The Apostate Mormon Church by Ed Decker

01 July

Ed Decker

July 1, 2014

www.saintsalive.com

Ed DeckerI am not claiming to be a prophet, revelator or even a seer, as did Joseph Smith and later LDS presidents, but I have had something of a revelation of sorts. I was sorting though all the many, recent LDS claims of being true Christians and began to see a pattern of corporate denial of its own basic ‘restorationist’ theology.  They have brought changes so much in opposition to their much-proclaimed only-true-church status as to completely invalidate their claims of a restored church.

In fact, they are presently in clear apostasy from the church established by Joseph Smith. The LDS Church claims that God and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith physically and told him that he was called to be the prophet of the ‘last dispensation of time’ and that he was restoring vital, essential truths lost over the years of   ‘the great apostasy ’ that destroyed all godly authority and the real teachings of Christ from the church.

We need to go back to Mormonism’s actual beginning and the attraction it had among its early converts. Mormonism brought a“Come out from among them” kind of religious fanaticism. Even in that day, many people were turned off by the secularism of the general Christian church and sought something deeper.

The commitment to Mormonism required that most of them had to leave family, home and occupations to join this new fiery prophet. It required far more of the believer and these new Mormons all but swooned as the very charismatic Joseph Smith reached into their searching souls with his message of a restored purity.  The early Mormon converts truly came out from among ‘them’ with eagerness and zeal.

The key to any “come out from among them” message is the necessity of condemning of the doctrines of the “thems” and a replacement of any of the “thems” doctrines with new and “only True” doctrines.   Mormonism has shouted out that message loud and clear for over 180 years.

Among their nonnegotiable reasons for the necessity of “coming out from among them”
is the claim that they had fully restored:

The only true church

The only true prophet

The only true organization

The only true priesthood

The only true scripture

The only true doctrine

The only true salvation

The only true baptism

The only true temple

The only true sacraments

LDS missionaries: ravening wolves among the flocks

Their missionaries went forth not to seek out those who had yet to find Christ, but pull out from “among them” those lost in the spiritual darkness of orthodox Christianity. It was true in the 1800s and is still the principal function of their missionary efforts today.

The problem is that, today, the Mormons clearly pronounce that they are Christians and part of the very Christian body they ‘came out from’. They are deeply offended if one would say that their core doctrines are unbiblical and false. The missionaries avoid any talk of all non-Mormons being in the Church of the devil. They share a cookies and milk message.

Instead of publicly crying out “Come out from among them” as they once did, Mormons now cry, why do you separate us from you? They exclaim, ‘Let us be part of you.’ Never mind that their entire missionary force is still out to convert the orthodox Christian world.

The Mormons are either so double minded and spiritually blind that they cannot see the problem or so devious that they laugh at and privately mock the Christians who buy into their scheme.

The First Vision now a Faded Reality.

According to Mormonism, God the Father and Jesus Christ, appeared physically to Joseph Smith and called him forth to be the prophet of this age. He was told that the church had lost its authority and power, their creeds were an abomination and that those who preached them and those who ‘professed those creeds were corrupt. He was called to restore all things to their original purity.

19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” 20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 1.

Of course, we Christians still wonder what the LDS god found filthy in his eyes in the Apostles’ Creed or the Westminster Confession or the Nicene Creed, all carrying the solid basis for the orthodox Christianity.  Read these creeds and others of the church at: http://www.saintsalive.com/resourcelibrary/general/upon-these-creeds-we-stand

Christians Part of the Church of the Devil

One of the LDS only true scriptures, The Book of Mormon, clearly and unequivocally states their complete separation from and condemnation of orthodoxy. Obviously, the LDS church has considered itself the church of the Lamb of God from the day the Book of Mormon was in print.

10 And he said unto me: Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth. BOM, 1 Nephi 14:10

Orson Pratt, a Mormon Apostle wrote this about the general Christian church.

“All other churches are entirely destitute of all authority from God; and any person who receives Baptism or the Lord’s Supper from their hands will highly offend God; for He looks upon them as the most corrupt of all people. Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the whore of Babylon.” Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 255.

I see the LDS church in clear apostasy for trying to become members of that “church of the devil.” They have affectively renounced their one true church mantra from their “come out from among them” justification for existence.

