I am full of crap, I'm older than 27.
But mormons are full of crap too, you have no golden plates, don't know where kolob is, marry off little girls like you're muslim or something, and have been coming to my door 3 times a year for the past 20 years and they still can't figure out that I'm not interested.
Hister: I've found that the visits start to become less-so, if you just come up to the door with a bible in your hand, and ask the novus plus the elder go on a bible journey with you that compares their doctrine to what the bible says.
They know the scriptures, but they use bible scripture inductively.......In other words piece-meal in order to support their "new found" visions/messages from god, that have come through their latter day prophets.
You will find that this is the basic finger prints of a "cult".
First of all cults almost every time have an axe to grind with the diety of Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that Christ was just a created being.........An angel......most notably Michael the angel.
Also you will find in the J.W. bible, The New World Translation, that they have changed references to Jesus' diety to downgrade Him to a mere mortal, and not God incarnate.
The Mormons use a different tact, but just as damaging. They claim that God as we read in the bible was once a mere, mortal man..........who got godhood, because he was a good guy.
It's interesting how Mormons draw a "deer in the headlamps" reaction when a true biblical, saved Christian attempts to explain "God's Grace" to them. Grace=unmerited favor.......I.E. in other words God extended forgiveness to mankind not based on man's merit in how he is or did live his life, but by God's pardoning favor. No greater thing can a man do for another but give his life.
Christ didn't die for the "righteous", He died for the "unrighteous" who comprise the entire human race.
As much as one tries to live a "goodie two shoes" life, of going to church, praying a lot, crossing themselves, not swearing, not drinking, not fornicating..........They are in no better standing before God than the one who has gone "whole hog" into sin.
The very story of the "Prodigal Son" is an exemplary example of how God sees mankind, and also how God responds to sinful mankind when sinful mankind comes to a point of sorrow and remorse for their sinful state of being, and cries out with a contrite and repentant heart for salvation from Christ Himself.
Mormonism is a "feel good" religion that only offers the external or carnal side of satisfaction to mankind. It has been designed by an evil intent, criminal, scamming mind, that has a history of misleading people from his young age until his death while shooting it out in Illinois before being lynched by a very angry mob.
Every where you go, Mormonism has been trying their darndest to vindicate J.S. Jr. but the evidence from unbiased secular sources say otherwise. He was not a martyr except for those who "wish" it to be that way.
Mormonism usurpts God's omnipotents in gross ways, by degrading the holy bible with their lame replacement called the book of Mormon. This book is filled with plagarism from direct bible verses/tracts. It's N. American historical depictions have not been archeologically substantiated at all. This goes for metalurgy being done in the Americans thousands of years ago.
Also Joseph Smith lacked any historical reasoning ability, as he was very uneducated, and very devious and rebellious as a person.
His and his predecessors who say that our planet earth is just one jumping-off place in a progression of earths with their own Jesus's who in turn saved another planet full of humans is so absurd that even makes Arthur Clark and his science fiction noves seem believeable.
Scientology/Tom Cruise/Travolta/ etc...: Here again we see the same or similar fingerprints of the same Liar that has been misleading and putting mankind through travail since the beginning of time. Scientologists don't have Kolob on their list of planets, but they also teach about a progression of human kind from planet to planet.
How people can buy into this absurd/crazy stuff is beyond me.
Howeve I do know this. The bible says that those that ignore purposefully the God of the bible will be allowed to fall into the carnal side of life; devoid of interest in the truth, but will create their own gods, and with that will delude themselves over and over.
The bible warns of straying from the scriptures, but Mormons lean heavily on alleged visions, dreams, and other self-acclaimed phenomena to "Vindicate" their belief system.
We already know that the human mind can create things to the individual that only exist in their own mind. The LSD generation can attest to that. The realities that the unbridled mind can exude, and in turn misdirect that human being is endless.
I find it rather interesting how the strong biblical Jesus movement of the 60's-70's actually got it's "kick start" from the "hippie movement.
Dropping acid and creating little "trips" into fantasy land where only the individual who was "dropping" experienced the deepness of life seem to lose it's flavor, as "make love not war" along with communal living and changing sex partners created epidemics of S.T.D.'s.
