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Week 20: Mormon Doctrine Is Inspired By the Author of Confusion | November 2, 2025 Sunday School

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. We're going to continue with our study of Mormon doctrine today,

  8. and we started last week by looking at the Godhead.

  9. And then we saw that the Trinity is not the Trinity to the Mormon

  10. church, even if they use the term Godhead, that what they

  11. believe about the Trinity is not what the Bible says about the

  12. Trinity. They may talk about the Godhead,

  13. but they believe that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three

  14. different gods. And of course we know that is

  15. not what the Bible teaches. And then we looked at their

  16. doctrine on Elohim the Father and on Jesus Christ and on the

  17. Holy Spirit. And today we're going to look at

  18. a lot of other doctrines. In fact, we're going to give

  19. you, I believe, 8 of them in very quick fashion.

  20. But I will say this this morning, 1st Corinthians 14

  21. verse #33 says this. For God is not the author of

  22. confusion, but of peace. As in all churches of the

  23. Saints, Bible says God is not the author of confusion.

  24. So let me ask you this by order and process of elimination.

  25. If God is not the author of confusion, then who is?

  26. We're going to look at, and that's correct, by the way.

  27. We're going to look at some of the Mormon doctrines today, some

  28. of the major Mormon doctrines apart from the Godhead, Father,

  29. Son, and Holy Ghost. And if you get to the place

  30. where your head starts to swim a little bit and you get to the

  31. place where you start to wonder what on earth is pastor talking

  32. about, explain these doctrines. First of all, that's the way I

  33. felt this week, being able to study for this lesson.

  34. And #2 if it's that confusing, let me ask you, who is the

  35. author of that confusion? Remember, salvation is so simple

  36. that a child can understand and be saved, but yet it's so deep

  37. that you can explore its depths your whole life and never mind

  38. out all of the wondrous truths of what salvation is all about,

  39. but yet must have childlike faith to accept and listen.

  40. You must not have childlike faith.

  41. You must have Mensa candidate faith to understand some of the

  42. things we're saying today. Because you're going to look at

  43. a chart in just a few moments and say, I don't know how anyone

  44. could possibly understand that. But when you have layer upon

  45. layer upon layer upon layer of falsehood built up for almost

  46. 200 years, the end result is this complete and utter

  47. confusion. So we see that the Mormon church

  48. that the author of confusion is Satan.

  49. So the first of the doctors we're going to look at this

  50. morning is mankind. What do the Mormons believe

  51. about mankind? In Mormon thinking, all of

  52. humanity are children of the Heavenly Father and of again the

  53. Heavenly Mother, believing that Heavenly Father once again is a

  54. man of flesh and bones. And that through sexual union

  55. between Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, spirit children

  56. were created. And then over time, those spirit

  57. children would receive bodies and would come to earth.

  58. By the way, it's one of the reasons why the Mormons believe

  59. so heavily in having large families.

  60. Why is that? Well, because they need to make

  61. sure there are vessels, there are human beings for the spirit

  62. children that are just waiting up in heaven to have a chance to

  63. be able to come down here to earth.

  64. It's the role of families on earth to provide bodies for the

  65. Spirit children to inhabit and go through the probationary

  66. testing here on earth to determine their worthiness to go

  67. back and to live with the Heavenly Father.

  68. Now this is totally in contrast to what the Bible says, that we

  69. were not spirit children just floating in the ethos before we

  70. came to earth. Well, I would submit to you

  71. Isaiah 44, verse 2. Thus saith the Lord that made

    Isaiah 44:2

  72. thee and form thee from the womb.

  73. Isaiah or Zechariah 12, Zechariah 12, verse one, the

  74. burden of the word of the Lord of Israel saith the Lord, which

  75. stretches forth the heavens and layeth the foundations on earth

  76. and formeth the spirit of man within him.

  77. What does the Bible say? That when you were created, that

  78. spark of life that took place at the moment of conception, that

  79. is when you became who you are. By the way, that's the reason

  80. we're so adamantly opposed to abortion.

  81. Why? Well, because that child is a

  82. life now. Did God know who you were before

  83. the foundation of the earth? Absolutely.

  84. Did God in his omniscience understand the beginning from

  85. the end before the beginning? Absolutely.

  86. Nothing has taken God by surprise here in this world at

  87. any juncture, at any point. However, to say that we were

  88. preexisting before we existed is not what the Bible says, but it

  89. is what the Mormon church teaches.

  90. Now listen, originally Mormons taught that Elohim was Adam in

  91. the Bible and that Eve was his spirit wife here on earth.

  92. Now modern Mormons deny this. Today they say that is not true.

  93. However, it was taught by previous Mormon presidents who

  94. we'll see in just a few moments reminding you they are

  95. considered prophets. So previous prophets said Adam

  96. was God. Current Mormon prophets say Adam

  97. was not God. But let me ask you this, Who was

  98. the one that received the revelation from God?

  99. Apparently they both did according to the Mormon church.

  100. So did God reveal something incorrectly to the first

  101. prophets, but then correctly revealed correctly later?

