~~ To Those Who Are
Investigating ~~
The Church of
JESUS CHRIST
of Latter-day Saints
If you are investigating The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints, you are probably studying it in private meetings in your home with
missionaries from that church. Here are some of the key things that they are probably
telling you:
- Mormonism began when Joseph Smith, a young man in western New York,
was spurred by a Christian revival where he lived in 1820 to pray to God for guidance as
to which church was true. In answer to his prayers he was visited by God the Father and
God the Son, two separate beings, who told him to join no church because all the churches
at that time were false, and that he, Joseph, would bring forth the true church. This
event is called "The First Vision."
- In 1823 Joseph had another heavenly visitation, in which an angel
named Moroni told him of a sacred history written by ancient Hebrews in America, engraved
in an Egyptian dialect on tablets of gold and buried in a nearby hill. Joseph was told it
was the history of the ancient peoples of America, and that Joseph would be the instrument
for bringing this record to the knowledge of the world. Joseph obtained these gold plates
from the angel in 1827, and translated them into English by the spirit of God and the use
of a sacred instrument accompanying the plates called the "Urim and Thummim."
The translation was published in 1830 as The Book of Mormon.
- The Book of Mormon is a religious and secular history of
the inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere from about 2200 BC to about 421 AD. It tells the
reader that the American Indians are all descended from three groups of immigrants who
were led by God from their original homes in the Near East to America. One group came from
the Tower of Babel, and two other groups came from Jerusalem just before the Babylonian
Captivity, about 600 BC. They were led by prophets of God who had the gospel of Jesus
Christ, which is thus preserved in their history, the Book of Mormon. Many of the
descendants of these immigrants were Christians, even before Christ was born in Palestine,
but many were unbelievers. Believers and unbelievers fought many wars, the last of which
left only degenerate unbelievers as survivors, who are the ancestors of the American
Indians. The most important event during this long history was the visit of Jesus Christ
to America, after his crucifixion, when he ministered to (and converted) all the
inhabitants.
- Joseph Smith was directed by revelation from God to reestablish
("restore") the true church, which he did in 1830. He was visited several times
by heavenly messengers, who ordained him to the true priesthood. He continued to have
revelations from God to guide the church and to give more knowledge of the Gospel. Many of
these revelations are published in the Doctrine and Covenants.
- Joseph Smith and his followers were continually persecuted for their
religious beliefs, and driven from New York State to Ohio, then to Missouri, then to
Illinois, where Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844 by a mob, a martyr to his beliefs. The
church was then led by Brigham Young, Joseph's successor, to Utah, where the Mormons
settled successfully.
- The LDS church is led today by the successors of Joseph Smith. The
present president of the church is a "prophet, seer and revelator" just as
Joseph Smith was, and guides the members of the church through revelations and guidance
from God.
- The modern LDS church is the only true church, as restored by God
through Joseph Smith. Other churches, derived from the early Christian church, are in
apostasy because their leaders corrupted the scriptures, changed the ordinances of the
original church, and often led corrupt lives, thus losing their authority.
- By accepting baptism into the LDS church you take the first step
necessary toward your salvation and your ultimate entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven (the
"Celestial Kingdom").
WHAT THE MISSIONARIES WILL NOT TELL
YOU
Here is a summary of important facts about the Mormon church and its
history that the missionaries will probably not tell you. We are not suggesting that they
are intentionally deceiving you -- most of the young Mormons serving missions for the
church are not well educated in the history of the church or in modern critical studies of
the church. They probably do not know the all the facts themselves. They have been
trained, however, to give investigators "milk before meat," that is, to postpone
revealing anything at all that might make an investigator hesitant, even if it is true.
But you should be aware of these facts before you commit yourself.
Each of the following facts has been substantiated by thorough
historical scholarship. And this list is by no means exhaustive!
- The "First Vision" story in the form presented to you was
unknown until 1838, eighteen years after its alleged occurrence and almost ten
years after Smith had begun his missionary efforts. The oldest version of the vision is in
Smith's own handwriting, dating from about 1832 (still at least eleven years
afterwards), and says that only one personage, Jesus Christ, appeared to him. It
also mentions nothing about a revival. It also contradicts the later account as to whether
Smith had already decided that no church was true. Still a third version of this event is
recorded as a recollection in Smith's diary, fifteen years after the alleged vision, where
only one "personage" appeared, specifically said to be neither the Father or the
Son, accompanied by many "angels," which are not mentioned in the official
version you have been told about. Which version is correct, if any? Why was this event,
now said by the church to be so important, unknown for so long?
- Careful study of the religious history of the locale where Smith
lived in 1820 shows that there was no trace of a religious revival there at that time.
There were revivals in 1817 and 1824, but none in 1820.
