Because the LDS church uses biblical terminology it's all too easy to assume that they are Christian. Their title, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," also gives that impression. But nothing could be further from the truth. Mormons worship a different God, their gospel is different and so is their salvation. And although they do everything "in the name of Jesus Christ," the Christ they believe in is not the biblical Christ, a fact which their leadership admits. (This subject is dealt with in depth, with references provided, in the article "The LDS Jesus Christ is Not the Saviour of the Bible," listed on the home page.)

Not only do they have a foundation of deception, but Mormonism itself is a religion of deception. In order to give the illusion that their doctrines fit in with what the Bible teaches, they have consistently applied dishonest meanings to biblical terms.

One such example is "salvation by grace," which according to the Bible means that we are forgiven and saved from the penalty of our sins by the grace of God through faith in Christ, because of His atoning sacrifice on the cross at Calvary. However, the LDS maintains that we have to earn the right to forgiveness of sins. And they apply the biblical term, "salvation by grace," to universal resurrection without the forgiveness of personal sins, resulting in damnation. But you will not find this anywhere in the Bible. It opposes what the Bible teaches and is exclusive to Mormonism.

Another example of this type of dishonesty is the LDS's definition of the biblical term "Eternal God." Our dictionaries define the word "eternal" as meaning "without beginning or end of existence, everlasting, ceaseless and unchangeable." And in line with this, the Bible teaches that God is unchanging and that He always has been God, eternally. But the LDS maintains that the word "eternal" is only meant to be God's title in the same way as the word "Mr." is a title when it is used in front of someone's surname. They somehow feel that this dishonest tactic gives them the right to use the term "eternal God" for their Mormon deity who has not always been a God, but was once an ordinary, sinful man in need of salvation.

Their ongoing subterfuge indicates that in spite of the fact that Mormonism bears no resemblance to Christianity, and that it opposes every major doctrine taught by the Bible, it has nevertheless been deliberately dressed up in the guise of biblical Christianity.

At the moment the LDS is pulling out all the stops to get themselves included in the Christian fraternity.

As there is freedom of religion in America, one cannot help but wonder what their motive is in maintaining a Christian facade, when their religion is anything but Christian. (The articles listed in the index of the home page of this site give clear and overwhelming evidence, with references from their own literature, of Mormon opposition to everything that biblical Christianity stands for, apart from the morality issue.)

The only conclusion one can reach is that Mormonism is a deliberate counterfeit of Christianity.



THE FOUNDER OF THE LDS CHURCH

Prior to founding the LDS church, Joseph Smith had a well documented history of deception. There are court records, affidavits and other documents still available that provide ample proof of this, as well as of his deep involvement in both the occult and spiritism. He came from a family of occultists, and his father was the one who taught him the art of using an occultic seer stone.

It seems that Joseph kept up with his occultic activities until the day he died. LDS photographs taken during the time he was leading their church show him wearing an occultic ring on his finger. And after his death his mother asked if she could have the occultic talisman coin he'd always carried in his pocket, to keep in remembrance of Him. Furthermore, he openly admitted that his revelations from God had come to him through his occultic seer stone (c/f "An Address to All Believers in Christ" by David Whitmer).

The Bible puts the occult into the same category as witchcraft, spiritism and idolatry, because the spiritual powers behind them are opposed to the purposes of God.

Evidence indicates that Joseph Smith was a persuasive orator, which explains why so many folk fell prey to his deceptions. As a youth he frequented the local juvenile debating club. He also became an exhorter in the evening meetings of the Methodist Church (c/f History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase, 1851, page 214, The Amboy Journal, Amboy, Illinois, April 30 and June 11, 1879, page 1).

Records reveal that after attending their meetings for some time, Joseph Smith eventually joined the Methodist church in June, 1828. Yet he later claimed that eight years prior to this date, in 1820, God had told him in a vision not to join any of the churches as they were all apostate and their creeds were an abomination in His sight, citing the Methodist Church, amongst others, by name.

If God Himself had genuinely appeared to Smith in a vision in 1820 with such a clear message, why would he after that have attended the Methodist's evening meetings, and exhorted others to follow their teachings? Why didn't he rather tell them about his vision and warn them that the Methodist church was apostate and that their teachings were wrong, instead of encouraging them to follow Methodism? And then to top it all, why would he have gone on to deliberately disobey God to the uttermost, by actually joining the Methodist Church in June, 1828?

The only conclusion one can come to is that his later claim about God having spoken to him in a vision eight years prior to this, was yet another of his deceptions. This is confirmed by the fact that he couldn't stick to his original story. Each time he related what had happened, he came up with a different version of the story, i.e. it had occurred at a different time, in a different place, his age was different, the being or beings who appeared to him were different, and the content of the vision was different.

