General Conference October 2013 Purchasing Your Way into Heaven

10 October

salt-lake-temple-2A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a friend of mine that follows our blog asking me why the Church doesn’t divulge their financial statements. I responded that the Church hasn’t publicly released a financial statement for decades now.

Several days later she forwarded an e-mail to me that she received from the Church. She wrote asking them if she could see their financial statements since other Christian churches readily provide this information at the public’s asking and I’m posting their reply to her here. Needless to say my friend was taken aback at their response and I have to agree with her! Not sure why or even how they can do this if they’re a charity, nevertheless they do.

Michelle,

Here’s the reply to my question on LDS FINANCIAL STMT.
———
You submitted a Question on September 20, 2013 at 9:33 PM:
I’ve done a search and looked at the links but I can’t see to locate your Financial Statement for 2012. All Christian churches have this but I am not locating yours. Pls send the link to the page or PDF referring-url:http://www.lds.org/search?q=financial+statement+for+2012&lang=eng&domains=manuals

The LDS Church responded on September 30, 2013 at 6:27 PM as follows:

As do many large corporations, the LDS Church engages an outside auditor for the purpose of determining that all transactions are accomplished in accordance with established accounting practices and principles.  The result of said audit is declared in General Cof=conference annually.. A specific detailed statement for public review is not available.

Thanks for writing.

That’s it. No answers to her enquiry and no reason why they don’t provide a financial statement. Now can you just imagine your church doing such a thing?

When Mormons leave the Church and accept Christ one of the first things I advise them to do is to find a biblically based Christian church in their area and start attending. I give them a few pointers of what to look for in a new church and one of those pointers is to ask for a financial statement from the previous year and a copy of the church’s constitution.

This gives the investigator a sense of taking control in where they choose to worship God and to see that as Christians we’re accountable to each other.

This example of what it’s like to experience freedom in the Lord isn’t what Mormons have at all and that was confirmed once again in the talk given by a Mormon apostle, David Bednar a few days ago.

In his General Conference speech, “The Windows of Heaven” he told members of the Church they would receive temporal blessings when they comply with the Law of Tithing.

Temple RecommendMormons are compelled to give ten percent of their gross earnings each year to receive the much coveted Temple Recommend. No Mormon is allowed to perform any ordinance in the temple without going through a yearly interview with their bishop and showing the Church they have indeed paid up.  With no temple attendance there is no true salvation for the Mormon.

In light of that I want to look at what Mr. Bednar said and compare his “inspired” words with what God says in His word.

The Mormon apostle mentioned he marveled “at the clarity and brevity…in comparison to the complicated financial guidelines and administrative procedures used in so many organizations and governments around the world.”

I can assure you with all the money the Church spends on business ventures, malls, and other investments, there’s nothing simple to the paperwork they go through.

He further went on to say that he knew this worked so well because “this is the Lord’s work”.

How would anyone know for sure if it’s the Lord’s work when the Church won’t release their financial statements?  By the Church’s own admission at this same conference another apostle (Dieter Uchtdorf) admitted past leaders have mademistakes

Keeping this in mind Mr. Bednar told his audience “The leaders of the Lord’s restored Church feel a tremendous responsibility to care appropriately for the consecrated offerings of Church members. We are keenly aware of the sacred nature of the widow’s mite.”  Keenly aware?  Do they realize the context of Jesus’ message in Mark 12:41-44?

“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.”

Jesus was referring to the heart of man or in this particular case, a widow. He wasn’t talking about what a church does with the money! He was talking about giving all you have to the Lord, monetarily and otherwise!

To further prove the words of these leaders aren’t from God is this man’s closing statement.

“The honest payment of tithing is much more than a duty; it is an important step in the process of personal sanctification. To those of you who pay your tithing, I commend you.

To those of you who presently are not obeying the law of tithing, I invite you to consider your ways and repent. I testify that by your obedience to this law of the Lord, the windows of heaven will be opened to you. Please do not procrastinate the day of your repentance.”

In other words pay up or you won’t go to heaven in the Celestial Kingdom which is where true salvation is for a Mormon. What about the words of Paul in Romans 10:4?

