-
Well, one thing that's definitely
-
evident to me in our day,
-
at least in our city -
-
you guys have all seen
-
the "I'm a Mormon" billboards around,
-
we're in San Antonio here.
-
And it's really obvious that those
-
who style themselves
-
"The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints"
-
or commonly the members
are called Mormons,
-
it's really evident -
-
what kind of people do you
have on the billboards?
-
You don't have ugly people.
-
You don't have frowning people.
-
You've got guys surfing,
-
guys riding motorcycles,
-
pretty people, handsome people.
-
What's that all about?
-
Obviously, it is seeking to make Mormonism
-
look desirable,
-
to make it look normal,
-
to make it look exciting,
-
to make it look acceptable.
-
Unquestionably, they are
-
on an aggressive advertising campaign
-
to make Mormonism look like something
-
that you want.
-
And if there's anything
that stands out to me
-
as far as the Mormon approach,
-
it's that they're aggressively trying
-
to sell themselves in our day
-
as being Christian.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
A week or ten days ago,
-
actually when we were
supposed to film the first time
-
and we postponed,
-
but of all things, that night,
-
I had a couple Mormons come to the door.
-
And the fact is that I
can tell this firsthand,
-
I can see it by the things
-
that they are putting out on the Internet.
-
If there's one thing that's
true of Mormonism today,
-
it's that they want to appear Christian.
-
They are using Christian terminology.
-
I mean, the truth is,
-
these guys don't show up at your door
-
and start talking about planet Kolob
-
or the star Kolob.
-
They don't start talking about polygamy.
-
They don't tell you Brigham Young
-
basically said that blacks
had a curse on them.
-
They don't show up at your door
-
and start talking about spirit children
-
and the fact that there's many gods.
-
The moment you open the door,
-
they don't say Jesus and
the devil are brothers.
-
I mean, they hide all that.
-
They believe all that,
-
but that's not what they hit you with.
-
They hit you with verbiage
-
that sounds very Christian.
-
And I've seen it.
-
One of their so-called "apostles"
-
is on the Internet,
-
and he is really making a case
-
for the fact that Mormonism is Christian.
-
And so you can see that.
-
That is their agenda.
-
They're selling themselves as Christian.
-
And so, really, all I wanted to do
-
is I wanted to answer that question:
-
Is Mormonism Christian?
-
(Incomplete thought)
-
It's not going to be
the object or the scope
-
of what I want to try to accomplish here
-
to prove the doctrines of Christianity,
-
or not even necessarily to prove
-
or to debate which one's right
-
or which one's wrong.
-
What I simply want to prove
-
is what Christianity claims, believes,
-
the foundational doctrines
-
for the last 2,000 years
-
are absolutely rejected by Mormonism.
-
That's what I want to show.
-
I just want to show
-
that whatever Mormonism is by definiton,
-
and whatever Christianity
is by definition,
-
they're not on the same page.
-
Argue which one is right and wrong,
-
like I say, it's not the scope.
-
Mormonism teaches -
-
we're going to get into depravity of man
-
and the way of salvation now.
-
Again, historically, what
has Christianity taught?
-
I guarantee, it's not what
Mormonism teaches.
-
You know what Mormonism teaches?
-
That Elohim had these two sons:
-
Lucifer and Jehovah - Jesus,
-
and that both of them set forth plans
-
for the redemption of man.
-
And God the Father rejected
the plan of Lucifer
-
and went with the plan of Jehovah (Jesus).
-
Guess what the plan supposedly
-
of Lucifer was?
-
It was basically a plan
-
to override the free will of man
-
and cause him to do something
-
that he did not have a
natural disposition to do.
-
And supposedly God rejected that
-
and said no, we're going to go
-
with the free will plan of Jehovah.
-
Listen to this,
-
Mormonism teaches that Jesus
-
and the devil offered these two plans,
-
but the devil offered a plan
-
that would only be by grace.
-
One in which the free agency of man
-
would be imposed upon,
-
and the Father would draw men
-
to come to Christ for salvation.
-
You see what he's saying?
-
They're saying that the devil's plan
-
was one of grace
-
where God would overstep man's free will,
-
violate his free will if you will,
-
and save men aside from
-
what they had a natural bent to do
-
which is amazing.
