Saturday, March 12, 2016

Refuting Mormonism at it Core



The Problem with Mormonism: Their god/gods

Mike Robinson

  
apologetics refute mormonism lds
Mormons are lost in a maze of false doctrine and darkness


Introduction
 
Mormonism avows that the material cosmos, humanity, and gods are all eternal. I will argue that the LDS view of polytheism has many theological, philosophical, and ontological difficulties. They do not have an unchanging foundation for unity since all the LDS deities change and progress, so that they cannot arbitrate any conflict or disagreement between themselves. If this were true this would result in wide chaos and disorder, yet our universe runs in precision. I contend that the false doctrines of Mormonism have no scriptural support and they are philosophically incongruous as well.
 
 

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens... I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and have supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea... (Mormon prophet Joseph Smith).
 
Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a child, and mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress (Mormon Apostle).1
 
Mormonism Denies That God alone is Eternal
 
refute mormonism
The Gods, organized and formed [not created] the heavens and the earth (Abraham 4:1).
 
Mormonism asserts that the universe, men, and gods are all eternal. If man has always been, and some men have always been progressing into godhood: What came first, a god or a man? If a man was first, who made the man? A god? If a god came first, then from what did he progress in this eternal progression of gods? It’s easy to see that not only do the false doctrines of Mormonism have no scriptural support; they are philosophically mistaken as well.
 
The LORD is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth (Psalms 145:17-18).
 
 
 Questions for Mormons
 
As man is, God once was, as God is, man may become (Mormon Apostle Lorenzo Snow).
 
    If the result of faith and a godly life is godhood as Mormonism claims, why did Moroni change from a man to an angel and not a god?
 
   In LDS theology: How did the Holy Spirit become a God without a resurrected physical body of flesh and bones?
 
   According to Mormon doctrine, at what point in time did Jesus Christ become a God?
 
    When do Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost receive planets to be Lord over within the religious system of Mormonism?
 
 
Polytheism: Many gods
 
I wish to declare: I have always and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods (Joseph Smith).
 
Gods exist, and we better strive to prepare to be one with them (Brigham Young).2
 
The Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth (Abraham 4:1).
 
Joseph Fielding Smith expelled the following out of his begrimed soul: “I will preach a plurality of Gods... I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage of Spirit: and these three constitute three distinct personages and Gods... God the Father had a Father, you may suppose that he had a Father also.” In contrast, Cornelius Van Til councils that polytheism leads to vanity and emptiness because “men have felt a lack in the gods that are made with man’s hands and according to men’s imaginations” (IST). Only the Most high God can bless men with joy, peace, fulfillment, and hope (Romans 15:13). A multitude of insignificant spurious gods cannot offer any true hope. Idols can only bring despair.
 
The LDS take on polytheism (most Mormons will not admit that they are polytheiststhey usually profess to only worship the god of this world and no other gods) has many problems. They do not have an unchanging foundation for unity (all the LDS deities change and progress) so that they cannot arbitrate any conflict or disagreement between themselves. If this were true this would result in wide chaos and disorder, yet our universe runs in precision.
 
Our Father in heaven at one time passed through a life and death and is an exalted man... our Father had a father and so on (LDS Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith).
 
An Insurmountable Problem
 
 
I will cry out to God Most High, to God who performs all things for me (Psalms 57:2).
 
If God the Father has a god, as Smith and other LDS prophets taught, and this god has a god, and his god has a god, how can one claim to worship the Most High God? The true and living God is the Most High. The Latter-day Saint god is not the Most High God, consequently, he is not God.
 
The Problem with Mormonism: Their god/gods
 
Gods exist, and we better strive to prepare to be one with them (Brigham Young).3
 
Mormonism cannot provide the required a priori essentials for immutable universals (the laws of logic, mathematical truths, moral law, etc.) because their god is limited to time and space, and wasn’t always a god. The LDS god/gods change and lack universal power so they lack the capacity to account for immutable universals. The Lord God revealed in the Bible is the basis for the laws of logic. The laws of logic are unchanging, transcendent, universal, and immaterial and only the Most High God who is unchanging, transcendent, universal in reach, and immaterial can provide the mandatory truth conditions for laws of logic. Thus, it’s impossible for Mormonism to be true.
 
Van Til remarked that “God is absolute. He is autonomous” (IST). People cannot be autonomous (not subject to the rule or authority of another) and the LDS notion of their god cannot be autonomous. For strict autonomy one must have aseity, self-rule, and supreme sovereignty which only the true God has. Much of mankind has rebelled against the authority of God and that rebellion is culminated in LDS eternal progression theology. Men seek the crowning glory that is only due God. Van Til comments: “The natural man virtually attributes to himself that which true Christian theology attributes to the self-contained God” (IST).
 