  102. Now we know what the Bible says about this.

  103. Deuteronomy 18 verse 20. But the prophet which shall

    Deuteronomy 18:20

  104. presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded

  105. him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods,

  106. even that prophet shall die. It was so serious in the Old

  107. Testament if someone said they had a word from the Lord, but

  108. yet did not have that word from the Lord, they were proven false

  109. that they were to die. And So what do we see that the

  110. Mormons over and over did? Just like Jehovah Witnesses,

  111. they keep saying this is what God says, but then they turn

  112. around say, oh, just kidding, God didn't actually say that.

  113. He actually said this. That's coming up on this side

  114. over here and over and over that's the case.

  115. But where's the confusion coming from?

  116. It's not God who's the author confusion, but rather it is

  117. Satan. So first of all, we see that

  118. they are far, far off on the issue of mankind.

  119. Next we have salvation. Salvation.

  120. Salvation is completely and totally by works.

  121. Remember, those Spirit children in these bodies are on a

  122. probationary period while they're here here on earth.

  123. They have got to prove themselves that they are worthy

  124. to enter one of the kingdoms later on.

  125. Now this is according to their articles of faith.

  126. It says this. We believe that the first

  127. principles and ordinance of the gospel are first, faith in the

  128. Lord Jesus Christ. Second, repentance.

  129. Third, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, 4th.

  130. Laying on of hands to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

  131. Nephi 25 or second 2525, verse 32 says this.

  132. For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children

  133. and also our brethren to believe in Christ, to be reconciled to

  134. God. For we know that it's by grace

  135. that we are saved. After all we can do.

  136. Now let me just say that last phrase again.

  137. It's for by grace we are saved. And really at that point we

  138. would all say Amen, isn't it? Because that's what the Bible

  139. says is by grace that we are saved after all we can do.

  140. Basically you have to be able to do all you can and then God's

  141. grace fills in the blanks. What is that?

  142. That is completely and totally a works based salvation which is

  143. contrary in every way shape or form to the word of God.

  144. The prophet Moroni related grace and works when he said yay, come

  145. unto Christ and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all

  146. ungodliness. And if you shall deny yourselves

  147. of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and

  148. strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his

  149. grace he may be perfect in Christ?

  150. And if the grace of God you are perfect in Christ, you can in no

  151. wise deny the power of God. Moroni 10, verse 32.

  152. So again. You do everything you possibly

  153. can do, and once you know you do everything you can do, then

  154. God's grace will be real in your life.

  155. But again, that's not even the definition of what grace is.

  156. Grace is receiving that of which we do not deserve.

  157. Grace is what saves us, and it's us accepting the gift of

  158. salvation. Not that we have achieved grace.

  159. Not that we have earned grace. Listen, if you earn grace, you

  160. don't have grace. If you have achieved grace, you

  161. don't have grace. But this is what the Mormons say

  162. over and over and over again. So what do the Mormons teach

  163. about salvation? Let me just say this.

  164. This is about to get weird, all right?

  165. There's no other way to be able to explain this but that.

  166. This is about to get very, very confusing.

  167. So we have our first video that we have queued up, and I want

  168. you to watch that. And then I have a very

  169. interesting slide I want to show you as well.

  170. This one get to heaven. What is life like there?

  171. They gleaned from biblical passages about there being a

  172. heaven and there being a hell, and they've debated what those

  173. might mean for individual followers of Jesus.

  174. But a near consensus existed among American Christians.

  175. Heaven was small. It was for the elect.

  176. Most people wouldn't be there. I was taught that Christ would

  177. have a mere few trophies of his mission to the world, while his

  178. antagonist would have countless millions.

  179. My situation appeared more precarious than a ticket and a

  180. lottery. Caleb Rich.

  181. In February 1832, while working on their inspired translation of

  182. the Bible, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had a remarkable

  183. vision of the afterlife, organized not into a single

  184. heaven and hell, but into degrees of glory.

  185. When he printed the revelation, William W Phelps assumed most

  186. Saints would rejoice over it. The vision is the greatest news

  187. that was ever published. A man, William W Phelps.

  188. Other Saints, like Phoebe Peck, encourage their friends to

  189. prayerfully consider the new teachings.

  190. These things are now in print and are going forth into the

  191. world. You perhaps will have an

  192. opportunity of reading for yourself, and if you do, I hope

  193. you will read with careful and a prayerful heart.

  194. Phoebe Peck. But not everyone found it easy

  195. to accept the new revelation. As missionaries went out to the

  196. branches, they sometimes encountered serious concerns.

  197. Ezra Landing and Geneseo denied the vision and other members

  198. joined him. Brother Landing said the vision

  199. was of the devil and he believed it no more than he believed the

  200. devil was crucified. John Murdoch.

  201. It may seem strange to modern Latter Day Saints why the vision

  202. prompted such strong reactions among early LDS converts, but we

  203. have to recognize that that vision was received in a time of

  204. deep theological debate and argument.

  205. Rival Christian groups, the old guard Calvinists and a renegade

  206. group of Christians, fought over the question of the afterlife.

  207. Those renegade Christians were called universalists because

  208. they taught that God's power and his patience, his mercy, would

  209. eventually save the entire human family.

  210. And this is an idea that was radical.

  211. Universalists challenge traditional Christians, and

  212. traditional Christians fired back.