“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”

Paul’s words are very telling aren’t they in light of what this Mormon apostle has said.  Clearly the teachings of the Church reveal to us they don’t believe in Christ. Don’t get me wrong, as Christians we should tithe – it all belongs to the Lord anyway!

I find Bednar’s statements revealing as well. They’re asking people to come back to Mormonism. They’re asking people to give money and they’ve told people they’ve made mistakes.  This speaks volumes!  The overall tone to their message portrays a church in trouble, not the bragging claim of growth!  Furthermore, it’s not just the outsiders that are talking about their ways, all you have to do is open the Bible and you’ll discover the Lord has a lot to say about them as well.

While looking for financial stats on the Church I came across an interesting report about the Church’s wealth.  NBC reported in August 2012 the Church is earning 7 billion dollars a year. And no, that wasn’t a typo.  It’s $7,000,000,000,000 per year.  Now, does this sound like an organization that needs money?

 Why haven’t they apologized to the Christians for financing their missionaries when the LDS Church is asking their people to step up efforts to fund their 80,000 missionaries?

Journal of Discourses 16:44-45; “How much tithing do you pay? The professing Christians, apostates and others have a great deal to say about the Saints paying tithing. Now let us compare notes. The Elders of this Church travel and preach without purse or scrip…free of charge. Now take the Christians…Go to their meetings, in their churches, halls…and you have a box, a plate, or a hat put under your face, and it is, ‘Give me a sixpence, give me a sixpence, give me a sixpence!” – Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, May 18, 1873

The real issue here is how the Church tries to place blame on others to take the attention off them.  Up and until the Church produces a comprehensive financial statement they shouldn’t be asking for handouts in the name of God and even more importantly they should use scripture in context.

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

Tags: , , , , ,

2 Responses to “General Conference October 2013 Purchasing Your Way into Heaven”

  1. norton R. Nowlin September 28, 2016 at 5:57 pm #

    Are there such things as enforceable religious contracts that may be made between human beings and entities called churches, in the same context as people engage in contracts with corporations, companies, governments, or with other people? A contract is simply defined as an offer made by a person, company, or business entity to another person, company, or business entity, which, if accepted, is based upon a certain consideration that might be money, a service, or a promise that certain events will occur for the benefit of both the offeror and offeree. In other words, I might offer John an apple for the sum of $1.00. If John likes the apple, and wants to obtain it, he will accept my offer and tender the required consideration of $1.00, which will allow him to obtain the apple. Hence, there are many types of contracts that are taken very seriously by, both, the offeror and offeree. One of the most complex types of contracts is a church’s offer of spiritual products, in the name of a deity, for a person’s promise to obey the commandments imposed by that church. For instance, if agents of a church make an offer to a person that, if he, or she, will strictly obey the commandments imposed by that church, the spirit of that person will, after death, go to a paradise and remain there for eternity, the proselyted person will, either, accept, or reject, the offer based upon the representation made by the agents. Such a representation would be much like Goethe’s “Faustus,” where a man sells his soul to the devil for power and influence while alive on the earth. Of course, while “Faustus” is purely fictional fantasy, there are churches that actually represent that they are the only medium or conduit through which mortal man may communicate with deity and through which, so to speak, mankind get to heaven. These churches have their own very ethnocentric scriptures, which, they claim, were obtained from deity via a centrally organizing character, usually called a prophet. These churches claim to possess powers that other churches don’t possess because of the lack of proper ecclesiastical authority. This tendency of a particular religious organization, or denomination, to proclaim unique power only reposed in that particular organization is what I shall refer to as religio-centricity.

    When agents of these purely religio-centric churches, or cults, seek converts through active proselytizing and by making representations about what the churches have to offer, some people are immediately cajoled into believing and converting to that particular church’s standards and requirements, and others are never persuaded. The Mormon (LDS) Church makes missionary representations about its theology, which are not, in the least bit, true in order to obtain converts. In other words, lies are told to people investigating Mormonism.. Tens-of -thousands of full-time Mormon missionaries are constantly throughout the USA, and the world, offering individual men and women, and families, around the world a, supposedly, Christian theology that is actually a total misrepresentation of real Mormon theology. Millions of Christians have, during the dawn of the 20th Century, been induced by these false representations into joining the Mormon Church by baptism, thereby undertaking the tangible demands of Mormonism.

