| MORMON CHURCH (LDS) | GOD SUBJETS PEOPLE ON EARTH TO MISERY AND
TEMPTATION SO THAT JOY AND MISERY CAN BE LEARNED BY CONTRAST - A
Mormon Teaching |
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The reality of Mormon doctrine is that it teaches the subservience of their god to human beings.
This may not be apparent at first, but an examination of their belief about origins brings the fact
to light. Mormon doctrine teaches that the core being of man, his spiritual nature, has existed for eternity, never having been created by any being or god. These proto-human spirit entities are referred to as "intelligences" and are self-existing beings, complete with a form and size like a human being, capable of thought and motion and not owing allegiance to any creator such as a god. Forming the soul of every human being that is born, these "intelligences" are the core being of man whose actions, in relation to the Mormon religion, may one day result in that man being resurrected to exaltation as a god. Mormon religion must affirm that prior to the existence of any god, the "intelligences" have existed and human beings exist prior to any god, because the Mormon god is simply an exalted human being. ...the soul, the mind of man, the immortal spirit. All men say God created it in the beginning. The very idea lessens man in my estimation; I do not believe the doctrine, I know better...I am going to tell of things more noble... "Man is made an agent to himself before his God; he is organized for the express purpose, that he may become like his master. ...The Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming gods like himself; when we have been proved in our present capacity, and been faithful with all things He puts into our possession. We are created, we are born for the express purpose of growing up from the low estate of manhood, to become gods like unto our Father in heaven. That is the truth about it, just as it is. The Lord has organized mankind for the express purpose of increasing in that intelligence and truth, which is with God, until he is capable of creating worlds..., and becoming gods, even the sons of God."Because of this strange belief in the centrality and superiority by existence of man and the secondary position of the Mormon god, who exists only as a result of the religious duties performed by human beings, the person and concept of god is degraded and lowered from that which is taught in the Bible. Mormons have no difficulty in attributing negative actions to a god who is not all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present. IN RELATION TO TEMPTATION Mormon doctrine teaches that god causes temptation and misery, not as a result of judgment against the sin of an individual, but as a necessary precursor to the exaltation of human beings to godhood. "In order that men might have the exceedingly great privilege granted to him of knowing good and evil, happiness and misery, justice and mercy, love and hatred, of multiplying and replenishing the earth, ...the Lord formed the tree of knowledge, and so constructed its fruit, that if taken in the system, it would destroy the immortality thereof, and cause blood to usurp the place of the spiritual fluid, and thus, by our first parents, partaking of the tree, they would place themselves in a condition to propagate their species...." "It was perfectly consistent with His attributes to make the tree; it was perfectly right that he should plant it in the midst of the garden, where Adam and his wife could not fail to behold it, as they passed to and fro eating of the various fruits with which the garden abounded. ... The Lord, ...knew that Adam and Eve would, because of their great ignorance, be easily enticed to disobey this commandment, he, therefore, suffered Satan to ...speak through the serpent and entice our first parents to eat the forbidden fruit. ...They yielded to the temptation: the lord now could inflict upon them pain, and misery, and death, and still be just; for they had disobeyed his command. They were now made mortal by their own acts. Blood now flowed within their systems, and they had placed themselves in a condition to `multiply and replenish the earth' with a mortal posterity. Although the command was given before the fall for man to multiply, yet the Lord very well knew that man could not fulfil this command, ...until he should through his own act, acquire a knowledge of good and evil, and introduce a change into his own system adapted to that end. Therefore, the first great command was given according to the fore-knowledge of God in relation to the fall, knowing that man would suffer the penalties of eating the forbidden fruit, and knowing that while under that penalty he would be prepared to beget a fleshly offspring. ...the Lord never intended our first parents to multiply mortal tabernacles until after they should, by their own acts, gain a knowledge of good and evil...." "That our first parents would have had no mortal children if they had not partaken of the forbidden fruit, is not only reasonable, but it is clearly revealed in the Book of Mormon. ...Adam fell that men might be...." ...were it not for our transgression we should never have had seed, and should never have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient."Not only did the Mormon god bring about the circumstances in which temptation was placed before Adam and Eve, it was also something that god was, in effect, compelled to do. Without the sin resulting from disobedience, Adam and Eve were not able to produce children or know the difference between good and evil. Mormon doctrine teaches that the sin of Adam and Eve, far from being a bad thing, was a necessary and good thing, because it opened the world to the knowledge of good versus evil, joy versus misery, justice versus mercy, love versus hatred and the propagation of children versus barrenness. It is claimed that god wished to inflict pain, misery and death on Adam and Eve, in order that they might understand and experience good and evil, but He could not do so until they had sinned. Therefore god provided the means of their temptation, and by his knowledge of their ignorance of the consequences, god brought about the circumstances so that they might disobey his commands in order that he could, as an act of justice, punish them by inflicting pain, misery and death on them, which was a good thing because it them allowed them to make decisions based on their knowledge of good and evil. But, since god could not inflict pain, misery and death on them prior to their sin of disobedience, he resorts to a device of subterfuge in order to bring about his desire for them. Knowing that Adam and Eve will sin as a result of their ignorance of the consequences, god provides the means for their temptation. As a result of their sin, Adam and Eve gain the knowledge of good and evil, and god feels he is justified in punishing them for their sinful choice, even though the choice was made through ignorance of the consequences. God is presented as a deceitful, scheming person, bringing about sin in his own children so that he might punish them for their own good. Their sin of disobedience against god is considered to have been good, because it allowed Adam and Eve to become physical beings that were capable of propagating physical children as inhabitants of the earth and began the process by which men can become gods. God becomes the author of temptation and the facilitator of the events that lead up to that temptation and it is considered that such action is righteous, bringing about sin by the innocent, so that evil can be experienced, leading to the ability to properly choose between good and evil. The placement of man in the position of ascendancy and god in the position of subordination, leads to sinful actions on the part of man that are inevitable. Sin becomes, not an aberration, but a necessity so that man can do his good works, fulfill his duties and exalt himself to godhood. The presumption that an individual cannot make a decision without having experienced first-hand the consequences of that decision, either good or bad, is an absurdity in relation to human conduct. A person who is told not to jump from a thousand foot cliff has no difficulty understanding that the consequences are not acceptable even though they may have never experienced broken bones, a crushed body and death. The same can be said for a person driving a car who is told to use the brakes to stop before crashing into another vehicle. The consequences can be clearly known even though the person may have never been in an accident before or have seen the results of such an accident in relation to the occupants of another vehicle. The claim by Mormon apologists that the lack of experiential knowledge of consequences is the same as ignorance of those consequences is a false assumption that does not stand scrutiny in the real world. The claim that God participates in and instigates temptation is considered to be heresy by orthodox Christians, who see that action as the domain of Satan and not that of a holy and righteous God. It is a sin to assign an action to God that He does not do, and to say that God authors and participates in temptation is a lie: Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by god"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.IN RELATION TO MISERY The idea that god deliberately subjects a disciple and follower of his precepts to misery, sorrow and evil is a concept that is completely foreign to the biblical perspective. It is because of the Mormon viewpoint of god that they can say that god causes evil and causes evil to happen to those who believe and follow him, in order to bring about that which is good, right and desirable. The Mormon god is an exalted man, and that type of conduct is that which man finds desirable in his own life and uses that conduct to justify the accomplishment at the end. Mormon doctrine adopts the belief that the end justifies the means, so if god uses methods comprising sinful activities in order to accomplish good as the end purpose, then that is accepted as being proper and desirable on the part of god. The Bible presents a God with a completely different essence in regards to His actions. Not only does God not bring or author temptation, He also does not bring misery, sorrow and evil into the lives of His true children. He also does not bring about the circumstances or provide the means for his created beings to sin, because to do so would make Him the author and facilitator of sin. God commands his created beings not to sin, regardless of what they may know about the consequences of the prohibition. What God says is the standard and not what any many may think about the consequences. Those negative circumstances and actions, resulting in sin, are the result of the deliberate, opposing and rebellious activities against a holy and righteous God by which man ignores and defies the direct prohibitions of God. Mormon doctrine teaches that man is the judge of evil and good and makes choices according to his own knowledge of such based on his experience. It is claimed that man cannot make a choice between good and evil until he has experienced the evil in relation to the good, and the experience of the evil results in sin. Thus, it is necessary that a man be a sinner and to have sinned before he can be exalted to godhood. Thus, sin and sinfulness becomes a necessary adjunct in the earthly school of learning and experience, being essential to the decision making process of men on the journey to being gods. This type of viewpoint is utterly foreign to the biblical perspective. Adam and Eve sinned long before they ate the forbidden fruit, because their sin was not in relation to the ignorance of consequences, but in relation to their belief in God. Their sin was to disbelieve the command of God and by doing so attempted to place themselves in His position of authority by assuming that they had the power to do so. Eve's desire was to be like God, just the same as had Satan, and with that desire came the attempt to appoint herself in place of God and make her human authority the same as God. Eve's desire was to take the fruit and eat, because she thought it would make her a god. This is exactly the same process that occurs in Mormon belief, as Mormon doctrine teaches that human decisions, actions and duties will make a person worthy to be a god. Eve partook of a fruit that she thought would exalt her to godhood, Mormons partake of duties and works to accomplish the same goal. The attempt by both Adam and Eve and Mormons is to exalt the human into the place of the divine by means of human action. In the case of Adam and Eve, the attempt was a disaster beyond measure. In the case of the Mormon church, the example of Adam and Eve should be sufficient, because the real God of the universe does not make allowances for other Gods, does not tolerate other gods and states that there are no other gods: Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, and the deaf, even though they have ears. All the nations have gathered together so that the people may be assembled. Who among them can declare this and proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses that the may be justified, or let them hear and say, "It is true." "You are My witnesses,"declares the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides Me. It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, and there was no strange god among you; so you are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "and I am God. Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?" "I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these." For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the god who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), "I am the Lord, and there is none else." "Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am god, and there is no other." "To whom would you liken Me and make Me equal and compare Me, that we would be alike? Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh silver on the scale hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; they bow down, indeed they worship it. They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; they set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; it cannot deliver him from his distress. Remember this, and be assured; recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am god, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure'; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it."The Bible is absolutely clear in its opposition to the Mormon doctrine of human exaltation to godhood. No Mormon can claim that the biblical statements have been added or changed by corrupt Catholic priests, because those words are from the Old Testament which precludes the possibility that any Catholic official could have tampered with them in any way. Yet, the Mormon church continues to reject, without legitimate reason, the biblical condemnation of their false doctrine, because it teaches that by its own self-proclaimed doctrines, reality can be altered and a religions scheme can be instituted based on human desires. The real God of the universe is not pleased and will deal with all people, who wish to attain to His position, in the same manner that he dealt with Satan, who wished to do the same. "The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you - all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones - all those who were kings over the nations. They will all respond, they will say to you, 'You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.' Acknowledgments Ideas, quotes and information obtained from: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Utah Lighthouse Ministry - www.utlm.org The Mormonism Web - http://mormonism-web.com ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: On This Website: "The Sin Of Resting In Duties" by Thomas Shepard "Man's Utter Inability To Rescue Himself" by Thomas Boston "Dead Faith - Living Faith" by John F. MacArthur Other Resources: The Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Jerald & Sandra Tanner The Mormonism Web Alpha & Omega Ministries, James White |
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