MORMONISM

1
MORMONISM

• History
• Doctrines

2
Mormon HistoryOverview of Mormon Faith

• Most successful/distinctive religion born in USA
• Founded as a Restoration Movement in 1830 by
  Joseph Smith Jr.
• Official Names / Divisions
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
• Community of Christ (Reorganized Church of Jesus
  Christ of LDS)
• Church of Christ (Temple Lot)
• Multiple restoration factions

3
Mormon HistoryOverview of Mormon Faith

• Organizational Features of LDS
• Hierarchical structure directed by General
  Authorities
• Control via priesthood
• Melchizedek order (higher)
• Aaronic order (lesser)
• Priesthood exclusively male domain
• Church organized administratively
• Wards and Stakes
• General Conferences

4
Mormon HistoryOverview of Mormon Faith

• Church growth and resources
• Annual membership increase of nearly 400,000
• Outstanding missionary effort (61,000 active)
• Membership characterized by thriftiness / zeal
• High profile potent social/political force
• Highly visible Mormon institutions
• Multiple educational facilities
• Mutual Improvement Association
• Highly influential membership

5
Mormon HistoryLDS Origins History of Joseph
Smith Jr.

• Heritage and Early Life The Family Traditions
• Joseph Smith Jr. born Dec 23, 1805 in Sharon, VT
• Family of social misfortunes
• Family relocated to Palmyra NY
• Father continued unsuccessful farming
• No formal church affiliation, but very
  religious family
• Joseph enamored by fathers hobbies / worldviews
• Money-digging became his avid pastime
• Often recounted fantastic native civilization
  stories

6
Mormon HistoryLDS Origins History of Joseph
Smith Jr.

• The Visions in The Pearl of Great Price
• The Back Woods Theophany of 1820
• Joseph purposed to find true church
• Bright light vision in appearance of two
  personages
• Message All Christian traditions/creeds were
  wrong, he should join none of them
• The Bedside Epiphany of 1823
• Appearance of angel Moroni, son of Mormon
• Commission / instructions given concerning golden
  plates
• Delayed four years before permitted to recover
• Role of Emma Hale of Harmony Pennsylvania

7
Mormon HistoryLDS Initial Developments

• Translating the Gold Plates A Team Project
• Slow process filled with interruptions
• Transfer to PA for translation work
• Tools for the task (Urim and Thummim)
• Smiths peculiar cavalier attitude
• Plates not well-guarded
• Loaned and lost translation
• Peculiar Methodist affiliation in 1828
• Join church, but dropped under protests
• Unanswered questions

8
Mormon HistoryLDS Initial Developments

• Arrival of Oliver Cowdery (April 1829)
• Schoolteacher convinced to investigate further
• Soon converted and began serving as scribe
• Smith desires him as Translator
• Restoration of Aaronic Priesthood (May, 1829)
• Smith Cowdery epiphany of John the Baptist
• New gift of prophecy and spiritual understanding
• Beginning of organization structure of LDS

9
Mormon HistoryLDS Initial Developments

• Witnesses to the Golden Plates
• At request of closest associates
• Vital testimony secured, but not of physical
  witness to plates
• Publication of the Book of Mormon (1830)
• Martin Harris offered his property for purpose
• Book was published, advertised by Harris and
  associates, and 1.25 / copy

10
Mormon HistoryLDS Initial Developments

• Initiation of Priesthood of Melchizedek (April
  1830)
• Eight additional witnesses from inner circle
• Melchizedek Priesthood then conferred in epiphany
  of Apostles Peter, James and John
• April 6th 1830, they lay hands on each other at
  farmhouse of Peter Whitmer ordaining as Elders
• Initial LDS conference (June 9, 1830)
• Thirty men gathered organize new religious
  society
• Commissioned missionaries armed with Book of
  Mormon
• Secured the conversion of Sidney Rigdon

11
Mormon HistoryLDS Transitions

• The Kirtland Sojourning (1831-1838)
• Church practices/doctrines expanded
• Initial Officers appointed
• Ongoing revelations
• Mob violence against LDS leaders
• Book of Abraham produced by Smith
• Temple Dedication, 1836
• Organization of a Bank, 1836

12
Mormon HistoryLDS Transitions

• The new Zion Independence Missouri
• Frustrated followers emigrating to Jackson County
• Smith purchased 63 acres deemed as holy ground
• Growing hostility from neighbors
• Mob Violence and Zions Camp
• Role of Brigham Young emerges
• Situation back in Kirtland deteriorating
• Final Straw Governors Evacuation Order