    Here is where the contract concept applies to the acceptance of a church’s theology by a person to whom the theology was fraudulently misrepresented by agents of the church; which is the proximate cause of the defrauded convert to seriously accept the demands, rules, and regulations based upon deliberate lies. In the case of a new Mormon convert, the most important mandated rule to which a newly converted person must commit before baptism is the payment of a full-tithe of gross income to the Mormon Church. Believe me when I say that a person won’t be baptized into the Mormon Church without making this commitment. A formerly Christian convert to Mormonism is induced by the Mormon agent missionaries to believe that what the Book of Mormon, the “alleged” keystone of Mormon theology, says about God is true Mormon theology; that God is a Spirit with no beginning and no end, a Trinitarian Spirit that has never changed; and that Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are one Trinitarian God.

    The current statement of real Mormon theology has been presented to the Mormon Melchizedek Priesthood in written form, outside the venue of the Mormon temple (there are 149 operating Mormon temples throughout the world) approximately every 35 years since 1900. The most recent statement of real Mormon theology was presented in written form to the Mormon Melchizedek Priesthood, as a restatement and of the comprehensive verbal statements of the first Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., in his 1844 King Follett Discourse, and the Mormon Prophet Lorenzo Snow refinement of it, in 1896, about Mormon polytheism, in the 1984 LDS Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, “Search These Commandments,” in the form of “Lesson 21 -“Man May Become Like God.” In this written lesson, the expanded couplet coined by Lorenzo Snow, “As man is God once was, and as God is, man may become,” was succinctly explained in the context of the 1844 “King Follett Discourse” of Joseph Smith, Jr. “Lesson 21” is affirmed as cannon LDS scripture and commandments by the 1984 LDS First Presidency comprised of Prophet, Seer, and Revelator Spencer W. Kimball and his three apostle counselors, N. Eldon Tanner, Marion G. Romney, and Gordon B. Hinckley. The reason that the real theology of Mormonism is published so rarely and only talked about and extolled in the Mormon temples, and, on occasion, in the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums, is because of plausible deniability in the face of the lies that are told by Mormon missionaries to people who are investigating Mormonism, called “investigators.”

    As a brief summation of real and correct of Mormon theology, the Mormon (LDS) Church believes and maintains that the Mormon father-god, the father of Jesus Christ, was once a human man who was biologically born, and lived, on some earth-like planet in the cosmos; who followed the laws and commandments of Mormonism and, later, died, was resurrected, and awarded the highest degree of Mormon celestial opportunity, called exaltation, wherein he was transformed into a god, with a capital G, and given limited power to organize, not create (Mormon gods are bound according to the earthly laws of physics), an earth of his own, and to procreate billions of spirit children, with his Mormon goddess wife, in order to populate his earth on the spirits obtaining mortal bodies.

    This process of Mormon godhood, in “Lesson 21” is further expanded by an explanation that all worthy Mormon elders (holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood) have the destiny of becoming as great as their Mormon father-god, with a capital G, by becoming, themselves, Mormon father-gods, with a capital G, to be able to do all that their father-god, with a capital G, was able to do. Brigham Young, in 1868 during a Mormon General Conference, in Salt Lake City, proclaimed that “there are as many Gods as there are stars, and as many saviors as there are Gods.” This additional principle of real Mormon theology is the main point of theological emphasis that the Mormon missionaries, in the 21st Century, want to hide from the prospective Mormons, with whom they connect in their door-to-door proselyting. What this means is that every Mormon elder, on the earth, who becomes a Mormon god, with a capital G, procreates his own version of Jesus Christ, as saviors for their worlds. This, of course, blasphemously makes the real Christian Jesus, the one and only God of the universe, just another “savior,” who was biologically procreated to ritually die just in order to provide resurrection, not universal salvation, to all of the inhabitants of an earth in the past, present, and future.