There are nine known contradictory versions of his supposed first vision. And one of these, written in his own handwriting, invalidates the official version that is printed in the Pearl of Great Price. (The full story is given in the article "Joseph Smith's First Vision and the Controversy Surrounding It," listed on the home page.)

Because of complaints made to the Minister of the Methodist Church after Joseph had become a member, he was warned that his questionable way of earning a living and his occultic practices were contrary to what the church stood for. He was exhorted to repent and to change his way of life, or else to leave the church. But it seems that he was unwilling to give up his unethical lifestyle, because he chose rather to resign from membership of the Methodist church. Within two years he had founded his own church, which eventually became known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



JOSEPH SMITH AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

In founding his new church, Smith claimed that God had revealed to him that the early Christian church had become apostate and that their teachings were an abomination in His sight. He also maintained that because of their apostasy, God had removed His authority for the gospel from the earth, but that in these latter days He had given Joseph the task, as His prophet, of re-establishing the true church and restoring the gospel. This provided a reason for the existence of his new church.

However, one cannot but help wonder whether Smith started up his own church purely because of the malice he bore towards the Christian church as a whole, due to his having been so severely reprimanded by the Methodists.

The article on this site entitled "The Apostasy is a Mormon Fallacy," gives ample proof that there never ever was a complete apostasy of the early church. And another article, "The LDS Authority Teaching Has No Basis," meticulously examines the biblical record, revealing that Christ's apostles were never given any so-called authority when it came to the gospel. Nor was the church ever told that authority was needed in order for it to function as a body.

We can only conclude that both the apostasy and the authority stories were deceptions perpetrated by Smith, in an endeavor to justify himself for starting up his own church.

The first layer of deception that formed the foundation of the LDS church was Smith's claim that the early church of Jesus Christ had gone into total apostasy, that the LDS was the restored, true church and that he was the true prophet of God.



JOSEPH SMITH AND THE BIBLE

Smith knew that the theological ideas he'd begun to formulate in his mind for his own church wouldn't stand up to the light of the Bible. So he came up with the story that God had revealed to him that the Bible was unreliable as it had been incorrectly translated and that large sections had been removed by evil people. This gave him a free hand to introduce whatever doctrines fitted in with his own personal agenda, regardless of whether or not they agreed with the Bible.

Smith's supposed revelation about the Bible having being corrupted was the second layer of deception that formed the foundation of his new church.

However, the biblical record has been under constant investigation ever since it was completed — more so than any other book in the entire history of the world. Archeologists have unearthed overwhelming, irrefutable evidence proving both its truthfulness and its accuracy. And as the years go by they continue to provide us with yet more and more evidence of its reliability. On the other hand, not once have they ever found anything that disproves it. Then too, we have thousands of documents, including those that are secular, that also back up the claims of the Bible. (An article on the home page, entitled "Corruption of the Bible is an LDS Smokescreen," gives all the proof one could need concerning the reliability of our Bible.)

Compare this with the Book of Mormon. Although it describes a thriving, populous and advanced civilization with architecture, industries and a monetary system, not one iota of proof has ever been found to verify its truthfulness. Yet virtually every time archeologists dig a hole in Israel, they come across evidence of some kind that proves the biblical record to be both true and accurate.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947 in a cave at Quram, were dated as far back as the second century before Christ. And although many of these were in fragments, those that they have been able to piece together agree with our modern translations of the Bible. (They have portions from every book in the Old Testament, except Esther.) An entire copy of the book of Isaiah has been pieced together, and this also agrees with our translations. In spite of this compelling evidence, the LDS church still insists that the book of Isaiah has been incorrectly translated. (It contradicts their doctrines.)

Reason alone tells us that if the Bible had been corrupted as Smith claimed it had been, then some evidence would have come to light, somewhere, during all these years, to back up his contention. But instead, all we find is proof of its validity.

Tragically, because of Smith's false claims about the unreliability of the Bible, members of the LDS church were deprived of the protection against spiritual deception that is afforded when one uses the Bible as one's standard of truth. This meant that they had no way at all of checking up on whether or not what Joseph Smith was teaching them was truth, error, deception, or whatever, because he was taking them into unchartered waters. Instead of trusting in the Bible for guidance when it came to spiritual truth, they were persuaded by Smith to trust in his claim that he was God's true, latter-day prophet, and to accept that when he spoke it was the same as if God had spoken.

