Cults

The Mormon Church hierarchy has recently, in 2014, condescended from what it regards as its sacred duty to "lie for the Mormon lord" to publicly state some poignant truths about the life and character of Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr. Yet, Mormon General Authorities, such as Mormon Apostle Jeffery R. Holland, continue to stand in front of millions of rank-and-file Latter-day Saints, during their most recent General Conference, and swear in the name of their Mormon god that the lustful adulterous polygamous practices of Joseph Smith were approved and blessed by that utterly changeable deity. During that 2014 LDS conference, Holland waved a copy of the "Book of Mormon" in his hand during his sermon as he raved about the truthful historicity and the doctrinal correctness of that 19th Century apochraphal book. He didn't mention, however, that the "Book of Mormon" totally contradicts the polygamous doctrine of Mormon theology that Joseph Smith wrote and proclaimed 12 to 14 years after he had called the "Book of Mormon" the most correct book on the face of the earth.  This was the poorly written statement made by flim-flam man Joseph Smith, Jr. in the words of his fictional Book of Mormon character Jacob, in Jacob 2:23-24, "But the word of burdens me because of your grosser crimes.  For behold, thus saith the Lord; This people begin to wax in inquity; they understand not the scriptures, because they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son.  Behold, David and Solomon had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord."  In 1830, Smith had declared as evil the polygamous and polyandrous practices he, and other Mormon leaders, secretly committed between 1835 and 1844, and later openly from 1849 to around 1900 in the Utah Mormon theocracy.  Then, in 1844, Smith ushered-in his ex-cathedra polytheistic doctrine, known as the King Follett Discourse, during a Mormon General Conference in Nauvoo, Illinois.

To-date, I don't believe that anyone, Mormon, non-Mormon, or ex-Mormon, has publicly explained, page-by-page, an actual lesson of fundamental Mormon theology from an official LDS Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, a study guide published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (formerly by the "Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)" for doctrinal use by Melchizedek Priesthood groups in Mormon wards and stakes. These groups comprised, and still comprise, the quorums of elders and high-priests in LDS, or Mormon, wards throughout the world. During 1984, while in Oceanside, California, I, my first-wife, and children were actively attending the Oceanside First Ward of the LDS Church. I was then an active elder in priesthood rank and, by ward office, an assistant ward clerk and missionary, and took part in priesthood activities as a member of the Oceanside First-Ward Quorum of Elders. The name of the LDS Priesthood Study Guide, from which I studied Mormon doctrinal theology during 1984, was "Search These Commandments." One of the LDS Palomar California Stake Presidency, the Stake President himself, testified officiously in the name of the Mormon god, before the First-Ward Quorum of Elders, on September 4, 1984, that the 1984 Priesthood manual contained only commandments that the Mormon god expected every elder to obey.  http://richkelsey.org/lesson21.html

Hence, Lesson 21 of that priesthood study guide was one of the few primary theological lessons, comprised of basic Mormon theological principles, presented by the Mormon Church, which every Mormon elder world-wide, including Mormon Apostle, and Counselor in the LDS First Presidency, Gordon B. Hinckley, were instructed to study during the year 1984. Moreover, the title of the priesthood study guide, "Search These Commandments," conferred doctrinal stature on each, and every, lesson in that guide. But, since Hinckley had been almost solely responsible for writing and approving the study guide's publication, he had definitely known, much better that I had known at that time, the sacred Mormon commandments that the lesson had contained.

So let's go, page-by-page, through Lesson 21, which is entitled, "Man may become like God." The lesson begins on page 151 in the priesthood study guide and commences with a conversation between two devout Mormons, Bill and his quorum leader. In order to observe copyright law, I will present the lesson using revised syntax and synonyms to express, in paraphrase, the lesson's verbatim content.

"What is the ultimate objective of studying all these commandments, and why are we commanded to be obedient to all these commandments?" Bill asked his elders' quorum leader. His leader replied,

"We will have to answer to our Mormon god for the things we do and we don't do on the earth."

Then the study guide asks the question. "Is it possible that you have forgotten about what a devout Mormon elder can ultimately become by following the commandments?" At the bottom of page 151, a statement about of one the Mormon prophets, Lorenzo Snow, is made.

"You, a Mormon elder, can know as surely as Lorenzo Snow did, while as a youthful holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the acme, or highest level, of eternal accomplishment. You can be like Lorenzo Snow."

Then a story is told about Lorenzo Snow, when he was told in his youth, by a Mormon officer known as a Patriarch, that by obeying all of the Mormon commandments he could, and would, become equal to the greatness of the Mormon god. So, a quotation (as the defining element of a doctrinal commandment) by Mormon Prophet Lorenzo Snow was provided, which has since become the crux of this theology. "As man is, god once was, and as god is man may become." The lesson even goes further on page 151 to denote that, later, Lorenzo Snow was personally told by the founding Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith that the foregoing statement about man becoming a Mormon father god was correct theological doctrine; and was a personal statement from the Mormon father god to him."