    The issue, therefore, of full-disclosure of all of the correct and true facts about real Mormon theology brings forth the breach of the promissory contract between the Mormon (LDS) Church and the investigators who innocently believe that what the Mormon full-time missionary agents tell them is correct Mormon theology. The consideration fulfilling the contract is the payment of the first tithing by the new Mormon converts to a ward bishop, based upon the promissory agreement of the investigators to commit to the payment of a full-tithe in exchange for membership in the Mormon Church. Let me, again, assure you that an investigator will not be accepted for membership, and baptized, if he, or she, does not promise to pay a full-tithe for the rest of their mortal lives.

    Hence, the deliberate failure to disclose the real theology of Mormonism, as contained in “Lesson 21-Man May Become Like God,” is also the basis for a charge of fraud and systematic racketeering, in addition to breach of contract, since “every” Christian investigator is deliberately deprived of this essential theological knowledge that would, no doubt, cause those Christians to reject Mormonism as pagan and polytheistic.

  2. Norton R. Nowlin September 28, 2016 at 6:02 pm #

    Are there such things as enforceable religious contracts that may be made between human beings and entities called churches, in the same context as people engage in contracts with corporations, companies, governments, or with other people? A contract is simply defined as an offer made by a person, company, or business entity to another person, company, or business entity, which, if accepted, is based upon a certain consideration that might be money, a service, or a promise that certain events will occur for the benefit of both the offeror and offeree. In other words, I might offer John an apple for the sum of $1.00. If John likes the apple, and wants to obtain it, he will accept my offer and tender the required consideration of $1.00, which will allow him to obtain the apple. Hence, there are many types of contracts that are taken very seriously by, both, the offeror and offeree. One of the most complex types of contracts is a church’s offer of spiritual products, in the name of a deity, for a person’s promise to obey the commandments imposed by that church. For instance, if agents of a church make an offer to a person that, if he, or she, will strictly obey the commandments imposed by that church, the spirit of that person will, after death, go to a paradise and remain there for eternity, the proselyted person will, either, accept, or reject, the offer based upon the representation made by the agents. Such a representation would be much like Goethe’s “Faustus,” where a man sells his soul to the devil for power and influence while alive on the earth. Of course, while “Faustus” is purely fictional fantasy, there are churches that actually represent that they are the only medium or conduit through which mortal man may communicate with deity and through which, so to speak, mankind get to heaven. These churches have their own very ethnocentric scriptures, which, they claim, were obtained from deity via a centrally organizing character, usually called a prophet. These churches claim to possess powers that other churches don’t possess because of the lack of proper ecclesiastical authority. This tendency of a particular religious organization, or denomination, to proclaim unique power only reposed in that particular organization is what I shall refer to as religio-centricity.

    When agents of these purely religio-centric churches, or cults, seek converts through active proselytizing and by making representations about what the churches have to offer, some people are immediately cajoled into believing and converting to that particular church’s standards and requirements, and others are never persuaded. The Mormon (LDS) Church makes missionary representations about its theology, which are not, in the least bit, true in order to obtain converts. In other words, lies are told to people investigating Mormonism.. Tens-of -thousands of full-time Mormon missionaries are constantly throughout the USA, and the world, offering individual men and women, and families, around the world a, supposedly, Christian theology that is actually a total misrepresentation of real Mormon theology. Millions of Christians have, during the dawn of the 20th Century, been induced by these false representations into joining the Mormon Church by baptism, thereby undertaking the tangible demands of Mormonism.

    Here is where the contract concept applies to the acceptance of a church’s theology by a person to whom the theology was fraudulently misrepresented by agents of the church; which is the proximate cause of the defrauded convert to seriously accept the demands, rules, and regulations based upon deliberate lies. In the case of a new Mormon convert, the most important mandated rule to which a newly converted person must commit before baptism is the payment of a full-tithe of gross income to the Mormon Church. Believe me when I say that a person won’t be baptized into the Mormon Church without making this commitment. A formerly Christian convert to Mormonism is induced by the Mormon agent missionaries to believe that what the Book of Mormon, the “alleged” keystone of Mormon theology, says about God is true Mormon theology; that God is a Spirit with no beginning and no end, a Trinitarian Spirit that has never changed; and that Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are one Trinitarian God.