-
"Mormons believe that one of the most
-
fallacious doctrines originated by Satan
-
and propounded by man
-
is that man is saved alone
by the grace of God;
-
that belief in Jesus Christ alone
-
is all that is needed for salvation."
-
And that is a direct quote from
-
"The Miracle of Forgiveness"
-
by Spencer Kimball, page 206.
-
But what has the church believed?
-
We believe that man willfully
sinned against God.
-
We believe that in that fallen state
-
no one seeks for God.
-
There is none righteous.
-
There is none that seeks after Him.
-
And Jesus specifically said
-
unless My Father who has sent Me
-
draws a person to Me,
-
they will not come.
-
"No one can come to Me
-
unless My Father who sent Me draws him."
-
You think that's
overstepping man's free will?
-
You better believe it.
-
Man in his natural
disposition rejects God.
-
He runs from God.
-
He doesn't want anything to do with God.
-
He now so thoroughly bears the guilt
-
and the nature of Adam,
-
that he is conceived in sin,
-
he comes forth from his
mother's womb in sin,
-
he does nothing but sin,
-
he's at enmity against the law of God.
-
By nature, we are told from Scripture
-
that man is dead in sin.
-
He's under the power of sin.
-
Men by nature are children of wrath.
-
By nature, they have hearts
-
that are deceitful, desperately wicked.
-
By nature, the truth
of God is folly to man.
-
And in this state, God declares
-
that men are absolutely incapable
-
of any good whatsoever,
-
whether in thought, in deed,
-
in our best attempts,
-
our righteousness's are filthy rags.
-
And basically, the way of salvation
-
that we love, that we hold to,
-
is one that the Mormon church -
-
the very Gospel -
-
the Mormon church says is of the devil.
-
Mormons believe Jesus' sacrifice
-
was not meant to cleanse us
-
from all our sins.
-
It was only made in order
to make it possible.
-
And you know what?
-
The Mormons actually put more
-
or as much emphasis on Jesus'
-
sweating of blood in the garden
-
and they take the attention off the cross.
-
Have you heard that?
-
They won't deny that.
-
They really make a big deal about that.
-
But they say straight up,
-
Mormons believe that Jesus' sacrifice
-
was not able to cleanse
from all their sins.
-
That comes from "Journal of Discourses,"
-
Volume 3, 1856, page 247.
-
They specifically say good works
-
are necessary for salvation
-
in their "Articles of Faith"
-
by James Talmadge, page 92.
-
They say there is no salvation
-
without accepting Joseph Smith
-
as a prophet of God.
-
That's found in "Doctrines of Salvation,"
-
Volume 1, page 188.
-
They say the first effect of the atonement
-
is to secure all mankind alike,
-
exemption from the penalty of the fall,
-
thus providing a plan
of general salvation.
-
The second effect is to open a way
-
for individual salvation whereby mankind
-
may secure remission of personal sins.
-
That's in the "Articles of Faith,"
-
James Talmadge, page 78-79.
-
What you have to understand there
-
is the death of Christ secures nothing.
-
It makes it possible.
-
They say this grace is an enabling power
-
that allows men and women
-
to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation
-
after they expended
their own best efforts.
-
That is "Latter-day Saints
Bible Dictionary," page 697.
-
"We know that it is by
grace that we are saved,
-
after all we can do."
-
That's not grace.
-
That comes from "The Book of Mormon,"
-
2 Nephi 25:23.
-
Several Latter-day Saint leaders
-
have exposed their disdain
-
for the biblical teaching
-
of salvation by grace through faith alone.
-
Joseph Smith, on page 192
-
of "The Restoration of
All Things," stated,
-
"one of the most pernicious doctrines
-
ever advocated by man
-
is the doctrine of
justification by faith alone
-
which has entered
into the hearts of millions
-
since the days of the
so-called Reformation."
-
And Joseph Smith calls it
-
"the so-called Reformation."
-
In fact, do you know what Joseph Smith did
-
in all of his revisions of the Bible?
-
He went into Romans 4:5,
-
and I'm quoting the King James
-
because that's the one
they claim that they use.
-
Listen to what it says in the King James.
