Can someone explain Mormon to me?

[jono]

<font color="green"> Current Doctrines:</font>

* God was once a man like us.
* God has a tangible body of flesh and bone.
* God lives on a planet near the star Kolob.
* God ("Heavenly Father") has at least one wife, our "Mother in Heaven," but she is so holy that we are not to discuss her nor pray to her.
* We can become like God and rule over our own universe.
* There are many gods, ruling over their own worlds.
* Jesus and Satan ("Lucifer") are brothers, and they are our brothers - we are all spirit children of Heavenly Father
* Jesus Christ was conceived by God the Father by having sex with Mary, who was temporarily his wife.
* We should not pray to Jesus, nor try to feel a personal relationship with him.
* The "Lord" ("Jehovah") in the Old Testament is the being named Jesus in the New Testament, but different from "God the Father" ("Elohim").
* In the highest degree of the celestial kingdom some men will have more than one wife.
* Before coming to this earth we lived as spirits in a "pre-existence", during which we were tested; our position in this life (whether born to Mormons or savages, or in America or Africa) is our reward or punishment for our obedience in that life.
* Dark skin is a curse from God, the result of our sin, or the sin of our ancestors. If sufficiently righteous, a dark-skinned person will become light-skinned.
* The Garden of Eden was in Missouri. All humanity before the Great Flood lived in the western hemisphere. The Ark transported Noah and the other survivors to the eastern hemisphere.
* Not only will human beings be resurrected to eternal life, but also all animals - everything that has ever lived on earth - will be resurrected and dwell in heaven.
* Christ will not return to earth in any year that has seen a rainbow.
* Mormons should avoid traveling on water, since Satan rules the waters.
* The sun receives its light from the star Kolob.
* If a Gentile becomes Mormon, the Holy Ghost actually purges his Gentile blood and replaces it with Israelite blood.

*****

<font color="purple"> Past Doctrines:</font>

- The Adam-God doctrine (Adam is God the Father);
- the United Order (all property of church members is to be held in common, with title in the church);
- Plural Marriage (polygamy; a man must have more than one wife to attain the highest degree of heaven);
- the Curse of Cain (the black race is not entitled to hold God's priesthood because it is cursed; this doctrine was not abandoned until 1978);
- Blood Atonement (some sins - apostasy, adultery, murder, interracial marriage - must be atoned for by the shedding of the sinner's blood, preferably by someone appointed to do so by church authorities);

*****

<font color="red"> Life as a mormon:</font>

You will be continually reminded that to enter the highest degree of heaven (the "Celestial Kingdom"), you will have to go through the endowment ceremony in the temple and have your marriage to your Mormon spouse "sealed." (If your spouse is not Mormon, or if you are not married, you cannot enter the highest degree of heaven.)

You will be expected to donate at least ten percent of your income to the church as tithing. Other donations will be expected as the need arises. You will never see an accounting of how this money is spent, or how much the church receives, or anything at all about its financial condition; the church keeps its finances secret, even from its members.

You will be expected to give up the use of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea.

You will be expected to fulfill any work assignment given to you. Many Mormons find much of their spare time taken up with church work, trying to fulfill the numerous assignments that have been given them.

You will be expected to be unquestioningly obedient to church authorities in whatever they might tell you to do.

You will be advised not to read any material which is "not faith-promoting," that is, which may be critical or questioning of the church or its leaders

You will be advised not to associate with "apostates," that is, former Mormons.

If you are homosexual, you will be pressured to abandon this "evil" aspect of your nature. If you do not, you will probably not be fully accepted by other church members. If you do not remain celibate, you may be excommunicated.

If you prove yourself to be faithful, hard working and obedient, you will eventually be considered worthy to "receive your endowment" in a Mormon temple. You will not be told in advance exactly what to expect in this lengthy ceremony, except that the details of the ritual are secret. As part of that ceremony you will be required to swear a number of oaths, the penalty for violation of which is no longer stated but until 1990 was death by various bloody methods, such as having your throat slit from ear to ear. You will be given the secret signs and passwords which are required to enter heaven. After receiving the endowment you will be required to wear a special undergarment at all times.

If you should ever decide that you made a mistake in joining the church and then leave it, you will probably find (judging from the experiences of others who have done so) that many of your Mormon friends will abandon and shun you.

[SpaceAce]

What is there to explain? Pretty much every religion's dogma looks ridiculous to anyone who isn't a member of that religion. Most religions demand all kinds of obedience and sacrifice from followers.

I've heard from a lot of people that it's tough living in heavily Mormon-populated areas if you are not a Mormon, yourself, but my experience has been that Mormons are generally pleasant and seem to really care about the people they serve through their mission work and outreach programs.

SpaceAce

[deucedeuces]

allsp.com &gt; season 7 &gt; episode 12 "all about the mormons"

[jono]

What is there to explain?

How do people believe this with all the evidence pointing towards Joseph Smith being a false prophet?

[jono]

Multiple versions of the "First Vision"

The "First Vision" story in the form presented to you was unknown until 1838, eighteen years after its alleged occurrence and almost ten years after Smith had begun his missionary efforts. The oldest (but quite different) version of the vision is in Smith's own handwriting, dating from about 1832 (still at least eleven years afterwards)"

In 1828, eight years after he supposedly had been told by God himself to join no church, Smith applied for membership in a local Methodist church. Other members of his family had joined the Presbyterians.

