SIN AND THE FALL:
MORMON AND BIBLICAL TEACHINGS CONTRASTED
This article discusses both the biblical and the LDS teachings on
sin and the fall. However, in order to avoid any misconceptions in
bridging the gap between what the Bible teaches and what Mormons
have been led to believe, we'll need to start right at the
beginning.
THE BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF SIN
Because we were made in the image of a pure and holy God, when we
live the way He created us to live we glorify Him. But when we miss
that mark we dishonour Him. All unrighteousness, disobedience,
transgressions of the law and even not doing what we ought to do
is sin, because it opposes what God stands for. But sin goes even
further than that. As the Lord Jesus explained, entertaining or
harbouring bad attitudes, evil thoughts, or wrong ideas in our
hearts is also sin because it affects and influences our judgment,
motives, and actions:
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that
which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart
bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart
his mouth speaketh. (Luke 6:45, KJV)
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the
things which defile a man ... (Matthew 15:19-20, KJV)
Then too, sin amounts to much more than wrong thoughts or actions.
It's a determination to please ourselves rather than to please God;
it's a rejection of His purposes for us, and it is a declaration of
independence that severs our natural bond with our Creator.
J. Sidlow Baxter puts it this way:
"Sin is not just a breaking of His law, but a wounding of His
heart."
THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF SIN
The Bible often illustrates hard to understand concepts by using
picture language. And in the book of Genesis, it likens involvement
in sin to the eating of forbidden fruit.
Once we've eaten a substance, it passes through our digestive tracts
and is absorbed into our systems. After that there's no turning
back. It is distributed via our blood vessels, and assimilated
by every organ in our bodies. If the substance eaten was good, the
nourishment provided will contribute to our health and quality of
life. But if it contained impurities or was tainted, its effects
will be detrimental. And if it was poisonous, the consequences will
be catastrophic.
Just so, when mankind became involved in sin, its fatal influence
permeated our entire beings like an invasive poison, affecting even
our powers of reasoning. And there was no turning back.
From that moment on, instead of seeing life through the eyes of the
righteousness of God, we viewed everything through the grid of our
fallen, corrupted 'selves.' We became self-centred, biased and
prejudiced; and this warped our judgment. The lines between right
and wrong became blurred and we could no longer clearly distinguish
between them. Truth became relative. Furthermore, our motives were no
longer what we imagined them to be, because we had become adept at
subconsciously justifying, promoting, worshipping and protecting our
'selves.' Even our very hearts deceived us:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9, KJV)
In biblical days leprosy was a fatal, wasting and infectious
disease. Lepers were compelled to leave their families, friends and
loved ones, and live in isolation. As they walked along the wayside
they had to ring a bell and shout out "unclean, unclean,"
to warn others not to come near them. And sin is like the disease of
leprosy in that it makes us unclean in God's sight; it is contagious,
and it contaminates everyone who comes into contact with it.
..... lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and
thereby many be defiled (Hebrews 12:15, KJV)
Then too, the Bible likens sin to insanity, where fallen man relates
to everything that goes on around him through the prejudiced grid of
his "self," as though he was the centre of the universe.
His "insane" attitude and actions cripple, blight and
destroy his own life, as well as the lives of others.
..... the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is
in their heart while they live ..... (Ecclesiastes 9:3, KJV)
God knows that fallen man is incapable of contributing anything
at all to his salvation. That's why compassion compelled Him to
send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to pay the horrific price for
our redemption, in our place, on the cross at Calvary.
THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE
Every command God gives us is always for our own good, and the
negative commandment He gave Adam and Eve about not eating the
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was no
different. To put it simply, God wanted them to avoid the terrible
consequences that sin always brings in its wake. He knew that once
sin had entered into their lives mankind would become a polluted,
ruined and doomed race. But instead of heeding God's warning, they
chose to believe Satan's lies.
As a consequence of their deliberate and sinful disobedience,
God cast them out of the garden of Eden. And through their fall
the whole of creation became cursed. But it didn't stop there.