-
Romans 4:5, "But to him that worketh not,
-
but believeth on Him that
justifieth the ungodly,
-
his faith is counted for righteousness."
-
One of the most glorious doctrines.
-
In my estimation, it is the
most glorious verse
-
on the doctrine of justification found.
-
There's many others, but
I think it's the most glorious,
-
simply because it says
-
that God justifies the ungodly.
-
He says, "to him that works not,
-
but believes on Him
that justifies the ungodly..."
-
God is called
-
"Him who justifies the ungodly."
-
He declares righteous
-
ungodly men and women,
-
not by any works that they do themselves.
-
For some unknown reason,
-
Smith added the word
"not" into the passage.
-
He shows his absolute disdain
-
for the doctrine of
justification by faith.
-
Our souls hang on that doctrine.
-
That is at the heart of the Gospel.
-
You reject justification by faith,
-
you have no Gospel.
-
Joseph Smith added the word "not."
-
Listen to how the Joseph Smith translation
-
of Romans 4:5 reads.
-
"But to him that seeketh
not to be justified
-
by the law of works,
-
but believeth on him who
justifieth not the ungodly,
-
his faith is counted for righteousness."
-
He didn't even take the doctrine away,
-
because it still says his faith is counted
-
as righteousness.
-
But he put the word "not" in there.
-
He calls God, "him who
justifieth not the ungodly,"
-
and yet, he didn't alter
the second part of the verse
-
that comes right around and says
-
his faith is counted for righteousness.
-
I mean, he shows his absolute absurdity.
-
He shows how he hated the doctrine;
-
he sought to corrupt Scripture,
-
and at the same time,
-
he shows his... I don't know what.
-
I mean, obviously, God foiled him
-
in his attempt, because even in his change
-
he didn't take it away.
-
He still left it.
-
His faith is counted for righteousness.
-
He shows his ignorance.
-
He really didn't elimiate the doctrine.
-
But he shows a fearlessness
-
in changing the Word of God.
-
I would not want to be in his shoes.
-
I mean, we find that salvation
-
is through Christ alone.
-
Salvation is looking to the finished work
-
that Christ did -
-
the Christ who was not created.
-
The Christ who in the beginning
was the Word of God;
-
the One who is the image
bearer of His Father;
-
the One who is eternally God.
-
God in three persons
-
revealing Himself in a Trinity to us.
-
The Son who being with God forever,
-
being sent from the Father
-
to take upon Himself
-
the likeness of sinful flesh,
-
and in all respects being made like
-
the offspring of Abraham,
-
He came to earn salvation
-
for those who by faith
-
will look to Him and be justified
-
based on the merits,
-
by the obedience of Him,
-
the many are made righteous.
-
That is the foundation for us.
-
God says that our righteousness's
-
are as filthy rags.
-
It's not according to our works
-
and we're thankful that it's not.
-
But our salvation comes this way,
-
through the Gospel that is
revealed in the Scriptures,
-
and then as men read that,
-
as they see it, they hear it,
-
they behold the Christ of the Gospel,
-
and they're born again,
-
their ears are opened,
-
God has mercy on them,
-
they run to Christ in faith.
-
They flee to Him.
-
Those early guys, those early Mormons,
-
they would say that murder
is an unpardonable sin.
-
I have a salvation that beats that one.
-
And they think that you have to do
-
everything that you possibly can -
-
again, I have a salvation
that's better than that one.
-
And you know, the problem
-
with any works system
-
is what hope would you have given
-
to the thief on the cross?
-
The problem with any
kind of works salvation
-
is he can't really make
it to the confessional.
-
He can't really sit down with the priest.
-
He can't try to do good works
-
to undo his bad ones.
-
He's really kind of nailed up there.
-
Catholicism and Mormonism alike
-
believe that baptism washes away sin.
-
You know, he's kind of
being prevented from that
-
right at the moment.
-
You know, false religions
have nothing to say
-
to the thief on the cross.
-
Nothing to say.
-
Christianity does.
-
We can say,
-
"We've got really good news for you.
-
We have a way of salvation
-
that's entirely based on
the merits of another,
-
not on your own."
-
And in a moment of time,
-
if your faith be like the
size of a mustard seed,
-
and you look outside yourself
-
and trust what this One has done,
-
which that thief on the cross did -
-
"Lord, remember me."
