Mormonism

The information that follows was recorded from The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter R. Martin.

Historical Perspective

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is unique among all the religious cults and sects active in the United States. The Mormons, as they are most commonly referred to, are divided into two major groups. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Utah, and The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Missouri. In 1968, the Mormons number more than 2,600,000 adherents, own considerable stock in the agricultural and industrial wealth of America, and circle the earth in missionary activities, energetically rivaling evangelical Christianity. The first group makes its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, and claims membership in excess of 2,000,000 as of January 1964. The Mormon Church has been characterized by thriftiness, zeal and an admirable missionary spirit, and even before the advent of World War II, it had more than 2,000 missionaries active on all mission fields of the world. The Mormons have have more than 15,000 "missionaries" active today, according to a statement published in 1964.
The Mormon Church practices to encourage its most promising young people, boys aged 20 and girls aged 23, to dedicate two years of their lives to missionary work on a self-supporting basis.
Membership in the Mormon Church now increases each year at an average rate of 25,000 "conversions"; and the Mormons have a birth rate of 36.6 per thousand, in contrast tot he average 24.9 birth rate of the United States. According to the teachings of the Mormon Church, Mormons are to preserve their bodies always in the best of health and are cautioned against the use of tobacco and alcohol, and even the drinking of tea, coffee, and Coca-Cola. Strongly insistent upon the Old Testament principle of tithing, the Mormon Church requires all members to meet the Biblical one-tenth, with the result that in 1960 the church budget exceeded $20,000,000, a tremendous figure for a comparatively small organization. With their heavy emphasis upon education (Brigham Young University alone boasts more than 10,000 students), the Mormons are moving ahead in their battle to out-evangelize evangelical Christianity.
Mormons are determined, zealous, missionary-minded people who have a practical religion of "good works" and tolerance. Each year they spend millions of dollars in the circulation of the teachings of their prophets, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young, while converting any and all listeners regardless of church affiliation. In addition to their regular tithing fund, the Mormon Church also encourages what it terms "fast offerings." The unusual practice involves the giving up of two meals on the first Sunday of each month, the price of which is turned over to the church as a voluntary contribution to support and feed the poor. This averages to about $700,000 a year as a charity supplement to the poor.


Leaders

Mormon leaders have become powerful in almost all branches of American government, headed by former Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, one of the Twelve Apostles who govern Mormon Church, U.S. Treasury Ivy Baker Priest, former president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Mariner S. Eccles, and Michigan Governor George Romney.
The Mormon Church also claims E. Lamar Buckner, President of Standard Oil of California. Far from being an organization with minor influence, the Mormons are indeed a potent force to be reckoned with, and few informed persons would be foolish enough to doubt this sphere of influence.


Church Organization

The organization and general administration of the Mormon Church is directed by the First Presidency, assisted by a Council of Twelve and a First Council of Seventy, consisting of seven men and presiding bishop with two counsellors. All authority resides in the Mormon "priesthood," established under the titles "Aaronic" (lesser) or "Melchizedek" (higher), to either one of which every male Mormon twelve years of age or over, belongs.
In their missionary program the Mormons continue to manifest great zeal. Missionaries are well trained in their dogmas and quote the Bible profusely. Thus it is that many true Christians have often unfortunately been literally quoted into silence by the clever disciples of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, who flourish a pseudo-mastery of Scripture before the uninformed Christian's dazzled eyes and confuse him, sometimes beyond description.
Sad to say, however, the great majority of Mormons are in almost total ignorance of the shady historical and theological sources of their religion. They are openly shocked at times when the unglamourous and definitely unchristian background of the Mormon Church is revealed to them. This little known facet of Mormonism is "a side of the coin" which innumerable Mormon historians have for years either hidden from their people or glossed over in an attempt to suppress certain verifiable and damaging historical evidences.