  213. They argued that this could lead to social or religious chaos.

  214. What would it mean to moral order if people thought no

  215. matter what they did, eventually they'd be saved?

  216. Even Brigham Young initially had concerns about the vision's

  217. teachings. My traditions were such that

  218. when the vision first came to me, it was directly contrary and

  219. opposed to my former education. I said, wait a little.

  220. I did not reject it, but I could not understand it.

  221. Brigham Young. The 21st section of the Doctrine

  222. of Covenants encourages us to follow the prophet in patience

  223. and faith. We sometimes forget the patience

  224. part. Like Brigham and perhaps others

  225. of the day, we can sometimes benefit by realizing that we

  226. have to grow into the revelations.

  227. We have to grow an understanding, impatience which

  228. will strengthen our faith and help us to realize that the Lord

  229. does in fact direct His Church. Rather than rejecting the vision

  230. or leaving the church, Brigham Young took time to wrestle with

  231. it and ponder its teachings. I used to.

  232. Think and pray to read and think until I knew and fully

  233. understood it for myself. Brigham Young.

  234. It seems in retrospect that the people were not nearly so much

  235. afraid of what the vision actually said as what they

  236. thought it might mean. The 76th section of the Doctrine

  237. Chemist neither teaches the kind of universalism where everyone

  238. will be saved without the need for obedience, nor the kind of

  239. restrictive salvation where only the very few elect are saved.

  240. It clearly reveals to us our loving Father in Heaven who

  241. truly desires to give all of His children all of the blessings

  242. and knowledge and joy He has, depending on the laws each of us

  243. is willing to obey. It wasn't until Nauvoo, when the

  244. Prophet Joseph Smith and others started teaching about

  245. exaltation in more precise and more dramatic ways, did Doctrine

  246. and Covenant Section 76 take on a new light.

  247. And they could come back to that revelation with new questions.

  248. What does human potential actually look like?

  249. What does God have in store for his children?

  250. What has Christ made possible for all of the human family?

  251. No text in all of our revelations presses that

  252. question more poignantly than Doctrine and Covenant Section

  253. 76. So to say there are several

  254. problems with what you just saw would be an understatement.

  255. First, you see that their whole video was about the revelation,

  256. so-called given to Joseph Smith, of what exaltation salvation is,

  257. including the three different levels of heaven.

  258. And did you notice both the professor and I use that term

  259. loosely from Brigham on University, as well as the man

  260. who was of the 70 apostles or the 70 leaders of the Mormon

  261. church? They made the false dichotomy of

  262. Christianity had basically boiled down to Calvinists and

  263. universalists. They keep talking about the

  264. elect over and over again that that really that the choices

  265. between those two were the only choices.

  266. May I remind you, if that was the only two choices, well, that

  267. would be a problem. Why?

  268. Because the Calvinists believe that there are the elect who are

  269. saved no matter what they do, Irresistible grace, irresistible

  270. salvation, which the Bible does not teach.

  271. But then on the other side, you have the universalist, which

  272. today will be Unitarian Universalists, which basically

  273. believe, well, whatever you want to believe.

  274. By the way, they don't believe what we believe and wouldn't

  275. tolerate what we believe the word of God says, but everyone

  276. else can all gather together. They give this false dichotomy,

  277. these false choices. We're really there is this

  278. middle ground, which is the well biblical crown that for by grace

  279. ye are saved. Whosoever shall call upon the

  280. name of the Lord shall be saved. So there's that, that false

  281. choice that was made there and telling Mormons that really the

  282. only way is this other way, which is there's three different

  283. levels of heaven. But did you also notice that

  284. they mentioned that at the beginning that Joseph Smith had

  285. this revelation? There was a lot of confusion,

  286. but that as time went on that they were able to understand

  287. more and change the teaching more, refine the teaching more.

  288. Can I ask you, was there any time in the Word of God where a

  289. prophet gave a message that over time he says, well, let me

  290. refine that message a little bit.

  291. Let me change that message a little bit to make it more

  292. understandable, more palatable. Listen, when it was thus say at

  293. the Lord, thus say at the Lord, that's all that there was.

  294. We saw this on Wednesday night, The burden of the Lord, thus say

  295. at the Lord. That is what it is.

  296. And so the Mormon church is kind of like a moving target.

  297. It's just, well, eventually we'll get it right.

  298. Eventually we'll hone it in. And the Jehovah Witnesses call

  299. this the greater light, meaning that as they get closer to the

  300. end times, they understand the prophecies more.

  301. Those are both false. You never see in the word of God

  302. where a prophecy was made. And then, well, they kind of had

  303. to tweak it to make sure they got it right.

  304. No prophecy was needed to be tweaked for Jesus Christ to be

  305. born, to live, to die, for all of the prophecies that came true

  306. of Jesus Christ, birth, life and death and resurrection, none of

  307. those had to be tweaked even a little bit to be able to be

  308. fulfilled. And this is what is said here.

  309. Now, what is the Mormon view of salvation as well as heaven and

  310. hell? Well, it's very simple.

  311. In fact, it's so simple. Looks something like this.

  312. You say, Pastor, I can't read all of that.

  313. I understand because I actually have scanned this and put this

  314. together. And this is not a chart here

  315. that comes from the Latter Day Saints Church, but it is a chart

  316. that has been compiled using. All their teaching.