Yes this Boomer generation was looking for meaning in life through transcendental meditaion, acid, sex, yoga, Hinduism, Zorastrism, you name................
This generation finally realize how all this visons, dreams, and other mind games didn't add up to a hill of beans. This is when they finally came to an "end point" in their life's journey of experimentation. They literally "gave up", and that's when the God of the bible was able to knock on the door of their hearts and get their individual attentions.
Mormonism might seem like the antithesis of the Hippie movement, as no Mormon would drop acid, when they won't even drink coffee.
Yet the Mormon's are not different from anyone who is looking for the truth or understanding of life itself.
What they have created is a humanistically generated belief system that has a strict moral code of do's and don'ts..........Not unlike the strict Pharisees of Jesus' day. I.E. Follow the Pharisee's precepts or way of obeying the Torah/O.T. and you are acceptable to God.
Sadly, God's acceptance is not based on living a squeaky clean life. God is not interested on the "exterior" of humanity.........whether he helps little old ladies across the street or not, isn't why Jesus came to earth through the virgin birth/incarnation of God.
Jesus is interested in the soul of mankind. The soul is the mind, emotions, will, and spirit of man. Jesus came to redeem, or face Mankinds sinful nature upon His own being, and a ransom payed back to God to keep mankind from facing God's thorough justice towards him.
Mormons have skewed this simple call from God through Christ for salvation into a multitude of decrees or doings to prove acceptability before God. They have priesthoods that absolutely mean nothing before God.
Jesus did away with the priesthoods...........He is the one and only high priest now. He is the advocate for those whom He has saved. When we pray, Jesus is our gateway or bridge back to God Almighty.
Whether we can tithe 10% or can only give a widows mite, it is the heart of man than condemns him or not.
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Mormonism is a cult. It is not Christian, except proclaimed by their own people. It totally goes against the definition of who Christ was, is, and wil always be.
Mormonism lifts mere humans to godhood, which in itself is blasphemous.
Sadly, as in all cults, the "hold" on a deeply entrenched Mormon is so strong that it often is only by bold, warfare prayer by concerned and loving biblical Christians that Satans hold can be broken and the scales of Mormon lies can fall away.
In most cases Mormons who have left the LDS church, have had to start with honestly acknowledging the subtle first doubts, and not burying them away as lies from those bad biblical Christians and the corrupted holy bible.
They are not encouraged to do independent study of the bible or other sources that might not be from the old "behive" store.
Again, that is another sign or fingerprint of a cult......."Control" of their members in what they can or cannot do.
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A couple outspoken LDS members blow me off regularly on this thread with short little dismissals to the posts I submit. This is just another deflection.
I think deep down they know that the foundations of their belief system is built upon sand, and not a solid rock.
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As for those that think I'm looking from the outside at Mormonism. My familial background goes back to Salt Lake City, and probably further in the branches of Mormon geneology than most here.
My father's mother was an active Mormon, yet she married an Episcapalean man who owned and ran two saloons in Salt Lake City in the late 1800's into the early 1900's. This non-Mormon Saloon keeper(My grand dad) also helped build the Mormon Tabernacle, and is also one of the pictured people in the famous "gold spike driving" at Promentory Point, Utah, when the TransContinental railroad was completed.
Also my Uncle who was an active Free Mason In Salt Lake City, and a native resident of that city, informed me that Mormons were not allowed membership in the Utah Lodge. Why?: Well, their founder, J.S. Jr. who was a Freemason, divulged all the secret ceremonies of Freemasonry by including them in the LDS Temple ceremonies.
So those temple rites/ceremonies being a "sent' message from god, are a bunch of baloney.
Part of my family also knows what it was like to live in Salt Lake and not be Mormons, and endure the chastising treatment of that. Non-Mormons in Salt Lake back in the late 19th and early 20th century endured discrimination to various degrees from the Mormon populous. I give my granddad a lot of credit for bucking the trend and having those two saloons, and even helping the Mormons with the building of their sacred temple.
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