Exodus 20:4; “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
Ensign, “Gratitude,” May 1997 [April General Conference], 33; “I express gratitude and love for Jesus Christ and His Atonement, for His willingness to leave the realms of the heavens as a God and come to earth as a lowly babe.
In the final hours of His mortal life, He went into the Garden of Gethsemane and took upon Himself the sins of all mankind, from Adam until the last person born on earth.” – Jerald L. Taylor
Today we’re exploring one of the most important topics of Christianity so that we can make a correct determination of where the sins of man was paid for, and why it’s important.
This article stems from multiple comments on our blog, made by a faithful Mormon. According to Mormonism, Jesus paid for the sins of man in the Garden of Gethsemane, and not on the cross. The Bible tells us his defense of this is wrong. The other argument of this Mormon gentleman is found in his repeated accusations that we’re bowing down to graven images; i.e. the cross.
31. The number of times you can find the term ‘graven image’ in the KJV Bible.
The Hebrew word ‘pesel’ is the transliteration for this all important term! (See Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary #H6459)
We’ll speak more to that in a moment. First, let’s look at the next topic –
1. The number of places where Jesus could have paid the price for the sins of mankind.
John 12:32; “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
This clearly tells us Jesus was referring to His crucifixion and when that happened mankind will come to Him for salvation. He didn’t draw anyone to Himself whilst praying in Gethsemane.
The next item of consideration is the physical address, so to speak, of the cross.
As we see in Hebrews it took place outside the city walls. The reason for this is that when priests sacrificed animals for various rituals, it was always done so outside the city gates, aka, outside the camp, or without the gate.
Hebrews 13:12; “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.”
I found an awesome article on this – here’s a small portion of why the cross was outside the walls of Jerusalem. I highly recommend you read the whole thing because this was absolutely awesome! From outsidethecamp.org;
“In Old Testament times, outside the camp was where everything unclean went. The Israelites were commanded to burn the remains of the sacrificial bulls, including their dung, outside the camp as sin offerings (Ex. 29:14;Lev. 4:12,21; 8:17; 9:11; 16:27)… Outside the camp was a place of defilement, uncleanness, impurity, corruption, dirtiness, filthiness, pollution, contamination, condemnation, punishment, rejection, castigation, and reproach…
Is this anywhere for the King of Glory to be?…
Why was Jesus Christ among those who suffered and died outside the camp? He had done nothing wrong. Wouldn’t He be the last person one would expect to see being crucified among the executed criminals? Yet there He was, outside the camp, ridiculed, reproached, and scorned, treated as dung, His entire body bloodied by torture, His hands and feet nailed all the way through to the wood of the cross, pulling Himself up by those nails in His hands just to be able to breathe. This was the King of Glory? The rulers and soldiers came by scoffing, saying, “He saved others, let him save himself, if this one is the Christ, the elect of God. … If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself” (Luke 23:35-37). If He really was the Christ, why didn’t He come down from the cross? Why didn’t He set up a kingdom on the earth, with Jerusalem as the capitol? Why did He remain outside the camp, being reproached by those who hated Him, hanging on the cross and eventually dying?
Praise God, we know the answer, because it is clearly in His Word. Jesus Christ did not die as a private person. He died as a Substitute and Representative of certain people. All the sins of all those people were imputed to Jesus Christ – Jesus Christ was legally charged with their sins. And, just as the sacrificial bull was burned outside the camp for a sin offering in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ suffered and died outside the camp as a sin offering for His people. He became unclean, defiled, worthy of death – not in his own perfectly holy character and conduct, but by imputation. And as such, it was needful for Him to be punished outside the camp, where the unclean and defiled go.”
Moving forward to Galatians, we find Paul’s explanation of why Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins whilst on the cross –
Galatians 3:13; “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
Equally important is timing. Note what it says in John’s gospel –
John 18:11; “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?”
Two things to take note of in this verse –
1.It tells us Jesus still hadn’t fulfilled the job God had given Him to do, and that was to pay for the sins of man.
2.The transliteration for the word ‘cup’ is potērion which means fate, drinking vessel, and the contents thereof. (See Strong’s #G4221)
This cup, destined for Jesus only, was filled with ‘the wrath of God, and the punishment due to sin’. (See John Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible.)