    The current statement of real Mormon theology has been presented to the Mormon Melchizedek Priesthood in written form, outside the venue of the Mormon temple (there are 149 operating Mormon temples throughout the world) approximately every 35 years since 1900. The most recent statement of real Mormon theology was presented in written form to the Mormon Melchizedek Priesthood, as a restatement and of the comprehensive verbal statements of the first Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., in his 1844 King Follett Discourse, and the Mormon Prophet Lorenzo Snow refinement of it, in 1896, about Mormon polytheism, in the 1984 LDS Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, “Search These Commandments,” in the form of “Lesson 21 -“Man May Become Like God.” In this written lesson, the expanded couplet coined by Lorenzo Snow, “As man is God once was, and as God is, man may become,” was succinctly explained in the context of the 1844 “King Follett Discourse” of Joseph Smith, Jr. “Lesson 21” is affirmed as cannon LDS scripture and commandments by the 1984 LDS First Presidency comprised of Prophet, Seer, and Revelator Spencer W. Kimball and his three apostle counselors, N. Eldon Tanner, Marion G. Romney, and Gordon B. Hinckley. The reason that the real theology of Mormonism is published so rarely and only talked about and extolled in the Mormon temples, and, on occasion, in the Melchizedek Priesthood quorums, is because of plausible deniability in the face of the lies that are told by Mormon missionaries to people who are investigating Mormonism, called “investigators.”

    As a brief summation of real and correct of Mormon theology, the Mormon (LDS) Church believes and maintains that the Mormon father-god, the father of Jesus Christ, was once a human man who was biologically born, and lived, on some earth-like planet in the cosmos; who followed the laws and commandments of Mormonism and, later, died, was resurrected, and awarded the highest degree of Mormon celestial opportunity, called exaltation, wherein he was transformed into a god, with a capital G, and given limited power to organize, not create (Mormon gods are bound according to the earthly laws of physics), an earth of his own, and to procreate billions of spirit children, with his Mormon goddess wife, in order to populate his earth on the spirits obtaining mortal bodies.

    This process of Mormon godhood, in “Lesson 21” is further expanded by an explanation that all worthy Mormon elders (holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood) have the destiny of becoming as great as their Mormon father-god, with a capital G, by becoming, themselves, Mormon father-gods, with a capital G, to be able to do all that their father-god, with a capital G, was able to do. Brigham Young, in 1868 during a Mormon General Conference, in Salt Lake City, proclaimed that “there are as many Gods as there are stars, and as many saviors as there are Gods.” This additional principle of real Mormon theology is the main point of theological emphasis that the Mormon missionaries, in the 21st Century, want to hide from the prospective Mormons, with whom they connect in their door-to-door proselyting. What this means is that every Mormon elder, on the earth, who becomes a Mormon god, with a capital G, procreates his own version of Jesus Christ, as saviors for their worlds. This, of course, blasphemously makes the real Christian Jesus, the one and only God of the universe, just another “savior,” who was biologically procreated to ritually die just in order to provide resurrection, not universal salvation, to all of the inhabitants of an earth in the past, present, and future.

    The issue, therefore, of full-disclosure of all of the correct and true facts about real Mormon theology brings forth the breach of the promissory contract between the Mormon (LDS) Church and the investigators who innocently believe that what the Mormon full-time missionary agents tell them is correct Mormon theology. The consideration fulfilling the contract is the payment of the first tithing by the new Mormon converts to a ward bishop, based upon the promissory agreement of the investigators to commit to the payment of a full-tithe in exchange for membership in the Mormon Church. Let me, again, assure you that an investigator will not be accepted for membership, and baptized, if he, or she, does not promise to pay a full-tithe for the rest of their mortal lives.

    Hence, the deliberate failure to disclose the real theology of Mormonism, as contained in “Lesson 21-Man May Become Like God,” is also the basis for a charge of fraud and systematic racketeering, in addition to breach of contract, since “every” Christian investigator is deliberately deprived of this essential theological knowledge that would, no doubt, cause those Christians to reject Mormonism as pagan and polytheistic.

Leave a Reply