  317. Do you see where it starts? If you were in the top left

  318. corner with heavenly fathers and mothers, these are the those who

  319. are in Kolob, as it mentions there that the the heavenly

  320. deities that there are have real physical sexual union which

  321. would breed spirit children. Some are unfaithful, some are

  322. faithful. They have probation here on

  323. earth in this life. Then there's the spirits in

  324. prison. They have an opportunity to be

  325. faithful or unfaithful, reject or accept.

  326. Some eventually go to outer darkness or hell.

  327. But then there are on the right side three different levels of

  328. heaven. There is terrestrial, there is

  329. terrestrial, and there is celestial.

  330. And there are some spirits who are also in prison who are

  331. receiving physical judgment mission work that is supposed to

  332. be done to the spirits in prison by other spirits who have been

  333. in prison. Eventually you can make it if

  334. you are faithful enough to the Celestial Kingdom, Lower, middle

  335. and upper celestial Kingdom. And if you are at the top of the

  336. celestial Kingdom, guess what? You become exalted to godhood

  337. and then it all starts over again with your own part of the

  338. universe that you will populate with heavenly Father and

  339. heavenly as heavenly Father, heavenly Mother, and that you

  340. have spirit children. And the cycle starts anew again.

  341. This is one of the reasons why being sealed in marriage in the

  342. Mormon church in a temple is so important, because you're not

  343. just being sealed in marriage here in this world, but also all

  344. the way to the celestial Kingdom.

  345. If you make it so that you as husband and wife and listen

  346. husband and wives as well. Because there's a lot of talk of

  347. polygamy being no longer part officially of the Latter Day

  348. Saints Church, but is very much alive and well in not just the

  349. Latter Day Saints Church, but also fundamentalist Latter Day

  350. Saints churches as well. They may not say it in all of

  351. their websites. You're not going to see a video

  352. as nicely put together as we just saw about polygamy, but be

  353. sure that it is alive and well today.

  354. Why? Because they have to get to that

  355. top corner. They have to be able to have a

  356. spirit family that can repopulate their own world.

  357. This is salvation in the Mormon church.

  358. This I I know you know this already, but it needs to be

  359. said. This is not salvation.

  360. There is nothing about this that is even remotely biblical.

  361. There's nothing remotely about this that's even understandable.

  362. It's incomprehensible to even be able to put together.

  363. But when you add the Bible and the Pearl of great Price and the

  364. doctrines and covenants and on top of them all, the Book of

  365. Mormon, you have this confusing mishmash of three levels of

  366. heaven, hell, and all of these different off ramps here and

  367. there. It's enough.

  368. Enough to make your head spin. But again, who is the author of

  369. this? Well, it's obvious that the

  370. author of it is Satan and Satan himself.

  371. But we also see #3 the church actually went a little bit ahead

  372. there. I made a mistake on my slides.

  373. The church is next. The Mormons teach that there are

  374. only two churches. There is the Church of the Lamb,

  375. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the

  376. Church of the Devil. The Church of the Lamb is their

  377. own church, which they teach is the only true and living church

  378. upon the face of the whole earth.

  379. It is the same organization, according to them, that Jesus

  380. Christ and the apostles were part of.

  381. It's just after the apostles passed away, there was no longer

  382. a church and it was revived by Joseph Smith.

  383. Now remind you, we're not going to go back there, but we could

  384. go to Matthew chapter 16 and we found that the gates of hell

    Matthew 16 chapter mention

  385. would never prevail against the church, correct?

  386. That there was no time, that there were no believers, there

  387. was no real church. And by the way, when I'm not

  388. talking about the Catholic Church, you know, when people

  389. talk about the church that capital, see, that's what we're

  390. talking about. We're talking about real

  391. believers in real churches. Yes, that they were active all

  392. throughout history, But but the Mormons will say that there was

  393. this 1716 hundred year period where there was no active church

  394. at all. There were no real believers

  395. until Joseph Smith came along and changed everything.

  396. One of the key scriptures they use is from Doctrine and

  397. Covenants section one, verse 30. And it says this.

  398. And also those to whom these commandments were given might

  399. have the power to lay the foundation of this church and to

  400. bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only

  401. true and living church upon the whole face of the earth which I,

  402. the Lord and will please, speaking under the church

  403. collectively and not individually.

  404. What is he saying? The Mormon Church is the only

  405. church. There is no other church.

  406. And so while they might have those advertisements, they might

  407. want to talk about being fellow Christians, fellow believers,

  408. yet really that many ways. This is simply a way for them to

  409. lower barriers and invite people to investigate what it means to

  410. be a Mormon. But really, when you get deeper

  411. in, you find out, listen, there are no other churches.

  412. There is just the Mormon church, the Church of the Lamb.

  413. So what is the other church? Well, according to them, it's

  414. all other churches. It's all other believers, true

  415. believers, and it's the Church of the devil or the great and

  416. abominable church. Every other church,

  417. denomination, creed, religious society without exception.

