April 11 — “They are making up lies about the Bible”. This is what my son said after I showed him a video of Mormon parents teaching their young children about their church’s account of what happened in the Garden of Eden. In the video the parents are standing on a small green carpet that represents the Garden.
The parents taught the kids that they, (Adam & Eve) couldn’t leave the blanket (the Garden) and go where they wanted to go. They said that if they ate this fruit they could go out and have babies. So, they told their little girl that if she pretended to eat the toy apple, she could hold her baby doll.
They made it sound like Adam and Eve were “stuck” in the Garden, and that God was punishing them by having boundaries of where they could go or what they could do. The parents made God the villain in the lesson, and that disobedience was what you should do when you feel God is being unfair to you.
Instead of the lesson being about the importance to trust in God even when you don’t understand why he’s asking you to do something, it was do what you want anyway. The kids could have been taught how much God loves them wants what is best for them.
It breaks my heart to think about all the false doctrines I taught my older boys when we were members of the Church. In the recent General Conference, Susan H. Porter spoke on one of these false doctrines, the teaching of the pre-existence. She said:
“Children, do you love to answer the question, “How old are you?” Are you 5, 8, or 11? That is how long you have lived on earth, but did you know that your spirit is much, much older? Although you don’t remember, you spent a long time in the spirit world learning and growing. On the day you were born, your body was new, but you had lived as a spirit for many years.”
I’m not sure where their teaching of our spirits living before we were born comes from, it has no biblical support. I know they will use Ecclesiastes 12:7 to say the bible teaches this doctrine, but is you read the verses before and after you’ll see this has nothing to do with our spirits living before we were born.
Ecclesiastes 6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
John 1:18 tells us –
“No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
If we had lived before with him, we would have seen him, right? So why would Jesus say no one has seen God but him?
Jesus goes on to say-
John 8:23 “And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.”
He tells us we are from this world; he is the only one who is from above and has a “pre-existence’. If we were also from above, why would he have said this?
There are so many problems and inconsistencies with Mormonism. So many of their doctrines just don’t add up or make sense when you look at them in the light of God’s word.
In Christ,
Melissa Grimes
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That’s so sad. My great niece just got baptized in the LDS church.🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I’m sorry to hear about your niece, MJ.
We’ll definitely be praying for all involved.