“Why are you guys against the Mormon Church?” Facts vs. Feelings
View PDF Tract / The Older The Bolder – Marshall Almarode
A Visit by the Mormon Missionaries
Discernment is the ability to tell right from wrong. One day, I saw two Mormon missionaries and gave each one of my brochures. That evening they called at my foster son’s apartment door. The question that one of them continued to ask was, “Why would you be so against a church that did so many good things?” Our answer was that we were not against helping people in humanitarian aid, we were against the Mormon Church theologically. Our key interest in talking with Mormons is theological, not secular. Greg stated that we would agree with Mormons in helping the poor. The one thing we disagree with them about is theology.
Facts or Feelings?
One of the missionaries told us that he knew that the Mormon Church was true because his feelings told him so. We pointed out that his feelings are not facts. If the Book of Mormon teaches a different Jesus Christ, and a person has the feeling that this false Jesus is true, the feelings can’t change the facts. In this case, the Mormon missionary would feel he was right, but the fact is he would be wrong. The bottom line with feelings is everyone has them, and if we allow feelings to determine truth then there are as many different truths as there are different feelings. When we look at facts, there can be only one truth. When the real facts are known, it is easy to discern that all other opinions and feelings are different, and therefore not factual and therefore false.
Each individual has his own feelings and opinions, and each individual is the expert of his own feelings. Everyone is correct in his own mind regardless of the truth. This is why there are so many different religions that claim to be the one true religion. The missionaries were not able to point out any facts that would substantiate that the Book of Mormon was true, they just wanted us to get the feeling that it was true. We pointed out that the facts lead us to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon teaches a different Jesus and a different gospel. True Christians go to the Bible for their source of truth. This is because we believe that it is God’s inspired Word, and it has been vindicated historically (prophesies) and archeologically (discovery of cities and written documents) over the years. The Bible is the bottom line by which true Christians determine God’s absolute truth. It is also our standard for exposing and refuting false doctrine which attacks the Body of Christ. (Eph. 5:11, Titus 1:9, Jude 3).
Did You Pray About the Book of Mormon?
We were asked repeatedly if we had prayed about the Book of Mormon. I answered that I had, and that God had showed me that the Book of Mormon was wrong and why. This agitated the Mormon missionaries to no end. I explained that I didn’t know if the book was true and needed to know. My Mormon buddy (Mark McAllister) challenged me to pray about it. I did that and asked God to send me people from both sides. I wanted to hear from the experts on both sides of the issue. I wanted to know why it was true or why it was false. From that day forward, I wanted to know reasons for my faith. I heard The God Makers movie and listened to the Mormon missionaries as they gave me some of the missionary lessons.
I noticed right away that the Mormons seemed to be afraid of questions. They didn’t seem to want anyone to check out anything in depth. The only thing that they seemed to care about was me gaining a testimony that the Book of Mormon was true. As I studied in the Book of Mormon I found problems. The missionaries and others like the bishop and his wife wanted to ignore every problem that was in the Book of Mormon.
Did You Read the Book of Mormon?
We were asked repeatedly if we had read the Book of Mormon. Greg had read the Book of Mormon; I had not. The missionaries became agitated that we had not come up with their answer – that it was true. They tried to tell me that the reason that I didn’t believe in the Book of Mormon was that I hadn’t read it. They challenged me to read it. I asked if that was a requirement.
They said, “Yea.”
I asked, “Does everyone have to read the whole Book of Mormon before they can join?”
They said, “No.”
I stated that it was obviously not a requirement then. I then took them to their own scriptures and quoted Moroni 10:4. “When you have received these things” (the Book of Mormon). All that is required is to receive the book, which I did. Verse 4 goes on to tell the reader, “I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true.” I told them that if they asked according to the scriptures when they got the burning in the bosom that would be confirmation that the book was NOT true. This is why they got a different answer than I did, because they prayed wrong – for the positive, not the negative. They stayed and discussed the Book of Mormon with us for about an hour. Their frustration increased as the time went on because we knew specifically verse by verse why we did not believe that the Book of Mormon was from God. We had more examples than they had ever seen before. Greg and I quoted verse after verse from the Book of Mormon that even they did not believe. Yet they told us that they knew that the Book of Mormon was true and was a gift from God. They didn’t like us asking them which verses that they thought were false and not from God. They also didn’t like us asking them why they hadn’t studied the Book of Mormon. Why had they just accepted the book as coming from God without checking it out carefully for themselves to be sure?
