WITNESSING TO MORMONS
““Remember All Cults have one motive, and that is an attempt to Correct Historical Christianity.””
I. THE VISION
A. The vision of Joseph Smith
1. A boy of twelve years of age, began a religious quest for certainty, forgiveness and salvation amidst the Christianly informed culture of New York State.
2. When Joseph was reading his Bible, the Epistle of James spoke powerfully to him: James 1:5 - “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.”
3. Now fourteen years old, he enters some woods to pray, thereby making prayer foundational for himself as for subsequent generations of LDS seekers.
4. Kneeling there he becomes engaged with evil; 'seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me I could not speak... Thick darkness gathered around me ... it seemed as if I were doomed to sudden destruction' (Journal History of the Church vol. I, I: 15).
5. A pillar of light, shining like the sun, descends upon him from over his head and frees him from the oppressive darkness. He now sees two figures, identical in appearance until one identifies the other as his Beloved Son.
6. Recovering himself before this appearance of the divine Father and Son, Joseph asks the prime question that had set him upon his quest, namely, “which of all the sects is right, so that I might know which to join?” Forbidden to join any, he is told that all are wrong.
7. In language taken straight from the Bible, the divine figure - who is in fact the Heavenly Father - judges contemporary religious adherents as insincere believers.
8. Exhausted after the vision, Joseph recovers, returns home and tells his mother that he now knows that “Presbyterianism is not true.” Days later he tells a Methodist minister of his vision but is rejected and told that “such visions are of the devil.”
9. Joseph ponders his relative insignificance, being economically poor and but a teenager and yet one to whom people should pay so much attention.
10. Then, rather like the Apostle Paul in his conversion drama, Joseph awaits further divine communication but, even so, he feels that his own form of life is not entirely consonant with that of someone to whom God has spoken so directly.
B. Joseph Smith had more visions
1. Then, in a repentant state, on 21 September 1823 he receives three visionary visits from the angel Moroni (the angel of light), who tells Joseph that he will be a most significant person, that a book written on gold plates will be obtained and translated
2. And that a priesthood will be revealed to him; a “turning of hearts” of fathers and children will also take place to avoid a calamity of judgment upon the earth.
3. Ideas of getting rich through all this religious activity also come to Joseph's mind, aware as he is of his poverty, but the angel forbids that temptation, directing him to glorify God and build up his kingdom. (History of the Church I: 46).
4. Moroni sets his message amidst Old and New Testament texts and the whole atmosphere is one of promise and fulfillment.
5. Joseph is exhausted the following day and collapses, Moroni reappears and encourages Joseph to tell the visions to his father. This he does and is believed.
6. He then goes to the place of the buried book and finds it, but as the time for translation is not right for a further four years, he is to come annually to meet the angel at that spot.
7. Ultimately, he receives the metal plates and is enabled to render them into English, and the book is published in 1830, the same year as the Church is formally established.
““Take up the Bible, compare the religion of the Latter-day Saints with it and see if it will stand the test,””
II. MIND OF THE MORMON
A. You must remember what their mindset is.
1. How do they view the bible?
2. How do they view their inspired books?
3. How do they view Jesus Christ?
4. How do they view their prophets?
5. How do they view you?
6. How do they view theology?
“Remember All Cults have one motive, and that is an attempt to Correct Historical Christianity.”
B. How the Mormon views the bible and the book of Mormon. (6 ways)
1. The Book of Mormon and the Bible Support Each Other.
a. Like two eyewitnesses strengthen an argument in court, the Book of Mormon and the Bible both testify of Christ.
“Some people think that because we read the Book of Mormon, we don’t read the Bible. That’s just not true. It’s like saying that we don’t eat oranges because we eat apples. Both are good fruit! The Book of Mormon is not a replacement for the Bible.
In fact, because the Book of Mormon and the Bible both contain the gospel of Jesus Christ as it was revealed to different civilizations, studying them together can clarify some concepts that are difficult to understand.
”
2. The Book of Mormon tells us to read the Bible and affirms that its message is true (Mormon 7:8-10).
3. And in the Bible, Jesus told His apostles, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd" (John 10:16).
4. Christ visited these “other sheep” in the Americas after He was resurrected, teaching the same message to the Nephites that He taught to the people of Israel.
