HOW THE LDS DETERMINES TRUTH

Mormons are taught to put their faith in their feelings. But discerning truth by using our feelings as a gauge is very dicey thing to do. There is no logic in it at all. Our feelings are notoriously unreliable, as they are easily influenced by virtually anything and everything that goes on around us. Not only that, the Bible warns us that our hearts are deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9), and it's all too easy to imagine that something we want to be true, really is so.

Nevertheless, putting their faith in their feelings is the way Mormons are taught to gain a testimony. They are told to read the Book of Mormon and then to pray, asking God to let them know if it's true. They're assured that if they are sincere in their prayer, the Spirit will give them confirmation of its truth through a warm feeling in their bosom. But this is a catch nine situation because if they don't experience this feeling, then the insinuation is that they weren't sincere in their prayer, because the likelihood of the Book of Mormon not being true doesn't come into the equation.

Auto suggestion is a powerful thing. And after a certain amount of prayer there will always be those who do believe they have this warm feeling in their hearts. They are counselled never to forget that moment. Furthermore, if anyone ever questions Mormonism they are instructed to bear their testimony, and are even given the approximate wording that it should take:

"I believe that Joseph Smith is the true prophet of God, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God, and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

Somewhere along the way the testimony about the Book of Mormon has transformed itself into a testimony about everything else in Mormonism as well. And once they have it, Mormons are warned both about the dire consequences of losing their testimony and of the necessity of nurturing and safeguarding it. If anything makes them question their faith in the LDS church, or in Mormonism, or in Joseph Smith, they are taught to regurgitate their testimonies. They are told not to listen to or to read anything that is critical of Mormonism. And their missionaries are instructed to immediately bear their testimonies if anyone opposes the LDS gospel on their rounds. This effectively reinforces their minds with the data that Mormonism is the truth and at the same time nullifies anything that may have suggested otherwise.

Then too, on the first Sunday of every month, members of the congregation are expected to stand up at the Fast and Testimony Meeting and bear their testimonies to the truthfulness of the Mormon gospel. Once again, and this time on regular monthly basis, and for quite a lengthy stretch of time, they all reinforce their minds collectively, over and over again with the LDS mantra that Mormonism is the truth, that Joseph Smith is the true prophet of God and that the LDS is the only true church. Eventually, for most Mormons, it becomes second nature to rely on their testimonies each time there is any kind of doubt about, or opposition to LDS beliefs.

Repetition is a well know and successful form of brainwashing. And this constant going on and on about believing in the truthfulness of the LDS gospel both by themselves and their fellow Mormons, gets them to the place where, no matter how much concrete evidence there is to the contrary, they will automatically ignore this, and accept whatever the LDS teaches them as being true and right. They no longer feel the need, or have the desire, to use their God-given discernment or common sense. Right or wrong, their faith is firmly fixed on the LDS church.



PRAYING AGAINST GOD'S REVEALED WILL

God has given us the Bible as His standard of truth against which to measure all else. In Ephesians 6:10-17 the Apostle Paul refers to it as a spiritual sword to be used as a weapon to protect ourselves against spiritual deception.

Besides contradicting the teachings of the Bible, such as the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, the Book of Mormon also declares that anyone who thinks the Bible of itself is adequate as a spiritual guide is a fool (2 Nephi 29:6, 10). That derogatory statement is a direct attack on the Bible. And it automatically places the Book of Mormon firmly into the category of spiritual deception, because God has already told us not only that His Word is adequate, but that we should use it as our standard of truth against which to test all other spiritual teachings. So there is no need for us to have to pray to Him in order to find out whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. We already have the answer. The fact that it denigrates the Bible and contradicts its teachings, tells us that it is not truth.

In light of the above, asking God to give us confirmation of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon is equivalent to telling Him that we would rather trust in Joseph Smith and his Book of Mormon, than trust in what He Himself has already told us in the Bible He has given us, to use as our standard of truth.

There's a theme running through the Bible to the effect that when we ignore what God has told us, He "gives us over" to our own foolishness. In Psalm 81:12 He puts it like this: "So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart".