13
Mormon HistoryLDS Transitions

• Prophecy, Power, and Polygamy Collide for Smith
  in Nauvoo (1839-1844)
• Huge population swell / Smith gains civil powers
• Controversial aspects of Mormonism emerge
• Masonic Lodge influences / Thirteen Articles of
  Faith
• Increasing public criticism analysis of actions
• Martyrdom of the LDS Prophet-King
• Burning of the Nauvoo Expositor / Mob justice

14
Mormon HistoryLDS Transitions

• Leadership Transition and Migration West
• No automatic line of succession -- rival claims
  arose
• Brigham Young forced to remove group for survival
  
• Arduous journey to Great Salt Lake valley (1846)
• Salt Lake City The Mormon empire in Utah
• B. Young as Prophet, Seer and Revelator for 30
  years
• Confrontation with neighbors remained problem
• Mountain Meadow Massacre, 1857
• US interventions ended Mormon political hegemony

15
Mormon HistoryLDS Transitions

• New historical era Post Brigham Young
• Significant changes in church after 1877
• 1890 Manifesto Woodruff ends polygamy
• Capitulation to appease government
• Immense ramifications
• Sign of new times
• Original Mormon church come to end
• Time to systematize / sanitize teachings from
  Smith

16
MormonismAuthoritative Writings

• Four Standard Works
• The Book of Mormon
• Two ancient civilizations in Americas, fulfilling
  new covenant to Israel
• Doctrine and Covenants
• 135 subsequent revelations compiled from
  1830-1844
• Issues of church organization/practices/doctrines
  
• The Pearl of Great Price
• Book of Moses, Book of Abraham and accounts of
  initial commission
• Holy Bible
• KJV insofar as it is properly translatedArticle
  8

17
MormonismAuthoritative Writings

• Overview of the Book of Mormon
• Condensed history of high points of two ancient
  civilizations located in Americas
• Authored by prophet Mormon, and his son Moroni
• Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics on plates of
  gold
• Unearthed 1400 years later by Joseph Smith
• The plot of the book
• Jaredites (2250 BC) emigration and destruction
• Nephites (600 BC) Lehis descendents war with
  Lamanites
• Christ visits Americas, revealing himself to
  Nephites
• Nephites annihilated at battle near hill Cumorah
  in 421

18
MormonismAuthoritative Writings

• Stated Purpose of the Book of Mormon
• Eludes theologians, archaeologists
  anthropologists
• For Mormons, Bible predicts the Book of Mormon
• Arguments against veracity of Book of Mormon
• Dubious Authorship Mormon and Moroni?
• Solomon Spalding Theory
• Ethan Smith Influence
• Joseph Smiths own lively imagination

19
MormonismAuthoritative Writings

• Arguments against veracity of Book of Mormon
• Fraudulent transcription
• Baseless claim of Reformed Egyptian
  Hieroglyphics
• Transcription marked by deception conflicting
  accounts
• Very existence of plates is dubious at best
• Archaeologically Untenable (anachronistic
  accounting)
• Civilizations are beyond belief or obvious
  historical record
• Anthropologically Incorrect
• Little if any geno-typical / pheno-typical
  correlations
• Multiple textual errors, contradictions,
  corrections

20
MormonismAuthoritative Writings

• Arguments against integrity of Author
• Life story riddled with suspicion
• Inconsistent accountings, frequent contradictions
• Unethical scheming/manipulative/controlling
  behaviors
• It is possible to separate human character from
  divine message
• For Mormonism, this is not valid procedure
• Smith is the vessel of revelation, thus the
  agency of their doctrines/beliefs
• If character is untrustworthy, his message is at
  least questionable

21
Mormon Doctrines

• Mormonisms Continuing Revelation
• Enabled required metamorphosis for
  historical/local context
• Created internal conflict with new doctrines and
  rituals
• Doctrines emerged coincidentally with Mormon
  growth
• Thirteen Articles of Faith appeared during Nauvoo
  period
• Mormon doctrinal development has three major
  features
• 1) Priesthood offers keys to exaltation
• 2) Family basic unit of salvation
• 3) Afterlife continuity of eternal union of
  preexistent souls

22
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of God
• Trinitarian Ambiguity
• Official Mormon Trinitarian teaching
• Mormonism teaches a plurality of gods
• "Elohim" as "the council of the gods" in creation
  
• Bible references to One God as one God
  pertaining to us
• Materialism The Adam-God doctrines
• Both the Father and Son possess material bodies
• God is married and has a mother and father
• Each god is begotten of other gods in succession
• God and the plurality of gods were men before
  they were gods
• Humankind, is likewise destined to become a god
• As man is, God once was as God is, man may
  become
• Peculiar Adam-God doctrine of B. Young
• Adam is our Father God, the only God with whom
  we have to do.