  418. Is a lump together as part of the second category.

  419. They are man made, lacking priesthood authority, teaching

  420. corrupted and incomplete doctrines, and ultimately under

  421. the influence of Satan. The Book of Mormon calls it the

  422. mother of harlots, the whore of the whole earth, and says there

  423. are two churches only one is the Church of the Lamb of God and

  424. the other is the Church of the devil.

  425. Wherefore whoso belongeth not to the Church of the Lamb of God

  426. belongeth to that great church which is the mother of

  427. abominations. First Nephi chapter 14 verse 10.

  428. So again, they do want to have this idea that we are all

  429. together, but it just seems to be that that is more for PR.

  430. It is more to be able to get people to lower their defenses.

  431. But once you get involved in the Mormon church, you will find out

  432. that there is no salvation in any other church.

  433. It is only through being a Mormon because the only the

  434. Mormon church is teaching that, which you see up on the board

  435. just a few moments ago. And by the way, I would even

  436. agree with that. Only the Mormon Church is

  437. teaching those teachings. But it's because they are

  438. totally and completely unbiblical #4 you see the modern

  439. prophets, the modern prophets, the president is always a modern

  440. prophet. They have had 20 presidents over

  441. the years. I just mentioned they just

  442. elected their 20th president a few weeks ago.

  443. It is a office that is held, and from election until death,

  444. Joseph Smith reestablished the office also of 12 apostles,

  445. being those 12 apostles having passed away.

  446. Joseph Smith reestablished the 12 apostles as well as a council

  447. of 70. Remember that gentleman that was

  448. kind of overlooking the city, and he was of the council of 70.

  449. And they go back to Exodus chapter #24 verse 9, where Moses

  450. brought 70 of the Jews, Jewish men, Jewish leaders up to Mount

  451. Sinai. We saw that in Exodus chapter

  452. #24 and so they have in their own minds recreated this as

  453. well. But again, the problem is this.

  454. Even the modern prophets do not agree with each other.

  455. For instance, they have the issue with Adam and Eve.

  456. Also, Joseph Smith prophesied in 1832 that a Mormon temple would

  457. be built in Independence, MO within a generation 1832.

  458. Now we can all maybe quibble about how much a generation

  459. would be, but let me ask you this.

  460. Do you believe a generation to be around 200 years?

  461. I would say that be a big stretch on the word generation,

  462. wouldn't it? Well, there still is no temple

  463. of the 200 temples that are built around the world.

  464. There is no temple in Independence, MO.

  465. It was a false teaching by Joseph Smith.

  466. Again, we saw what the the rule is.

  467. That is, if you are wrong in one, you are not to be listened

  468. to. It can't be Well, you know the

  469. best baseball players have a batting average around 303

  470. fifty. Look, as long as you got a good

  471. batting average as a profit, you know you're okay.

  472. No, you got to bat 1000 as a prophet because why?

  473. If you're speaking for the Lord, the Lord makes no mistake.

  474. And so there is no room for interpretation.

  475. There is no room for wiggling. And over and over and over

  476. again, Joseph Smith has been proven wrong.

  477. And we'll look at a little bit more about what the modern

  478. prophets have said even into the 1970s and so on.

  479. But what is modern prophet? What does modern Mormonism say?

  480. How do they explain this away? Well, they don't talk about it

  481. very much, but when they do, they have said the prophecy

  482. didn't fail. It's delayed, made by

  483. persecution and disobedience and generation doesn't mean 40

  484. years. It just means whatever will

  485. happen in God's time. But again, what does that mean?

  486. Just that changing of the revelation, the changing of the

  487. prophecies. Just hey, hey, once we get a

  488. little bit closer, we'll understand a little bit better.

  489. Nowhere do you find a prophet ever acted with such behavior.

  490. But the modern prophets are held up in essence as gods.

  491. The modern prophets are held up as the Pope, as God Incarnate.

  492. No, they wouldn't say that, but they believe that when he

  493. speaks, he speaks. Ex cathedra, just as the Pope

  494. does whatever he says is the law.

  495. And so in essence they have 4 books.

  496. They have again the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of

  497. Great Price, and the doctrines and covenants.

  498. But they also have the. Words of the.

  499. Prophets as well. And I want you to listen to

  500. something I believe is very chilling and it comes from one

  501. of their own and it's just a clip about a minute and a half.

  502. And so if we'll go ahead and run that, I think you'll find it

  503. quite interesting along with this subject.

  504. The world is full of so many self help books, so many

  505. self-proclaimed experts, so many theorists, educators and

  506. philosophers who have advice and counsel to give on any and all

  507. subjects. With technology today,

  508. information on a myriad of subjects is available with a

  509. click of a keystroke. It is easy to get caught in the

  510. trap of looking to the arm of flesh for advice on everything

  511. from how to raise children to how to find happiness.

  512. While some information has merit, as members of the church

  513. we have access to the source of pure truth, even God himself.

  514. We would do well to search out answers to our problems and

  515. questions by investigating what the Lord has revealed through

  516. His prophets. With that same technology today,

  517. we have at our fingertips access to the words of the prophets on

  518. nearly any subject. What has God taught us about

  519. marriage and family through His prophets?

  520. What has He taught us about education and Provident living

  521. through His prophets? What has He taught us about

  522. happiness and fulfillment through His prophets?