And God is no different today. When we insist on relying on our own feelings and fulfilling our own desires rather than following His Word, He gives us over to the stubbornness of our hearts. This is what happened to the nation of Israel. Each time they were out of His revealed will, God took His hand of guidance and protection off of them and left them to their own disastrous devices. And in the same way, folk who trust in doctrines and literature that oppose what God has already revealed to us so clearly in the Bible, open themselves up to deeper and deeper involvement in spiritual deception and error.



THE CONSEQUENCES OF MORMON INDOCTRINATION

To illustrate just how effective Mormon indoctrination is and also how God gives us over to our own devices when we ignore His warnings in the Bible, the following is an extract of an email I received from a Mormon missionary who had been sent home from his mission on sick leave. He wrote to tell me that I couldn't have been sincere in my prayer life, otherwise I would have known that Mormonism was true. He went on to say:

"I have found that I must pray over and over until I am definite that what I am feeling is right and in accordance to the teachings of the [Mormon] gospel. Just as in schoolwork, you can't be studying for a math test and expect to memorize formulas perfectly if you only study it one time. It takes repetition ......."

This poor Mormon soul prays over and over again until his feelings eventually fall into line with LDS teachings; a perfect example of the fruit of successful brainwashing. He no longer has the desire to think logically or freely, and when the truth stares him in the face, he smothers it to death.

Bear in mind that one cannot reason with a person who refuses to think logically. But isn't this the whole objective of brainwashing — the control of the minds of its victims?



DETERMINING WHAT IS OR IS NOT TRUTH

The logical way to determine whether a supposed historical record is "true" would be to conduct a proper investigation into its origins, and to consider whatever credible evidence there is, that gives support to the content of the book. As it is, many of the claims made in the Book of Mormon have been proved to be untrue, such as the existence of certain animals, plants and metals, as well as the ancestry of the American Indians, and so on. Furthermore, despite the length of time this book has been in existence, no archeological evidence has ever been discovered to verify its truthfulness, even although it describes an advanced civilization that had architecture and industries, as well as a monetary system that used coins.

Furthermore, concerning its origins, the witnesses who signed sworn testimonies (that were composed by Joseph Smith) claiming to have seen the inscribed gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was supposedly translated, freely admitted that they hadn't seen these plates physically, but only in a dreamlike or visionary way. And nobody else saw them either, not even the supposed translator, Joseph Smith. Whilst they were kept hidden out of sight, he "translated" them by putting his head inside his hat, peering at an occultic seer stone, and then dictating whatever the stone revealed to him.

This means that far from having been translated, the contents of the Book of Mormon were supposedly "revealed" to him in a series of visions through his occultic seer stone. Nevertheless, Joseph deliberately lied, maintaining that he had "translated" the Book of Mormon from inscriptions on gold plates that had been given to him by an angel of God. All the scribes who had assisted him by recording the contents of the Book of Mormon as he had dictated it, insisted that Joseph had said that if anyone, including himself, so much as looked at the gold plates, they would be struck dead. Accordingly, not once during his supposed translation did he so much as glance at the gold plates. (See the relevant link provided at the bottom of this page.)

Joseph Smith had a track record of heavy involvement in the occult, and prior to starting up the LDS church had earned his living by deception, promising to divine the whereabouts of hidden treasure that never materialized, also through the use of this same occultic seer stone. Bear in mind that the Bible puts the occult into the same classification as witchcraft, spiritism and idolatry, as they are all influenced by evil spirits.

To conclude, there is nothing that verifies the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. On the opposite side of the scale, there is much that indicates that it is not what it is claimed to be, and its origins are highly suspect.

In order to get this conclusion into its right perspective, we need to compare the lack of proof of the legitimacy of the Book of Mormon with the mass of evidence available that proves the accuracy of the Bible. Although the Book of Mormon disparages the Bible and the LDS continually throws stones at it, insisting that it is full of errors and omissions (because it contradicts their doctrines), literally every time an archeologist digs a hole in Israel he comes up with still more evidence confirming the truthfulness of the biblical record. And nothing has yet come to light that proves anything in the Bible to be in error.

The following is the link to the article on the Book of Mormon, giving detailed information about the testimonies of the witnesses, and the explanation of his scribes who recorded the book, about how Joseph Smith "translated" it:

The Book of Mormon and the Witnesses Who Never Saw the Gold Plates


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