Where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity

LIVE FROM THE MECCA OF MORMONISM

SALT LAKE CITY UTAH – This is Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology., where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity, face to face. Show 8 BOM 38 – Harvest C February 21st 2012

“And I’m Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion., your Host.” We praise the True and Living God for allowing us to participate in this ministry. May He be with you (and us) tonight.

Weekly Activities

SUNDAYS – Two things:

• We hold church “deconstructed” every Sunday. Go to www.c-a-m-p-u-s.com for more information.

• AM 820 replays Heart of the Matter every Sunday from 1 to 2.

IN MARCH – One thing:

• We are going to be holding our annual Open Water Baptism this coming March 10th (a Saturday) at the following locations:

  9am in Logan at the Alpine Church

  12pm in Riverdale at the Alpine Church

  3pm in Salt Lake City at the Adventure Church

  6pm in Provo at the Provo Baptist Church

Bring a towel, a change of clothes, and a desire to publically commit your life to the Lord.

Plans for Summer 2012

Take a look. Listen –

If you are an Ambassador or fan of Heart or this ministry, HELP US . . . go online, download a brochure, take it to your pastor or church board, and see if we can arrange a time to speak at your church THIS SUMMER. Help us equip the national BODY with doctrinal truths and not fanatical frenzy.

Friday Nights at 8pm right here on TV20 tune in as Bishop Earl interviews people who were once LDS and are now born-again Christians. The name of the show? The Ex-Files. Want to be interviewed. Email Bishop Earl at www.mormonexfiles.tv

GRAPHIC

RUN NEW “SPOT” for TOUR HERE

Myrna wrote with a question: Hi Shawn, In the last 2 weeks I have heard Mormon Bishops referred to as Pastor. Have the LDS changed this to seem more Christian.

Absolutely. But I don’t know how. It may have started with Romney calling himself a “pastor” but in all the years I was LDS and going all the way back to the Brigham Young era that term was NEVER used IN the Church OR out of it toward actual LDS clergy. As a means to seem MORE Christian the Mormon marketing machine is getting modern media to refer to its leaders as PASTORS. Anything to survive folks – anything.

Reflections on Recent LDS Events

There’s been a lot in the press lately about the murders of the LDS Powell family. This past week the uproar was about where to bury the father who killed his sons. Someone tried to have the man buried next to the boys, or in the same cemetery, and others wanted the man buried somewhere else. It’s been fascinating listening to the news and talk show commentary on the situation as both the LDS talking heads and the secular seem to agree: Josh Powell should not be allowed to be buried near his sons.

One panel of LDS “sisterrrs” on some television news show made comments like: “It’s just not right. He shouldn’t be surrounded by the love of all the people who will visit that cemetery.” Another chimed in something to the effect that “he just doesn’t deserve it. Imagine the extended family having to go and visit those boys and seeing him there.” “Him there?” “He shouldn’t be surrounded by all the love?” And naturally, the secular news agrees with these attitudes.

First of all, I’ve got news for you all, but neither the father Powell nor the boys “are there.” More importantly, one of the most DISTINGUISHING attributes of a true Christian is . . . unconditional Love and forgiveness of others . . . of all things . . . no matter what. I never hear these positions coming either from the secular news or the LDS talking heads.

How come nobody says: “What a tragedy. Those poor boys and their father.” And recommend praying for them, forgiving the father, and placing the whole event in God’s hands?” Showing unconditional love does NOT condone evil behavior nor does it detract from victims of evil actions. It fosters Christian growth.

I mean, why aren’t the LDS saying: “What Josh Powell did was certainly a terrible thing but we pray for his soul,” or something like that? They don’t say this because LDS love – like LDS salvation – is wholly conditional, and is predicated on the actions of a person (with Jesus merely serving as a sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace. janitor who will show up and clean away a mess if all the paperwork has been properly filled out and submitted). Since Powell’s exit strategy didn’t include time for the sin janitor to do His work, Powell is anathema – verboten – to the LDS.

Understanding Forgiveness in Christianity

Heroes and villains, folks. All religions and institutions love em. Fortunately, Jesus sees human beings as neither, and loves us all so much that He gave His life for us… all. I realize many viewers will not agree with me but this doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Christians forgive everyone of everything all the time every time. Period.

From the Word

Let’s take a moment… “From the Word.” In John chapter four Jesus is having a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well. After a great discourse, Jesus says something to her that Mormons interpret very differently from Christians. What does He say?

John 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” As he is such a spirit, he dwells not in temples made with hands (Ac 7:48), neither is worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things, Ac 17:25. A pure, a holy, a spiritual worship, therefore, is such as he seeks–the offering of the soul rather than the formal offering of the body–the homage of the heart rather than that of the lips.

{r} "is a spirit" Php 3:3

Now, LDS apologists make a huge deal out of the fact that the Greek really reads “God is Spirit” (pneuma ho theos) NOT God is “A” Spirit. Because He is Spirit we worship Him by and through our spirit, not our flesh, not our hands. And hence the need for spiritual regeneration for without it Man cannot relate to God.

