Mormon Dilemma 39

04 August

Salvation, None Outside of Mormonism

Mormon Doctrine, pg. 138; There is no salvation outside this one true Church, the Church of Jesus Christ. There is one Christ, one Church, one gospel, one plan of salvation, one set of saving ordinances, one group of legal administrators, “One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” (Eph. 4:5.)

Ephesians 4:3-6; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;  5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,  6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

True to form, the Mormons don’t want to accept the surrounding verses in this passage.  Indeed, there is one faith, one baptism and most importantly, ONE GOD who is above all, through all and IN all. 

Ironically, the FLDS feel the same way about their church as well (I will always believe they’re practicing a truer form of Mormonism than the mainstream LDS Church in Salt Lake).  How is it that both of them can be right if they’re both following what Joseph Smith taught?  Warren Jeffs is just doing what he was taught…right?  Look at all the trouble that’s been caused just by one false church teaching false doctrines.  Pray that this trial in Texas will not only wake up the members of the FLDS, but the followers like my mother in Utah as well.

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6 Responses to “Mormon Dilemma 39”

  1. Alma August 4, 2011 at 8:54 pm #

    One of my perennial complaints about “ministries” to Mormons is generally their basic ignorance about Mormonism. Your contention that FLDS practice aligns closer to true Mormonism illustrates that you really don’t understand Mormonism, FLDS practice or likely–both. The basic Mormon tenets of authority and common consent have been revised and expunged from so-called Mormon fundamentalism. They are fundamentals that have been rejected by fundamentalists–and that’s only a beginning to their heresies.

    • lifeafterministry August 5, 2011 at 7:42 pm #

      Alma –

      I’m rather curious of what I’m ignorant about. You’ve given no specifics on what I’ve said that has perennially annoyed you. My “basic ignorance” is a broad brush statement with no qualifying evidence.
      I can assure you that if there is anything on any of my websites that is wrong, I will immediately pull the incorrect info and publicly apologize.
      To insinuate I am ignorant about the mainstream church in Salt Lake and the FLDS is a gross misstatement. I am keenly aware of what goes on in both.
      While I do agree that Jeffs has twisted even the broadest sense of fundamental Mormonism, his behavior is more in line with the way Smith behaved than anything in the mainstream church of yesteryear or today.
      Michelle Grim, Life After Ministries

    • Alma August 6, 2011 at 12:56 pm #

      I provided 8 specifics in my reply to CamdenC

  2. CamdenC August 5, 2011 at 12:19 am #

    Alma – The FLDS leaders have over stepped their bounds when it comes to authority. But didn’t Joseph Smith do the same thing? Didn’t he write himself a lisence for immorality in D&C 132? The man can marry 10 virgins and be justified, but if one of the women has an affair, she is an adulterer and would be destroyed… Does that sound like a commandment from a Just God?

    Women being raised to believe that Jeffs is the mouthpiece for God and God has commanded his actions, breeds the absence of common consent. But didn’t Emma Smith detest the practice of “plural marriage” and once her son Joseph III was not named prophet (as Joe Junior had said he would be), she and Joe III left and formed the RLDS?

    The person writing this blog is very well versed on all of Mormonism, being that she was a member for many years (as was I) and has been studying, researching, and writing on Mormonism for 17 years.

    The point Michelle is making is that the mainstream SLC Mormon church started out with the same beliefs and tenants that the FLDS church continues to practice today. They did not agree with the 1890 “abolish-polygamy” revelation and broke off from the Utah church. Polygamy never was, nor will it ever be, Holy and acceptable behavior in God’s eyes. (Even when the SLC church is supposedly going to reinstate during the millineum)

    The FLDS still believe in Section 132 that Joseph Smith wrote. They didn’t get the memo on the 1978 revelation about the “negroes” being equal with the white race, as well.

    Just the Mormon church’s view on the blacks throughout 3/4 of their history, should be grounds enough for anyone to realize that Mormonism (in any form) is a false religion. A psuedo-Christian cult, at best.

  3. Alma August 5, 2011 at 3:29 am #

    Camden:

    Your response to me demonstrates that you are still dismally misinformed about Mormonism. And yet, you typically appeal to emotion rather than Scripture: “does that sound like a commandment from a Just God?” Whether or not something “sounds” appropriate to you really has no bearing on whether or not it is scriptural or just.

    No, Emma did not leave and form the RLDS church over her son’s failure to be named president. That Church was established in 1853 and Joseph Smith III didn’t join it until 1860.

    The fact that the author of this blog has been writing on Mormonism for 17 years is really irrelevant. Walter Martin and John L. Smith wrote for much longer than that and they couldn’t get it right either.

    The point of my reply to Michelle was precisely that the tenets of Mormonism have not been maintained by fundamentalism; and for her to think that the mere fact of polygamy demonstrates the validity of her premise is further illustration that she is misinformed. FLDS members have no prohibition against the consumption of alcohol, they believe that Joseph Smith is the Holy Spirit and have never sent missionaries out to proselytize. Until 2002 they claimed that there was to be no temple work. They didn’t even exist until nearly 40 years after the Manifesto. Their church hierarchy is a council of 7 “Friends” with no First Presidency or Quorum of 12 or Seventy. As I noted before, their concept of authority is drastically different than that practiced by Mormonism.

    Of course, if Michelle knew any of this, her writing career 17 years might have been more impressive.

    Additionally, the 132nd section stipulates that exaltation comes to monogamists as well as polygamists- – an idea rejected by the FLDS; so don’t tell me that they believe it while Mormons don’t.

  4. CamdenC August 7, 2011 at 2:02 pm #

    Alma – Thank you for informing me of the FLDS practices I was not aware of. It is true that I am not a scholar or an authority of the FLDS, nor of the LDS. Still doesn’t detract from the core issue here, and that is polygamy. God ordained marriage between one man and one woman, (same argument we have to use nowadays against gay marriage). Whether you believe that polygamy is from God after He changed His mind, means nothing. That is your belief based on extra-biblical teachings. I believe the Bible is the Word of God and it has been translated correctly and had no parts of it left out.
    “The grass witherth and the flower fadeth; but the Word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

    You make a good point about God and whether or not things “sound” good or just. It is true, He is God and He can do whatever He pleases. For us mortals down here, why would we try and bring Him down to our level of thinking? I don’t want to serve a God that was once a sinful man as myself. Are not His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than ours? Why do so many false religions, humanize God and deify man? To know God is to have a relationship with Him. He is our King, we are His followers…

    (Romans 11:33) Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!

    I was a member of the LDS for the first 26 years of my life and believed (arrogantly) that we were the only true church and all the other “sects and denominations” of Christianity were apostate and the “whore of babylon”. I looked on them with pity that they were lost and didn’t even know it. Now that I have a real relationship with Jesus, I look on the lost with compassion and am moved to tell them the good news of Jesus, not why they should join a certain church.

    I also had a disdain towards the African-Americans as being “less than” us white people.. It was nothing for Elders and Counselors to make racially charged jokes during social functions. Racism was alive and well in my family (and still is to this day, 1978 revelation or not). I now have a love for all people, doesn’t matter their skin color or their lineage.

    I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and love my neighbor as myself. I don’t need some Masonic type temple rituals to make me any more right with God. Believing and following the One that gave His life for me, is justification enough. Nothing I can do will get me more favor in His eyes. Good works won’t save you, they are a fruit that comes out of being a new creation in Christ (Born Again)

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