Our last example for why Jesus didn’t pay for sins in Gethsemane comes from Luke 22:44. Our online Mormon friend has used this verse to prove his point, as have many leaders in the Church. I want to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ that when/if someone uses a certain verse to defend an unbiblical concept, don’t ever be afraid of using that same verse to correct them. 2 Timothy 3:16.
Let’s look at the text.
Luke 22:44; “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
The medical term for bloody sweat is ‘hematidrosis’. This rare condition can happen when someone is under extreme stress. Stress can cause the capillary blood vessels feeding the sweat glands to rupture, thus mixing some blood with sweat.
We want to make it very clear, we have no doubt that God can cause anything at all to happen in life – of this there’s no question! Our concern with this verse and Mormonism comes into play with the theory Gethsemane is where Jesus paid for the sins of men and they’ve based it on this one verse.
A great study on this can be found at TruthMagazine.com where Pastor Terry Ray examines other verses in the Bible with the same phrase ‘as it were’, to determine if Jesus fulfilled God’s strict requirements for atonement. He, like many others, believe it’s theologically unsound to insist Jesus atoned for sins at Gethsemane.
And last, but not least beloved, our Mormon visitor (Fred) is a living example of what the Apostle Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 1:18; the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are unsaved. Here’s what he had to say about our witnessing tip for October 9th and Jesus’ death on the cross –
“To think a common everyday punishment is all that Jesus went through to give us the atonement seems narrow thinking to me. The atonement is greater than the physical death on the cross.
It was in the Garden of Gethsemane where the Christ accepted His earthly death. At the time of His final acceptance He sweat ” great drops of blood” because of the pain.”
Fred’s right. The cross was a very common tool used by the Romans to murder and humiliate those who didn’t agree with them. In fact it was so common even Josephus made note of it while traveling through the Galilean region. In one day he counted 2,000 crucifixions. See Antiquities 17: Book 10.
Again, the problem in Mormonism is the lack of concern about our dear Lord, and the lack of concern about accuracy. The Bible is abundantly clear, and foretold where Jesus would atone for sin. As we’ve always said, a sign of a cult is how they’ll build an entire doctrine on just one verse of the Bible so beware.
And most certainly, please, pray for these dear people who are truly lost!
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
The LDS doctrine of atonement is an integral part of its real theology, Mormon polytheism. Jesus, to Mormons, is but a means to resurrection, not salvation from sin. Salvation to Mormons is freedom from death through Adam’s “transgression.” The Mormons don’t even think that Jesus atoned for a sin, but, rather, a transgression that had to occur for the world of humans to occur. The REAL theological plan of Mormonism can be said as, “a Jesus for every Mormon father-god, with a capital G.” Mormons like to make Christians think that they believe in the grace of Jesus, but the don’t believe that a person is saved by grace. They believe that a person must work his, or her, way to heaven, and that the only way you can become a Mormon father-god and mother-goddess is through resurrection. The whole spiel that Mormons give about Gethsemane is a smoke-screen. The blood of Christ to them only covers one sin, Adam’s sin, and all the other sins of mankind are only remitted through constant repentance, restitution, and work. I am including my other comment about Mormon theology for reference purposes.
As most rank-and-file Mormons stand-up during their monthly fast-Sunday testimony meetings and in rote-fashion declare their devotion to the Mormon Jesus and his creator Joseph Smith, they are, either, ignorant of the proclaimed canon theological destiny of every worthy Mormon elder and his temple-endowed wife of becoming as great as the Mormon father-god and his goddess wife, the heavenly mother, who were once a mortal man and woman born on some planet in the cosmos, who worked their way to Mormon father-godhood and goddess-motherhood just as their formerly human father-god and mother-goddess did eons of time before them, or they know about this ultimate theological destiny and just don’t want to venerate the real polytheistic Mormon theology in front of Christians who might accept Mormonism.