Now the Mormon Salt Lake hierarchy has made ongoing tongue-in-cheek statements to the effect that the 1844 "King Follett Discourse" of Joseph Smith is not, and has never been, regarded by the Church as Mormon theological doctrine." Well, as you will see, the next part of Lesson 21, on page 152, is a direct statement from Joseph Smith's "King Follett Discourse" that he made in that auspicious 1844 LDS General Conference, which was regarded then as holy scripture, as the mind, will, and voice of the Mormon god. After Joseph Smith's death, the Mormon Church hierarchy placed the most important elements of the "King Follett Discourse" into a book called "Teachings," which was published four decades after Joseph Smith died, but the author is supposedly Joseph Smith.

At the top of page 152, the same statement is made that is found on pages 345-46 of "Teachings," and also in the recorded words of the "King Follett Discourse," as they were written down by Mormon scribes as Joseph Smith spoke them in 1844. "It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we can converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth."

Then further in the Study Guide, on page 153, Brigham Young is quoted in his doctrinal extension of the "King Follett Discourse," called the "Adam-God Doctrine," which he vehemently stated in several LDS General Conferences in Salt Lake City, Utah, as divine revelation. This discourse of Brigham Young is found recorded in the "Journal of Discourses," Vol. 6, pages 274-75. "It must be that God knows something about temporal things, and has had a body and been on an earth; were it not so He would not know how to judge men righteously, according to the temptations and sins they have had to contend with."

The Mormon theological commandment for man to become like the Mormon father-god is, therefore, speciously predicated upon the notion that a God of spirit, with no beginning and no end, such as is described in both the "Book of Mormon"(which is plagiarized from the Bible) and the Holy Bible, is unable to judge his children righteously. It is then obviously clear that Brigham Young and Joseph Smith neglected reading John 1:1-20, in the Bible, regarding the Word that was Jesus Christ in the Spirit, who presided over the Children of Israel as they migrated through the wilderness to the Promised Land. In essence, Brigham Young was arrogantly saying that Jesus could not have righteously judged his people at that time without having a mortal body. What's more, the Mormon hierarchy has, since around 1900, been fond of saying that "the LDS Church only believes, as commandments, those statements made, and commandments given, by the Mormon god in the four standard works of the LDS church, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price (the Book of Abraham), and the Bible. If this is so, Lesson 21 is, yet, another blatant Mormon contradiction, as every theological commandment listed in Lesson 21 is found outside the four standard works of the Mormon Church, in excathrdra statements by Mormon Prophets and Apostles, which were regarded as canonized Mormon doctrine and scripture until around 1910.

At the bottom of page 152, Lesson 21 continues as the origin of the Mormon
father-god is again explicated according to the "King Follett Discourse," in accordance with the agreement expressed by successors of Joseph Smith, Jr. Mormon Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith is quoted from his "Doctrines of Salvation, 2:47, that, "Our Father in heaven, according to the Prophet (Joseph Smith) had a father." Mormon Prophet Joseph F. Smith (the father of Joseph Fielding Smith) is quoted as saying, "I know that God is a being with body, parts, and passions... Man was born of woman; Christ, the Savior, was born of woman; and God, the Father was born of woman" ("Church News," 19 Sept. 1936, p. 2). To explain that the Mormon father-god was understood to have gone through the same mortal biological process that Mormon men go through in this life (obeying commandments, working his way to heaven, and going through the Mormon temple endowment ceremony), Mormon Prophet Wilford Woodruff, at the bottom of page 152, is quoted as saying, "He [God] has had his endowments a great many years ago. He has ascended to his thrones, principalities and powers in the eternities." ("Deseret News Weekly, 28 Sept. 1881, p. 546).

As another restatement of Joseph Smith's "King Follett Discourse," Brigham Young is, again, quoted on page 153 of Lesson 21. "He is our father - the Father of our spirits - and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are... " To impress upon the reader the polytheistic blasphemy of Mormon theology, Brigham Young is quoted as saying a bit more. "There was never a time when there were not GODS and worlds and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through., and it appears ridiculous to the world, under their darkened and erroneous (Christian) traditions, that God (the father) has once been a finite being." ("Deseret News," 16 Nov. 1859, p. 290). Then, on page 153, the Mormon writers use blatant sophistry in vainly trying to use the Apostle Paul's statement about Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV) in defense of this polytheism.