23
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of Jesus Christ
• JC as founder of faith our elder brother
• Confess Jesus was son of God
• Reject his divinity implies he is the unique Son
  of God
• Actually conclude Lucifer is within brotherhood
  of Jesus
• Distort Virgin Birth
• Jesus born from Father God impregnating Mary
• Work of Christ explained in equivocal language
• Atonement affects two different kinds of
  salvation
• General granted to all on basis of Christs
  resurrection
• Individual Christs work is enabling grounds
  upon which our obedience effects salvation

24
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of Salvation
• Christs resurrection enables all to resurrect
• Atonement is partial grounds for resurrection to
  spiritual life
• Saved by both grace and works of law
• Plan of salvation processes through series of
  stages
• All humans have pre-existent souls as spirit
  children of God
• Enter into earthly life gaining physical/mortal
  body
• Prove worthiness to be saved by keeping
  ordinances
• At time of death, the spirit awaits the general
  resurrection

25
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of The Blood Atonement
• B. Young A man might be killed to save his
  soul
• Heinous sins, for which cannot receive
  forgiveness in this world, or world to come, can
  be atoned for by ones own blood, spilt on
  ground, that the smoke thereof might arise to
  heaven as an offering for their sins
• Mormons deny the doctrine ever practiced
• Still argue, most humane form of capital
  punishment
• Doctrine totally foreign to scripture
• Teaches Christs blood alone atones

26
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of the Church
• Exclusively claim priesthood of Aaron
  Melchizedek
• LDS is the true church of God on earth
• Doctrine of Preexistent Spirit Life
• All humans preexisted as spirits
• God is literal parent of every human being
• Human preexistence incarnation parallels
  Christs

27
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of End Things Eschatology
• Specific, literal Zionist model
• Mormons as the gathering of Ephraimites
• During millennium, two resurrections will take
  place
• Righteous raised to meet Lord and descend with
  him
• Peaceful millennium, baptisms for dead, led by JC
• Millennium ends with second resurrection for
  wicked
• Satan forces of evil unite against JC who
  defeats them
• Prepares way for final judgment which dissolves
  earth in preparation for eternity as resurrected
  celestial body like the sun/stars

28
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of End Things Eschatology
• Final state divided into four classes of
  existence
• Sons of Perdition
• Devil, demons, and humans who committed
  unpardonable sin
• Telestial Kingdom (most populated)
• Located on a planet, as repository for souls of
  lawless and wicked who after much punishment will
  be offered salvation
• Terrestrial Kingdom
• Located on specific planet/sphere for those of
  questionable faith
• Less faithful / rejected gospel, but again
  embraced it in the afterlife
• Celestial Kingdom (on recreated sanctified earth)
  
• Reserved for the righteous and faithful who live
  forever in family unit with millions of spirit
  children to inhabit the earth they will form

29
Mormon Doctrines

• Doctrine of Worship Religious Observances
• Ward Meetings
• Word of Wisdom
• Tithing
• Sacraments of Lords Supper and Baptism
• Temple Ceremonies
• Endowments
• Celestial Marriage
• Baptism for the Dead

30
Reaching Mormons

• Key attractions
• Traditional family values and wholesome lifestyle
  
• Positive view of humanity, nearly all go to
  heaven
• Claim to be truly restored church
• Key challenges
• Self-perception as true Christians
• Non-biblical sources of authority
• Ignorance of own history
• Blurring of doctrinal distinctives

31
Reaching Mormons

• Reaching Out to Mormons
• Problem of finding common ground
• Publication of scholarly research
• Insider Bridging
• Some strategic approaches
• 1) Target points of incoherence in Mormon beliefs
• To begin from Bible is fraught with difficulties
• Prepare for inner testimony assuring their
  correctness
• Be on guard for equivocation of biblical
  terms/concepts
• Focus on key distinguishing doctrines
• Gods nature, salvation, grace/works, eternal
  life, final authority

32
Reaching Mormons

• Some strategic approaches
• 2) Demonstrate inconsistencies between Mormon
  authoritative sources and current practices
• If I believed the Book of Mormon were true, I
  would have to believe your church is false if I
  believed your church were true, I would have to
  believe the Book of Mormon is false.
• 3) Note contradictions in their own words and
  writings
• Attitude can be mistaken as condescending and
  critical
• Smiths changing revelations are legitimate
  target
• Conclusions
• Blend methods of approach stressing Gods
  forgiving love
• Approach from angle What is God doing in your
  life?

33
QUESTIONS?