General Conference, ‘Importance of Records,’ October 1968, 76 “My dear brothers and sisters…If you were to approach a military installation some dark night, you would be immediately challenged by a sentry with the question, “Who goes there?” If you were to answer that challenge with the word “friend,” the sentry would answer, “Advance, friend, and give the password.” If you were neither able to give the password nor to identify yourself, you would be placed in an embarrassing and dangerous position.
Yet millions of those presently living on the earth are totally unprepared for death and to enter through the gates of the celestial kingdom. They know neither the password nor will they be able to identify themselves as a son or a daughter of God. They have never taken upon themselves the name of the Only Begotten Son of God, nor passed the necessary tests of faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless this identification is needed for the entry into the kingdom of heaven…” — Theodore M. Burton, Assistant to the Twelve Apostles
Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
One has to wonder if this man ever read his Bible, and if so, did he miss, ignore, or reject what God said in Acts?
Clearly, the Mormon idea of heaven being guarded by a sentry wasn’t new to Mr. Burton. It had long been taught by others. Brigham said as much more than a century prior —
Journal of Discourses 2:315 “Your endowment is to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.” — Brigham Young, Great Salt Lake, April 6, 1853
If you’re LDS we have one question –
Where’s Jesus?
With Love in Christ;
Michelle
A while back I was watching the Tucson Temple dedication. One of the speakers brought up the subject of salvation. The speaker reached into his wallet and pulled out his Temple Recommend. He then waved his Recommenced over his head and stated: “this brothers and sisters is the key to the Kingdom of God.” Nowhere in the Bible does it say that a Temple Recommend or a secret password will gain you entry into God’s Kingdom. Eternal life is gained through righteousness,which is defined by God as faith in the blood of Jesus Christ (Read Romans 3:22-25)
In essence, the Mormon church is telling it’s members that the Blood of Jesus Christ is not enough. You must also go through Endowment Ceremonies, receive your secret temple name and learn the hand shakes and passwords. None of this scriptural. I have been through the endowment ceremony and found them to be useless, boring, trite, trivial and without God’s Holy Spirit present
Heat breaking all day long! I used to believe that. Is it wrong to feel great anger towards those lying people in SLC? They operate under the leadership of the evil one and some of them must know it!
Hey there Sandra!
Boy, did your comment ever touch a chord in my heart!
The website/ministry of Desiring God wrote an article on righteous anger. One of the things mentioned really hits home, and puts it all in perspective. They said –
‘Anger with no tears over evil is often evidence of a lack of love in us.’ — John Bloom, Desiring God https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-can-we-be-angry-and-not-sin
It’s easy to get peeved about what they’ve done and continue to do as times passes. I know I have to keep myself in check over this! It infuriates me to see how friends and family members continue to buy into the gross negligence of Joe Smith and others. And of course many of their leaders DO know what they’re doing.
The article noted above is great to measure what we’re doing, and how to be angry with Mormonism while making sure we’re still on the road to Jerusalem with our Lord. 😉
In Him,
Michelle
Thank you for the article……kind of an awakening. Thank you for your ministry.
You’re so welcome Miss Sandra –
I pray it helps you as it has me. 🙂 I left the Church in March ’93, and you’d think that amount of time would lessen the level of angst in my soul, alas, this hasn’t been the case. What I had to learn is to not be angry in a selfish way and being the person I am, that’s been quite the lesson to learn. PTL He’s patient w/ me! I think the greatest anger I’ve experienced is how they’ve maligned the Lord. Like many, I’m sure, there are no words to describe the frustration over what they’ve said about Him.
And thanks for your kind words about our work here at the ministry. It means a lot to me personally, and also to those who help and have worked alongside us over the years!
In Him,
Michelle