The Book of Mormon Condemns LDS Temple Ritual

Further, their scripture clearly condemns secret signs and combinations, those very things done in the LDS temple ritual. One very clear sign that the ‘brethren’ knew they were out of order with their scripture was their early condemnation of Freemasonry, the very secret society from which these actual rituals were taken.

The LDS Church removed most of the Masonic  ‘blood oaths’ involved when others and we revealed them publicly.  However, to still use the core of the secret signs and combinations, ritual acts that bring them into clear condemnation, not only from the Bible, but also from the Book of Mormon itself.

21 And there are many churches built up which cause envyings, and strifes, and malice. 22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever. 23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.  2ndNephi 26 (also see Ether 8:18 and Mormon 8: 27)

Christian Pastors are hirelings of Satan

In the temple rituals in which I personally participated, the ‘come out from among them’ message was enormously clear. While this portion of the pure and perfect ritual was deleted in 1990, this was what every Mormon until that time learned.

In the ritual, the disobedient Adam and Eve are cast out from the Garden. Adam calls out to God and Lucifer shows up, identifying himself as the god of this world.   When he sees that Adam is seeking spiritual help from the Father, Lucifer brings an orthodox preacher who asks this:

(Preacher) Do you believe in a god who is without body parts and passions? Who sits on the top of a topless throne? Whose center’s everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere? Who fills the universe and yet is so small that He can dwell in your heart? Who is surrounded by millions of beings who have been saved by grace, not for any act of theirs but by his good pleasure. Do you believe in this great being? ”  (Adam) “I do not. I cannot comprehend such a being.” (Preacher) “That is the beauty of it.

This is the core of the orthodox theology and the base doctrinal stand of the very same Christian body the Mormon prophet and his Apostles clamor to be part of now.  They are Apostates to their own founding doctrines.

Polygamy: Mormonism’s New and Everlasting Covenant

When Joseph Smith began the practice of taking ‘spiritual wives’ he gave forth a very specific revelation in the matter. He called this plural marriage and said that God declared it a new and everlasting covenant and the eternal Law of the Priesthood.  That is a pretty solid word coming from the Almighty God himself. The revelation is still found in LDS Scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132.  It is a forever pronouncement from the mouth of God.

4 For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.

6 And as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, it was instituted for the fulness of my glory; and he that receiveth a fulness thereof must and shall abide the law, or he shall be damned, saith the Lord God.  D & C, section 132

It continues on for another 60 verses, as God justifies and solemnizes the teaching of many wives.  Near the end, we read

61 And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else.

62 And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified.

The problem was that pressure was building over the federal government’s interest in bringing federal control into Utah and the Church’s iron grip on the same territory.

Finally, on October 6, 1890, Wilford Woodruff, the LDS President and current prophet, seer and revelator, caved in to government demands and issued a manifesto declaring the end to polygamy.  Many of its more avid participants set up new colonies in Mexico and Canada, where they could continue the practice.

While that solved many of its problems with the federal government and opened the door to statehood, the prophet and the corporate body of the church again violated the very word of God, given as an eternal commandment, the disobedience of which brought them eternal damnation. And, I must add, another step into the darkness of apostasy.

Mormons and Their African American Problem

Another jump deeper into the black pit of apostasy came when the Mormon Church changed the eternal doctrine regarding the black race.  I list only two of many.

Joseph Smith said:  “Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species and put them on a national equalization.” History of the Church, Volume 5, pages 218 – 219.

John Taylor, third prophet and president of the Mormon Church made it very clear: ” . . . after the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced upon Cain was continued through Ham’s wife, as he had married a wife of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary that the devil should have a representation a upon a the earth as well as God;…. ” Journal of Discourses, Volume 22, page 304.

You can read many of the statements from their leaders at: For more specifics, see:http://www.saintsalive.com/resourcelibrary/mormonism/african-americans-and-the-mormon-church

However, in the 1960s and the 1970s, such racial doctrine was becoming a sore subject within the hallowed halls of the church office building.  The brethren were opening up a temple in Brazil where such a doctrine would keep most people out of the temple.  I personally remember black activists marching in front of my home ward building with signs denouncing us as racists. Trouble was also brewing on the home front with the IRS and the church’s non-profit status. The racist practices at BYU were not sitting well with the new world of the Martin Luther King era.

