything the worm did but rather because it pleased me to do so. God does not save us because we deserve it or because we have earned it by our feeble works but rather because it pleases him to do so. It is a dangerous and blasphemous doctrine to teach that God and humans are the same species and that one day we can grow up to be a god ourselves. A worm has more of a chance to become a human than we have of becoming a god. God did not create humans so that one day we could become his equals; he created us so that we can love and worship him, and while he loves us more than we can understand, he loves us as what he created us to be. God created us to be people who love and serve him, not to be fellow gods who will one day be worshiped and served ourselves.

In order to support the claim that Jesus hasn't always existed it is necessary to alter the Bible and/or diminish its importance as the word of God. The Jehovah's Witnesses Church heavily edited their Bible in a way that is almost unrecognizable in parts and in a manner that all legitimate Bible scholars determine incorrect at best and wholly wrong at worst. The LDS Church also altered parts of the Bible with the Joseph Smith translation and has several other canonized works that they believe supersedes the Bible in importance, and they make the claim that the Bible, as we have  it today, is altered and corrupted and causes people to go astray. The Mormons also believe that anything their current leader says is more important than any written scripture, including the Bible and including the Book of Mormon.

The LDS Church holds that we were not created by God but was assembled out of materials that existed already, which is also how they believe God created everything else as matter cannot be created or destroyed, not even by God. The Church also holds that our spirits were created in the same way that our bodies were created, by both a father and a mother. While it is not spoken of often, it is church doctrine that we have a heavenly mother who gave birth to our spirits. A statement I pulled from LDS.org, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that all human beings, male and female, are beloved spirit children of heavenly parents, a Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. This understanding is rooted in scriptural and prophetic teachings about the nature of God, our relationship to Deity, and the godly potential of men and women. The doctrine of a Heavenly Mother is a cherished and distinctive belief among Latter-day Saints," (Christens).

 The view that God did not create us in the true sense of the word seriously undermines his power and divinity.  If God did not create everything and matter existed as long as he has than that logically means that the Church believes that there is something more powerful than their god, and as we learned in the last part of this series, they believe God used to be a man. As I have said before, if the LDS Church believes that God used to be a man than they don't serve the true God and therefore do not worship the same God as Christianity. The god of Mormonism is not and cannot be the God of the Bible.

Mormons have an obsession with worthiness, which is a standard that no person can achieve, so a lot of Mormons are always depressed and feel guilty for not being able to follow all of the rules. It is difficult enough just to try and live a life that is pleasing to God, but the Mormons are applying for the position of God. Imagine what it would be like in a company if every employee down to the janitor was always striving to be the CEO and fully expecting to become the CEO if they followed all of the rules pertaining to their position. The idea is laughable, even if you fail to consider the fact that no CEO wants to hire people who want nothing more than to take his place.

To be fair, the Mormons don't think they will ever be equal to or surpass God, they think he is always increasing and if they follow the rules they will always increase until they are where their god is now. The Bible is extremely clear on the matter and from reading the Bible we know that God is the same from all eternity to all eternity and was never less than he is now and will never be greater than he is now.

When I was on my mission I was taught to use diversion tactics when people would ask tough questions that an honest answer would make the church look bad. Whenever someone would ask about something controversial that the Church believes, such as Joseph Smith having the final say as to whether or not we enter heaven, I would take their questions to absurdity.

When I was asked about the divinity of Joseph Smith, God once being a man or anything else along that line I would answer by asking the person or people if they had heard that Mormons shower in blood and have orgies in the temple, and when they would say that they had I would point out how silly it was and get them to realize they didn't actually thing the Church did such things, then I would follow up by saying, "You can't believe everything you hear about the Church. Those things are spread by anti-Mormons who are not interested in what is true, just what will hurt the Church. The devil has been trying to destroy God's church for years and has failed. If you want to know the truth about the church you need to go directly to the source."

I had effectively thrown out the red herring and gotten the person off the scent of whatever damaging or embarrassing thing they were asking about and I controlled the conversation so that we would talk about what the Church had in common with Christianity instead so it looked more Christian. At the time I thought that I was doing God a service when instead I was doing myself and those I spoke to a great injustice and was binding them and leading them down to hell.  I have prayed with great remorse for forgiveness for leading people to Mormonism and I continually pray for those who are in Mormonism that they may see the truth, come to Jesus and be saved.

When I was a Mormon I did not put much thought into the implications of the devil and Jesus being brothers so I did not understand why Christians thought it was blasphemous, nor did I see why Christians thought it was blasphemy to say that God was once a man. Honestly though, the doctrine that God wasn’t always God and was the same species as us sinful and flawed humans always bothered me but I took comfort in the fact that it was not something that was openly taught in the Church at that time and I thought that perhaps just some of the members believed it and it was not doctrine. After my mission when I studied the writings of the prophets of the LDS Church it became apparent that the Church did hold it as doctrine and I was troubled by it.

