LDS Sunday School OT Lesson #4

18 January

old-testament-gospel-doctrine-teachers-manual-35570000The Church seems to be performing an all out blitz on the Old Testament lately with articles on OT Prophets, the story of Adam and Eve, OT Sunday school lessons, et al.  It’s interesting to see how many ways they can spin the web of lies they try to pawn off on unsuspecting members.

The purpose of their lesson this week is to “help each class member understand that the Fall was a necessary part of Heavenly Father’s plan for us”.

Now let’s just backtrack here because it’s vital for us as God’s children to understand what happened in the Garden of Eden. If we don’t have a true and healthy appreciation for that then nothing else we do or say matters.

God introduces Himself to us in Genesis chapter one by explaining what He’s done and in that explanation is a key element of understanding who we are.  We are created beings.  God did that not us, and as created beings we do what our Creator (potter) tells us to do. His hands guides and protects us in life.  In other words; know your place.

While Adam and Eve were enjoying the presence of God in the Garden of Eden they had no shame, no pain and no misery. He told them to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil – Genesis 2:9.  Stay away.  Notice what the text doesn’t say;

“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

It doesn’t say Adam would be stupid if he didn’t partake – it says the tree held knowledge about good and evil.

Think about this.  They already knew good so why would he want to know evil? Do you seek out evil people to hang out with or do you purposefully look for evil things you can do today?

Now let’s look at what the Church is trying to trick people into believing.

They said the fall was a necessary part of God’s plan.  Really?  Where in the Bible does it say evil is part of God and His plan?  The Bible is replete with passages of God’s holiness, perfection and love.  It’s also filled with the stories of what happens to men when they disobey!

When we say God is a just God we’re describing in human terms that God will always act according to what He does or how He acts.  When we say God is righteous we’re describing a characteristic of God which is actually synonymous with being just and is actually a natural outpouring of God’s character.

AW Tozer put sin and God’s justice in the most eloquent terms I’ve ever found;

“It is sometimes said, ‘Justice requires God to do this,’ referring to some act we know He will perform. This is an error of thinking as well as of speaking, for it postulates a principle of justice outside of God which compels Him to act in a certain way. Of course there is no such principle. If there were it would be superior to God, for only a superior power can compel obedience. The truth is that there is not and can never be anything outside of the nature of God which can move Him in the least degree. All God’s reasons come from within His uncreated being. Nothing has entered the being of God from eternity, nothing has been removed, and nothing has been changed.

Justice, when used of God, is a name we give to the way God is, nothing more; and when God acts justly He is not doing so to conform to an independent criterion, but simply acting like Himself in a given situation. . . God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity, and when He sentences evil men or rewards the righteous, He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself.” – The Knowledge of the Holy, pgs 93-94

If it’s impossible for God to be anything other than what He does or says then why is the Church trying to portray Him otherwise?

As we read further in Genesis we find Tozer’s insight in action.  God had just told Abraham and Sarah they were going to have a family and then the conversation turns to what was going on in Sodom.  We need to take notice of what He says to Abraham because it’s key to denouncing the LDS teachings we find in their OT Sunday school lesson;

Genesis 18:17-19; “And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; 18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”

Now if Abraham is going to teach his children to behave appropriately then why would God entice Adam and Eve to do otherwise?  This goes against the character of God!

The LDS OT lesson this week lists more than 90 references for the Mormon to read and study during the week with only a half dozen of those being from the Bible. This isn’t a class for teaching on the OT – rather it’s a class bragging how they’ve taken everything God has said and turned it on its proverbial head.

At the end of the lesson it says that partaking of the forbidden fruit was not a sin, that Adam and Eve’s posterity inherited the consequence of their act, but not the responsibility for it and all of this happened so they could have kids (aka it was for sex).

And if all that wasn’t blasphemous enough, we’re also posting a couple of the paragraphs at the end of their lesson that encourages people to celebrate Eve’s sin!

““It was Eve who first transgressed the limits of Eden in order to initiate the conditions of mortality. Her act, whatever its nature, was formally a transgression but eternally a glorious necessity to open the doorway toward eternal life. Adam showed his wisdom by doing the same. …

“… We celebrate Eve’s act and honor her wisdom and courage in the great episode called the Fall. … Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said: ‘I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor do I accuse Adam of a sin. … This was a transgression of the law, but not a sin.’ …”

When was the last time you celebrated someone’s murder? Too harsh you say? What about your two year old who’s pitchin’ a fit? Do you celebrate that?

I don’t celebrate any of the crimes my uncle Butch Cassidy committed yet many people, including the LDS Church, always seem to glamorize who he was in film and books.  I’ve never celebrated the actions of the drunk driver who killed my cousin Michael in 1979 and I don’t recall celebrating the suicides of hundreds of people each year in Utah.

Mormons mistakenly believe they wouldn’t had sex or kids without sinning; ah-hem, transgressing.  By the way, they’re the same thing.  Yet for the Mormon there’s no salvation with having kids so our question is this; is having a sexual relationship with your spouse a sin or necessary evil?

Imagine the shame associated with this scenario!  Every time a Mormon woman is with her husband she’s taught that she’s acting just like Eve did in sinning.  Wow – what a lie from the pit of hell!

Moreover this is very distressing when this is what the lesson focuses on instead of how merciful and just our God is even after Adam (all of us) wasSINNING by turning his heart away from God.

Please pray for those who believe these lies!

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

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