Why So Many Changes if It Came from God?
When I asked about the changes in the different versions of the Book of Mormon they denied that there were any changes except for punctuation. I pointed out that the reason that they didn’t think that there were any words changed was because they had blindly believed what they were told.
I pointed to my eyes and said, “See these eyes? These eyes have seen the changes and that is why I know that they are there.”
I told them that the original version had many mistakes in it and one of the most obvious ones was concerning King Benjamin and King Mosiah. On page 200 of the original version, King Benjamin appears and seems to have a gift from God. The problem is that he had died many pages earlier, and the present King was Mosiah. Joseph changed this error in the 1837 version. I told them that there were seven versions of the Book of Mormon and the dates were 1830, 1837, 1840, 1842, 1879, 1920, and 1981.
I asked them a question, “Why would man have to change a book that God had translated through His gift and power? Do God’s gift and power work imperfectly? Can God make errors or sin? Can anything God does end up wrong? Does man have to fix the things that God does because God makes mistakes?” Not my God. My God never sins.
Don’t Stand Against False Religions!
The missionaries’ next tactic was to complain about saying that another religion was wrong. They thought that we weren’t supposed to be against another religion. I pointed out that Joseph Smith proclaimed in his first vision that all the other churches were wrong and were teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. For them, it was okay for Joseph Smith to state that all the other churches were wrong because that was the truth. He was just quoting Jesus. Well then, if it was right for Jesus to warn others about false religions, then it was right for His followers to follow Him by doing the same. I was just telling the truth about Mormonism. The truth is, it’s false. Of course, they didn’t want to hear that.
The Biggest Problem with Mormonism
They have chosen the wrong source of truth. To sound legitimate, they have chosen a section of Scripture and taken it out of context. Ezekiel 37 talks about two sticks. God gives the interpretation further down the page. These two sticks represent two kingdoms that eventually become one. The Mormon Church claims that these sticks represent the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The most obvious and glaring problem with this is that the Mormon Church has more than two sources for their truth. Their five sources are the Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Doctrine and Covenants, The Pearl of Great Price, and the words of the prophet and his apostles when they speak in conference. These five scriptures would need to be represented by five sticks. If this prophesy were prophesying the restoration of the true Scriptures, then the Mormon Church is not the fulfillment of this prophesy because it has too many “sticks.” Obviously, the restoration of the true church by the coming forth of the Book of Mormon is not a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophesy of two sticks coming together to become one.
Typically, Mormons Don’t See Truth
Their eyes are blinded. The Mormons have some similarities with some of the people of Jesus’s time. Matthew 13:15 says, “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
If Mormonism Were True?
They would have more confidence if Mormonism were true. Many Mormons have told me that they have never met anyone with so much confidence. I have a standing challenge for any and every Mormon to a public debate on Mormon theology. This challenge has been offered for over fifteen years. No Mormon dares take me up on this because he will be proved wrong in public. Deep down inside, all Mormons know that Mormonism is indefensible. They just have a hard time admitting it. They have chosen the wrong source of truth – Joseph Smith and his books and words, rather than Jesus and His words. They have chosen the wrong God and the wrong gospel. Their God has a father who has a father and so on. This is the false gospel of eternal progression that their own leaders are starting to deny in public. Most Mormons that I talk to now initially deny this teaching in public. When I ask, “Can you become a god someday if you really try hard to follow the gospel?”
They say, “No. We cannot become Gods.”
This is in direct contradiction to all the prophets and apostles of the Mormon Church.
Joseph Smith taught, “In the resurrection, some are raised to be angels, others are raised to become Gods” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 312).
Joseph also said, “God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!” (History of the Church, vol. 6, p. 305)
Was God once a man? Can man become a god? Mormons are ashamed of their God and their gospel, and do not want to answer these questions in private nor in public. Again, I challenge any and every Mormon priesthood holder to a public debate. Where are the Mormons to stand up for their God and their gospel? Call me. True Christians are not ashamed of the true God and His true gospel.