  523. What the prophets teach may to some seem outdated, unpopular,

  524. or even impossible, but God is a God of order and has established

  525. a system whereby we may know His will.

  526. Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His

  527. secret unto His servants, the prophets.

  528. At the opening of this the dispensation of the fullness of

  529. times, the Lord reaffirmed that He would communicate with us

  530. through His prophets. He stated my word shall be all

  531. be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my

  532. servants. It is the same doubt that that's

  533. a cult just from listening what you just listened to and turn it

  534. off turn it back on the 1st 30 seconds.

  535. I think we'd all say hey, that's actually sounds pretty good.

  536. You know, it's, you know, we don't need to, to look at all

  537. these other entities that we look to the Lord for the

  538. answers. But probably at the 32nd mark

  539. and on is where it all changed, wasn't it?

  540. Because all of the answers to life's questions are found with

  541. the prophets. By the way, that's not Elijah,

  542. Elijah, Isaiah, major and minor. No, no, that is the 20

  543. presidents as well as the group of three as well group of 12 and

  544. the group of 70. All you have to do is research

  545. what they've said. All you have to do is research

  546. how they've spoken on a multitude of subjects and you'll

  547. get the answers to life's questions because either you can

  548. hear from God or you can hear from the prophets.

  549. That's what he said at the very end.

  550. And that is chilling language. To be able to hear that a man

  551. would be willing to stand in front of likely thousands who

  552. were there at that gathering, that they had to be able to

  553. stand in front of them and basically say, when you listen

  554. to me, you're listening to God. That is dangerous.

  555. And there is no doubt that that is cultish behavior.

  556. Second Corinthians verse 11, verse #13 through 15.

  557. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming

  558. themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel.

  559. For Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light.

  560. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be

  561. transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall

  562. be according to their works. Second Peter, chapter one, verse

  563. 3. As according to his divine power

  564. hath given unto us all things that pertain in the life and

  565. godliness, through the knowledge of him that is called to us,

  566. who's called us unto glory and virtue.

  567. You know what you need, not the prophets, you know what you

  568. need, not the apostles, the presidents and all of them.

  569. You have the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you as your

  570. teacher. You have the Word of God as your

  571. guide. That's what you have.

  572. And the Lord has brought others in our lives.

  573. Didn't we just see that Paul said in First Corinthians

    1 Corinthians 4 chapter mention

  574. chapter 4, you have 1000 instructors, but you have one

  575. Father in Christ. But even he wouldn't have said

  576. that he was the one and he was an apostle.

  577. He spoke for the Lord, but even he wouldn't have had this

  578. cultish behavior that they have, and they have no part of it.

  579. Paul spoke for the Lord, but yet had a different regard because

  580. he understood the Lord is the Lord and I am not.

  581. But they believe that they speak for the Lord because they

  582. believed in essence they are Lords themselves.

  583. So we also see #5 the modern priesthood.

  584. We'll go through these fairly quickly.

  585. He believes that he and his companions, Joseph Smith, have

  586. received visitations from various apostles and prophets on

  587. their own. In 1829, Smith and Oliver Cowdry

  588. claim that John the Baptist appeared on to them and laid

  589. hands on them to confer the Aaronic priesthood upon them,

  590. The priesthood of Aaron. This has been lost, according to

  591. them, during the great apostasy that followed the death of the

  592. apostles and now is available to Mormon men who are over the age

  593. of 12 to be able to become part of the priesthood of Aaron.

  594. Also, they claim that later on that Melchizedek appeared unto

  595. them to be able to give them that Melchizedek priesthood.

  596. Now this is blasphemous and the reason why we'll turn to Hebrews

  597. chapter #7 let's go ahead and look at that ourselves.

  598. If we get through this all the way, we get through it.

  599. But I want you to see this in the Word of God, the Melchizedek

  600. priesthood. There's the Aaronic priesthood

  601. that be the priesthood of the Levites, but then the

  602. Melchizedek priesthood. They want to remember.

  603. Remember where we first find Melchizedek?

  604. We find him in the Book of Genesis, don't we?

  605. When he was talking and visited with Abraham and we see that

  606. Abraham offered him tithes of all.

  607. I mean, I've said Hebrews 7, Hebrews Chapter 7.

    Hebrews 7 chapter mention

  608. Yeah, I didn't want to say that, all right, but yeah, I knew it

  609. was your fault, but I didn't want to tell you, all right.

  610. But Hebrews, Hebrews chapter, chapter #7 For this Melchizedek,

  611. king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham

  612. returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, to

  613. whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by

  614. interpretation king of righteousness, and after that

  615. also king of Salem, which is king of peace.

  616. Now, who was this Melchizedek? Well, first of all, we see that

  617. he was offered tithes by Abraham.

  618. By the way, tithing is before the law, we find.

  619. Isn't that interesting? But that was offered by Abraham

  620. to Melchizedek. But if you're still not sure who

  621. this Melchizedek is, look at verse #3 he's without father,

  622. without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days

  623. nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God abideth a

  624. priest. Continue and you'll find this

  625. all throughout chapter #7 and we won't go through forsake of

  626. time, but you could read the entire chapter.