Worse was to come. Mankind was never intended to die, but God
told Adam that because of his sin he'd lost his mortality. Not
only that, he would have to work by the sweat of his brow in order
to survive. Furthermore, He told Eve that her life would also
change for the worse. Childbirth would become excruciatingly
painful, and she would be subservient to her husband.
On the catastrophic day that they chose to follow Satan's
leading and disobey God, hardship, pain, suffering, heartache,
enmity, disease and death were ushered into the world.
No, sin didn't cause them to progress, as the LDS claims it did.
As they dejectedly walked out of the paradise
they had once called their home into a cursed earth, with the
sentence of death hanging over their heads, their lives went
downhill all the way.
THE LDS VERSION OF THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE
(It needs to be borne in mind that LDS teaching on sin and
the fall absolutely unbiblical, as well as their teaching on
pre-existence and on the council in heaven who supposedly planned
the fall and salvation.)
The most peculiar reasoning the LDS exhibits concerning sin and the
fall is illustrated by Assistant to the Twelve Apostles Sterling W.
Sill, when he said, regarding Adam's fall:
"Adam fell, but he fell in the right direction. He fell
toward the goal. Adam fell, but he fell upward" (Deseret News,
Church Section, 31 July 1965, page 7).
In an attempt to build up a base for their doctrine of eternal
progression, the LDS introduced their unbiblical teaching that the
forbidden fruit was sexual union between Adam and Eve, whom God
had pronounced to be man and wife. They claimed that in order
to obey God's second command, which was to multiply, Adam and Eve
were forced to disobey His first command, which was not to partake
of the forbidden fruit (which the LDS teaches was sex). They say
that this was a test that God gave them, to see whether or not they
would have the wisdom to choose the right commandment to obey, and
the right one to disobey. So in their eyes it was a wonderful
moment when Adam was wise enough to disobey God's command about the
forbidden fruit, because his "right" choice enabled the
other spirit beings who were waiting, to come down to earth so they
too could inhabit bodies of flesh and bone, in order to progress
eternally.
"Of course for this whole plan to work, physical bodies had to
be prepared in which Heavenly Father's spirit children could dwell.
Thus, the first commandment on record is the commandment to Adam and
Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Mormonism
teaches this was a greater and more important commandment than the
commandment not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and
Evil" (LDS Apostle Talmage, Articles of Faith, pages 64-65).
"There was as yet neither procreation nor death. These would
enter the scheme of things only after the fall. Adam and Eve had to
break the lesser commandment, and incur the Fall, in order to
fulfill the greater commandment." (LDS Apostle McConkie, A New
Witness for the Articles of Faith, pages 84, 91).
However, the biblical God is not devious; that is Satan's role. God
is pure, holy, righteous and true. The Bible tells us that He is
light, and that in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). He
would never ever plan for anyone to have to progress through
disobedience or sin. Besides which, because of His attribute of
righteousness, the laws of the universe that He created are moral,
in that good actions benefit us and build us up and sinful actions
degrade us. The consequences of sin are always negative or
destructive, never positive or constructive. Sin always spoils,
harms, hurts, destroys and kills. So sin or disobedience could
never be the means of improving mankind or of enabling us to
progress spiritually.
Adam and Eve were declared husband and wife by God, long before
they ate of the forbidden fruit. And God doesn't move His goalposts
concerning sin and righteousness. Truth is eternal. It never
changes. And what God has declared to be sin will always be sin.
So if procreation between a married couple had been declared
sinful whilst Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden, it
would still be a sinful act on the part of all married couples
today. But that's not what the Bible teaches. God has never ever
declared the sexual act between a married couple to be sinful,
either before or after the fall.
Then too, the very fact that He had commanded Adam and Eve to
multiply is proof in itself that it was not a sin. God stands for
all that is good, true and right, and He would never promote evil.
It would have been against all that He stands for and all that He
is, to have commanded Adam and Eve, or anyone else for that matter,
to commit a sin. And to insinuate that He had done just that is a
slur on His character, a denial of His goodness and an insult to
His integrity.