Contemporaries of Smith consistently described him as something of a confidence man, whose chief source of income was hiring out to local farmers to help them find buried treasure by the use of folk magic and "seer stones." Smith was actually tried in 1826 on a charge of moneydigging

The only persons who claimed to have actually seen the gold plates were eleven close friends of Smith (many of them related to each other). Their testimonies are printed in the front of every copy of the Book of Mormon. No disinterested third party was ever allowed to examine them. They were retrieved by the angel at some unrecorded point. Most of the witnesses later abandoned Smith and left his movement. Smith then called them "liars."

Smith produced most of the "translation" not by reading the plates through the Urim and Thummim (described as a pair of sacred spectacles), but by gazing at the same "seer stone" he had used for treasure hunting. He would place the stone into his hat, and then cover his face with it. For much of the time he was dictating, the gold plates were not even present, but in a hiding place.

Joseph Smith claimed God gave him a "gift of translation" regarding the Golden Plates containing the original Book of Mormon. Therefore, by Divine gift and help, Joseph Smith's original translation of the Book of Mormon into English could not contain errors or need further editing or changing.

The detailed history and civilization described in the Book of Mormon does not correspond to anything found by archaeologists anywhere in the Americas.

Although Joseph Smith said that God had pronounced the completed translation of the plates as published in 1830 "correct," many changes have been made in later editions. Besides thousands of corrections of poor grammar and awkward wording in the 1830 edition, other changes have been made to reflect subsequent changes in some of the fundamental doctrine of the church

2 most famous (failed) prophecies:
-beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina...war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place...until...a full end of all nations"
-"church, established...upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem...in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri"

Joseph Smith died not as a martyr, but in a gun battle in which he fired a number of shots. He was in jail at the time, under arrest for having ordered the destruction of a Nauvoo newspaper which dared to print an exposure (which was true) of his secret sexual liaisons. At that time he had announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States, set up a secret government, and secretly had himself crowned "King of the Kingdom of God."

Since the founding of the church down to the present day the church leaders have not hesitated to lie, to falsify documents, to rewrite or suppress history, or to do whatever is necessary to protect the image of the church. Many Mormon historians have been excommunicated from the church for publishing their findings on the truth of Mormon history.

[jono]

I would specifically like to hear from presently devoted Mormons and former mormons.

[blackize]

Where did all the current doctrines stuff come from? As a former Mormon I don't recognize the quoted aspects.

[ QUOTE ]

* God was once a man like us.
* God has a tangible body of flesh and bone.
* God lives on a planet near the star Kolob.
* God ("Heavenly Father") has at least one wife, our "Mother in Heaven," but she is so holy that we are not to discuss her nor pray to her.
* We can become like God and rule over our own universe.
* There are many gods, ruling over their own worlds.
* Jesus Christ was conceived by God the Father by having sex with Mary, who was temporarily his wife.
* We should not pray to Jesus, nor try to feel a personal relationship with him.
* The "Lord" ("Jehovah") in the Old Testament is the being named Jesus in the New Testament, but different from "God the Father" ("Elohim").
* Not only will human beings be resurrected to eternal life, but also all animals - everything that has ever lived on earth - will be resurrected and dwell in heaven.
* Christ will not return to earth in any year that has seen a rainbow.
* Mormons should avoid traveling on water, since Satan rules the waters.
* The sun receives its light from the star Kolob.
* If a Gentile becomes Mormon, the Holy Ghost actually purges his Gentile blood and replaces it with Israelite blood.


[/ QUOTE ]

The rest I have at least heard of before.

I am not familiar at all with any of the past doctrines.

As for the Mormon life section, the following are not true(at least in the MD Mormon community):

[ QUOTE ]
You will be expected to fulfill any work assignment given to you. Many Mormons find much of their spare time taken up with church work, trying to fulfill the numerous assignments that have been given them.

You will be expected to be unquestioningly obedient to church authorities in whatever they might tell you to do.

You will be advised not to read any material which is "not faith-promoting," that is, which may be critical or questioning of the church or its leaders

You will be advised not to associate with "apostates," that is, former Mormons.

If you should ever decide that you made a mistake in joining the church and then leave it, you will probably find (judging from the experiences of others who have done so) that many of your Mormon friends will abandon and shun you.


[/ QUOTE ]

Edit: Also the abstaining from coffee, tea, and alcohol parts of Mormon life are merely recommendations that were explained to me as being for health reasons(tanic acid and caffeine in coffee and tea. I believe the alcohol prohibitions stem back to problems with alcoholism among the original Mormons on the cross country journey to Utah.)

And as for this

[ QUOTE ]

If you prove yourself to be faithful, hard working and obedient, you will eventually be considered worthy to "receive your endowment" in a Mormon temple. You will not be told in advance exactly what to expect in this lengthy ceremony, except that the details of the ritual are secret. As part of that ceremony you will be required to swear a number of oaths, the penalty for violation of which is no longer stated but until 1990 was death by various bloody methods, such as having your throat slit from ear to ear. You will be given the secret signs and passwords which are required to enter heaven. After receiving the endowment you will be required to wear a special undergarment at all times.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are temple rituals giving various levels of priesthood with ceremonies I am not familiar with. My understanding of the special undergarments is that they are worn in the temple only.

[blackize]

[ QUOTE ]

The detailed history and civilization described in the Book of Mormon does not correspond to anything found by archaeologists anywhere in the Americas.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is what led me to leave the church originally 10 years ago.

[jono]

[ QUOTE ]
Where did all the current doctrines stuff come from? As a former Mormon I don't recognize the quoted aspects.

[/ QUOTE ]

thank you for the reply. I got most of the information here and some other google searches. All the authors sources are cited at the bottom of the link.

[secretprankster]

This is a sad day in OOT history.