A Critical Examination of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. "The Mormons") cont.

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Sources of Authority:

The Mormons accept four published works as given by God and therefore authoritative for faith and practice. They call these the "Four Standard Works."

I. The Holy Bible (King James Version)

A. But they only accept it "insofar as it is correctly translated" (Articles of Faith #8).

B. The Book of Mormon states that such a translation is impossible
because the "great and abominable church" (usually interpreted
to mean the Roman Catholic church) deleted and perverted the
Word of God (I Nephi 13:24-27).

C. Orson Pratt, an early apostle, wrote "Who knows that even one
verse of the Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the
same sense now that it did in the original?" (Orson Pratt's
Works, p. 218)

** This attitude, though completely erroneous, conveniently leaves the door open for Mormons to both ignore anything the Bible asserts that contradicts Mormon theology and to add anything they wish that supports their views. Obviously, for a final word in doctrine and practice they hold little regard for the Bible and rely almost completely upon the other three of the "Four Standard Works."

II. Doctrine and Covenants

A. Originally published in 1833 as the Book of Commandments.

B. It was and is supposedly a record of more than 130 direct revelations of God to Joseph Smith and later prophets. In it are revealed some of Mormonism's most distinctive doctrines such as baptism for the dead, the place and propriety of polygamy and also celestial marriage.

C. In 1835 it was re-issued as Doctrines and Covenants. There were at least 65,000 changes between the two publications (Ankerberg and Weldon, Cult Watch, p. 40).

D. Among other problems, this work contains much of Smith's false prophecy.

1. In Section 84:1-5,31, Smith declares that a city and a temple would be built "in the Western boundaries of the state of Missouri...in this generation". The specific place he intended was Jackson county. This prophecy was made in 1834; the temple is yet to be built 170 years or more than four generations later.

2. One prophecy the Mormons like to play up is the one Smith made on Dec. 25, 1832 concerning the Civil War in Section 87:1-8. He wrote: "At the rebellion of South Carolina...the Southern states will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain...and then war shall be poured out on all nations. And...slaves shall rise up against their masters...and that the remnants...shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation."

The Civil war did indeed break out with South Carolina leading the way in being first to vote to secede and firing on Fort Sumter, but the rest of the prophecy failed miserably. England never entered the war on the South's behalf, war was not "poured out on all nations," the slaves did not rebel, and the "remnants" (the "Jewish" Indians of the Book of Mormon) were themselves vexed (defeated and put on reservations). It was not an unusual thing in those days to predict a civil war as tensions were very high between the North and South. Earlier that very year Andrew Jackson put federal troops on alert because South Carolina refused to abide by a federal tariff act.

III. The Pearl of Great Price

A. Originally published in 1851, it is a compilation of several individual works, including the Book of Moses, the Book of Abraham, excerpts from Joseph Smith's autobiography, and the Articles of Faith.

B. Again, between the original and later editions of this work there have been thousands of changes.

C. The books of Moses and Abraham contradict each other:

1. Moses 2:1: "I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest."

2. Abraham 4:1: "And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth."

D. Furthermore, the Book of Abraham was discovered to be completely and irrefutably fraudulent.

1. An ancient Egyptian papyrus (manuscript) was discovered in the wrappings of some mummies.

2. In 1835, Smith became interested in these writings after seeing them in Kirtland, Ohio on July 3 and arranged to purchase them.

3. How delighted he was to "discover" that one of the scrolls was written by Abraham himself. He published his translation of this scroll in 1842 as the Book of Abraham. He even included some of the drawings with interpretations; one was Abraham seated on the throne of Pharoah.

4. After being lost for years, the writings were recovered by the Metropolitan Art Museum of New York who then officially presented them to the Latter-day Saints in 1967. This event allowed scholars to study and evaluate Smith's translation.

5. Their finding was that not a single word of his translation bore any resemblance to what was actually on the scrolls. It was actually a Ptolemaic (post-Alexander the Great -- much, much later than Abraham's time) copy of the Egyptian Book of Breathings which was an extension of the occultic Book of the Dead, which relates to a soul's journeys after death. What Smith had interpreted as Abraham on Pharoah's throne was actually a representation of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld judging the dead.

IV. The Book of Mormon

A. This is by far the most important of the Four Standard Works in the hearts and minds of the Mormon faithful.

B. It was published in 1830 after Joseph Smith supposedly translated the "reformed Egyptian" book of golden plates given to him by Moroni into English.

C. It is the story of two ancient civilizations located on the American continents.

1. The first was established when the Jaredites left the tower of Babel, migrated to Europe, and crossed the Atlantic in barges to land on the east coast of Central America around 2250 B.C. They became corrupt and were completely destroyed by God. Their story is contained in the Book of Ether.

2. The second came about when some Jews, led by a man named Lehi and his sons, Nephi and Laman, left Jerusalem around 600 B.C. before the Babylonian captivity, crossed the Pacific and landed on the west coast of South America. After Lehi died, they broke into two hostile factions, the Nephites and the Lamanites. Because of their wickedness, God cursed the Lamanites with dark skin. At some point soon after Christ's resurrection, He made an appearance to the righteous Nephites and revealed the Gospel to them. However, tensions between them and the Lamanites increased until war broke out. The Lamanites prevailed and from around A.D. 380-420 in battles near Palmyra, NY the Nephites were finally annihilated. Just before the end the Nephite leader, Mormon, who had compiled a history of these civilizations and written them on golden plates, gave them to his son, Moroni, who finished them and then hid them for safekeeping. The Lamanites with their dark skin became the people later known as the American Indians.

Next: Problems with the Book of Mormon