-
He called upon Another.
-
That is a very hopeful message.
-
The truth is false religions
-
can't go on death row
(incomplete thought).
-
You hear about Whitefield and Wesley,
-
they would spend the night.
-
I hear about some of these old pastors
-
who would go into prisons
-
and they would spend the night
-
with prisoners who were
going to the gallows
-
the next day,
-
and they would preach the Gospel to them
-
all night long.
-
If they had a works salvation,
-
they wouldn't be going.
-
It's hopeless.
-
These people have sealed their doom.
-
And a lot of those guys were murderers.
-
Mormonism doesn't have
anything to offer them.
-
Mormonism says -
-
some of their leaders have said -
-
that it's an unpardonable sin.
-
One of the problems that
the Mormon church has
-
is that the men who have gone before
-
said a lot of radical things
-
that they are not really
comfortable with today.
-
They're not politically correct.
-
There was a day when Mormonism
-
was very quick to say,
-
"we're the only true church.
-
If you don't believe like
we do, you're damned."
-
Now, they're taking more the position
-
they're trying to pawn themselves off
-
as real Christianity.
-
And so what they're doing
-
is they're conveniently
trying to gloss over
-
some of these things that
were real hard to accept.
-
Brigham Young basically said
-
African Americans bore the mark of Cain,
-
the mark of Ham, the mark of Canaan,
-
that they were under a curse.
-
You can find where he said these things.
-
Those things I'm pretty certain,
-
there's lots of stuff on the
racism of Mormonism out there.
-
But you will see that they claim
-
that they had a revelation in 1978
-
whereby there was supposedly a change
-
in their take on blacks.
-
You know, they have their teaching
-
of this Melchizedek high priesthood,
-
and they basically said and taught
-
that blacks could not
a part of this priesthood.
-
And it's very interesting if you look
-
at the billboard.
-
They have African Americans now.
-
So again, they're trying to
come across politically correct.
-
They're trying to appeal to everybody.
-
They're not wanting to come across
-
in any way to open themselves up
-
for ridicule on those points.
-
So, yeah, they're changing.
-
And that's so often the truth.
-
One thing that's true about Christianity,
-
it stays the same.
-
One thing that's typically true
-
about that which is false religion,
-
is it's a chameleon.
-
It will change colors to blend in
-
with its background.
-
You know, you have Catholicism
-
that is constantly seeking to appear
-
in different colors
-
and Mormonism the same.
-
The burning in the bosom.
-
Two weeks ago probably
-
when the Mormons showed up here,
-
both of them said
-
absolutely dogmatically,
-
"We have experienced the
burning in the bosom.
-
We are absolutely certain
-
that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.
-
We are absolutely certain
-
that the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints
-
is a true church.
-
We are certain."
-
And what I told them is I don't doubt
-
that you had a supernatural experience,
-
but Satan comes an angel of light.
-
I mean, bottom line is what is the test,
-
what is the measuring stick,
-
what's the ruler,
-
what is the lens through which we must
-
examine all of our experiences?
-
Well, as soon as you want to say:
-
not this book because it's full of errors,
-
which is what the same
guys were telling me.
-
You see what they're telling me?
-
I've had an experience
and I'm trusting it,
-
but this book, it's full of errors
-
and I can't trust it.
-
Well, all of a sudden,
-
where is our basis for truth?
-
Where is the starting point?
-
I mean, the thing is,
-
I don't want a starting point with myself.
-
Because I know I'm weak,
-
I know that I come from sinful stock,
-
I know that I come from stock
-
that was totally deceived
-
with a heart that was deceitful
-
and desperately wicked,
-
I loved to believe lies,
-
I was a child of the devil
-
who is the father of lies,
-
I was a liar and was
going to find my place
-
in the lake of fire if God had
not come to rescue me.
-
Outside of this truth,
-
where am I going to look for truth?
-
Not in myself.
-
And are we going to look
for it in the news?
-
In the press? In this world
-
that's controlled by Satan?
-
Where are we going to go?
-
Well, they're going to say,
-
well, we've got these
other books over here
-
that we need to go to.
-
But again, my argument
would come back to this:
-
This book says that if they don't speak
-
according to what's written here,
-
it's because there's no light in them.
-
This book tells me that God promised
-
He's going to preserve His Word,
-
and you know what?
-
I'm banking my soul on that.
-
And one of the reason that I believe
-
that this is the Word
-
is because in reading it
-
and exposing myself to it,
I was born again.
-
Just like it says: born again.
-
Living, abiding Word of God.
-
Incorruptible. I was
born again through it.
-
Such life transformation.
-
It wasn't a burning in the bosom.
-
It was a life-transformation
-
from ungodliness to one where holiness
-
and hunger and thirst for righteousness,
-
and where practicing righteousness
-
became my desire.
-
It's this book -
-
basically what this book says
-
can be confirmed on all sides.
-
You know the way that
this book describes man,
-
we can look around
-
and as sinful as it says man is,
-
we look around and we see
-
he's exactly like that.
-
The very thing that man needs -
-
a righteousness that was earned
-
by One who came into this world to earn it
-
that we couldn't earn ourselves -
-
that's exactly what we need.
-
Listen, I've just been
reading out of Luke.
-
I go to Luke's Gospel,
-
and I start reading,
-
and you know what I find?
-
I find that it states things like this -
-
it talks about Galilee.
-
It talks about Nazareth.
-
Here I am in Luke.
-
"In those days, Mary arose.
-
She went to the hill country."
-
There's a town in Judah.
-
There's literal people.
-
Zechariah, Elizabeth...
-
you go through all these things.
-
You find "in those days..."
-
There was Caesar Augustus.
-
"The world should be registered.
-
This was the first registration
-
when Quirinius was governor of Syria."
-
And Joseph also went up from Galilee,
-
the town of Nazareth, city of David,
-
Bethlehem.
-
You go through all these things
-
and you find "15th year
of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
-
Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea."
-
Herod being tetrarch of Galilee.
-
His brother Phillip, tetrarch...
-
You know what the
thing is about this book?
-
It talks about real places and real people
-
that archeology and history validate.
-
The more we find out,
-
the more is discovered...
-
they find Sennacherib's six-sided deal
-
that shows all about his conquerings
-
and his quests, and guess what?
-
There's really a King Hezekiah.
-
And it specifically says
that he trapped him
-
in his city,
-
and he basically walled him up like a rat
-
or something like that,
-
but he never entered it
-
and that's exactly what God said.
-
That's exactly what His own
testimony bears witness to.
-
Caesar, Tiberius - he's real.
-
We know about him historically.
-
Pontius Pilate - he's real.
-
We know about him.
-
Quirinius - we know about him.
-
There is a place called Syria.
-
There is a place called Bethlehem.
-
All these places are real.
-
The Book of Mormon is entirely fictitious
-
and they can't prove any of the places,
-
any of the people,
-
at any of the times.
-
None of it stands up to archeology.
-
None of up it stands up to anything.
-
History doesn't bear it out.
-
Archeology doesn't bear it out.
-
There's no proof for anything in it.
-
Yet, everything written
in this book bears up.
-
"Add to these words,
-
and you shall have added
to you the plagues."
-
Now, Mormons are going to come along
-
and say yeah, but all that's saying is,
-
similar words are said in Deuteronomy,
-
similar words are said in Proverbs.
-
They would say, well, we're not
supposed to add to Proverbs.
-
We're not supposed to add to Deuteronomy.
-
We're not supposed to add to Revelation.
-
By the way, Joseph Smith changed them all.
-
How does that figure?
-
He added to them and deleted from them.
-
The very books - even if the
Mormons want to say that,
-
if they want to say that those words
-
apply to those books only,
-
Joseph Smith came right
along and changed them.
-
Those very books.
-
So their argument doesn't stand up.
-
They show who they really are.
-
The devil came along in the beginning,
-
and he challenged the Word of God.
-
Jesus said, "Sanctify them
-
with Your truth,
-
Your Word is truth."
-
You know what that tells me?
-
That if God doesn't keep His people
-
through all generations with the Word,
-
that Jesus' prayer can't be true.
-
He didn't say sanctify them
-
with the Book of Mormon.
-
It doesn't say that the Book
of Mormon is God-breathed.
-
It says all Scripture is.
