In my last article, I shared about
the furore that followed a talk given to youth by Mormon leader Brad Wilcox.
What did he say that caused such an uproar and why did he have to publicly
apologise?
Having listened to his message, I don’t
believe he said anything that wasn’t truly Mormon. The price for preaching the pure
unadulterated LDS faith, was him being called to account. Why did this happen? Well,
I believe it is because Mormonism has two faces – the private and the public.
Then Brad came along
Brad Wilcox should have known that
in sharing publicly what Mormons believe privately would get him into trouble. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have spent many years and lots of
money, seeking to prove to the public that they are a benign and benevolent,
Christian church. They had, in the main, been highly successful – then Brad
came along! So, what were the private beliefs of the Mormon church that Brad
make public?
G is for Godhead
As I mentioned in my first article,
Brad chose to use the word ‘GOSPEL’ as an acronym to help the young people
remember his message. He began by teaching them that G is for Godhead.
G
stands for “Godhead”. Our view of the Godhead is very different than the view
of many Christians. Most Christians believe that God and Jesus are the same
being and that God/Jesus is a spirit. We don’t believe that.
Brad here is being faithful to Mormon
doctrine. But in saying that their view is very different to many Christians, he
is either not being totally honest or he is woefully ignorant. The Mormon’s interpretation
of the godhead is not just different, it is totally at odds, with what all true
Christians believe. To be a true Christian, one is to hold to the historic,
orthodox, biblical doctrine and here Mormons don’t.
True Christians believe that there is one God
(Deuteronomy 6:4), and this one God has revealed Himself in three persons.
(Matthew 28:19) Despite the Mormon contention that the doctrine of the Trinity
was a later invention at the Council of Nicaea[1], the
Trinity is thoroughly biblical[2].
Regardless of their claim that they are
Christians, their denial of the trinity, puts Mormons firmly outside of the
Christian camp. You cannot call yourself a Christian and deny the core tenets
of the faith.
Brad continues:
We
know that God and Jesus are separate beings and that they have physical,
tangible, perfected bodies. Well, how do we know that? We could turn to some
scriptures that talk about it, but mostly we know it because of Joseph Smith.
He saw them. That’s what Jackson was playing about when he played that song. He
saw them.
Mormonism’s appeal to God and Jesus being
separate beings with physical, tangible, perfected bodies is based on the
belief that Jospeh Smith saw them.
Notice that Brad said that he could turn to
‘some scriptures’, but he didn’t. If he had, the scriptures he would have
turned to would have been those produced by Joseph Smith himself. He could not
turn to the Bible to prove his thesis, because the Bible nowhere teaches what
they believe. Mormonism’s belief in ‘godhead’ rather than ‘trinity’, stems from
faith, not in the Bible, but in Joseph.
In Joseph We Trust
“Yeah,
but maybe Joseph Smith lied”. If you haven’t heard that yet, you certainly
will. Lots of people say, “oh, he just made it all up. He just made up that
story”. But people who go there don’t understand why we lie. Because you
certainly don’t lie in an effort to be found out. You don’t tell your teacher
“I didn’t get my homework done because aliens beamed down and sucked it into
the mothership”. No, your teacher is never going to believe that.”
Was Joseph lying? My answer is yes. How do I
know he was lying? Well, it’s not because I was there. It’s not because I just
choose to not believe him or have some vendetta against him. Rather, it is
because the Bible says he is lying, and I am convinced that God’s Word is true.
To trust Joseph, one must lay aside God’s Word. The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints do this through Article 8 of their faith:
“We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated
correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
Here are a few questions for the honest
Mormon. If the Bible has not been translated correctly, where has it not been
translated correctly? If you believe the Bible hasn’t been translated
correctly, is the KJV in your quad inaccurate? If so, why do you use it?
On the issue of godhead, Mormons must decide,
the Bible or Joseph? You can’t have
both.
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
Joseph
said, “God and Jesus are separate beings with physical, tangible, perfected
bodies”. Whoa. That is so far out of the realm of believability that Joseph
Smith proves himself either a horrible liar – I mean he was bad at it – or a
speaker of truth.
Joseph
Smith himself taught that true faith isn’t just believing there’s some God out
there in the universe. True faith isn’t just believing in some higher power.
True faith is knowing God; knowing his attributes; what He’s like; knowing his
plan for us; and knowing that our lives are being lived in accordance with that
plan.
Brad’s logic is crazy. Joseph said something
so unbelievable that it must be true! Well that certainly fits in with the
current societal zeitgeist. If a man in his fifties can identify as a six-year-old
girl and get away with it – perhaps we can believe Joseph.
Though the Bible calls Joseph a liar
regarding the nature of God, it would support him in his assertion that we are
to know God and His attributes.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3
Jesus said that eternal
life is contingent on knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ. Here lies a
massive problem for the Mormons – do they know and worship the only true God?
Again, the Bible proves that they do not. Nowhere does the Bible teach the Mormon
couplet:
As man is God once was, as God is man may be.
Nowhere does the Bible teach that Jesus is the firstborn offspring of this man become God, and his Goddess wife.
G is for Got the wrong God
Brad sets up his message to the youth by saying:
Maybe
some people can leave some churches and they don’t miss that much. But you
leave this church, you miss everything. You miss everything.
Well one thing Mormons would not miss, should
they leave, is a relationship with the one true God, because you can never miss
what you do not have.
Next time, I will consider Brad’s second
point: ‘O is for Only True Church’.
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