We believe in the Jesus who was born of Mary in Bethlehem, lived 33 years and died on the Cross. If this is not the Jesus you believe in then who is your Jesus?
Forgive me if I am misunderstanding the situation here. Having just jumped in and posted my own views on this question, reading between the lines here I'm getting the impression that RDKatz is defending the Mormon faith. In answer to this latest response, the Jesus we as Christians love and serve is nothing like the 'Jesus' referred to in Joseph Smith's writings.The greatest difference is, as Christians we acknowledge that Jesus IS the Son of God,
Emmanuel, '
God with us' Matthew 1:23.
'For in Christ all the fulness of the deity lives in bodily form' Colossians 2:9. In the last book of the bible, Revelation, we read the warning:
'I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.' And that is exactly what Mormons and JWs have tried to do.
I don't generally voice my judgment on any person's character but in a serious situation where there are people reading these posts of confusion, I feel the record needs to be put straight. Three person who grew up with Joseph Smith (founder of the Latter Day saints -Mormons) from the age of 10 through to his mid twenties and beyond, all agreed he was a notorious liar. That he was notorious for his vulgar speech and unspeakable lewdness. Smith by chance bumped in to an unfrocked Baptist minister (That is one who had been dismissed from their ministry) by the name of Sidney Rigdon. It was Rigdon's original idea that there should be writings that go beyond what the Bible covered. In Smith, Rigdon found a willing collaborator and the end result was the 'Book of Mormon'.
The story goes that on September 21st 1823 Smith had an angel visit him by the name of Morini, who revealed to him that in AD 420 several golden plates had been secretly hidden in the hill of Cumorah, near Palmyra, NY. On these plates was the history of the Nephites who went to America from Jerusalem in 600 BC. Smith, who had displayed early notions of occultism went to the spot and there he found as well as the golden plates, a pair of spectacles, which he named 'Urim and Thummin'. It was with these he was able to decipher and translate in to english the mystic hieroglyphics written on the golden tablets. He claimed these were 'Reformed Egyptian'.
Concerning this claim, Professor Charles Anthon, a noted linguist, made the following comment:
'A very brief investigation is all that was needed for me to see that this was a mere hoax and a very clumsy one at that'. The entire text was a mishmash of Greek, Hebrew, and all sorts of letters more or less distorted beyond recognition, undoubtedly through unskillfulness or from actual design, intermingled with sundry delineations of half-moons, stars and other natural objects. The ending looked more like a rude representation of the Mexican Zodiac.
Do I need to go on? Are you seriously telling me that intelligent people are buying in to this fraud? Wouldn't you think that something as precious and important as the Golden plates and the glasses would be kept and preserved as evidence of this miraculous find by Smith? So, where are they?
I'll go on, as I believe it is so important that readers of this topic are warned of the lies and falsehoods that Mormonism is based upon.
The true story is as follows: A Presbyterian preacher Solomon Spaulding, wrote an imaginary history of the people who inhabited America in the early days, entitled
'The Manuscript found'. Rejected for publication he left it with Patterson the printers at Pittsburgh and died two years later. Rigdon, who I referred to earlier as teaming up with Smith, whilst visiting Patterson's shop, came across the old manuscript and using it as a basis and seeing it as a short cut to fame, published it as the
'Book of Mormon'. With the help of Parley P. Pratt and Joseph Smith, they perpetrated one of the biggest religious hoaxes of the century. Such is the incredulity of how they came about the 'Book of Mormon' perhaps we should quote
'Because they received not the love of the truth, God sent them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie' 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11.
Joseph Smith, by the way, died at the hands of an infuriated mob at Carthage in 1844. His leadership was taken over by Brigham Young who was responsible for leading their immigration to Utah in order to escape the long arm of the law. He died thirty years later leaving a fortune of £400,000 (Yes, that's pounds sterling) 17 wives and 56 children. So, why should Mormonism be classed as a heresy?
It is Antichristian - It either perverts or denies all the fundamental truths of Christianity. For example: God is a man of flesh - Adam; Christ's atonement only relates to the sins of Adam; Salvation is by works and through baptism; Christ is the son of the Adam-God and Mary, not born of a virgin; The Holy Spirit is a divine fluid. Note what I have said elsewhere my concerns for those who follow the JWs doctrine on the Holy Spirit and the danger of them committing the 'Unforgivable sin' that Jesus warned about. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit; they go on to say that sin was necessary. All of these points can be substantiated from their own writings.
Finally, on the
'Book of Mormon', of the hundreds of direct quotations from the old and new testaments, they are all from the Authorised version. Although the golden plates were supposedly written twelve hundred years before King James authorised that version!
As Christians I am sure there will be scriptures from our bible leaping out at us as we read some of the tenets of the Mormon faith. I mean the golden tablets and special glasses had me stopped in my tracks immediately. Sadly, it is often a fact that when you speak to Mormons or JWs, they were never made aware of the shady history of where they are placing their faith. Speak to those from either group of followers and ask them, do they have a testimony of how their faith has changed their life about, as christianity has for millions of people around the world. I'm not talking here of a feel good factor that people feel after a hard day's work or for obeying a list of man-made rules. The God I love, obey to the best I can because I love Him, wants a voluntary love from us. He doesn't want automatons who feel they can only earn God's love by doing good works. The bible I study tells me
'Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us' and else where,
'What greater love has a man than he lay down his life'.
I mean no offence. Truly. I'm watching followers of Mormonism and JWs walking towards a precipice that most certainly leads to a fatal drop in to an eternity in hell. And I won't stand idly by and say nothing. Always prepared to discuss this further. God bless and Take care.