-
It says that Scripture - God-breathed -
-
is sufficient to fully
equip the man of God.
-
Doctrine and reproof and correction
-
and instruction in righteousness.
-
No mention made of
"The Pearl of Great Price."
-
No mention made but of Scripture
-
which is God-breathed.
-
This is it.
-
Lose this book,
-
and your foundations are gone.
-
Why does every false religion start
-
by attacking here?
-
Because that's what their father did
-
in the beginning.
-
The devil gives himself away all the time.
-
He levels the guns at this book.
-
Catholicism? Our tradition
trumps this book.
-
Mormonism? Our Book of Mormon...
-
just the fact three of
their books are infallible
-
of the four that they
use, that they claim,
-
are their religious books.
-
Three are infallible. This one isn't.
-
But what does that tell you?
-
Either God's incompetent
-
or somebody's behind that religion
-
that doesn't like this book.
-
I would not opt for the first.
-
I would opt for the second.
-
When they came here two weeks ago,
-
that was one thing that I really
-
wanted to establish right up front
-
is your christ and my
Christ are not the same.
-
You can use the same terminology,
-
but the Bible talks about other christs.
-
And it talks about other gospels,
-
not that there truly is another christ
-
or another gospel,
-
but it speaks about it that way
-
and I just wanted to make certain,
-
our Christ isn't the same.
-
Because what they want to do
-
is they want to come and say,
-
"Well, we believe in Jesus Christ."
-
Well, wait a second.
-
The Christ of the Scriptures -
-
the One who is represented by that name,
-
has all sorts of attributes
associated with Him,
-
and they deny those.
-
And they have a whole other thought
-
about who He is.
-
You know, if we go beyond salvation,
-
we just think about
the eternal state of man.
-
We look at heaven as a paradise.
-
We look at heaven as a place
-
where we are married to Christ.
-
Again, Mormons totally reject that.
-
They see heaven
-
or they see the afterlife
-
for those who were good in this life
-
as being perpetually married
-
and having all these wives
-
by which they'll populate their own worlds
-
now that they have become like Elohim;
-
they've become like God Himself,
-
and they've got all these wives
-
and they're having all
these spirit children
-
and they basically become like Him.
-
But didn't Jesus say to the Sadducees,
-
you've got it all wrong.
-
You don't understand the Scriptures.
-
We become like the angels.
-
There is no marriage among us.
-
We go to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
-
We wait for a Bridegroom, that's true.
-
But we become married to Him.
-
The church is the bride.
-
The marriage in glory is to Christ.
-
It's not that we become like Christ
-
in the sense that we become
-
exactly as He is - a God like He is God,
-
and we have our own spirit wives
-
and have this constant celestial sex
-
through all the ages.
-
That's what they teach.
-
In fact, they taught that
Jesus Himself had wives.
-
Mary Magdalene was one of them.
-
He had three or four wives.
-
That is not what we find in Scripture.
-
The eternal state is marriage to Christ.
-
You know, one of the things
-
you want to look for any time
-
you're wondering if something is Christian
-
you want to look at
their doctrine of hell.
-
They deny eternal hell.
-
Now, they'll talk about a hell,
-
but it's temporary at best.
-
They'll talk about eternal fire,
-
but it's like that - it's not really fire.
-
It's just like that.
-
And they say whatever hell is,
-
it's not forever.
-
That basically, it's extinguished.
-
It comes to an end.
-
Mormons teach this.
-
They say, "therefore,
-
if you have a man and he repents not
-
and he remains and dies an enemy to God,
-
the demands of divine justice
-
do awaken his immortal soul
-
to a lively sense of his own guilt,
-
which doth cause him to shrink
-
from the presence of the Lord,
-
and doth fill his breast with guilt,
-
and pain, and anguish,
-
which is like an unquenchable fire."
-
You see how they say that?
-
That's what it says in Mosiah 2:38.
-
Listen to this.
-
Joseph Smith himself taught,
-
"these are they who are liars,
-
sorcerers, adulterers, whoremongers,
-
and whosoever loves and makes a lie.
-
These are they who are cast down to hell
-
and suffer the wrath of Almighty God
-
until the fullness of times."
-
There's an end.
-
"...When Christ shall have subdued
-
all enemies under His feet
-
and shall have perfected His work."
