X-Delivery-Notice:  SMTP MAIL FROM does not correspond to sender.
X-VMS-To: IN%"CHRISTIA@asuvm.inre.asu.edu"
X-VMS-Cc: DSROBERTS
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 1993 08:08:10 -0800
Reply-To:     don@biivax.dp.BECKMAN.COM
From:         Don Roberts <DSROBERTS@BIIVAX.DP.BECKMAN.COM>
Subject:      Re: Mormon/LDS

I don't see a post yet where anyone has really addressed the major differences
between Mormon doctrine and Biblical Christian doctrine.  The person in the
cubicle next to mine is mormon, and I've had LONG discussions with him about
our differences.  He keeps telling me "I know you can back that up with the
Bible, but I can't agree because I can't aposticize the church". :-(  I've also
read many writings about the teachings of the LDS church and spent a great deal
of time discussing theology with Mormon missionaries (like everytime I meet one
:-).  If anyone feels anything I point out below is inaccurate, please cite
source, I'm always willing to learn.

Here are some of the bizarre teachings of the Mormon Church.  I've confirmed
all of these from several sources.  If you consider this a Christian church
then what standards do you use to measure that name?

- God the father started out as a man.  We was elected by the host of Gods to
godhood and is the god of this world.  This way, when a Christian quotes Isaiah
on the uniqueness of God, Mormons agree, but when pressed they say Isaiah is
talking about this world, not all worlds.

- Jesus is the son of Mary through physical sex with the Holy Spirit, another
elevated man-god

- Jesus was later elevated to God after the crucifiction

- Jesus is the physical brother to Satan, another son of God the father through
a different woman

- Only Mormons are able to go to the top level of heaven.

- Non-mormon Christians are misguided but essentially good, they will go to the
middle level of heaven

- Bad people go to the bottom level of heaven.

- Each level of heaven is divided into three layers based on the works you did
in this life.

- the Mormon church is the true church

- God is not a trinity.  He is an elevated man, Jesus and the spirit are
seperate and distinct gods, also elevated men.  And there is a host of Gods
(many Mormons don't know this.  You have to be really well versed in Mormon
theology to learn about it as a Mormon).

- A Mormon who does sufficiently good works can become a god of his own world,
to be populated by his children.

- Mormon men are required to wear a "holy underwear" that has symbols of great
meaning on it (actually masonic symbols, Joseph Smith was a freemason).  They
also greet one another with a "secret handshake" that happens to be identical
to the 3rd degree freemason handshake, and the temple practices, until last
year, were almost identical to freemason rites.

- Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are true prophets of God

- There is no relation between the crucifixtion and Jesus' SPIRITUAL (note not
bodily) resurrection and salvation.

- The Christian creeds (Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian) are abominations

- The negro race are the bearers of the mark of Cain.  Until recently they
actively taught this makes blacks inherently evil and barred them from the
priesthood.  The church now repudiates this teaching but many Mormons still
believe and teach this.

- Mormon's tithe as an act of good works, a requirement, not an option of
freewill giving.  This makes the Mormon church a 12 billion dollar industry.

- The most accurate translation of the Bible is Joseph's Smith's Inspired
version.  The most accurate other than this is the KJV, but only so far as it
is accurately translated (but try to tie them down to how it is inaccurate :-)

- Each non-biblical book mentioned in the Bible (go back to Joshua's time to
see a couple of examples, or Daniel with the book of life) is a lost book, and
the book of mormon and pearl of great price are two examples of these that have
only come to light in modern times.

- The only true priests of God are those that had laying on of hands by a
Mormon member of the Melchizidec priesthood.

- There are two mormon priesthoods, Aaronic (all 18 year olds and up) and
Melchizidec (male, 21 years old and in good standing).  You are not taught
any of the more unorthodox (from our perspective) Mormon teachings until
you enter the Melchizidec.  Ask a Mormon youth of sixteen and they might
even think Mormons believe in the Trinity.  Mormons say this would only
"confuse" the children so they withhold it until they are ready.

- Mormon's weren't allowed to consume caffeine until the Mormon Church bought
Coca Cola, then God revealed that caffeine was okay (okay, low shot, but still
true).

Bottom line:
They teach ANOTHER Jesus, not the Jesus of the Bible, so though they call
themselves "Christian" they do not meet any defining standard based on Biblical
or historic theology.  Did not Peter say in 2 Peter there will be many who will
come to teach the strange imaginations of their minds among you?

The book of Mormon, God's permanent, unchangeable word of God, has been revised
over 3000 times to correct dicrepancies in Mormon teaching and eliminate the
weapons used by non-Mormons against them.  Basically if you find a
contradiction in there and it works to cause a Mormon to stray, there will be a
revelation from God that this has now changed :-).
   Don Roberts                   Internet:  dsroberts@beckman.com
   Beckman Instruments, Inc.     Phone:     714/961-3029
   2500 Harbor Bl. Mailstop X-12 FAX:       714/961-3351
   Fullerton, CA  92634          Disclaimer:  Blame me, not Beckman.
   "Abortion isn't a 'choice', it's the slaughter of the innocent"
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU