Mormonism Flashcards
Positives about Mormonism
- Central Leadership
- Structured organization - Evangelism
-Have almost reached the entire world - Respectable
- Most have nice jobs and are educated - Hardline about giving
- Come to your house if you don’t give
-If you sell a house without telling them, they will find out and expect a tithe from it
Simply Superficial
- Utah is #1 in rank of states that watch pornography
- They are not willing to die
- Don’t wish to break the laws of the land and are praying God will change the laws so they can evangelize these countries
1805
Joseph Smith Jr. was born on Dec 23, 1805, founder of the Mormon Church
1820
He received his first vision as he was trying to find out what denomination was correct
1823
He received his second vision from “The angel Maroni” who had him transfer words from a golden plate into a book, which became known as The Mormon Book.
(Galatians 1:8)
“But even if we or an angel from heaven comes down with a different gospel other than the one we preached to you let him be eternally condemned.”
1830
Marvin Harris claimed that the writing was reformed Egyptian and that they paid to get it translated
April 6 1830 in Fayette
(Mormon Church) was officially established
-6 members
-Experienced rapid growth and a group moved to Kirkland, Ohio
-arrested but he escaped and moved to Illinois to a town called Nauvoo
Nauvoo Expositor- A local paper started publishing anti Mormon material so Joseph ordered his members that the place be ransacked
- Led to Joseph’s arrest
1844
A mob stormed the prison and had Joseph Smith Shot, Joseph fought back and shot other mob members before dying
-Mormons consider Joseph Smitha a martyr, dying at 39
The thing that Motivated Joseph was The Will of Men
2 Peter 1:20-21
- He died as a passion filled man whose writing originated in him-
-Known as a man of mistresses before this new doctrine was invented
-He wrote the “Pearl of Great Price” in part to convince his wife of polygamy.
1847
Joseph was succeeded by Brigham Young, who gets rid of polygamy and some of the controversial teachings to make it more socially acceptable
-Mormonism exists today because of B.Y.
-Led them on a journey to Salt Lake Utah July 24, 1847
1877
Brigham Young died and by this time they numbered approximately 150,000
Two Mormon groups
- Reformers/ Fundamentalists (Hold on all J.S. Teachings including polygamy but are often in hiding because of illegal behavior.)
- LDS (Latter-Day-Saints (Hold to B.Y watered down more palatable version of J.S, teachings!
(LDS)
Present Geographic Expansion
-Members 15.1 million members worldwide
-29,253k congregations
-189 Published languages
83,000 missionaries that all they do is evangelize
-182 countries receiving humanitarian aid
- 11,925 Welfare services missionaries
-4 Universities
-Evangelized most of the World (except places where it’s illegal ex, Middle East)
4 Core Beliefs
Doctrinal Authority
1. The Book of Mormon
- Doctrine and the Covenants
-Record of 138 revelations revealing some of Mormonism’s distinctive doctrine, such as baptism of the Dead and Celestial marriage - The Pearl of Great Price
- Book of Moses, equivalent to the first six chapters of Genesis
- Book of Abraham, a translation of an Egyptian Papyrus that later proved to be fraudulent - Living Prophets- Continued Revelation (12 Apostles)
- At any time they can change the scriptures and still consider it the Voice of God
First Core Belief: There are many gods
-Their goal is to become a god!
-They don’t believe that Jesus is uniquely the son of God but believe that we are all brothers and sisters of Jesus and therefore we could have all been Jesus ourselves!
-They also believe that Satan was Jesus’ brother
Second Core Belief: Salvation
- They also teach faith, baptism, and perseverance so timeline will not work with them
-They say you need faith in God, Jesus, JOSEPH and BIRGHAM to be saved - Don’t believe in Hell so what are you saved from?
They teach there are 3 Levels of Heaven and that everyone in the world will eventually end up in one of them!
Third Core Belief: Marriage in Heaven
-Celestial planets, married to many wives
Refute False Beliefs
Bad Method
-Rev 22: 18-19 “Do not add or take away”
Refuting the Mormon Doctrinal Authority:
(Galatians 1:8-9)
- Claim Joseph Smith received “another revelation” from an angel, fact is its another gospel
- Gospel will not change, not even from an angelic authority
(Ephesians 2:19)
- Teachings from all apostles must support the teaching of Jesus!
-Old Testament and New Testament must support Jesus’s teachings
-Mormonism does not support the teachings of Jesus they contradict them.
- Refuting First Core Belief: There are many Gods
Ephesians 4: 3-6
- There is only one God
-Jesus is the one God
Hebrews 1:1-3
- Jesus is the exact representation of God!
- The Holy Spirit, Jesus, and God are ONE- We believe in the Trinity
- Refuting Second Core Belief: Salvation
- We actually believe in what they believe (Faith, repentance, baptism, perseverance to the end
-But we cannot agree that there is no hell
-Jesus teaches on hell and destruction in 46 verses
-He also uses the word hell 16 times- Clearly Jesus believed in a literal hell
- Refuting Third Core Belief: Marriage in Heaven
Mark 12:24-27
- Jesus teaches that we will be like the angels, no marriage in heaven
-Mormons are “badly mistaken”
Why Mormonism?
2 Peter 1:20-21
-It is the will of man not the will of God
-Polygamy has attracted many perverts around the world
-Having your family in heaven has attracted many cultures who greatly value family
Archeological Evidence still proves Mormon facts false:
- No Mormon cities located
- No Mormon names have been found in New World Inscriptions
3.No genuine inscriptions have been found in America of Egyptian or anything similar to Egyptian, which could correspond to Joseph Smith’s “Reformed Egyptians” - No Ancient copies of the Book of Mormon scriptures have been found
- No persons, nations, or places have been found.
- No artifact of any kind, which demonstrates the Book of Mormon is true, have been found