-
In other words, hell is for now,
-
but when all of Christ's
enemies are subdued,
-
then it's over.
-
It's not perpetual.
-
It's not ongoing.
-
It's not forever and ever.
-
It's not this eternal punishment.
-
It's not the smoke of their torment
-
going up day and night forever and ever.
-
It's not a: these will depart
-
into everlasting punishment.
-
They deny that.
-
They deny the eternality of hell.
-
Look what we're faced with.
-
We're faced with a religion
-
that claims to be Christian.
-
We're faced with a religion
-
that when they come to your door,
-
they talk Christian terminology.
-
They talk about atonement.
-
They talk about Jesus Christ.
-
They talk about God.
-
They talk about Christ being the Son.
-
They talk salvation words.
-
And they put a Christian
face on these things,
-
but their meanings behind them
-
are not the same as ours.
-
Every cardinal doctrine,
-
every fundamental doctrine.
-
They absolutely deny the
Christian doctrine
-
of the sufficiency of Scripture,
-
the inerrancy of Scripture,
-
they absolutely deny what we believe
-
to be true about the Person of God,
-
His character, His eternal
character as God,
-
His unchanging character as God,
-
the fact that He is spirit.
-
They absolutely deny the person
-
and the work of Jesus Christ.
-
They claim that He's created.
-
They claim that He's brother to the devil.
-
They claim that He's the firstborn
-
among all of us, maybe just like us,
-
and we just like Him - no difference
-
in His very essence of being.
-
He's just like us.
-
They basically deny
-
that the cross is really the point
-
of the shedding of blood -
-
without the shedding of blood,
-
there's no remission.
-
It doesn't say "without
the sweating of blood."
-
Without the shedding of blood.
-
They put emphasis on
what He did in the garden.
-
They say that His atonement really
-
only made it possible.
-
It didn't accomplish anything.
-
And in the end, all they're saying
-
is that it made it possible to accomplish
-
is to rid us of the guilt of Adam's sin.
-
As far as our own sin,
-
we have to do everything
within our own power
-
and then maybe His atonement
-
finishes it off at the end.
-
But we have to do everything
within our own power
-
to be good and to fulfill
-
all the laws and all the obligations
-
of the church of Latter-day Saints.
-
That's basically how you get to heaven.
-
That's basically how you
get the approval of God.
-
It is through our works.
-
You see how they absolutely detest
-
the doctrine of justification by faith
-
upon which is the very heart and soul
-
of our Gospel.
-
We have no Gospel
-
unless we have the
doctrine of justification.
-
They absolutely deny it.
-
They hate it.
-
Joseph Smith himself
changed the Scriptures
-
to seek to undo it.
-
Their ideas about heaven
-
are totally unlike the Christian ones.
-
And their ideas of hell are [too].
-
So they deny the person of the Father.
-
They deny the person of Christ.
-
They deny the way of salvation.
-
They deny eternal punishment.
-
They deny our ideas
about eternal paradise.
-
These are all the core doctrines.
-
They deny what we believe is essential
-
about the Scriptures.
-
I mean, the thing is,
-
are we going to call that Christian?
-
They are in absolute denial
-
of every major doctrinal statement,
-
orthodox Christian doctrine statement
-
that has been created.
-
You begin to look up
-
just in the circles we run in.
-
You think about the 1689
London Baptist Confession,
-
the 1644, the Philadelphia,
-
the New Hampshire,
-
even the different articles that have been
-
put out by the Southern
Baptists over the years.
-
I mean, you look at the
Baptist confessions.
-
You look at the Westminster Confession.
-
You look at the Heidelberg.
-
You look at these statements of faith.
-
Everything that we hold dear,
-
essential in these about
the person of God,
-
the way of salvation,
-
about the truths about Scripture,
-
the Mormon church denies.
-
Are they going to come along
-
and sell us on the fact
-
that they are Christian?
-
They are absolutely not Christian.
-
Not by any sound defintion
-
of what Christianity is.
-
Not by any biblical definition
-
of what Christianity is.
-
And not by any historic definition
-
of what our forefathers have declared
-
to be essential to the core beliefs
-
of Christianity that have gone before us.
-
So absolutely not.
-
They are not Christian.