- In 1828, eight years after he says he had been told by God himself to
join no church, Smith applied for membership in a local Methodist church. Other members of
his family had joined the Presbyterians.
- Contemporaries of Smith consistently described him as something of a
confidence man, whose chief source of income was hiring out to local farmers to help them
find buried treasure by the use of folk magic and "seer stones." Smith was
actually tried in 1826 on a charge of money digging.
- The only persons who claimed to have actually seen the gold plates
were eleven close friends of Smith (many of them related to each other). Their testimonies
are printed in the front of every copy of the Book of Mormon. No disinterested
third party was ever allowed to examine them. They were retrieved by the angel at some
unrecorded point. Most of the witnesses later abandoned Smith and left his movement. Smith
then called them "liars."
- Smith produced most of the "translation" not by reading the
plates through the Urim and Thummim (apparently a pair of sacred spectacles), but by
gazing at the same "seer stone" he had used for treasure hunting. He would place
the stone into his hat, and then cover his face with it. For much of the time he was
dictating, the gold plates were not even present, but in a hiding place.
- The detailed history and civilization described in the Book of Mormon
does not correspond to anything found by archaeologists anywhere in the Americas. The Book
of Mormon describes a civilization lasting for a thousand years, covering both North
and South America, which was familiar with horses, elephants, cattle, sheep, wheat,
barley, steel, wheeled vehicles, shipbuilding, sails, coins, and other elements of Old
World culture. But no trace of any of these supposedly very common things has ever been
found in the Americas of that period. Nor does the Book of Mormon mention any of
the features of the civilizations which really did exist at that time in the Americas. The
LDS church has spent millions of dollars over many years trying to prove through
archaeological research that the Book of Mormon is an accurate historical record,
but they have failed to produce even a shred of pre-columbian archeological evidence
supporting the Book of Mormon story. In addition, whereas the Book of Mormon
presents the picture of a relatively homogeneous people, with a single language and
communication between distant parts of the Americas, the pre-columbian history of the
Americas shows the opposite: widely disparate racial types (almost entirely east Asian -
definitely not Semitic), and many unrelated native languages, none of which are even
remotely related to Hebrew or Egyptian.
- The people of the Book of Mormon were supposedly devout Jews
observing the Law of Moses, but in the Book of Mormon there is almost no trace of
their observance of Mosaic law or even an accurate knowledge of it.
- Although Joseph Smith said that God had pronounced the completed
translation of the plates as published in 1830 "correct," many changes have been
made in later editions. Besides thousands of corrections of poor grammar and awkward
wording in the 1830 edition, other changes have been made to reflect subsequent changes in
some of the fundamental doctrine of the church. For example, an early change in wording
modified the 1830 edition's acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity, thus allowing Smith
to introduce his later doctrine of multiple gods. A more recent change (1981) replaced
"white" with "pure," apparently to reflect the change in the church's
stance on the "curse" of the black race.
- Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon contained the
"fulness of the gospel." However, its teaching on many doctrinal subjects has
been ignored or contradicted by the present LDS church, and many doctrines now said by the
church to be essential are not even mentioned there. Examples are the church's position on
the nature of God, the Virgin Birth, the Trinity, polygamy, Hell, priesthood, secret
organizations, the nature of Heaven and salvation, temples, proxy ordinances for the dead,
and many other matters.
- Many of the basic historical notions found in the Book of Mormon had
appeared in print already in 1825, just two years before Smith began producing the Book
of Mormon, in a book called View of the Hebrews, by Ethan Smith (no relation)
and published just a few miles from where Joseph Smith lived. A careful study of this
obscure book led one LDS church official (the historian B. H. Roberts, 1857-1933) to
confess that the evidence tended to show that the Book of Mormon was not an ancient
record, but concocted by Joseph Smith himself, based on ideas he had read in the earlier
book.
- Although Mormons claim that God is guiding the LDS church through its
president (who has the title "prophet, seer and revelator"), the successive
"prophets" have repeatedly either led the church into undertakings that were
dismal failures or failed to see approaching disaster. To mention only a few: the Kirtland
Bank, the United Order, the gathering of Zion to Missouri, the Zion's Camp expedition,
polygamy, the Deseret Alphabet*. The most recent
example is the successful hoax perpetrated on the church by manuscript dealer Mark Hofmann
in the 1980s. He succeeded in selling the church thousands of dollars worth of manuscripts
which he had forged. The church accepted them as genuine historical documents. The church
leaders learned the truth not from God, through revelation, but from non-Mormon experts
and the police, after Hofmann was arrested for two murders he committed to cover up his
hoax. This scandal was reported nationwide.
