LDS Articles of Faith, Part X

Article I, Jesus Christ, cont’d

Our last two blogs discussed false prophecies in the Doctrine and Covenants which is LDS scripture and we said the Biblical Jesus didn’t make such “prophecies.” There are also many “prophecies” in the Book of Mormon (B. of M.) For example, I Nephi 10 is dated “between 600 and 592 B. C. yet, it has more specific “prophecies” about Christ than all the Old Testament prophets combined! It also predicts the Babylonian Captivity, and John the Baptist’s ministry. It says the Messiah is the Son of God and the “Lamb of God” and our Savior who will be slain, but resurrected and then send the “Holy Ghost” to empower His followers etc. The problem with those B. of M. “prophecies” is that there is no evidence that the B. of M. even existed before 1830 A. D. when Joseph Smith published it! So, those “prophecies” were ancient history when they were first seen. Anyone could make that kind of “prophecy.” Someone today could write a “prophecy” saying that George Washington would be the first President of the United States and claim it was written in the year 215 A. D. It doesn’t take much imagination to write about a historical event as though it was still future and then date the writing many years before the event happened. That is the kind of “prophecy” that is found in the B. of M. The Jesus of the Bible never used such deceitful methods when He prophesied about the future.

Jesus in the Bible is also very different from the Mormon Jesus found in the B. of M. Jesus said in Luke 9:56 “The Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them." And in Luke 19:10 He said He came “to seek and to save the lost.” But in the B. of M. III Nephi chapters 8 to 10 says, in the Americas, multitudes of cities and the people in them were destroyed at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. In III Nephi Chapter 9, the B. of M. Jesus said He destroyed them! In III Nephi 9:3-12, 15, the B. of M. Jesus said, 3. “Behold, that great city Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof. 4. And behold, that great city Moroni have I caused to be sunk in the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof to be drowned. 5. And behold, that great city Moronihah have I covered with earth, and the inhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them. 6. And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, and the inhabitants thereof to be buried up in the depths of the earth. 7. Yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Jerusalem and the inhabitants thereof; and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come up any more unto me against them. 8. And behold, the city Gadiandi, and the city Gadiomnah, and the city of Jacob, and the city of Gimgimno, all these have I caused to be sunk, and made hills and valleys in the place thereof; and the inhabitants thereof have I buried in the depths of the earth, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up any more unto me against them. 9. And behold, that great city Jacobugath, which was inhabited by the people of king Jacob, have I caused to be burned with fire because of their wickedness, which was above all the wickedness of the whole earth, because of their secret murders and combinations; for it was they that did destroy the peace of my people and the government of the land; therefore I did cause them to be burned, to destroy them from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up unto me any more against them. 10. And behold, the city Laman, and the city Josh, and the city of Gad, and the city of Kishkumen, have I caused to be burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof, because of their wickedness in casting out the prophets, and stoning those whom I did send to declare unto them concerning their wickedness and their abominations. 11. And because they did cast them all out, that there were none righteous among them, I did send down fire and destroy them, that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints whom I sent among them might not cry unto me from the ground against them. 12. And many great destructions have I caused to come upon this land, and upon this people, because of their wickedness and their abominations.” Verse 15 says, “Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth and all things that are in them.” Does that sound like the same Jesus who said in Luke 9:56, “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them”? Jesus was crucified at Jerusalem but Jerusalem wasn’t destroyed nor was any other city in Israel at the time of His death, so why all the catastrophes in America? During the Biblical Jesus’ life and death not one person was killed by Him, so the B. of M. Jesus is NOT the Jesus of the Bible!

The B. of M. has other content in it that the Jesus of the Bible would reject. For example, in the B. of M. the Nephites were good followers of the Lord so they were white skinned while the Lamanites (ancestors of the American Indians) became wicked and were cursed with a black skin (II Nephi 5:21-24). In the B. of M. whenever people followed the Lord they became white skinned and whenever they were wicked they became dark skinned. III Nephi 2:11-16 shows that dark skinned Lamanites who were “converted to the Lord” became white skinned within one year! “Mormon” 9:19 in the B. of M. refers to the miracles done by Jesus and his apostles in the Bible and then says, “And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God, and is a God of miracles.” So, if God changed the skin color of the ancestors of the American Indians in the past, He should be doing it for their descendants today! For over 60 years I have asked numerous Mormons for the name and address of one American Indian who joined the LDS Church and became white skinned, but no one has given me a name yet. I have also been on Indian reservations all over the USA and seen hundreds of LDS Indians, but not one became white skinned when he joined the LDS Church! Jesus in the Bible did not say anything about skin color, but He said a lot about sin! So, “The Lord” who inspired the B. of M. could not have been the Lord of the Bible! LDS who claim to be offended when Christians say Mormons have a different Jesus should better understand why Christians say that when they read the information in these blogs. LDS should also understand that Christians are offended when LDS attribute the kind of things in these blogs to the Jesus of the Bible! The things discussed in these blogs are only a few of the differences between the Biblical Jesus and the Mormon Jesus. There are many others.

Next time we will discuss the Holy Ghost mentioned in the first Article of Faith.