  627. The bottom line is this Melchizedek was a pre Incarnate

  628. visitation of Jesus Christ, a Christophany being that Jesus

  629. Christ Christ appeared before. Who else could it have been?

  630. You don't offer tithes to me. Who do you offer tithes to?

  631. We offer them to the Lord. You said, well I put in the

  632. plate, I give it to the church. Well you may give it to the

  633. church, but who are you giving it to?

  634. You're giving it unto the Lord. That's why we take it as a

  635. sacred responsibility to take care of the offerings.

  636. Well why? Because we're just stewards of

  637. that which has been given here. It all belongs to the Lord,

  638. doesn't it? And so Abraham understood, I am

  639. giving not to some other entity, I'm giving to the Lord.

  640. And we find out here in Hebrews 7, if there's any question in

  641. Genesis about who Melchizedek was, it is Jesus Christ.

  642. So for the Mormon church to be able to say they are of the

  643. Melchizedek priesthood, they are basically saying this, we are in

  644. the place of Jesus Christ. Now, where do you hear that?

  645. From the Catholic Church, from the Lutheran Church, for all of

  646. those different groups where the priest will say, I am acting on

  647. behalf of Jesus Christ as a Lutheran, heard a pastor often

  648. say, well, every week would say I forgive you on behalf of Jesus

  649. Christ. Listen, that is blasphemous.

  650. Nowhere do we see in the word of God could we put it this way.

  651. Jesus is Jesus. As I had a professor, I don't

  652. think Batova had this professor, but as I had a professor in

  653. Bible college saying, I've told you this before, God's God and

  654. you ain't. And that's all it comes down to,

  655. isn't it? To be able to have a professor,

  656. to be able to say, or to rather to have someone of the Mormon

  657. church to be able to say they're of the Melchizedek priesthood.

  658. Very clearly here it is Jesus Christ and Christ alone.

  659. Next we have baptism. Mormons are baptized at age 8,

  660. typically baptized by someone of the Auronic priesthood.

  661. It is one of the four parts of the gospel.

  662. Remember, the four parts of the gospel is baptism, faith,

  663. repentance, and the laying on of hands of the Holy Spirit.

  664. And after baptism, hands are laid again by the Auronic

  665. priesthood. You saw that photo that I had

  666. last week of them gathering around and putting hands on,

  667. laying on the Holy Ghost, which again, the Bible does not teach

  668. that the moment you are saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live

  669. inside of you. You're sealed unto the day of

  670. redemption by the Holy Spirit. And they also again pursue the

  671. baptism of the dead. Remember that very confusing

  672. chart we had up here just a few moments ago?

  673. Some of those who are the Saints in prison, some of those who are

  674. locked in before they get to the terrestrial, terrestrial,

  675. celestial, if they had any hope of that, if they were not

  676. baptized in this life, they have to be baptized on behalf of

  677. someone who's still alive. Again, to make clear, baptism of

  678. the dead is not pulling someone out of the ground and then

  679. baptizing them. That's what it sounds like at

  680. first, doesn't it? That's not what it's saying.

  681. It's someone going to a Mormon temple and saying I want to be

  682. baptized on behalf of my great grandmother.

  683. I want to be baptized on behalf of my uncle.

  684. I want to be baptized upon someone for someone who lived

  685. 200 years ago. And again, this deals with their

  686. fascination of genealogy, how they were the originators of

  687. genealogy.com, which now has been sold a couple times, from

  688. my understanding may still be held under Mormon holding

  689. companies because there's a lot of those that are out there, but

  690. yet they're thirst for genealogical records.

  691. Why? Because they needed to know who

  692. was where and when so they could be at baptized on behalf of

  693. those people. And I, we almost hate to even

  694. have to articulate these words because we understand this.

  695. Nowhere in the Bible does it teach the baptism of the dead.

  696. You do find that phrase in the word of God once, but yet it

  697. means completely different from what they're trying.

  698. Nowhere do you find someone in the word of God baptizing

  699. someone on behalf of someone who's dead.

  700. Listen, there's one life to live and then the judgement.

  701. The Bible says once to die and then the judgement that when you

  702. pass from this life, the decisions you make in this life.

  703. Or what matter that there is no one that can rescue you from

  704. this perdition. There's no one that can rescue

  705. you from a holding cell. There's no one that can rescue

  706. you from purgatory. There's no one that can do that.

  707. But yet they have these awful teachings about baptism, next

  708. creation. In Mormonism, Elohim was the

  709. cooperation of Jehovah and others.

  710. I'm sorry, let me try that again.

  711. In Mormonism, Elohim, with the cooperation of Jehovah and

  712. others, organize the matter that we see in our universe.

  713. This is explained of course in Genesis chapter 1 according to

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  714. them, but also in the book of Abraham chapters 3 and 4, as

  715. well as in the book of Moses verses chapters one through 3.

  716. Now I want you to look at this here for just a moment.

  717. This is what they say happened in creation.

  718. And there stood one among them who was like unto God, and he

  719. Jehovah or Jesus. Remember, they believe Jehovah

  720. is Jesus. Jehovah.

  721. Jesus said unto those who are with him, We will go down, for

  722. there is space there, and we will take of these materials.

  723. We will make an earth where on they may dwell, and we will

  724. prove them herewith to see if they will do all the things

  725. whosoever the Lord their God shall command them.

  726. And the Lord said, Let us go down, And they went down at the

  727. beginning. And they, that is the gods,

  728. organize and form the heavens and the earth.

  729. And the earth after it was formed was empty and desolate

  730. because they had not formed anything but the earth.

  731. And darkness rained upon the face of the deep.

  732. And the spirit of the gods was brooding upon the face of the

  733. waters. And they, the gods, said, let

  734. there be light, and there was light.

  735. Listen, according to the Mormons, God didn't create

  736. anything. God is a cosmic organizer.

  737. God took the elements that were already there and put them

  738. together. Well, who is the one who does

  739. that? Well, mankind does that.

  740. When we say we create things, we don't actually create anything,

  741. do we? I mean, we just organize

  742. materials that are already here. We can create nothing.

  743. When God created according to the word of God, he created the

  744. term ex nihilo, meaning out of nothing.

  745. And God spoke and it was but according to Mormons that God

  746. was the great organizer. He took the cosmic mess of this

  747. universe and like someone trying to clean out a closet and

  748. organizing it, took stuff out, put stuff in, put it in the

  749. right order, made sure everything was nice and it was

  750. good. But yet that's what mankind

  751. does. That's not what God does.

  752. And so in creation, they are completely off as well.

  753. And then #8 and finally, very quickly, their view on

  754. minorities, beginning with direction.

  755. From Brigham Young in 1852 until 1978, men of black African

  756. descent, not just dark skin, were not allowed to hold the

  757. priesthood, though they could be.

  758. Baptized and considered members following Brigham Youngs death.

  759. Successive prophets also denied temple endowments and marriages

  760. to African blacks. There's no official teaching as

  761. to why this is the case, but the most typical explanations

  762. involve the curse of Cain and the pre mortal existence.

  763. Of course, back in 1978, I mentioned this.

  764. A few weeks ago, President Spencer Kimball claimed to have

  765. received a new revelation after having a lot of pressure put

  766. against them for not allowing those with African descent to be

  767. able to be a part, a full part of the Mormon church.

  768. And all of a sudden when all public opinion was raining down

  769. upon him, he says I got a new revelation.

  770. Everyone can be the same in the Mormon church.

  771. Now we understand that that is absolutely atrocious to be able

  772. to have that type of thought process.

  773. But it is not only towards those with dark skin.

  774. They've also taught over the years that Native Americans

  775. we're going to look at this, Lord willing, in a couple weeks

  776. when we look at the Book of Mormon specifically.

  777. But they believe that those who are considered to be Native

  778. Americans today are simply Jews that have traveled from before

  779. the time of Jesus Christ and then also actually around the

  780. time of the Tower of Babel, and then also some around 600 BC.

  781. They came in two different waves.

  782. However, they do believe that those Jews who are really Native

  783. Americans, who are really Jews, that when they become part of

  784. the Mormon church, that their skin literally becomes lighter

  785. and whiter, that if they truly become saved.

  786. I can't even believe it's coming out of my mouth.

  787. But this is the teachings of which they have taught.

  788. Listen, Second Nephi verse 5 or chapter 5 verse 20 through 25

  789. says that the Lamanites were cursed with dark skin for their

  790. disobedience. But then Third, Nephi chapter 2

  791. versus 12 through 16 said that the Lamanites who turned to

  792. follow God would have their curse removed and their skin

  793. would become white and fair. Now Spencer Kimball, that same

  794. man who in 1978 said, oh, by the way, we made a mistake all these

  795. years about black people, he turns around 1971.

  796. Seven years before that, he says he has seen darker skin members

  797. begin to grow lighter as they lived out the gospel.

  798. He's witnessed it himself. And he is a prophet.

  799. He's heard from God. But yet the Mormon church will

  800. obviously run far, far away from these teachings.

  801. But you can't run from what is in print.

  802. You can't run from what has been said.

  803. A prophet who is wrong once is a wrong prophet.

  804. A prophet who is false once is a false prophet.

  805. And there is no doubt by looking at just these 8 doctrines that

  806. this is an abomination and totally contrary to what we find

  807. in the Word of God. By the way, today they have

  808. disavowed the belief that righteousness can alter melanin.

  809. Get that? Yeah, your righteousness does

  810. not alter how much pigment you have within your skin.

  811. By the way, good for them for getting that right.

  812. But they got it wrong for about 150 years and got about

  813. everything else wrong for about 200.

  814. So what do we see after this? Listen, we've got to stay away

  815. from this doctrine, but we must not stay away from these people.

  816. They need help. They need to get released from

  817. that chart that you saw of the perpetual cycle.

  818. Just hoping to be saved in a couple weeks.

  819. Next week, we'll be in our missions conference.

  820. In two weeks, we'll be looking at the Book of Mormon, the Pearl

  821. of Great Price, and the doctrines of covenants.

  822. And then we'll take our final week in Mormonism to look at how

  823. do we win these people to Christ because.

  824. They need. Jesus Christ.

  825. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  826. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  827. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  828. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  829. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  830. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  831. grow in His Word.