- The secret temple ritual (the "endowment") was introduced
by Smith in May, 1842, just two months after he had been initiated into Freemasonry. The
LDS temple ritual closely resembles the Masonic ritual of that day. * Smith explained
that the Masons had corrupted the ancient (God-given) ritual by changing it and removing
parts of it, and that he was restoring it to its "pure" and "original"
(and complete) form, as revealed to him by God. In the 150 years since, the LDS church has
made many fundamental changes in the "pure and original" ritual as
"restored" by Smith, mostly by removing major parts of it.
- Many doctrines which were once taught by the LDS church, and held to
be fundamental, essential and "eternal", have been abandoned. Whether we feel
that the church was correct in abandoning them is not the point; rather, the point is that
a church claiming to be the church of God takes one "everlasting" position at
one time and the opposite position at another, all the time claiming to be proclaiming the
word of God. Some examples are:
* The Adam-God doctrine (Adam is God the Father);
* the United Order (all property of church members is to be held in common, with
title in the church);
* Plural Marriage (polygamy; a man must have more than one wife to attain the
highest degree of heaven);
* the Curse of Cain (the black race is not entitled to hold God's priesthood because
it is cursed; this doctrine was not abandoned until 1978);
* Blood Atonement (some sins - apostasy, adultery, murder, interracial marriage -
must be atoned for by the shedding of the sinner's blood,
preferably by someone appointed to do so by church authorities);
All of these doctrines were proclaimed by the reigning prophet to be
the Word of God, "eternal," "everlasting," to govern the church
"forevermore." All have been abandoned by the present church.
- Joseph Smith claimed to be a "translator" by the power of
God. In addition to the Book of Mormon, he made several other
"translations":
* The Book of Abraham, from Egyptian papyrus scrolls
which came into his possession in 1838. He stated that the scrolls were written by the
biblical Abraham "by his own hand." Smith's translation is now accepted as
scripture by the LDS church, as part of its Pearl of Great Price. Smith also
produced an "Egyptian Grammar" based on his translation. Modern scholars of
ancient Egyptian agree that the scrolls are common Egyptian funeral scrolls, entirely
pagan in nature, having nothing to do with Abraham, and from a period 2000 years later
than Abraham. The Grammar has been said by Egyptologists to prove that Smith had no notion
of the Egyptian language. It is pure fantasy: he made it up.
* The "Inspired Revision" of the King James Bible. Smith was commanded by God to
retranslate the Bible because the existing translations contained errors. He completed his
translation in 1833, but the church still uses the King James Version.
* The "Kinderhook Plates," a group of eight metal plates with strange engraved
characters, unearthed in 1843 near Kinderhook, Illinois, and examined by Smith, who began
a "translation" of them. He never completed the translation, but he identified
them as an ancient record, and translated enough to identify the author as a descendant of
Pharaoh. Local farmers later confessed that they had manufactured, engraved and buried the
plates themselves as a hoax. They had copied the characters from a Chinese tea box.
- Joseph Smith claimed to be a "prophet." He frequently
prophesied future events "by the power of God." Many of these prophecies are
recorded in the LDS scripture Doctrine and Covenants. Almost none have been
fulfilled, and many cannot now be fulfilled because the deeds to be done by the persons
named were never done and those persons are now dead. Many prophecies included dates for
their fulfillment, and those dates are now long past, the events never having occurred.
- Joseph Smith died not as a martyr, but in a gun battle in which he
fired a number of shots. He was in jail at the time, under arrest for having ordered the
destruction of a Nauvoo newspaper which dared to print an exposure (which was true) of his
secret sexual liaisons. At that time he had announced his candidacy for the presidency of
the United States, set up a secret government, and secretly had himself crowned "King
of the Kingdom of God."
- Since the founding of the church down to the present day the church
leaders have not hesitated to lie, to falsify documents, to rewrite or suppress history,
or to do whatever is necessary to protect the image of the church. Many Mormon historians
have been excommunicated from the church for publishing their findings on the truth of
Mormon history.
YOUR LIFE AS A MORMON
If you should decide to become a member of the LDS church, you
should be aware of what your life in the church will be like. Although you will find
yourself warmly accepted by a lively community of healthy, active and generally supportive
people, many of whom are very happy in Mormonism and could not imagine their lives without
it, there is another side:
- You will be continually reminded that to enter the highest degree of
heaven (the "Celestial Kingdom"), you will have to go through the endowment
ceremony in the temple and have your marriage to your Mormon spouse "sealed."
(If your spouse is not Mormon, you cannot enter the highest degree of heaven.) To get
permission to have these ceremonies performed in the temple, you must prove yourself to be
a faithful and obedient member of the church and do everything commanded by the church
authorities, from the Prophet down to the local level. You will have to undergo a personal
"worthiness" interview with the local church authorities inquiring into your
private life and your religious and social activities.