5. The Book of Mormon makes it clear that Jesus Christ's message and His atonement are not for one group of people at one time.
a. They are for everyone, everywhere, from the beginning of the earth to the end.
b. Having the Book of Mormon as another testament of Jesus Christ reminds us that He is mindful of every one of us.
6. The Book of Mormon Draws People Closer to God.
God is our loving Heavenly Father. We can get to know Him better by reading His words in the Book of Mormon. Some descriptions of God make Him sound abstract and unapproachable, or angry and vengeful, but we learn in the Book of Mormon that "God is mindful of every people" (Alma 26:37) and that like the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi, we can be "encircled about eternally in the arms of his love" (2 Nephi 1:15).
a. Though we might not get to speak with God face-to-face in this life, He has given us the scriptures to help us draw closer to Him.
Of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith said, “a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
b. We get nearer to God by building faith in Him, and we build faith in Him when we learn about His plan and keep His commandments.
7. And How Can We Know the Book of Mormon is True?
a. Through honest study and humble prayer, we can each know for ourselves that the Book of Mormon really is the word of God.
b. Of course it's one thing to read the Book of Mormon and another to believe deep in our hearts that what it says is true.
c. This sincere belief, or testimony, in the truth of the Book of Mormon comes when God sends His Spirit to confirm the truth of what we read.
d. We can “feel this confirmation” when we study the Book of Mormon with diligence and faith, as we are promised in the following scripture:
III. MORMONS WITNESSING TO YOU
A. First scripture they take you too.
1) Every Mormon focuses on their Testimony – James 1:5
James 1:5 - If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
B. First thing they ask is:
1. And that is to pray on the book of Mormon and if it is true.
a. Doctrine of Convents section 9:8,
8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.
2. Moroni 10:4 - don't you believe in prayer?
a. And this is the Prayer in the “BOOK OF MORMON.”
“And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Moroni 10:4)
a. Luke 24:30-33 - Burning in my bosom?
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,
C. Our response: we must stay biblical.
1. How did the Apostle Paul check scripture?
a. Acts 17:1-3, 11-12 - Paul never prayed for a feeling, but used scriptures to study to see if doctrine was true.
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”
And in 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.
2. The ones that were deceived were by trusting in their feelings.
a. 2nd Thess. 2:9-12 - did not receive the love of the truth.
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
b. But they were deceived by their feelings.
3. In Luke 24:30-32 – When you read the context,
a. It was not in the feelings they had,
b. But it was Jesus being revealed to them,
c. And what Jesus said about the scriptures.
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
D. They will talk about the prophecy from God about the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Joseph.
1. They want you to turn to Ezekiel 37:15-19.
15 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
16 “As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’
17 Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.
18 “And when the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’—
19 say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’
a. They say the stick of Ephraim is the bible
b. And the stick of Joseph is the book of Mormon.
2. But the Answer is found in verses 20-23
20 And the sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes.
21 “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land;
22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.
23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
1. In the context, it speaks that “God will bring a scattered Israel and make them one nation.”
2. Not that Joseph Smith and the Mormons will be joined together with the Jews.
F. In the book Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
1. Read in P. 194 what it says about the Book of Mormon.
Perfection of the Book of Mormon
Sunday 28. — I spent the day in the council with the Twelve Apostles at the house of President Young, conversing with them upon a variety of subjects. Brother Joseph Fielding was present, having been absent four years on a mission to England.
I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book. (November 28, 1841.) DHC 4:461.
IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS
Value of Chastisement
President Joseph arose and said: “Brother Kimball has given you a true explanation of the parable,” and then read the parable of the vine and its branches, and explained it, and said, “If we keep the commandments of God, we should bring forth fruit and be the friends of God, and know what our Lord did.
“Some people say I am a fallen Prophet, because I do not bring forth more of the word of the Lord, Why do I not do it? Are we able to receive it? No! Not one in this room.
IV. TEST OF A PROPHET
A. In Deuteronomy 18:20-22 - The test of a prophet that comes from God.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’
21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—
22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
B. Deuteronomy 13:1-5 - If you teach in a different God.
1“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
V. MORMONS FALSE TEACHINGS FACTS
A. Alma 7:10, 13 - Jesus born in Jerusalem?
10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.