You see, what I didn’t fully understand for 30 years of my life, as I spouted the canned false theology of Mormonism, from the Book of Mormon, as a Mormon missionary to many struggling Christians, was that the Mormon Jesus, the biologically produced son of the Mormon father-god of this earth, is just another Mormon messiah, named Jesus, in the long polytheistic line of Mormon messiahs, called saviors, produced sexually in biological fashion by the long succession of Mormon father-gods and mother-goddesses. The Mormon grandfather-god, proclaimed by Joseph Smith in his “King Follett Discourse,” is the father of the current Mormon father-god, whom all worthy Mormon elders are to equal in greatness by each of them becoming Mormon father-gods, with a capital G! YES! This is real Mormon theology! Each worthy elder, and his wife or wives, are to work their way to the highest degree of Mormon heaven, called exaltation, and when they are resurrected they are to be made into father-gods and mother-goddesses by a preexisting council of Mormon father-gods. Sounds like Greek mythology, doesn’t it? Then, each newly ordained Mormon father-god and mother-goddess will limitedly create their own earth and billions of procreated spirit children, their versions of Adam and Eve, and their own version of a messiah savior, just like the one-and-only Jesus of the Holy Bible, who is without beginning or end, from everlasting to everlasting.
You see, real Mormon theology, according to Mormon prophets Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and Lorenzo Snow, states that the Mormon Jesus came only to provide a resurrection for all of the children of the Mormon father-god; that is, a new body that is regarded as salvation from death, the only free gift Mormon’s claim was offered by Jesus through his death on the cross. The atonement of Jesus to Mormons is not the shedding of his precious blood for all of the sins of the world, past, present, and future. Jesus, according to Mormon theology, atoned only for what the Mormons call “Adam’s and Eve’s transgression. Mormon theology does not regard what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden as a sin. They regard what Adam and Eve did as a “necessary step” in the production of a humankind by every Mormon father-god, through which every Mormon world must proceed for the cycle of Mormon godhood, with a capital G, to continue. Brigham Young proclaimed in LDS General Conference, in 1865, that “there are as many Gods as there are stars, and as many saviors as there are Gods.” He clarified his statement later in saying that, “every star is a glorious world.”
So, real Mormon theology, as stated in the Mormon Church’s most recent 20th Century declaration of LDS theology, “Lesson 21-Man May Become Like God,” from the 1984 LDS Melchizedek Priesthood Handbook, “Search These Commandments,” is totally different from what full-time Mormon missionaries tell the struggling Christians, investigators to Mormonism, about Mormon theology, doctrine, and history, which they swear in the name of their Mormon Jesus (who allows them to lie) is the truth. I have “Lesson 21-Man May Become Like God” available as a PDF document to send to any, and all, readers of this commentary. Struggling Christians who would consider studying Mormonism need to know the truth about Mormon theology before they hear the Mormon knock at their doors, or receive invitations from Mormon friends and associates to learn more about Mormonism. Please contact me at 571-309-8789 and leave your email address on voicemail and I will send out copies immediately. You can also find a PDF copy of “Lesson 21” on the MormonThink.org website under Mormon theology, which you are able to download.
Thank you for taking your time to patiently write this explanation. It’s very helpful to know! Would like to read your exit story. Is it posted here or somewhere?
{… a means to resurrection, not salvation from sin.}
This too is something taught by outsiders the even some members believe.
It is because Jesus saved us from our sins that we are able to be judged for our good works, among other things, to see what job we are able to do in heaven.
Thank you for responding to my thoughts.
Weather you believe Jesus’s acceptance in the Garden of Gethsemane was part of His act of Atonment,
It is possible to take up one’s cross without displaying a graven image of one.
In response to your question, I errantly joined the Mormon Church in 1970 and spent until 2000 arrogantly working for Satan until the Lord Jesus knocked me to my knees in 2000, and made me realize through the Holy Spirit that I was persecuting him by my pagan Mormon antagonism against real Christians. I was at that time a ward mission leader in the Mountlake Terrace Ward north of Seattle, where I lived and worked for nearly eight years. While a frenetic Mormon elder during those 30 years in pagan bondage, I spent most of that time as a Mormon stake and district missionary, and was responsible for disrupting the lives of 65 struggling Christians whom I persuaded to accept Mormonism. For these sins, I am still very ashamed, and, like the Apostle Paul, am the chief sinner and prisoner of Jesus Christ who loved me, forgave me, and cleansed me of my sins through his precious grace. He has, in no uncertain terms, set me on my road to proclaim his holy name and to help struggling Christians see the Mormon Church for the pagan cult that it is, so that they won’t be deceived when the Mormon missionaries come knocking on their doors with their lies and misrepresentations. In late 2015, I published following explicative essay about “Lesson 21-Man May Become Like God” on the EzineArticles.com website, where many of my essays about Mormonism have been published. I have included this particular essay about “Lesson 21” below.