- You will be expected to donate at least ten percent of your gross
income to the church as tithing. Other donations will be expected as the need arises. You
will never see an accounting of how this money is spent, or how much the church receives,
or anything at all about its financial condition; the church keeps its finances secret,
even from its members.
- You will be expected to give up the use of alcohol, tobacco, coffee,
and tea.
- You will be expected to fulfill any work assignment given to you.
These assignments may be teaching positions, clerk positions, helping with various support
tasks - any job that needs to be done. Each task you perform successfully will make you
eligible for others, with more responsibility and more demands upon your time. The members
who perform these jobs, even those involving sensitive pastoral counseling, receive no
formal training whatsoever (there is no paid, trained clergy). You will be told that God
has called you to your assignments. Many Mormons find most of their spare time taken up
with church work, trying to fulfill the numerous assignments that have been given them.
- You will be expected to be unquestioningly obedient to church
authorities in whatever they might tell you to do. "Follow the Brethren" is the
slogan, and it means to follow without doubt or question. Discussion of whether a decree
from above is correct is discouraged. You will be expected to have faith that the leaders
cannot possibly lead you astray. Even if they should tell you something which contradicts
what a previous prophet may have said, you will be told "A living prophet takes
precedence over a dead prophet."
- You will be able to "vote" on those who have been called to
positions of authority over you, but the voting will be by the show of hands in a public
meeting. Only one candidate for each office will be voted on (the one "called by
God"). The voting is therefore always unanimous in favor of the candidate.
- You will be told not to read any material which is "not
faith-promoting," that is, which may be critical or questioning of the church or its
leaders, or which might place the church or its leaders in an unfavorable light.
- You will be told not to associate with "apostates," that
is, former Mormons. (You will probably be asked in your "worthiness" interview
about this.)
- If you are unmarried, you will be encouraged to marry a good Mormon
as soon as possible. When you do marry, in a wedding ceremony in the temple, your
non-Mormon family members and friends will not be allowed to attend the ceremony, because
only "worthy" Mormons are allowed to enter the temple.
- If you are homosexual, you will be pressured to abandon this
"evil" aspect of your nature. If you do not, you will probably not be fully
accepted by other church members. If you do not remain celibate, you may be
excommunicated.
- If you are a male over 12 years of age and "worthy" (that
is, if you are obedient, attend meetings, do not masturbate*, etc.), you will be
ordained to one of the levels of priesthood, and, if you continue to be faithful and
obedient, you will gradually advance through the priesthood ranks. If you are female, you
will receive the benefits of priesthood authority only indirectly, through your Mormon
father or your Mormon husband. The role of the Mormon woman is to be a wife and mother and
to obey and honor her priest husband (or father).
- If you prove yourself to be faithful, hard working and obedient, you
will eventually be considered worthy to "receive your endowment" in a Mormon
temple. You will not be told in advance exactly what to expect in this lengthy ceremony,
except that the details of the ritual are secret (Mormons prefer to say they are just
"sacred," but they treat them as though they are secret). As part of that
ceremony you will be required to swear a number of oaths, the penalty for violation of
which is no longer stated but until 1990 was death by various bloody methods, such as
having your throat slit from ear to ear. You will be given the secret signs and passwords
which are required to enter heaven. (Although most Mormons who have not received the
endowment know very little about the ceremony, the entire liturgy is now available on the
Internet to Mormon and non-Mormon alike.) After receiving the endowment you will be
required to wear a special undergarment at all times.
- If you should ever decide that you made a mistake in joining the
church and then leave it, you will probably find (judging from the experiences of others
who have done so) that many of your Mormon friends will abandon and shun you. If you are
unable to convince your family members to leave the church with you, you will find that
the church has broken up your family and your relationship with them may never
recover.
Consider very carefully before you commit yourself, and remember
that any doubts you may have now will likely only increase.
Examine carefully both sides of the Mormon story. Listen to the
stories of those who have been through an unhappy Mormon experience, not just those
Mormons who may speak glowingly of life in the church.
The Mormon missionaries are often charming and enthusiastic. They
have an attractive story to tell. At first it sounds wonderful. But remember the old
saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!" Be careful not to
fall into the trap of believing something simply because you want it to be true. Mormons
may tell you that those who criticize the church are lying, misquoting and distorting. If
you examine the sources used by the critics, however, you will discover that most of their
source material is from official or semi-official Mormon writings. You, too, should
examine those sources.
Is Mormonism a "cult"? Many experts on religious cults see
in Mormonism the same fundamental characteristics as cults which have entrapped the
unsuspecting, even though most people think of "cults" only as small, unknown
groups. Use a "cult checklist" to evaluate Mormonism, or any group, before you
commit yourself.
This article is Copyrighted 1997 by Richard Packham. This article
may be freely distributed in print and on other web sites only when used in its entirety
and as long as this Copyright notice is included.