Contrary to LDS teachings about the plan of salvation, the Bible
tells us that it was not God, but Lucifer who said that partaking
of the forbidden fruit would result in Adam and Eve becoming like
God. In direct contrast, God commanded them clearly and
unequivocally not to do this, and warned them that if they
disobeyed Him, the consequences would be fatal. And when they
ignored His warning, He condemned their actions and questioned
them as to why they had done this. They never excused themselves
by saying that He had given them conflicting commands, as the LDS
insists was the case, for the simple reason that He would never
ever have done such a thing. Knowing they didn't have a leg to stand
on, and filled with shame, Adam put the blame on Eve, and Eve
blamed the serpent (Genesis 3). So God condemned all three of them.
If the fall had been part of God's plan for mankind, and if He had
been hoping that Adam and Eve would be clever enough to disobey
Him, then why did He punish them so severely for doing just that?
Only a sadist would have deliberately engineered things that
way.
Through their version of the fall, the LDS has dragged a holy and
good God of truth and righteousness down to the level of devious,
sinful man.
The primary motivation behind all sin is pride, which manifests
itself in self-will and independence from God (the very traits that
caused Satan to rebel against Him). The truth of the matter is that
the bait Satan used when he tempted Adam and Eve to follow his ways
rather than God's, was an enticement for them to join him in
his own ambitious plan to raise himself to the level where he became
like God (Isaiah 14:13-14). And Joseph Smith perpetuated
Satan's lie to the full. He actually taught the LDS that because of
Adam's act of disobedience, mankind can be enabled to progress to
godhood. Furthermore, they celebrate the fall of Adam and Eve in a
temple ceremony, with Satan playing a prominent role as though he
was a hero for having engineered the situation so that they did the
"right" thing and disobeyed God. That in itself should
ring warning bells.
This is what LDS scriptures say about the jubilation of Adam and Eve
immediately after the fall:
"And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to
prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed
be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are
opened, and in this life I shall have joy and again in the flesh I
shall see God. And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was
glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we should never have
had seed, and we should never have known good and evil, and the joy
of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all
the obedient." (Moses 5:10) (Italics inserted by the
writer.)
This verse is contradictory in that it treats
transgressing God's commandment and obedience as being one and the
same thing. It also insinuates that God is someone who promotes and
rewards disobedience. Moreover, the Mormon version of the fall
portrays God as being someone who takes a sadistic delight in
deliberately giving us conflicting commands so that we will be
forced to disobey Him, one way or the other. And then He punishes
us.
Contrary to what the LDS Book of Moses says, Adam and Eve's wrong
doing had nothing whatever to do with obeying God's command to
multiply. What is more, they knew full well that they had done
wrong. That's why they both tried to put the blame for their
disobedience on to someone else. Furthermore, the Bible tells us
that instead of feeling godlike as Satan had said they would, they
felt guilty, ashamed and fearful. They realized with hindsight
that their rebellion had been a tragic blunder, and they desperately
tried to hide from the One they had wronged, dishonoured and
disobeyed (Genesis 3:8). As a consequence of their sin they became
alienated from and lost their fellowship with their Creator, the
human race became a fallen people, and the whole of creation became
cursed.
The Bible looks upon the fall of the human race as a calamity,
but Mormons celebrate it.
Furthermore, nowhere does the Bible tell us that we had a
pre-existence as spirit beings, as the fruit of a sexual
union between God and one of His wives. Nor is eternal
progression and the need for spirit beings to take on bodies of flesh
and bone to progress, taught anywhere in the Bible. No, no no.
The Bible clearly states that God created us, and that we
were the work of his hands. But the LDS church
teaches that where the Bible says God created us, it really
means that He re-organized us. Oh my.
THE LDS JUSTIFIES SIN
Because of the deceptive LDS teachings about the fall of mankind,
Mormons don't fully understand sin or its implications so they tend
to justify it. LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote:
"The fall of Adam and Eve was not a sin but an essential act
upon which mortality depends" (President Joseph Fielding Smith,
Answers to Gospel Questions, Volume 5, page 15).
"I never speak of the part Eve took in this fall as a sin, nor
do I accuse Adam of a sin ...... This was a transgression of the
law, but not a sin in the strict sense, for it was something that
Adam and Eve had to do!" (Doctrines of Salvation, volume 1,
pages 114, 115)
However, 1 John 3:4 directly contradicts this last quote from LDS's
own Doctrines of Salvation, by stating that sin and
transgression of the law are one and the same thing:
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the
transgression of the law.(1 John 3:4, KJV)
And if Adam and Eve did not actually sin, as is claimed in the
first quote above, why were they cursed with death?
For the wages of sin is death ..... (Romans 6:23, KJV).
THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT FALLEN MAN IS BORN A SINNER
The Bible teaches that the whole of the human race has inherited
a sin bias, due to the fall. But LDS opposes
that teaching:
"Divine justice forbids that we be accounted sinners solely
because our parents transgressed" (Apostle James Talmage,
Articles of Faith, page 475).
However, we are not accounted sinners solely because our parents
transgressed. We sin because we have inherited fallen natures, and
we are accounted sinners because we sin.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned
(Romans 5:12, KJV).
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans
3:23, KJV)
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word
is not in us. (1 John 1:10, KJV)
The LDS also maintains that children are born sinless. But their
teaching in this regard is proved wrong by the undeniable fact that
all babies are born self-centred. Furthermore, as they grow into
childhood it soon becomes obvious that they are naturally inclined
to be selfish, willful, dishonest and disobedient. They have to be
disciplined not to be that way. And this is an uphill battle.
Another LDS misconception is that by nature man is inclined to
righteousness:
"It is fully proved in all the revelations that God has given
to mankind that they naturally love and admire righteousness,
justice and truth more than they do evil. It is, however,
universally received by professors of religion as a Scriptural
doctrine that man is naturally opposed to God. It is not so."
(Journal of Discourses 9:305)
Regarding the above, the writer has personally never ever seen a
single revelation of God that intimates that mankind is naturally
inclined to righteousness. On the contrary, the Bible is full of
God's revelations that tell us not only that man is an incorrigible
sinner, but that he was born that way. Nowhere does the Bible teach
that fallen man is naturally good.
As far as the LDS denial that man is naturally opposed to God is
concerned, the Bible reveals that fallen man is born
self-centred, not God-centred. He sees and reacts to
everything in life through the grid of his corrupted
"self," as though he was the kingpin of the universe,
which is the place that by rights belongs to God alone. In other
words he usurps God by denying Him His sovereign right to
be central and supreme. And because of his fallenness, even if he
wants to, man finds it impossible to remove himself from that
central, dominant, position in his life.
The only man in the entire world who was selfless and who lived a
completely God-centred life, was the Lord Jesus Christ. And there
was a reason for that. He didn't inherit a fallen nature,
because he was miraculously conceived by a virgin through the
power of the Holy Spirit. And that is exactly why Mary's
conception had to be that way. It was a divine, miraculous event,
where Christ's embryo was supernaturally formed inside Mary's
womb, bypassing the use of her ova, which contained her genes.
Mary was only Christ's surrogate mother, not His biological
mother (as the LDS so very wrongly teaches she was).
This is why when Christ was unjustly treated, maligned, insulted,
falsely accused, and so on, he never ever responded as a fallen
man would have done, with self-centred displays such as anger,
hurt feelings, resentment, sulking, bitterness, bad attitudes,
threats or thoughts of revenge, and so on. The only time He
showed anger was when it was righteous to do so, i.e. when the
courts of the temple, that were supposed to have been set aside
for prayer and worship, were being used for commercial purposes,
and so on. He lived to do the will of God alone, and his life was
totally God-centred.
Contrary to LDS teaching that man is by nature inclined to
righteousness, the Bible tells us that at one stage God became
so fed up with the human race because of their inherent evil bent
that He wiped out the then entire population of the world, except
for Noah and his family. Listen to how He described fallen
mankind's natural inclination to sin:
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both
man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air;
for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:5-8, KJV)
But that wasn't the solution, because in no time at all Noah himself
was overcome by sin, as were his sons (Genesis 9:20-25).
