Mormanism: Temple of Doom?

How do intelligent, well-educated, and mostly well to do people--relatively speaking--end up with a cult-like belief system that started less than 200 years ago by one megalomaniac man, Joseph Smith, a sorcerer "treasure seeker,"  who claimed to have had a "Star Wars" like vision? Who claimed that he was called of God to re-establish Christ's true Church on the earth? And how could this obvious cult, who so thoroughly perverts the gospel of Jesus Christ, have formed into a major world religion of considerable respectability--so much so that a wealthy Mormon had a good chance at becoming president of the U.S.? Is this just another branch of Christianity with conservative, family-based values, or something much more sinister?

It all started in 1820, in upstate New York, when a man named Joseph Smith claimed to have had a vision--not taught in the church for 22 years after it happened, nor did it appear in his mother's biographical sketch of him-- from God that supposedly resolved his sense of religious confusion and personal questions and that relayed to him that all his sins were forgiven. In 1823, he received another vision that revealed the location of a buried book of golden plates. In 1827, Smith "transcribed" some of the Egyptian characters engraved on the plates (conveniently, no one in North America could decipher Egyptian at the time...more on that later). And finally in 1830, his "divine" translations were published.

Included amongst his almighty revelations from God were visions of John the Baptist, Elijah, and the voices of Peter, James and John, who confirmed his translations (John the Baptist) and who ordained (Peter, James, John) Smith and his friend, Oliver Cowdery to a higher priesthood.  In Smith's world, angelic revelations timed themselves perfectly with his desires.

In 1912, eight Egyptologists were asked to check Joseph Smith's translation of the sacred texts. Their conclusion when "held up to the merciless light of modern scholarship" was that Smith's translation was a "work of the imagination...its authenticity has been destroyed completely."

More from the Egyptologists in 1912:

"It is difficult to deal with Joseph Smith's impudent fraud." -- Dr. A.H. Sayce of Oxford University

"A Figaro of nonsense."--Dr. Arthur Mace, Assistant Curator of the Metropolitan Museum.

"The interpretation of the plates displays ignorance." Dr. John Peters, Univ. of Pennsylvania, who conducted an expedition to Babylon in 1888 could find nothing but amusement in the Mormon prophet's work

"None of those, either human or divine, who helped Joseph Smith translations had any conception of the most commonplace Egyptian characters." -- Prof C.A.B. Mercer, custodian of the Hibbard collection of Egyptian reproductions at the Western Theological Seminary

And the most interesting of all in my humble opinion:

"The papyrus which Joseph Smith declared to be the book of Abraham and explained in his fantastic way are parts of the well-known [Tibetan] Book of the Dead." -- Dr. Edward Meyer, University of Berlin

You must remember that in Mormonism, a living prophet is better than a dead one. This means that Mormon doctrine can change, sometimes, turning the original belief on its head. For instance, Joseph Smith said a Mormon cannot get into heaven without more than one wife. Later, when the Mormons desired statehood, they were told they must give up the practice of polygamy. Well, guess what? The "prophet" at that time received a revelation that told him polygamy was wrong. So, to the public, anyway, he declared that Mormons with more than one wife will be excommunicated.

Almost every law, article, rule, practice of the LDS Church is anti-Christian. Take the Law of Eternal Progression, , which is the cornerstone doctrine of the Mormon church, as well as many other occultic religions.  It's the idea that you can become a god.  Christian doctrine says the complete opposite, but Mormons, who claim to be Christian, accept this lie as truth, believing in a large number of man-gods who, now ruling over other planets, were once simply men, now ascended to godhood. How is that in any way, Christian?

As man is, God once was, and as God is, man may become. Law of Eternal Progression

"Brethren 225,000 of you are here tonight. I suppose 225,000 of you may become GODS. There seems to be plenty of space out there in the universe." Mormon Prophet Spencer W Kimball, General Conference, Oct 1975. Doctrine and Covenants (DC) 132: 20 Then shall they be gods,

Another thing, why do Mormons need a "temple recommend" to even enter a Mormon temple? Name one Christian church who does that.  What's more, the 8th Article of  the Mormon Faith denies the Bible is inerrant, claiming  the Book of Mormon to be perfect. Smith actually "corrected" many passages of the bible, such as Luke 10:22. 

Smith's concept of the trinity --the core of Christian doctrine--that is when he believed in the trinity, changed constantly to the point where he finally decidied it did not exist.  He replaced it with a polytheistic universe. God the Father is an extraterrestrial who lives on the planet, Kolob. "As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become." Also, God can be fired.