13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.
1. How come the Mormon Holy Spirit did not know what city Jesus was born?
a. Matthew 2:1, Luke 2:4 – Where was Jesus born?
Matthew 2:1 - Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
Luke 2:4 - Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
b. The Holy Spirit of the bible knows all things.
B. What is the Angel of light? 2 Cor. 11:14
14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
1. The book A marvelous Work and a Wonder. P. 69
a. Moroni is an angel!
2. What is a familiar spirit?
Lev. 19:31 - Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
3. Doctrine and Covenants Copyright 1949, in the Explanatory Introduction, what is Moroni called?
In September 1823, and at later times, Joseph Smith received visitations from Moroni, an angel of light,who revealed the resting place of the ancient record from which the Book of Mormon was afterward translated.
a. So who is this angel of light?
b. See the book Mormon Doctrine. P. 35
c. ANGEL OF LIGHT. See Devil.
C. Is Israel to become a nation only after they believe in Christ?
1. Turn to Book of Mormon in 2nd Nephi 6:8, 11,
8 And now I, Jacob, would speak somewhat concerning these words. For behold, the Lord has shown me that those who were at Jerusalem, from whence we came, have been slain and carried away captive.
11 Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, for thus saith the angel, many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered, and smitten, and hated; nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them, that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance.
2. Turn to Book of Mormon in 2nd Nephi 10:5-7,
5 But because of priestcrafts and iniquities, they at Jerusalem will stiffen their necks against him, that he be crucified.
6 Wherefore, because of their iniquities, destructions, famines, pestilences, and bloodshed shall come upon them; and they who shall not be destroyed shall be scattered among all nations.
7 But behold, thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance.
3. Do all the Jews in Israel believe in Jesus?
4. This is a False prophecy.
D. Jesus killing People for Rejecting Him?
Book of Mormon 3rd Nephi 9:2-15 – Chapter 9 Intro - In the darkness, the voice of Christ proclaims the destruction of many people and cities for their wickedness—He also proclaims His divinity, announces that the law of Moses is fulfilled, and invites men to come unto Him and be saved. About A.D. 34.
Did Jesus destroying the cities for rejecting Him.
Is Jesus an angry God?
a. Turn to Matthew 23:37 – We see God’s love.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
VI. IN THE BOOK “THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES”
A. Many false teachings.
1. Jesus and Lucifer were brothers. P. 15
2. God was once a child. P. 104
3. Men may become gods. P. 105
4. There are many gods. P. 107
B. False Teaching in the book of Mormon
1. Book of Mormon teaches God does not change.
Mormon 9:9 - For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
VII. BOOK “HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. VOL. VI”
A. Remember; first talk about the 144,000 Elect JW’s and how they are greater then anyone else because they go to heaven, and not the others.
1. Question - What do you think of anyone who says they have done more to keep the church together then Jesus Christ?
2. The boast of Joseph Smith. P. 408-409
C. Contradictions Between the Book of Mormon and other Mormon Scriptures and Doctrines.
Book of Mormon vs. Doctrine of Covenants
1. One god (Alma 11:26-29) 1. Many gods (132:20,37)
2. God is a great spirit 2. The Father (God) has a body of
(Alma 18:26-28; 22:7-11) flesh and bone. (130:22)
3. Polygamy is an abomination. 3. Polygamy is a commandment.
David and Solomon wrong David and Solomon justified
(Jacob 2:23-24, Mosiah 11:2, Esther 10:5) (132:1,39)
4. God dwells not in unholy temples. But 4. Father and Son dwell not in the heart of the righteous (Alma 34:36). in man’s heart. (130:3)
VIII. QUESTION - ARE YOU SAVED BY GOD ALONE OR BY THE LATTER DAY SAINTS?
A. They will say by God alone!
1. Q – What happens if you leave the Latter Day Saints?
2. Ask the question again.
B. What does the bible say about how we are saved?
Acts 4:10-12 - let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
1. The only name under heaven by which a person can be saved is Jesus.