Once I got to seriously think about the implications of God once being a man and being exalted to godhood, which is what is taught will become of humans who follow all of the rules and they will someday have their own planets, populate them and provide salvation and exaltation for their children. When I thought about it I realized that if we become a god by exaltation through obedience to our god and he similarly gained his exaltation than the logical conclusion is that the god the Mormons serve is not the ultimate god but rather a demigod; a god among many.

I asked one of the church leaders about it and how the Church reconciled it and his answer surprised me, though in retrospect it should not have. This man, the stake president, said, “Brother Curl, I don’t know and don’t have a good answer for you, but if you keep asking questions like this I will be forced to excommunicate you.”

I only occasionally attended church after that point and I spent most of my free time investigation the church from both inside and outside of the church, trying to save my faith, but I was just grasping at straws in a tornado and the more I learned about the church the more I knew I could never again believe it.

In the Bible we learn that God created everything, but Jesus who was the word, who was with God from the beginning and who is God, created everything, including the devil. The devil was created as an angel and was not a son of God nor a brother to Jesus. In fact, the Mormons doctrine on angels is completely wrong as well as UN-Biblical. The Mormons believe that people become angels when they die and think an angel is just a glorified human. The angel Moroni is atop most Mormon temples and is supposed to be the angel that told Joseph Smith where to dig to find the golden plates, and he is also supposed to be one of the writers of the Book of Mormon.

I was going to lay out what the Bible says about people becoming angels, but I found a resource that puts it accurately and succinctly so I will just read that:

Question: "Do we become angels after we die?"

Answer: Angels are beings created by God (Colossians 1:15-17) and are entirely different from humans. They are God’s special agents to carry out His plan and to minister to the followers of Christ (Hebrews 1:13-14). There is no indication that angels were formerly humans or anything else—they were created as angels. Angels have no need of, and cannot experience, the redemption that Christ came to provide for the human race. First Peter 1:12 describes their desire to look into the Gospel, but it is not for them to experience. Had they been formerly humans, the concept of salvation would not be a mystery to them, having experienced it themselves. Yes, they rejoice when a sinner turns to Christ (Luke 15:10), but salvation in Christ is not for them.

Eventually, the body of the believer in Christ will die. What happens then? The spirit of the believer goes to be with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:8). The believer does not become an angel. It is interesting that both Elijah and Moses were recognizable on the Mount of Transfiguration. They had not transformed into angels, but appeared as themselves—although glorified—and were recognizable to Peter, James and John.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul tells us that believers in Christ are asleep in Jesus; that is, their bodies are dead, but their spirits are alive. This text tells us that when Christ returns, He will bring with Him those who are asleep in Him, and then their bodies will be raised, made new like Christ’s resurrected body, to be joined with their spirits which He brings with Him. All believers in Christ who are living at the return of Christ will have their bodies changed to be like Christ, and they will be completely new in their spirits, no longer having a sin nature.

All the believers in Christ will recognize one another and live with the Lord forever. We will serve Him throughout eternity, not as angels, but along with the angels. Thank the Lord for the living hope He provides for the believer in Jesus Christ, (gotquestions.org).

If the LDS Church were wrong about things that don’t matter I would not care and I would leave them alone, but their doctrine is dangerous and leads people away from Christ for the false hope of becoming gods and souls are at stake, and once a person looses his or her soul there is nothing that can be traded for their soul. If You are a member of the LDS Church please carefully investigate the Church with an open mind and don’t just read what they tell you to. If you are thinking about joining the LDS Church, please reconsider and join a Church that follows the Bible instead. If you have family or friends who are LDS, please join me in praying for them and in sharing the true words of Christ and the errors of the LDS Church that people will learn the truth and be saved. As Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

Works Cited

“ An explanation of Mormon beliefs about God . “ BBC . 13 Aug. 2018 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/mormon/beliefs/god_1.shtml> .

The Book of Mormon .  Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints . 2013 .

Christensen, Jess L . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints . “How can Jesus and Lucifer be spirit brothers when their characters and purposes are so utterly opposed? “  13 Aug . 2018 <https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/06/i-have-a-question/how-can-jesus-and-lucifer-be-spirit-brothers-when-their-characters-and-purposes-are-so-utterly-opposed?lang=eng> .

“Do we become Angels after we die ? ” gotquestions.org . 13 Aug . 2018 <https:/www.gotquestions.org/become-angels.html> .

Jackson, Wayne . “Was Jesus Created By God? “ 12 Aug . 2018 < https://www. christiancourier.com/articles/396-was-jesus-created-by-god> .
   

LDS.org . “Mother in Heaven . ”  10 Aug . 2018 <https://www.lds.org/topics/mother-in-heaven?lang=eng> .

New International Version Bible .  Grand Rapids : Zondervan ,  2011 .

Simethurst, Matt . “Who Made SAtan? “ The Gospel Coalition . 13 Aug . 2018 <https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/who-made-satan/ > .