When one reads how many times God had declared fallen man to have a
corrupt heart throughout the Bible, it is difficult to understand
where the LDS gets the idea that mankind is basically good. Another
example of God declaring mankind to be basically corrupt happened
directly after the flood. When dry land first appeared, Noah built
an altar and offered a sacrifice, whereupon God pronounced that
although man's heart is evil from his youth, this would never again
cause him to destroy the entire population of the earth:
And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean
beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the
altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his
heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake;
for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;
neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have
done. (Genesis 8:20-21, KJV) (Italics inserted by writer.)
When we look at the violence, corruption, immorality and perversion
that fills the world today, it becomes obvious that mankind hasn't
changed at all. We've just become more clever and sophisticated,
and more perverted too, at doing what is sinful. The awful truth of
the matter is that if the sinful bent in man was not restrained,
chaos would reign supreme. Our overflowing prison cells and choked
up law courts are a testimony to this fact.
And if we were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that we
too would be capable of these self-same evil deeds if the
circumstances were compelling enough and we were sufficiently
tempted or provoked or had reached the necessary stage of
desperation/anger/desire/loss of self control, or whatever. That's
why in John 8:3-9, when they confronted the Lord Jesus with a woman
who had been caught in the act of adultery, His response was to
invite anyone who was without sin to cast the first stone at her.
Her accusers were religious, God-fearing people, who lived according
the very strict laws and ordinances of Judaism, yet they all walked
away, one by one, as their consciences smote them.
BIBLICAL TEACHING ON SIN
The biblical teaching is that we are all born with an inherited
sinful bias in our natures, due to the fall of our ancestor, Adam:
I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
(Psalm 51:5, KJV)
..... the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth
Genesis 8:21, KJV)
..... the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and
insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives (Ecclesiastes
9:3, KJV)
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to
see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They
are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there
is none that doeth good [continually], no, not one. (Psalm
14:2-3, KJV)
If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth
not,) ...... (1 Kings 8:46, KJV)
For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and
sinneth not. (Ecclesiastes 7:20, KJV)
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
(Proverbs 20:9, KJV)
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word
is not in us. (1 John 1:10, KJV)
Until we become convinced of our helpless state of sinfulness that
has come about because of the fall, we will never reach the place
of utter humility where we are not only prepared, but eager, to
fully and completely surrender ourselves to Christ for salvation.
This involves abdicating all faith in religion, in ourselves and
in our own futile abilities, and transferring that faith to Christ
instead. But in order to be able to do this, we need to understand,
without a shadow of a doubt, that there is nothing good in us and
that without Christ we are doomed. In other words, our pride needs
to be broken. (Pride is the basis of all sin.)
SIN FORMS A BARRIER BETWEEN US AND GOD
Sin is the cause of all the injustice, lawlessness, cruelty,
violence, immorality, perversion and heart-rending suffering that
we see in the world today. But its most devastating consequence
is that it separates us from our Creator. How could a pure,
righteous holy and good God in whom there is no darkness condone
or tolerate sin in any form, or even associate with anyone who
does?
Can two walk together, except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3, KJV)
Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on
iniquity (Habakkuk 1:13, KJV).
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
(Isaiah 59:2, KJV).
SINFULNESS IS AN INNER CONDITION
Because sin is subtle, we often don't recognize it as such. For
instance, on the outside, the lives of the Pharisees looked good.
They were the authorities on righteous living and set an example by
obeying their religious laws, tithing on everything they possessed,
giving to the poor, attending all the religious services, fasting
and praying, and so on. But Jesus explained that it was our hearts
that mattered, not just our external actions. He said that on the
outside the Pharisees were like a beautiful, sparkling, clean cup,
but that on the inside they were tainted with sin; corrupt and
putrid, like a rotting corpse (Matthew 23:27-28).
And we're no different. We've learned to be good
hypocrites. We're nice, congenial and civilized on the outside, but
all the while our hearts and thought life are filled with things
that should not be there. And our motives are often wrong. In many
instances the real, deeply hidden reason behind our actions is that
we want others to have a good impression of us (the sin of
pride/self-worship). And not only do we fool them, but we also pull
the wool over own eyes. We wrongly imagine that our motives are
always pure, because we've become adept at worshipping, justifying,
nurturing and protecting our "self". As Pogo so wisely
said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
SIN HAS CONSEQUENCES
Just as there is a law of gravity that decrees that everything we
drop will fall downwards and not upwards, so there is also a moral
law that decrees that our actions are always followed by
consequences.