Bending to the pressure once more, the First Presidency released another official declaration. On June 8, 1978, the church leaders released the black race from God’s own curse. It is now scripture, and a part of Doctrine and Covenants, as official Declaration 2.

One more nail in the only true church coffin. It was an apostate declaration, clearly defying the LDS god’s eternal word.

Mingling with the church of the Devil

In its slide into its apostasy, the LDS church has been mingling with the church of the devil for the last decade or so. It was never clearer than when Mitt Romney ran for President.

It rose up to a crashing crescendo when Glenn Beck gathered up groups of spiritually compromised Christian leaders and put on his “We are All One’ party at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. In 2014, when Beck spoke at Liberty University, he waved a number of rare bibles and cried out the need for the graduating students to live by the scriptures.

He didn’t tell them that his church believed that the bibles he was waving around were corrupt. He didn’t tell them that the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price were the only pure scriptures, that those bibles were highly damaged by evil and careless men. In the last few years, the MormOn Church has brought in Christian leaders of note such as Ravo Zacharias, well known evangelist and Dr. Richard Mouw, Professor of Faith and Public Life School of Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary. Neither man challenged a single heretical doctrine of Mormonism.

In fact, Mouw even apologized and asked their forgiveness for the terrible things people like me have said about the nice Mormon Church.

In the Mormon Church’s failure to point out the corrupt condition of the scripture common to both those men who were hirelings of Satan according to their sacred temple teachings, they have again failed to stand for the ‘Only True Scripture.” They have compromised an eternal truth as they cuddle up to these men and the body of Christian orthodoxy.

Is God an Exalted Man any More?

LDS Scripture clearly and emphatically declares that its god was once a man.

22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; D& C 130: 22

It could not be clearer. I will spare you the lists of several dozen other specific references that confirm this bedrock doctrine of the restoration.  Yet, one cannot get a Mormon leader to admit that this is the core of their theology. Here are just two.

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret… It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and to know…that he was once a man like us…. Here, then, is eternal life – to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves,… the same as all Gods have done before you…” (Joseph Smith   (“King Follett Discourse,” Journal of Discourses 6:3-4, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 342-345)

“He [God] is our Father – the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted being.”(Brigham Young , Journal of Discourses 7:333)

Yet, in 1997, the only true and living prophet on earth, Gordon B. Hinckley publically denied knowledge of this vital part of the restoration.  On August 4,in a Time Magazine article, he said this:

“I don’t know that we teach it. I know that we emphasis it..I understand the philosophical background behind it, but I don’t know a lot about it and I don’t think others know a lot about it.”

Nonsense! Hasn’t this prophet even read his own scripture?  In an interview later that month with the San Francisco Chronicle, he was asked if Mormons believe that god was once a man.

He replied,  “I wouldn’t say that. There was a little couplet coined, ‘As Man is God once was. As God is, man may become.’   Now that’s more of a couplet than anything else. That gets into some pretty deep theology that we don’t know very much about.”

Later, he played the same game with Larry King Live, on national television.  Was he ashamed of the LDS gospel or was he being a deceitful liar and false prophet? He was clearly acting in apostasy from the supposed eternal god-given truths upon which his church was founded.

Today, you cannot get a straight answer from any Mormon leader regarding this or any other controversial doctrine. They can’t publically profess this and still cry out to be part of the body of the orthodox church.

Men Becoming Gods?

I have been reading Mormon blogs lately about the church leaders waffling publicly on the subject of men becoming gods.  Much is being said on the subject and the Church has published some Mormon double speak on the subject that that it is kind of out there, but they are not too sure.

I wondered why I went to the temple, if not to learn the signs, code words and handgrips, et al that I needed to get into the celestial kingdom and be given my own world and goddess wives.

If it is all that questionable, I wonder what the purpose is of even going through the temple.  Well, yes, I know. One can get married for time and all eternity there.

Let’s not even go into that quagmire of eternal, polygamous lives in our celestial glory.

