The Mormon Mirage

Hank Hanegraaff of the Christian Research Institute (CRI) has been a diligent worker and voice within mainstream Christian apologetics. For almost 25 years he has been a mainstay on his daily "Bible Answer Man" radio broadcast which was inherited by the founder of CRI, the late Dr. Walter Martin.

Though at times controversial, Hank never fails to deliver an answer for the hope that lies within with gentleness and with respect. Recently he delivered the following regarding the religion and the belief system of the emerging leading republican presidential candidate Mit Romney:

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"How Mormon am I?" Mitt Romney responded to a journalist from The Atlantic in 2005, during his first run for President of the United States. "You know, the principles and values taught to me by faith are values I aspire to live by and are as American as motherhood and apple pie. My faith believes in family, believes in Jesus Christ... And I'm not perfect, but I'm one aspiring to be a good person as defined by the biblical Judeo-Christian standards..."

It sounds pretty good, but then, it's supposed to. For decades, Mormon leadership has made a concerted effort to win over Americans by making it appear Mormons hold the same basic tenets as Christians. In fact, they are obscuring the face of Mormonism through the manufacture of a Mormon mirage.

• Jesus Christ was conceived by sexual intercourse between God and the Virgin Mary.

• The Bible is filled with errors and superseded by the Book of Mormon and the words of all Mormon prophets.

• God was once human like us, dwelling on earth, and "became God" through faith and good works, just as we can do ourselves.

• Jesus' death and resurrection secured only the opportunity for us to attain salvation through our own good works — salvation is not by faith in Christ.

• ..and much, much more that contradicts the explicit teaching of God's Word.

If we can't understand and articulate these differences, we too can be taken in by the Mormon mirage... and be unable to share the truth in love with Mormons as God provides opportunities. But with Romney prominent in the 2012 presidential campaign, the Mormon Church's vested interest in obscuring these crucial points is at its height.

That's why I've taken the actual teachings of Mormons themselves, from Joseph Smith to current leaders,  and distilled them into an important new resource to help you grasp the essential doctrinal differences between Mormonism and Christianity: the Memorable Keys to the M-O-R-M-O-N Mirage flipchart 

He goes on to say:

Recently, Mitt Romney affirmed Joseph Smith's millennial beliefs that Jesus will reign in Independence, Missouri:

"Throughout the Bible Christ appears in Jerusalem, splits the Mount of Olives to stop the war that's coming in to kill all the Jews. Our church believes that.We also believe that over the thousand years that follows, the Millennium, He will reign from two places, that the law will come forth from one place, in Missouri, and the other will be in Jerusalem."

Romney's explicit affirmation of Mormon eschatology is particularly disturbing in light of another prophecy by Joseph Smith that one day the U.S. Constitution will be hanging by a thread, only to be saved by Elders of the LDS Church. But please don't misunderstand my comments about Mitt Romney. I'm not talking about his politics, I'm talking about his belief system. Romney has attempted to make Mormonism sound mainstream when it's anything but. As such, I wrote the flipchart not to influence your politics, but your heart, exposing the Mormon mirage and the delusion leading multiplied millions to their doom. With Mormonism's current aggressive publicity and evangelism, you need to be armed with the facts for yourself and to share... because Truth matters."

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Glenn Beck

Perspective:

Thank God for Hank using his forum to pronounce and announce the truth and the differences that should be taught between Mormonism and Christianity. However, what we find is that another, good one at this little "blend" in, "I believe what you believe" technique is Glen Beck. As he often spends most of his days claiming that President Obama is a racist for espousing the teaching of Black Nationalism through Jeremiah Wright, we need not look far to know that Mormonism has traditionally encouraged religious and social racism. Mormonism has only relatively recently (1848-1978) allowed blacks to serve in the Priesthood, previously claiming that dark skinned persons  were of a lower class and cast and were cursed with the "Curse of Cain" to be black. They also banned interracial marriages while claiming to be God's voice here on earth.  

From the website "Black Mormons " here's a little taste of how this this came to be, and the built in denial that Mormons use to deny the claim currently:

"In late 1847, a Mulatto Elder named William McCary seduces a number of white Mormon women and girls in Winter's Quarter, Nebraska. This infuriates Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders. Nevertheless, a black Mormon named Green Flake leads the first Mormon wagon-train into Salt Lake Valley; at that time a barren wilderness. In 1848, Brigham Young begins to "ban" black Mormons from the priesthood and all Mormon Temples, because he considered them to be the "children of Cain" and inheritors of the Curse of Cain: which was a black skin and a denial of the Priesthood in mortality. The justification is the verse Abraham 1:26 in "The Book of Abraham" that says the Egyptians were Canaanites[note 1 below], and Canaanites were "blessed with wisdom" but "cursed as pertaining to the Priesthood". Many Yankee Protestants believed that Negroes were "Canaanites". Just about all Mormons in the 1840s were former Yankee Protestants. Brigham Young advocated "death on the spot" for white men that had children with Negro women. He legalizes Negro slavery in Utah in 1850. He allows Negroes to continue to join the Church, but banned them from the temples and priesthood. This became known as the "Priesthood-Ban". Young did say the "curse" would one day be removed but not until after all of Abel's children first had the opportunity to receive the Priesthood. Mormon leaders interpreted this to mean that the "Negro" would not get the Priesthood until sometime after the Millennium (1000 year reign of Christ) was over. Until then, faithful Mormon Negroes would be servants in the Celestial Kingdom. Brigham Young taught that the "mark of Cain" was a black skin, kinky hair, and a flat nose."

Then there was a progression as pointed out here:

"1865 the U.S. government frees all slaves. Black Mormons (about 50 to 70 individuals at this time) form a small farming community in Salt Lake Valley called "Fort Union" or "Union" (now part of Midvale, Utah). Not long after Brigham Young died in 1877, Church leaders began to preach the "Less Valiant Doctrine"; that some spirits who followed Jesus in the War in Heaven were "less valiant" than others and were punished by being born into the seed of Cain as Negroes (and denied the priesthood and the ordinances of Mormon Temples which lead to eternal marriage and godhood (exaltation). This teaching that Negroes were "less valiant" in the War in Heaven and were the children of Cain became known as "The Curse of Cain Doctrine" [note 2 below]. Although black Mormons are banned from the Priesthood and Mormon Temples, LDS apostles continue to condemn the Ku Klux Klan in editorials in The Deseret News (the Mormon Church owned newspaper in Utah) from the Klan's inception up to the mid-1960s. Klan members in the Southern States retaliate by often harassing white Mormon missionaries in the South. Beating, death threats, and tarring-and featherings against Mormon missionaries are not uncommon."

So the Mormons made a class distinction between the races, holding the theological position that blacks were inferior and cursed by God from a previous existence, but yet fought against the Ku Klux Clan for their position of white supremacy...At best we call this confusion. God certainly isn't the author of it. 

Now is any of this "Christianity"? I think NOT.

Many of us have been confronted with the Mormon at the doorstep. The young men that ride their bikes, don their backpacks and tell the Mormon story. Needless to say, they get quite frustrated with me, especially when we review all of the false prophecies as they claim to be infallible in what they pronounce. My guess is that if you're like me, none of them have ever told you any of this either.

What is your favorite "Mormon story" and how did you overcome their argument? Share that with the Saints so that we can all be edified and be ready to give an answer!

Blessed!

Update 10/10/2011:

Pastor Is Asked To Defend His Faith
And Biblical Statements That Mormonism IS A Cult