Those who puff out their chests pinned with little black badges will never become a god, and lacking repentance, their destiny is bleak. Christians must speak the truth in love and tear off the masks of pride and self-sufficiency of LDS members and other nonbelievers. We must do this with patience, respect, hard truth, and compassion. If it were not for God’s grace, the Christian could also be stuck in a system that blasphemes the thrice holy God.
 
Contend for the Truth
 
Additionally, many Mormons have a persecution complex that can rise up when a Christian discusses the errors of their faith. The Christian should seek to speak the truth in love, but speak the truth even if it hurts the feelings of the Mormon. Gentleness and patience yes, but remember, unlike most faiths the LDS religion propagates sheer blasphemy (men can become gods; God the Father was once a sinful man; etc.).
 
They will perish, but You will endure; yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end (Psalms 102:26-27).
 
Van Til’s elucidation that with “the self-contained ontological Trinity we have the foundational concept of a Christian theory of being, of knowledge, and action. Christians are interested in showing to those who believe in no God or in a God, a beyond, some ultimate or absolute, that it is this God in whom they must believe lest all meaning should disappear” summarizes the proper goal of the Christian witnessing to a Mormon.

The Problem for All Imperfect Men
 
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).     
 
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:4-5).
 
The problem for flawed men is that heaven is perfect, God is holy, and nothing unholy and unrighteous will enter God’s pristine heaven. biblical justification is the only solution to man’s sin and Adam’s disobedience. Justification forensically renders the believer righteous and gives him peace with heaven. Without justification, the unbeliever has no peace with God. We must never assert that there is peace for the LDS member when there is no peace between the ungodly and God. Without justification by grace alone, there can be no real peace. “Imputation” is the biblical term for the positive element of justification. Through God’s grace by faith, the believer is declared righteous. Christ preached: “Be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). The law demands perfect obedience—a perfection equal to the Father’s perfection. Nobody except Christ has accomplished this, so we need a perfect righteousness that is not our own. We need to be justified by the works and righteousness of another. Justification is a forensic term that speaks of the Christian’s legal position before God. The believer is declared righteous despite his unrighteous deeds. The justified are given an alien righteousness, a righteousness that is not their own but is imputed unto them by faith. It is the flawless righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not having a righteousness of our own ensures that God gets all the glory.
 
 
Saved by Grace Alone: Grace That Does Not Remain Alone
 
 
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and justification, and sanctification, and redemption: that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
 
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness (Romans 4:5).
 
The Mormon ought to be reminded, with care, of his unrighteous position before a perfect God. As Thomas Boston puts it, “We cry down the law when it comes to our justification... The Law drives us to the Gospel that we are justified, then sends us to the Law again to show us our duty now that we are justified.” A Mormon charge that often comes to the Christian is: So we can get saved and just go on sinning since we are saved by grace alone?  One is saved only by God’s loving grace, but all those who are genuinely saved, are to obey God’s commandments out of gratitude. We follow God’s law not to get saved, or remain saved, we follow it out of love for God because He saved us. Since the Christian is utterly thankful for Christ dying and rising from the grave, we seek to follow God’s word out of gratitude.
 
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men (Titus 3:4-8).
God is Perfectly Holy Men are Not
Ralph Venning annunciates the righteousness of God with this: “God is holy, without spot or blemish, or any such thing, without wrinkle, or anything like it... He is holy, that He cannot sin himself... He is without iniquity, and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity... God is holy, all holy, only holy, altogether holy.” Our sin is real and God’s holiness is pure and true. The only way one enters His perfect heaven is in perfect holiness: no man has that. We need our sins removed and replaced with a perfect righteousness. This is what God demands and God supplies when one puts his faith in Christ. God does exist and He did send His Son to die for His people. The contrary is impossible. The truth of the Gospel is that you must flee from wickedness and put all your trust in Jesus Christ and His atoning death and resurrection.

Cast your whole soul upon Christ. Flee to His mercy, love, and truth. He will not only forgive you, but He will secure you since He will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus died on the cross for sinners and rose from the grave: Come to Christ and find pardon, hope, joy, and love.

So when Peter saw it, he responded … “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up … But you denied the Holy One and the Just … and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. … But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:12-19).
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NOTES
1.        Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, 1:123.
2.        Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 7:238.
3.      Ibid.

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