They now say that we can work toward becoming godlike.  Not gods, but god-like. What kind of nonsense is that? The scriptures talk about becoming Christ-like, but god-like?  How does one do that? Create worlds, make spirit babies, and beget saviors? Exist outside creation?   They have created lies and deception and now find themselves digging in deeper and deeper as they attempt to redefine earlier lies and false teachings.

Mormons are just not Christians. Sorry.

Mormonism can never align itself with Orthodox, biblically based Christianity for many reasons, yet the Mormon people still want to be known as true Christians.

They used to say,  “You are the ones who are not Christians. We are the only true Christians.” Now they say, “We are the same as you, maybe with a few minor doctrinal differences, but really the same.”

Outwardly, they not discuss the real Mormon doctrines. But inwardly, these aberrant things are still the same.  They talk about Jesus, but know a different Christ. They talk about salvation but they have two of them: the one all mankind receives from Jesus’ death and the other, that personal salvation is something each person must work out and earn individually.

Rarely, if ever, are the doctrines that Joseph Smith restored spoken from the Mormon pulpits anymore.  The words spoken there now are feel good messages meant to make the members and their families happy to be there and smiling when they leave.

We talk to recent converts about some of these strange doctrines and they look at us like we are crazy. They haven’t been taught about their Mother in Heaven, or the black skin curse, or Jesus and Lucifer being brothers, as examples.

Many of the Mormon bloggers agree that in today’s world of Mormonism, many of the younger members pick and choose what they will focus on and let it go at that.  Mormonism has become a social place bending to the winds of liberalism and politically correct thinking.

Many older Mormons who are confused by these changing doctrines have stepped into inactivity or left the church entirely.  Some say over two million members have left the church in the last several years.

Abortion

There was a day when abortion was just short of the unforgivable sin.  Having an abortion, for any reason, was a door to immediate disfellowshipping or excommunication.  And if it turned out any family were involved in it, they would get the same left foot of fellowship.

Back during my days as a Mormon, the solution was either a quick marriage or an adoption through church agencies.  I read recently that it is now in the process of being closed down for lack of adoptees. I remember a statistic from some Utah agency back in the 1990s that showed the majority of births in Utah at the time were conceived by teens prior to marriage.

Today, the church takes a different approach, and while they still do not agree with abortion, they feel it is up to the woman, her rights and her personal needs, her physical or mental health and sometimes because of rape or incest.

Gay is now OK

Back in the 1970s, when leaders at BYU discovered that a good number of returned missionaries (was it one in every three?) were homosexuals, they had a scorch and burn program in place.  An off campus paper, The 7th East Press, did an expose on the problem. They shared stories of electric shock treatments and quickie marriages arranged by the church.

Of course the press was shut down and the young students running it went off to other schools.  But the word was out.  Be gay, be gone.

Now, those living these alternate lifestyles, the GLBT Mormons are accepted openly.  They are openly welcome in the LDS Boy Scout program, that is – in reality, a major part of the Aaronic priesthood program of the church.

Gay and Lesbians are called to church positions and LDS youth groups are marching in Gay Pride parades.  Some Wards are having encounter meetings so church people can meet and understand the

What’s the Point?

The point here is that over the years, Mormon Church doctrine has changed with the seasons and bowed to political correctness and the morals of the times.  This as perfectly acceptable action if the Church had not started out as that stern “Come out from among them” group calling the entire Christian body the church of the devil.

They cannot be both. Be either one or the other. To be part of true Christianity the LDS church must renounce all the false doctrines they have preached for over 180 years and come out from among those things themselves.

They have not done this nor will they. What they are doing is lying to the public about these beliefs, denying them and quietly adhering to them privately. Not the whole of the church, but that inner, elite group of false teachers, false prophets and apostles.  They have become apostates to their own theology.

Paul summed up Mormonism when he said:

13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. (II Corinthians 11)

The leaders of the Mormon Church have taken down the banner of that once proclaimed ‘one and only true church on the face of the earth.’ Step by slippery step, they have moved away from that straight and narrow path of their pronounced religious righteousness and stepped into their own apostasy.

They are still ravening wolves among the flock and the closer they draw into ecumenical Christianity, the darker and more dangerous they have become.  Their wool-covered packs of recruiters will just be wearing thicker sheepskins.

Ed

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