Did you ever wonder why Mormons have the largest genealogical record of any institution in the world, why they're so good at keeping genealogical records?  Well, it's due to their belief in baptism for the dead.  It is the duty of every Mormon to do their genealogy back at least four generations and then take those ancestors and baptize them by proxy, "do their endowments." Oh yeah, up until this time the ancestors are in "spirit prison," just waiting for you to liberate them.  They use children to substitute for the dead people they're baptizing.

Undertones of the occult abound in the Mormon church. For example, the inverted hexagram, where instead of the one point sticking up, two points stick up, is considered one of the most profoundly evil symbols in all of magic, yet it's on a Mormon temple in Logan Utah. And what kind of religion asks its members to pantomime their own murders? Up until 1990, the Mormon endowment temple ceremony required the members to do this. They stopped this as well as some other questionable practices after conducting a survey as to why members were leaving.

The LDS church has always been politically active. There is a high percentage of Mormons in the CIA, FBI, secret service and amongst the highest levels of presidential advisers. At one time four out five Joint Chiefs were Mormon. Now we have Glenn Beck doing his best to mainstream Mormonism. What's more, the Washington DC temple, located in Silver Springs Maryland, on the fifth floor has an exact replica of the oval office and corresponding telemetry so powerful that they actually have to reroute airplanes around the temple.

"Mormonism seems as American as apple pie, and Mormons seem to be the perfect citizens with their close families, high morals, patriotism, Boy Scout programs, Tabernacle Choir, and conservative politics. A Los Angeles Times article implied that Mormons have recently gained the image of "super-Americans . . . [who] appear to many to be 'more American than the average American." [vii]This may explain why such a high proportion of Mormons find their way into government. Returned LDS missionaries have "the three qualities the CIA wants: foreign language ability, training in a foreign country, and former residence in a foreign country."[viii] Utah (and particularly BYU) is one of the prime recruiting areas for the CIA. According to BYU spokesman Dr. Gary Williams, "We've never had any trouble placing anyone who has applied to the CIA. Every year they take almost anybody who applies."[ix] He also admitted that this has created problems with a number of foreign countries, who have complained about the "pretty good dose of [Mormon] missionaries who've gone back to the countries they were in as Central Intelligence agents."[x]

This may at least partially explain the reported close tie between the Mormon Church and the CIA.[xi] A disproportionate number of Mormons arrive at the higher levels of the CIA, FBI, military intelligence, armed forces, and all levels of city, state, and federal governments, including the Senate, Congress, Cabinet, and White House Staff. Sincere and loyal citizens, most of them may be unaware of the secret ambition of The Brethren. What could be better than having such patriots as these serving in strategic areas of government and national security?

The Council of Ytfif, originally called the Illuminati, was an elite secret order within the highest levels of the LDS church designed to bring about LDS rule of the U.S. Within in this group Smith was crowned king of the United States. This group later morphed into the Freeman Institute and National Center for Constitutional Studies in the 1970s, later changed to the National Center of Constitutional Studies in the 1980s, which still maintains its political agenda as best it can.

Furthermore, the oath of vengeance (or law of vengeance) is an oath that was made by participants in the Endowment ritual of the LDS Church in1845, in which participants vowed to pray that God would avenge the U.S. for the blood of the prophets Joseph Smith, Jr. and Hyrum Smith, who were assassinated in 1844 by a mob. Yes, Mitt Romney took this oath as he was once a Mormon bishop in Boston.  Good thing Mitt Romney didn't get elected, right?

Let's not forget the issue of polygamy, which despite what you're told, still exists to this day.  Joseph Smith married at least 33 women,  the youngest being 14-years old when he was 37-years old. Of those 33 women, 11 were already married to good active living members of the LDS church.  Smith would often send these men on missions and marry their wives while they were gone. Moreover, Smith did not treat his extra wives like wives, except for having sexual relations. They did they live with him, nor did he support them.  Upon his death, he was married to 27 women.

Apostle, John Taylor, who later became the third president of the church lied in a public debate with protestant ministers in France in 1850, when he boldly denied Mormons were practicing polygamy; he had 12 wives at this time. So, today, it is estimated that at least 50,000 people live in polygamist families in North America, solely because Joseph Smith received a revelation from God commanding him to do it.

Don't get me wrong. This is not a criticism of the Mormon people. Most LDS members are very sincere in their belief,  are very good hard-working people who actually have the right idea on some things, such as taking care of their own. Poor Mormons do not suffer the same fate that other poor Americans do.  However, it's very troublesome that this religion masks itself as Christianity when it's clearly not even close. 








Links for more information:

More Truth Foundation

Mormon Think The links page on this site provides all the best critic sites from both sides of the argument.

Richard Packham

Rethinking Mormonism 

Utah Lighthouse Ministries