Early Mormon History

The seeds of what was later to become the Mormon religion were incubated in the mind of one Joseph Smith, Jr., "The Prophet," better known to residents of Palmyra, New York, in 1816, as just plain "Joe Smith."
Joseph Smith, Dr., was a mystic, a man who spent most of his time digging for imaginary buried treasure (he was particularly addicted to Captain Kidd's legendary hoard!). Besides this failing he sometimes attempted to mint his own money, which at least once brought him into decided conflict with the local constabulary.
The mother, Lucy Smith, given as she was to extreme religious views and belief int he most trivial of superstitions, later in her life "authored" a book entitled Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith and His Progenitors for Many Generations. When published by the Mormon Church in Liverpool, England, however, it incurred the enduring wrath of Brigham Young, the first successor to Smith, who brought about the suppression of the book on the grounds that "should it ever be deemed best to publish these sketches, it will not be done until they are carefully corrected."*
Mr.Smith, of course, was totally incapable of writing such a work, the "ghost writing" being done by a Mrs.Carey, who faithfully recorded what came to be known as "Mother Smith's History." Merely concerning Mrs.Smith's views of the prophet's home life, background and religious habits.
For Joseph Smith Jr. the year 1820 proved to be the real beginning of the prophet's call, for in that year he was allegedly the recipient of a marvelous vision in which God the Father and God the Son materialized and spoke to young Smith as he piously prayed in a neighbouring wood.
It is interesting to observe that Smith could not have been too much moved by the heavenly vision, for he shortly took up once again the habit of digging for treasure along with his father and brother, who were determined to unearth Captain Kidd's plunder by means of "peep stones," "divining rods," or just plain digging.
History informs us that the Smith clan never succeeded at these multitudinous attempts at treasure hunting.
In later years, the "prophet" greatly regretted these superstitious expeditions of his youth and even went on record as denying that he had ever been a money-digger. Said Prophet Smith on one such occasion: "In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal who lived in Chenango County in the State of New York. He has heard something of a silver mine having been opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna County, State of Pennsylvania, and had, previous to my hiring with him, been digging in order, if possible, to discover the mine. After I went to live with him, he took me among the rest of his hands to dig for the silver mine, for which I continued to work for nearly a month without success in our undertaking. Finally I prevailed with the old gentlemen to cease digging for it. Hence arose the very prevalent story of my having been a money-digger."*
This eplanation may suffice to explain the prophet's treasure hunting fiascos to the faithful and tot he historically inept; but to those who have access to the facts, it is at once evident that Smith played recklessly, if no fast and loose, with the truth. In fact, it often appreared to be a perfect stranger to him. The main course for promoting skepticism where the veracity of the Prophet's explanation is concerned, however, is from no less an authority than Lucy Smith, his onw mother, who, in her account of the very same incident, wrote that "one, Mr. Stoal, came for Joseph on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by whcih he could discern things invisible to the natural eye" (Linn, The Story of the Mormons, page 16.)
Futher evidence, in addition to Mrs. Smith's statement, proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the prophet was a confirmed "Peek Stone" addict, that he took par in an personally supervised numerous treasure-digging expeditions, and further that he claimed supernatural powers which allegedly aided him in these searches.
It should be remembered that Joseph Smith, Sr., in an interview, later published in the Historical Magazine of May, 1870, clearly stated that the prophet had been a Peek Stone enthusiast and treasure-digger in his youth, and, further he had also told fortunes and located lost objects by means of a "Peek Stone" and the alleged supernatural powers therein. Substantiating Joseph's father's account of his rather odd activities is the testimony of the Reverend Dr. John A. Clark after "exhaustive research" in the Smith family's own neighbourhood.
"Long before the idea of a Golden Bible entered the Smith's minds, in their excursions for money-digging . . . Joe used to be usually their guide, putting into a hat a peculiar stone he had through which he looked to decide where they should begin to dig" (Gleanings by the Way, page 225, 1842).

*Millenial Star, Vol. XIV, Supplement, page 6.


The Book of Mormon

Joseph Smith, Jr., in 1820, claimed a heavenly vision which, he said, singled him out as the Lord's anointed prophet for this dispensation, though it was not until 1823, with the appearance of the angel Moroni at the quaking Smith's bedside, that Joe began his relationship to the fabulous "golden plates," or what was to become the Book of Mormon.
The purpose of the Book of Mormon and its mission generally eludes Christian theologians, archeologists, and students of Anthropology because of the many difficulties which the book introduces in the light of already established facts.
A Mormon's explanation of the purpose of "the Book of Mormon is another witness to the same affect" of the Bible "for the truth," and "the Bible's historical dealings" and "providences of God with man upon the eastern continent."*
For the Mormons, the Bible predicts the Book of Mormon; the Book of Mormon interprets Old Testament prophecy and it claims to be part of the new covenant to Israel. It is also supposed to be "another witness" to the truth of the Christian Gospel. It is unfortunate for the Mormons that this witness is so often found in conflict with the Biblical revelation, as we shall see.

*The Book of Mormon by R. S. Salyards, Sr., page 13.


Acknowledgement: This should be efficient and enough for you to ever reject the Mormon faith. There are just too many errors, anachronisms, contradictions, plagiarisms (25,000 words from the King James Version), that in fact, have caused the Mormons no end of embarrassment for many years.
For anymore information about Mormonism, or Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower, Seventh-Day Adventism, Zen Buddhism, the Black Muslim Cult, Spritism, and many other cults of the world, go pick up the book The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter R. Martin. Also, find Martin's hermeneutics on "how to read the Bible, the right way."


Reference: The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter R. Martin