The Mormon Church hierarchy has recently, in 2014, condescended from what it regards as its sacred duty to “lie for the Mormon lord” to publicly state some poignant truths about the life and character of Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, Jr. Yet, Mormon General Authorities, such as Mormon Apostle Jeffery R. Holland, continue to stand in front of millions of rank-and-file Latter-day Saints, during their most recent General Conference, and swear in the name of their Mormon god that the lustful adulterous practices of Joseph Smith were approved and blessed by that utterly changeable deity. During that 2014 LDS conference, Holland waved a copy of the “Book of Mormon” in his hand during his sermon as he raved about the truthful historicity and the doctrinal correctness of that 19th Century apocryphal book. He didn’t mention, however, that the “Book of Mormon” totally contradicts the polytheistic doctrines of Mormon theology that Joseph Smith wrote and proclaimed 14 years after he had called the “Book of Mormon” the most correct book on the face of the earth. This was in 1844, when Smith ushered-in his ex-cathedra doctrine, known as the King Follett Discourse, during a Mormon General Conference in Nauvoo, Illinois.
To-date, I don’t believe that anyone, Mormon, non-Mormon, or ex-Mormon, has publicly explained, page-by-page, an actual lesson of fundamental Mormon theology from an official LDS Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide, a study guide published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (formerly by the “Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)” for doctrinal use by Melchizedek Priesthood groups in Mormon wards and stakes. These groups comprised, and still comprise, the quorums of elders and high-priests in LDS, or Mormon, wards throughout the world. During 1984, while in Oceanside, California, I, my first-wife, and children were actively attending the Oceanside First Ward of the LDS Church. I was then an active elder in priesthood rank and, by ward office, an assistant ward clerk and missionary, and took part in priesthood activities as a member of the Oceanside First-Ward Quorum of Elders. The name of the LDS Priesthood Study Guide, from which I studied Mormon doctrinal theology during 1984, was “Search These Commandments.” One of the LDS Palomar California Stake Presidency, the Stake President himself, testified officiously in the name of the Mormon god, before the First-Ward Quorum of Elders, on September 4, 1984, that the 1984 Priesthood manual contained only commandments that the Mormon god expected every elder to obey.
Hence, “Lesson 21” of that priesthood study guide was one of the few primary theological lessons, comprised of basic Mormon theological principles, presented by the Mormon Church, which every Mormon elder world-wide, including Mormon Apostle, and Counselor in the LDS First Presidency, Gordon B. Hinckley, were instructed to study during the year 1984. Moreover, the title of the priesthood study guide, “Search These Commandments,” conferred doctrinal stature on each, and every, lesson in that guide. But, since Hinckley had been almost solely responsible for writing and approving the study guide’s publication, he had definitely known, much better that I had known at that time, the sacred Mormon commandments that the lesson had contained.
So let’s go, page-by-page, through Lesson 21, which is entitled, “Man may become like God.” The lesson begins on page 151 in the priesthood study guide and commences with a conversation between two devout Mormons, Bill and his quorum leader. In order to observe copyright law, I will present the lesson using revised syntax and synonyms to express, in paraphrase, the lesson’s verbatim content.
“What is the ultimate objective of studying all these commandments, and why are we commanded to be obedient to all these commandments?” Bill asked his elders’ quorum leader. His leader replied,
“We will have to answer to our Mormon god for the things we do and we don’t do on the earth.”
Then the study guide asks the question. “Is it possible that you have forgotten about what a devout Mormon elder can ultimately become by following the commandments?” At the bottom of page 151, a statement about of one the Mormon prophets, Lorenzo Snow, is made.
“You, a Mormon elder, can know as surely as Lorenzo Snow did, while as a youthful holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the acme, or highest level, of eternal accomplishment. You can be like Lorenzo Snow.”
Then a story is told about Lorenzo Snow, when he was told in his youth, by a Mormon officer known as a Patriarch, that by obeying all of the Mormon commandments he could, and would, become equal to the greatness of the Mormon god. So, a quotation (as the defining element of a doctrinal commandment) by Mormon Prophet Lorenzo Snow was provided, which has since become the crux of this theology. “As man is, god once was, and as god is man may become.” The lesson even goes further on page 151 to denote that, later, Lorenzo Snow was personally told by the founding Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith that the foregoing statement about man becoming a Mormon father god was correct theological doctrine; and was a personal statement from the Mormon father god to him.”