"5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7. but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11. and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

The Mormons actually believe that this foregoing biblical scripture, which declares that Jesus' Father allowed his only begotten Son to become human, while still remaining as God, and to offer himself as a sacrifice, unto death, on the cross for sin, endorses the polytheistic theology that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was conceived biologically as all mortals are conceived, and was not born as God Almighty, but became a God over time through continuous change, as had his exalted father-god. Then, continuing on page 153, the Mormon writers try to use John 15:1-8 to try to show an endorsement by the Gospel writer for continuous work and change in the Mormon process of a man becoming as great as the Mormon god.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

By any stretch of the imagination, this attempt to use the foregoing words of the Apostle Paul to show the mortal origin of God Almighty is profoundly ludicrous. Furthermore, the Mormon use of John 8:29 (NIV) as a means of supporting the Mormon theology of the exalted man father-god, to show that what the Father taught Jesus, before and after he came to the earth to take upon himself flesh, comprised the same instructions that he gave to all mankind, is equally ludicrous. Jesus had a mission to perform as the "only" Savior of the world, the only Savior in the universe. Mormon theology teaches that every Mormon man that becomes a Mormon father-god will produce a savior, a Jesus, through biological reproduction. So according to Mormonism, there is, and have always been, an infinite number of finite saviors.

Further, on page 154, Mormon Prophet Joseph F. Smith is again quoted as saying, "We are precisely in the same condition and under the same circumstances that God our heavenly father was when he was passing through this, or a similar ordeal." (Gospel Doctrine, p.64).

Then, again, on page 154, the Mormon sophists try to use the Trinitarian theology of the Book of Mormon, in 3 Nephi 28:10, to try to defend the eternity of polytheistic Mormon theology. This is why they don't use this particular Book of Mormon scripture in conjunction with the previous verse, verse 9, as the fictional account of Jesus visiting the South American continent and blessing the 12 Nephite apostles with gifts he didn't even give to his Twelve Apostles in the Holy Land. After 1838, the Mormons attempted to disavow the Trinitarian theology of the Book of Mormon, but verse 10, of 3 Nephi 28, seems to contradict the doctrine that the Father and the Son are, now, two separate beings in heaven. "And for this cause ye shall have fullness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my father; yea your joy shall be full, even as the father hath given me fullness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one." Just because Jesus was resurrected on the earth, and ascended into heaven as a resurrected being, it doesn't mean that Jesus has to keep that same resurrected form in heaven; even though he will return to the earth in his resurrected body. Jesus is God almighty, and has no boundaries. He is infinitely powerful, and cannot be quantified and put into a test tube, as the Mormons have tried to do.

On page 155, in the Study Guide, the Mormon writers begin to summarize what they think has been a cogent lesson about man's mortal journey from Mormon mortality to godhood, and conclude with a quotation from the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. "Here, then, is eternal life - to know the only wise and true God; and you have to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you" ("Teachings," pp. 346-47).

This detailed anatomy of an official Mormon Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide lesson on Mormon theology ( all about Mormon godhood) is quite startling and conclusively proves that the Mormon Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley was lying when he was asked by Larry King, in 1999, on national television whether or not the Mormon Church teaches that God was once a man, and that a man can be become a god (with a capital G). When asked this by Larry King, Hinckley looked into the television camera and replied with a grin on his face, "I don't think we know very much about that." In summation, the venerable verse found in the Book of Numbers 23:19 (NIV), of the Old Testament, seems to say it all about God Almighty not being any part human, or derived from mortality. "God is not human, that he should lie, not a human, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" Regarding the last sentence of this verse; does it not remind one of a promise made by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the name of the Mormon-god that a Mormon temple would be built, come hell or high-water, in Jackson County, Missouri in the 1830s. Well, it was never built...

It is quite interesting to consider that most Christians would tell Mormon missionaries to get lost if they came into their homes telling them that God the Father was once a human man who lived on an earth and worked his way to his exaltation and to being a god. Moreover, if these missionaries told Christian men, who they might regard as prospective Mormons, that they could become gods (with a capital G) as great as God, they would probably call them blasphemers and heretics. That's why Mormon missionaries never tell the people they teach about Mormon theology. These poor Christians who are deluded into believing that the Book of Mormon is the word of God only find out about Mormon theological doctrine after they are deceived and baptized into the Mormon Church. Then the ward bishop, the missionaries, and their Mormon friends tell them to have faith in Joseph Smith, for if he translated the "Book of Mormon" by the gift and power of God, his words about Mormon godhood must also be the word of God. Belief and faith in Joseph Smith is more important to devout Mormons than belief in the words of Jesus and his Apostles in the Holy Bible. For those of you who read this article and discover the evil of Mormonism, I encourage you to tell others and spread the blessed word so that struggling Christians who encounter the Mormon missionaries will know what questions to ask them in order to get to the nitty-gritty of polytheistic Mormonism. Perhaps the time will eventually come when the Mormons won't be able to find one Christian who will tolerate the lies and blasphemy of Mormon doctrine.

The Mormon Church, for liability purposes, has, since 2013, published 13 essays on its official website, LDS.org, which states as its theology what it has denied as theology and doctrine for over 180 years, stating it verbally and in writing as opinions of individual Mormons.  Since the advent of the Internet, however, it has reclusively published it as theological fact.  https://mormonessays.com/