Some people insist that their sin doesn't hurt anyone. But they're
wrong. Sin doesn't only affect the guilty parties. Our actions,
whether good or bad, have a ripple effect that touches the lives
of a great many others. And all too often innocent folk are
negatively influenced, discouraged, hurt, or even have their
lives ruined, because of our sinful actions. The problem is that
because of our self-centred way of reasoning, we're seldom aware of
the traumatic affect our actions and/or attitudes have on others.
GOD IS GOING TO JUDGE SIN
J. Sidlow Baxter comments as follows:
"It is inconceivable that the all-holy God should govern His
universe with even the slightest moral laxity. If the principles of
absolute righteousness were not strictly upheld, there could be no
true heaven; the universe would become a moral chaos, if not an
inferno. The very safety of the universe depends upon the inflexible
righteousness of the divine administration. Sin, whether in Satan
and his angel-confederates, or in the human race, is not only moral
leprosy, it is ugly enmity against Him who is pure light and
love." (Page 91, "Awake My Heart," by J. Sidlow
Baxter)
God has decreed that there will be no sin in heaven. Otherwise it
wouldn't be heaven, would it? He has set aside a day when He will
judge sin and consign every trace of it to hell. With this in mind
He made a colossal sacrifice to provide a way for fallen man to
escape that judgment and to become conformed once again to His
moral likeness. Those who scorn His infinite sacrifice will
bring the judgment of hell down upon themselves.
Sadly, because of LDS indoctrination, Mormons have been
conditioned to believe Joseph Smith's claim that, in spite of
everything that the Bible teaches to the contrary; they need to,
and are able to earn the right to the forgiveness of their own
personal sins through obedience to the laws and ordinances of
the LDS gospel (plus righteous living). Firstly this scorns
the way of salvation that God has provided for us at a colossal
cost, through Christ. And secondly, if it was possible for us to
earn our own forgiveness, why then does the Bible teach that
Christ died to earn the forgiveness for our sins on the cross?
(1 Peter 2:24)
Because of the LDS teaching on the three degrees of glory Mormons
console themselves with the thought that even if they don't make
it to the highest degree of glory, they'll still be okay. They
have been led to believe that even the lowest degrees of glory
is more wonderful than anything we could ever imagine. And so
they are under the false impression that this wonderful place
they call the lowest degree of glory, is the worst that could
possibly await them in eternity. But the three degrees of
glory is a false teaching that will not be found in the pages of
the Bible. Nor was it ever taught by the apostles or the
primitive church. (For a fully referenced discussion on
this subject see The Three Degrees of
Glory.)
The truth of the matter is that Mormons are not following God's
chosen way of salvation for fallen mankind. They have elected to
turn their backs on what the Bible says, and instead to put
their faith in Joseph Smith and his teachings. And so they will
have to face God's judgment for their personal sins.
I am asking Mormons to carefully consider what is written in this
article, bearing in mind that the Bible has been proved over and
over again to be truthful and reliable both historically and
archaeologically. Conversely, nothing out of all the massive
amount of evidence that is still being unearthed today, has ever
proved anything in the biblical record to be wrong. On the other
hand, no proof has ever been found that backs up Mormon scriptures
or teachings. Where we do have available evidence that can be
verified, such as in the case of the Egyptian papyri from which
Joseph Smith "translated" the book of Abraham,
reputable scholars all agree that his translation is fraudulent
(see The Book of Abraham and its Rejection
by Egyptologists and Scholars.) And the Book of Mormon has
been proved by archeologists and scholars who have no religious
agenda, as being a work of fiction (see The
Book of Mormon Exposed .)
The following are links to articles from this site, on salvation:
What is Biblical Salvation?
Biblical Salvation and the Way of Christ
The Necessity for Salvation and the Story Behind It
You are invited to contact the writer if you have any queries,
or if you would like to discuss any problems you may have. My email
address is:
reply@bibtruth.com
Copyright 2007 by Mormonism and Biblical Truth. All rights reserved.