Now the Mormon Salt Lake hierarchy has made ongoing tongue-in-cheek statements to the effect that the 1844 “King Follett Discourse” of Joseph Smith is not, and has never been, regarded by the Church as Mormon theological doctrine.” Well, as you will see, the next part of “Lesson 21,” on page 152, is a direct statement from Joseph Smith’s “King Follett Discourse” that he made in that auspicious 1844 LDS General Conference in Nauvoo, illinois, which was regarded then as holy scripture, as the mind, will, and voice of the Mormon god. After Joseph Smith’s death, the Mormon Church hierarchy placed the most important elements of the “King Follett Discourse” into a book called “Teachings,” which was published four decades after Joseph Smith died, but the author is assuredly Joseph Smith.
At the top of page 152, the same statement is made that is found on pages 345-46 of “Teachings,” and also in the recorded words of the “King Follett Discourse,” as they were written down by Mormon scribes as Joseph Smith spoke them in 1844. “It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we can converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth.”
Then further in the Study Guide, on page 153, Brigham Young is quoted in his doctrinal extension of the “King Follett Discourse,” called the “Adam-God Doctrine,” which he vehemently stated in several LDS General Conferences in Salt Lake City, Utah, as divine revelation. This discourse of Brigham Young is found recorded in the “Journal of Discourses,” Vol. 6, pages 274-75. “It must be that God knows something about temporal things, and has had a body and been on an earth; were it not so He would not know how to judge men righteously, according to the temptations and sins they have had to contend with.”
The Mormon theological commandment for man to become like the Mormon father-god is, therefore, speciously predicated upon the notion that a God of spirit, with no beginning and no end, such as is described in both the “Book of Mormon”(which is plagiarized from the Bible) and the Holy Bible, is unable to judge his children righteously. It is then obviously clear that Brigham Young and Joseph Smith neglected reading John 1:1-20, in the Bible, regarding the Word that was Jesus Christ in the Spirit, who presided over the Children of Israel as they migrated through the wilderness to the Promised Land. In essence, Brigham Young was arrogantly saying that Jesus could not have righteously judged his people at that time without having a mortal body. What’s more, the Mormon hierarchy has, since around 1900, been fond of saying that “the LDS Church only believes, as commandments, those statements made, and commandments given, by the Mormon god in the four standard works of the LDS church, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price (the Book of Abraham), and the Bible. If this is so, Lesson 21 is, yet, another blatant Mormon contradiction, as every theological commandment listed in Lesson 21 is found outside the four standard works of the Mormon Church, in excathrdra statements by Mormon Prophets and Apostles, which were regarded as canonized Mormon doctrine and scripture until around 1910.
At the bottom of page 152, Lesson 21 continues as the origin of the Mormon
father-god is again explicated according to the “King Follett Discourse,” in accordance with the agreement expressed by successors of Joseph Smith, Jr. Mormon Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith is quoted from his “Doctrines of Salvation, 2:47, that, “Our Father in heaven, according to the Prophet (Joseph Smith) had a father.” Mormon Prophet Joseph F. Smith (the father of Joseph Fielding Smith) is quoted as saying, “I know that God is a being with body, parts, and passions… Man was born of woman; Christ, the Savior, was born of woman; and God, the Father was born of woman” (“Church News,” 19 Sept. 1936, p. 2). To explain that the Mormon father-god was understood to have gone through the same mortal biological process that Mormon men go through in this life (obeying commandments, working his way to heaven, and going through the Mormon temple endowment ceremony), Mormon Prophet Wilford Woodruff, at the bottom of page 152, is quoted as saying, “He [God] has had his endowments a great many years ago. He has ascended to his thrones, principalities and powers in the eternities.” (“Deseret News Weekly, 28 Sept. 1881, p. 546).
