Have You Heard “The Rest of the Story?” Is Something Missing? A Non-Member Tells the Truth About the Mormon Jesus
View PDF Tract / The Older The Bolder – Marshall Almarode
The standard Mormon Testimony contains six main elements. “(1) I know that the (2) Book of Mormon is true, that (3) Joseph Smith is a true Prophet, that the (4) Mormon Church is the true church, and that (5) we are led by a true prophet today, I say these things (6) in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
Valid Testimony from Eyewitness Only
Notice the standard Mormon testimony starts with the words, “I know,” not “I believe.” When a person is not an eyewitness, “I know” is not appropriate because the person was not truly there. “I believe” is more honest. Believe is much like a verdict made in court, and is based on a random decision or, more credibly, on available information. All investigations into the truthfulness of any position are analyzed through scrutinizing all the available facts, much like a court case. An intelligent verdict is based on investigating the available evidence. Only One Way to Determine the Truth
Determining if “the Book of Mormon is true” can only be accomplished by reading, analyzing, and studying the Book of Mormon and then comparing its teachings to the Bible. The Mormon Church does not use “the Credible Evidence” method when teaching its converts and its members. The Mormon method requires assuming that the Book of Mormon is true and then praying for a feeling to verify it. After they pray, they are told to wait for a feeling that it is true. This feeling is called a “burning in the bosom.” The Mormon method encourages the potential convert to come to the conclusion that the Mormon Church is true based on feelings and assumptions. The person is encouraged to think, “Because I had a feeling, the Mormon Church is true, no matter what the facts are.” If one gets a feeling that the Book of Mormon is true, then it must be true. There is little room for study here. The Mormon Church uses this position of predetermined truth instead of searching for evidence that would reveal the truth or fallacy of Mormonism. Factual investigation to find verifiable archeological evidence that would substantiate sites in the Book of Mormon, for instance, is discouraged. Thus, a search for knowledge outside of feelings is discouraged.
Determine the Truth About Joseph Smith?
The same principle applies when finding out if “Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God.” An eyewitness is the type of testimony that is accepted in court. Second-hand testimonies (people who weren’t there) are called hearsay and are not admissible in court. The people who personally knew Joseph Smith are long dead. Joseph Smith died in June 1844, so no one today can have an eyewitness testimony of anything about Joseph Smith, because he or she was not there when it happened. The information can only be gathered by reading firsthand accounts written by those who were there. Using their own personal feelings makes their testimonies based on assumptions made over one hundred years after the facts. Mormonism teaches that if one gets a feeling that Joseph Smith is a true prophet, then he must be a true prophet. The logic goes like this, if I pray and then feel, then I know. There is no room for study here, either.
I Know?
“I know that the Mormon Church is the true Church and we are lead by a true living prophet.” These two statements are largely based on the previous two statements. The logic: if the Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith is really a true prophet then this church must be true and therefore, the current Mormon prophet must also be a true prophet.
Wrong Focus
“I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” This ending makes the testimony sound Christian with a stamp of approval straight from Jesus. The problem is that there has been no discussion of the identity of the Mormon Jesus. The Mormon testimony only mentions Jesus’ name in closing but does not introduce us to the Mormon Jesus. The standard Mormon testimony is of Joseph Smith, his book, his church and his successors. A true Christian testimony is of the biblical Jesus Christ and how He has saved His followers who believe and trust in Him for their salvation. Mormons claim to be Christian, but their testimony of Jesus reveals something very different. Because their definition of Jesus is different than what biblical Christians believe, hearing a real Mormon testimony of Jesus is very rare. They seldom mention that their Jesus walked on the American continent and picked out 12 more apostles. They almost never admit that their God had sex with his daughter, Mary, to form the body of their Jesus.
The Mormon Testimony of Jesus!
Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie summarized the Mormon testimony of Jesus in his book The Promised Messiah. “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? (Matt. 22:42) The true and revealed answer is: Christ is the Son of God and he has been so designated from the beginning to show the personal, intimate, family relationship that exists between him and his Father” (p 471). His testimony is that Mary’s son is God’s Son; that he was conceived and begotten in the normal way; that he took upon himself mortality by the natural birth processes; that he inherited the power of mortality from his mother and the power of immortality from his Father … This is their testimony as to his generation and mission.” (p. 472)
In his book, Mormon Doctrine, he states, “God the Father is a perfected, glorified, holy Man, an immortal Personage. And Christ was born into the world as the literal Son of this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of events, for he is the Son of God, and that designation means what it says.” (Mormon Doctrine, p.742, also see pages 155, 547)
Many other prophets and apostles have stated the same thing. Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p 218, Brigham Young; Journal of Discourses vol. 19, p 319, and The Seer, p 158 – Orson Pratt; Defense of the Faith of the Saints, vol. 2, p 268 – B.H. Roberts; The Family Home Evening Manual of 1972, p 124-127 – Joseph Fielding Smith, Joseph F. Smith, Herald B. Lee; Jesus The Christ, p 81 – James Talmage, commissioned by the Twelve Apostles; The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p 7.
Mormon Reaction – Deny and Lie
Mormons accept this teaching that God the Father had sex with his daughter whenever taught by Mormon Church leaders and in official church publications. When nonmembers quote these same references, Mormons deny the teachings and claim that “they have never heard of this teaching,” and “the Mormon Church has never taught that.”
A young convert named Clinton called us all liars because we told him of this teaching, so he asked his Mormon leadership and they denied it. This lasted about five years until one evening I invited him to a photocopy session with me. I copied over twenty different pages from as many official Mormon Church books. That evening, he discovered that it was the Mormons who were lying to him and he got out of the Mormon Church. It wasn’t until someone showed him the official books that he finally realized who the liars really were.
Using Deception to Gain Converts?
Using deception to gain converts is not God’s way, it is the Devil’s way. The Book of Mormon occasionally agrees with the Bible, and this is one issue they agree on. 1 Nephi 14:10 states, “Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil.” God would never instruct members of His true church to use deception to gain converts.
Leaving Out Key Gospel Teachings?
Mormons claim to be Christian but they rarely give a testimony of their Mormon Jesus. The reason may be that their testimony of the Mormon Jesus reveals something very different. Over the years, I have found many Mormons deny the official teachings of Mormon prophets and apostles concerning the identity of their Mormon God and his Son, and the teaching concerning Eternal Progression and God’s intercourse with his daughter. Do you think the Mormon leaders are now ashamed of how their Jesus was physically formed in the womb of Mary? Try asking a Mormon if the Mormon God is a resurrected man who had sex with his daughter, Mary, to form Jesus. “No” is a lie, so don’t accept it. The Mormon missionaries will never be totally honest when they leave out this testimony of their Jesus when they bear their testimony. If Mormons would just tell the truth the first time, nonmembers would not have to tell “the rest of the story.”