In much the same vein, Mormons of today are discouraged from questioning any of the LDS's unbiblical teachings or beliefs, or the many contradictions in their scriptures. They are assured that God would never allow their leadership to teach them error or to lead them astray. However, the fact that they have worshipped three different Gods at various times in their history tells us that at least two of their leaders must have taught them error. (See the article, "The Mormon Gods, Past and Present," listed on the home page.)



THE BOOK OF MORMON

When it comes to the Book of Mormon, we are only concerned here with the deception perpetrated. The full story, with references, is in the article on this site entitled "The Book of Mormon and the "Witnesses" Who Never Actually Saw the Gold Plates."

Smith maintained that an angel had been sent by God to give him some gold plates inscribed with the record of the Book of Mormon, together with the Urim and Thummim (two stones in silver bows fastened to a breastplate), for the purposes of translation. However, each of the scribes who assisted in writing down the so-called "translation" of this book, has independently given the same story, without any variations or contradictions. And that is, that Joseph Smith never ever looked at the gold plates at all during his entire so-called translation. Nor did he use the Urim and Thummim.

In fact, nobody ever saw the gold plates. So we have no proof that they had ever existed. Smith maintained that God had told him that if anybody, including himself, so much as looked at them, they would be struck dead. He must have been a very convincing and persuasive liar for them to have believed this story. Because it doesn't make any sense that God would go to all the trouble of having an angel deliver these engraved gold plates to him for the purpose of translation, together with instruments to aid him in translating them, and then forbid him to look at them, for fear of being struck dead.

His scribes all testified (again without any contradictions) that his method of "translating" was to use the same occultic seer stone that he'd used in his pre-LDS days, when he had made a living by conniving people into believing he could divine the whereabouts of buried treasure. He placed his seer stone into the base of his hat and put his face over it, pulling up the sides to exclude the light. Then he read out a sentence, which he claimed to see in the seer stone, so it could be recorded by his scribe, before going on to the next sentence.

But then why didn't he admit that the Book of Mormon was written through visions that came to him via his occultic seer stone, instead of claiming that he'd actually translated it from inscriptions engraved on gold plates given to him by an angel sent by God? Why did he deliberately lie?

The only possible answer to this question is that it was because the Book of Mormon was a scam. And he lied about the way he had "translated" it because he was perpetrating yet another of his long string of deceptions. He wanted folk to believe one of the biggest lies of the century, i.e. that he had actually translated his Book of Mormon from engravings on gold plates given to him by an angel of God. And in fact this is what the LDS church teaches. Whenever they illustrate him translating the Book of Mormon, they invariably reinforce his deception by showing him seated at a table, examining the gold plates that are lying in front of him. But it never happened that way. His scribes all insisted that the mysterious plates were always concealed, with his scribe seated at the table recording Joseph's words whilst he sat with his face stuck inside his hat, peering at his occultic seer stone.

The fact that nobody ever saw either the gold plates or the Urim and Thummim and that Smith never once even so much as glanced at them during the entire time of his translation, leads us to believe that they had never existed other than in Joseph Smith's own fertile imagination. They seem to have been nothing more than an invented "prop" dreamed up in order to make his Book of Mormon appear to have some sort of validity, with miraculous and spiritual overtones.

We also have concerns about the testimonies of the two groups of witnesses given in the front of the Book of Mormon. Evidence reveals that Joseph composed their testimonies on their behalf. At first none of the witnesses were willing to sign the statements, as they felt that Smith's wording gave the false impression that they had actually seen the gold plates visually, when that wasn't the case. They had only seen them by faith, in a dreamlike or visionary way. (Don't forget that Joseph had told them all that if anybody ever looked at the gold plates they would die. And he'd also warned them that for the purpose of their testimony they would have to see the gold plates by faith and not by sight.) But he was eventually able to persuade them all, against their wills, to sign the misleading testimonies anyway.

The witnesses freely admitted in affidavits and/or interviews, that they had not seen these gold plates by sight. And by 1847 all eleven of the then surviving witness had left the LDS church. Yet their so-called testimonies, that were nothing more than a deliberate, premeditated and connived deception on the part of Joseph Smith, continue to be displayed in the front of the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon was printed at the start of the LDS church. Mormons were told that unlike the Bible, it was "the most correct book on earth." And because of Smith's claim that the Bible had been corrupted, they were taught to use their own scriptures, i.e. the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith's revelations (now called Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price) as the standard of truth against which to test the Bible's accuracy.

The Book of Mormon was the third and final layer of deception that formed the foundation of Mormonism.