As another restatement of Joseph Smith’s “King Follett Discourse,” Brigham Young is, again, quoted on page 153 of Lesson 21. “He is our father – the Father of our spirits – and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are… ” To impress upon the reader the polytheistic blasphemy of Mormon theology, Brigham Young is quoted as saying a bit more. “There was never a time when there were not GODS and worlds and when men were not passing through the same ordeals that we are now passing through., and it appears ridiculous to the world, under their darkened and erroneous (Christian) traditions, that God (the father) has once been a finite being.” (“Deseret News,” 16 Nov. 1859, p. 290). Then, on page 153, the Mormon writers use blatant sophistry in vainly trying to use the Apostle Paul’s statement about Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV) in defense of this polytheism.
“5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7. but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross! 9. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11. and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The Mormons actually believe that this foregoing biblical scripture, which declares that Jesus’ Father allowed his only begotten Son to become human, while still remaining as God, and to offer himself as a sacrifice, unto death, on the cross for sin, endorses the polytheistic theology that Jesus was not born of a virgin, but was conceived biologically as all mortals are conceived, and was not born as God Almighty, but became a God over time through continuous change, as had his exalted father-god. Then, continuing on page 153, the Mormon writers try to use John 15:1-8 to try to show an endorsement by the Gospel writer for continuous work and change in the Mormon process of a man becoming as great as the Mormon god.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
By any stretch of the imagination, this attempt to use the foregoing words of the Apostle Paul to show the mortal origin of God Almighty is profoundly ludicrous. Furthermore, the Mormon use of John 8:29 (NIV) as a means of supporting the Mormon theology of the exalted man father-god, to show that what the Father taught Jesus, before and after he came to the earth to take upon himself flesh, comprised the same instructions that he gave to all mankind, is equally ludicrous. Jesus had a mission to perform as the “only” Savior of the world, the only Savior in the universe. Mormon theology teaches that every Mormon man that becomes a Mormon father-god will produce a savior, a Jesus, through biological reproduction. So, according to Mormonism, there is, and have always been, an infinite number of finite saviors.
Further, on page 154, Mormon Prophet Joseph F. Smith is again quoted as saying, “We are precisely in the same condition and under the same circumstances that God our heavenly father was when he was passing through this, or a similar ordeal.” (Gospel Doctrine, p.64).
Then, again, on page 154, the Mormon sophists try to use the Trinitarian theology of the Book of Mormon, in 3 Nephi 28:10, to try to defend the eternity of polytheistic Mormon theology. This is why they don’t use this particular Book of Mormon scripture in conjunction with the previous verse, verse 9, as the fictional account of Jesus visiting the South American continent and blessing the 12 Nephite apostles with gifts he didn’t even give to his Twelve Apostles in the Holy Land. After 1838, the Mormons attempted to disavow the Trinitarian theology of the Book of Mormon, but verse 10, of 3 Nephi 28, seems to contradict the doctrine that the Father and the Son are, now, two separate beings in heaven. “And for this cause ye shall have fullness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my father; yea your joy shall be full, even as the father hath given me fullness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one.” Just because Jesus was resurrected on the earth, and ascended into heaven as a resurrected being, it doesn’t mean that Jesus has to keep that same resurrected form in heaven; even though he will return to the earth in his resurrected body. Jesus is God almighty, and has no boundaries. He is infinitely powerful, and cannot be quantified and put into a test tube, as the Mormons have tried to do.
On page 155, in the Study Guide, the Mormon writers begin to summarize what they think has been a cogent lesson about man’s mortal journey from Mormon mortality to godhood, and conclude with a quotation from the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. “Here, then, is eternal life – to know the only wise and true God; and you have to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you” (“Teachings,” pp. 346-47).