When Mormons joined the church they did so having been convinced that the Bible could not be relied upon as it had been corrupted, that the Christian church had become apostate in its early days, that God considered the teachings of Christian denominations to be an abomination, that Joseph Smith was the true prophet of God, that the LDS had God's sole authority for the gospel, and that the Book of Mormon was the most accurate book on earth.



THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM

Because Joseph Smith wrote the book of Abraham some time after the LDS church had been established, it is not included here as one of the deceptions in the foundation of Mormonism. However, it was a deception and is part of the LDS canon of scriptures and of their belief system. And it adds to the evidence confirming that Smith's lifestyle was one of deception. Every single Egyptologist who has had the opportunity of comparing the Book of Abraham with the papyri from which Smith maintained he'd translated it, has declared it to be fraudulent. You can read about this in the article listed on the home page, entitled, "The Book of Abraham and its Rejection by Egyptologists."



THE REASON FOR MORMONISM

The Christian gospel is a message intended for all the inhabitants of the entire world, regardless of belief, race or creed. It tells of the amazing, indescribable love of a holy and righteous Creator God for the sinful, fallen and wayward race of mankind. In order to rescue us from both the power of sin and its terrible eternal consequences, and also to reconcile us to His righteous rulership, God (in Christ) came down to earth and took on a body of flesh, so that He could qualify as one of us in order to be our Redeemer. Then He became our substitute sin-bearer. Although He Himself knew no sin, He voluntarily paid the terrible price for our sins, on our behalf, in our place, on the cross, so that we could go free. He only laid down one condition. In order to qualify we have to identify ourselves as being "in Christ" by trusting in Him. This means that everyone, no matter what our past may have been or what may be our station in life, stands on level ground at the foot of the cross. And so there is hope for all. What a Saviour!

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16, KJV)

God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them (2 Corinthians 5:19, KJV).

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24, KJV)

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21, KJV).

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18, KJV)

Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood ..... to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5,6, KJV)

But the LDS gospel is not like that at all. Mormonism was designed specifically to draw folk away from biblical Christianity and salvation. We know that this is so because firstly, as explained earlier on, they have dressed themselves up in the guise of biblical Christianity; and secondly because their gospel is aimed solely at Christians or at folk who have been brought up in a Christian society. Very roughly, their gospel goes something like this:

In a vision God revealed to Joseph Smith that the church for which Jesus Christ had died, had became apostate shortly after the death of His apostles, Their teachings were an abomination in God's sight, so he removed his authority from the earth. But in these latter days He has restored both the true gospel and his authority to the earth, through his prophet, Joseph Smith. And as they alone have God's authority for the gospel, salvation is through the LDS alone.

As can be seen, the Mormon gospel would make no sense to anyone other than those with some sort of a Christian background or with at least a knowledge of Christianity. It's whole purpose is to create an environment where we turn away from God's way of salvation and the truths given to us in the Bible, to the deceptions taught by their false prophet, Joseph Smith.

Furthermore, if Mormons do eventually become aware of the contradictions and errors in LDS doctrines, the majority of them have been so thoroughly indoctrinated that they continue to avoid the Christian church like a plague and to consider the Bible as being unreliable. So even then Mormonism still serves its purpose. Whether he stays or whether he goes the Mormon has been indoctrinated to the extent that he is reluctant to have anything to do with what happens to be the true, biblical gospel. And what is more, because of having been so thoroughly deceived by the LDS church, he feels he can never trust anyone else again in the spiritual arena.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12, KJV)

CONCLUSION

If the reader is a Mormon I want to encourage you not to give up in your search for the truth.

Your best way forward is to begin reading the Bible in a new way, with a new attitude, giving yourself permission to accept that it is God's proven standard of truth. It's better to start with the New Testament, either with the gospels or else with one of the epistles, such as Philippians or Colossians, and to prayerfully read each book that you tackle from beginning to end, before going on to another, asking God to help you to understand what he wants you to learn from your reading for each day. It's also helpful to keep a notebook, marked with the dates and the passages read, together with what you feel God has taught you from each particular reading.

You are welcome to write to this site. The email address is at the bottom of the home page.

The following are links to some of the articles referred to above:

Corruption of the Bible is an LDS Smokescreen
The LDS Jesus Christ is Not the Saviour of the Bible
Joseph Smith's First Vision and the Controversy Surrounding It
The Apostasy is a Mormon Fallacy
LDS Authority Teaching Has No Basis
The Book of Mormon and the Witnesses Who Never Saw the Gold Plates
The Mormon Gods, Past and Present
The Book of Abraham and its Rejection by Egyptologists


Copyright 2008 by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.