This detailed anatomy of an official Mormon Melchizedek Priesthood Study Guide lesson on Mormon theology (all about Mormon godhood) is quite startling and conclusively proves that the Mormon Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley was lying when he was asked by Larry King, in 1999, on national television whether or not the Mormon Church teaches that God was once a man, and that a man can be become a god (with a capital G). When asked this by Larry King, Hinckley looked into the television camera and replied with a grin on his face, “I don’t think we know very much about that.” In summation, the venerable verse found in the Book of Numbers 23:19 (NIV), of the Old Testament, seems to say it all about God Almighty not being any part human, or derived from mortality. “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” Regarding the last sentence of this verse; does it not remind one of a promise made by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the name of the Mormon-god that a Mormon temple would be built, come hell or high-water, in Jackson County, Missouri in the 1830s. Well, it was never built…
It is quite interesting to consider that most Christians would tell Mormon missionaries to get lost if they came into their homes telling them that God the Father was once a human man who lived on an earth and worked his way to his exaltation and to being a god. Moreover, if these missionaries told Christian men, who they might regard as prospective Mormons, that they could become gods (with a capital G) as great as God, they would probably call them blasphemers and heretics. That’s why Mormon missionaries never tell the people they teach about Mormon theology. These poor Christians who are deluded into believing that the Book of Mormon is the word of God only find out about Mormon theological doctrine after they are deceived and baptized into the Mormon Church. Then the ward bishop, the missionaries, and their Mormon friends tell them to have faith in Joseph Smith, for if he translated the “Book of Mormon” by the gift and power of God, his words about Mormon godhood must also be the word of God. Belief and faith in Joseph Smith is more important to devout Mormons than belief in the words of Jesus and his Apostles in the Holy Bible. For those of you who read this article and discover the evil of Mormonism, I encourage you to tell others and spread the blessed word so that struggling Christians who encounter the Mormon missionaries will know what questions to ask them in order to get to the nitty-gritty of polytheistic Mormonism. Perhaps the time will eventually come when the Mormons won’t be able to find one Christian who will tolerate the lies and blasphemy of Mormon doctrine.
{ According to Mormonism, Jesus paid for the sins of man in the Garden of Gethsemane, and not on the cross. }
Here we see one of the false teachings from outsiders of the LDS Church that even some members believe. The difference is small but important.
What is taught by us is that
The Atonement is larger then just the cross. Jesus accepted our debt to sin for us and He sealed it with His life on the cross.
If that is so, my friend, why do Mormons have to work their way to Mormon exaltation. The Mormon phrase so commonly said is that “man will be judged for his own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression. If Jesus atoned for your sins, in Gethsemane or on the cross, why should you be required to work in order to be pleasing in the sight of God? A Christian should work because God has saved him from sin, not for God to save him. The Mormon concept of grace is befuddled by contradictions. If, according to the BOM, you are saved by grace, after all you call do, then what is purpose of grace if work is still required to get to heaven? It doesn’t make sense because Joseph Smith was a very disordered, confused, and uninspired man, not a prophet of God.
Watch the old Mormon film, “Man’s Search for Happiness,” the essence of Mormon missionary dogma. In it, salvation is referred to only as the free gift of resurrection, and, according to the film, getting to Mormon heaven requires constant work and improvement. In other words, according to Mormonism you can never be good enough to please God, which totally contradicts what the Apostle Paul stated in the New Testament Books of Romans and Ephesians. Grace, according to Paul, is how we are all saved from sin. Salvation, getting to heaven, is not of works lest any man should boast. Jesus gave us two free gifts, the resurrection and salvation through faith in his precious blood that he shed on the cross of Calvary. You see, for the perfect sacrifice to have been consummated through the shedding of Jesus’ blood, the Lamb of God was required to die, not just sweat. That is why the Mormon notion of the atonement in Gethsemane is very wrong. Like I’ve said, the Mormon Jesus is really, to Mormons, just another messiah savior produced by just another Mormon father-god created from a mortal Mormon elder born on a planet somewhere. The befuddlement of Mormon theology is an attempt to represent true Christianity with pagan polytheism.
Atonement, according to Jewish law, required the consummate offering of a sacrifice; the slaying of the unblemished lamb offering and the shedding of the lamb’s blood. The faith that made Abraham righteous was the key to God’s approval of Abraham’s act of sacrificing Isaac. That was in similitude of the eventual blood sacrifice of God’s only begotten son. That is why everything that Christ Jesus did was on the cross, not in Gethsemane, and to recognize the cross as a symbol Christianity is not bowing to it, or worshiping it. The cross was essentially the altar upon which the perfect Lamb of God was sacrificed, and is only a symbol of Christ’s crucifixion. The Catholics disavow the commandment not to bow to graven images, and for that they will have to answer to God. When real Christians get on their knees to pray at Church and there is cross at the front of the chapel, those Christians are not praying to the cross, but to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, who is now on the right hand of the Father. You will never see a true Christian praying to an image of Jesus, on or off a graven cross.
You need to read “Lesson 21-Man May Become like God.” Email me and I will send you a PDF copy. May God bless you to find the truth.