This is why John writes in chapter one of his gospel:

Php 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

More precisely, "God is Spirit" as "God is Light" (1Jo 1:5), "God is Love" (1Jo 4:8). In neither case can we read Spirit is God, Light is God, Love is God. The non-corporeality of God is clearly stated and the personality of God also.

The Book of Mormonion Harvest – Part III

The Book of Mormonion Harvest – Part III Looking at the Book of Mormonion we have found some “surprises” haven’t we? Words that didn’t exist, animals and plants mentioned that weren’t around at that time – just all sorts of fun. Well, let’s talk about some more tonight, huh?

Now, there is a word or actually a writing style that many LDS get all frothy about that exists in the Book of Mormon. They call it Chiasmus. Chiasmus is an emphatic writing style where main ideas are inverted and restated. Linguists call it “rhetorical parallelism.” Now, Chiasmus appears in many languages, including English (in the writings of Shakespeare, Ugaritic prose, Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek (in the writings of Homer, and Latin (in the writings of Cicero.

Exploring the Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon

Because it appears in languages like Hebrew, Mormon apologists get all excited because BOM characters supposedly came from Palestine and therefore would write. We find an example of Chiasmus in Genesis 9:6, which says: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” Chiasmus has been identified in modern poetry and prose too. Well, examples of chiasmus can be found in the Book of Mormon too. Here lies one of what I call the “stretch evidences” that the Book of Mormon was truly taken from an ancient source.

See, because there is chiasmus present in the Book of Mormon Mormon defenders cry that the writings “reflect a Semitic background of Nephi and other authors of the Book of Mormon. This is what “Ah-ah-ah apostle Jeffrey Holland was intimating when he said that the book is “bursting with Semitic structure.” This is such an odd claim since the BOM was supposedly written in Reformed Egyptian, a language and people who Israel wanted nothing to do. But anyway…

Way back in 1969, this LDS attorney named John Welch supposedly discovered a variety of instances of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. This style of writing is the Semitic Structure to which Holland is primarily referring. It was Welch’s claim that Joseph Smith in all likelihood was not aware of this style of writing which therefore means he had to have innocently translated from a genuine source and the Chiasms made it’s way in without Joseph even realizing it. This, according to Welch, would prove that the Book of Mormon actually came from an ancient source. Does chiasmus truly exist in the BOM? Some critics of Welch say that…

Literary Methods in Religious Texts

"He fashioned a chiasm by selecting elements from repetitious language, creatively labeling elements, ignoring text, pairing unbalanced elements, and even including asymmetrical elements." Welch himself warned people of seeing chiasmus in the BOM where it is not actually present, saying: “Some people have gone overboard with this search, and caution must be employed; otherwise, it is possible to find chiasmus in the telephone book, and the effort becomes meaningless…One must be careful in this quest, however, to avoid the problems of the "hammer syndrome"—to the person holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To the person who knows only chiasmus and no other form of literary composition, everything may start looking like a chiasm.”

I’ve personally known LDS Seminary teachers who have spent the majority of their time in class teaching the BOM on discovering and diagramming imaginary chiasmus on chalkboards. But let’s say there are VERIFIABLE Chiastic prose found in the Book of Mormon? Does this make the thing a genuine translation from a set of ancient golden plates? Not in the freaking least.

Joseph Smith's Use of Literary Styles

First of all, we must remember, the literary style and form IS found in many other places in and outside of scripture. Second, we must remember that Joseph was a student of the Bible. He was taught the Bible by his mother and he knew it well. I mean, the guy would speak in King’s English when receiving supposed revelations from God about what to eat for breakfast: “And now, Joseph, thou that art hungry, eateth thou oats of the land, and sprinkleth them with sugar brown, that it may be a delight unto thy tongue, and ALLLLL thy house.” So accustomed was Joseph to speaking in these inverted and often representative and circular forms that “chiasmus” is also found in other LDS scripture and statements from Smith himself!

Bottom line: Joseph echoed what he had heard and learned in terms of literary style and it became a general characteristic of his personal writing style – if it’s there at all.

Now this is important: LDS apologists defend the Book of Mormon, with all of the linguistic issues (grammar problems, anachronisms, etc) which it contains by saying that Joseph merely translated the ancient inscriptions using the skill and tools available to him. So if he used the word “horse” when he looked at some character it was the best he could do, or if he used improper grammar like, “And they was a comin down the road” it was the best he could do.

Linguistic Style and Translation

I mean, listen to what LDS leader George Albert Smith said in trying to defend why the original BOM contained so many errors (Journal of Discourses 12:335, November 16, 1868) "…when) the Lord reveals anything to men He reveals it in language that accords with their own. If any of you were to converse with an angel, and you used strictly grammatical language he (meaning the angel) would do the same. But if you used two negatives in a sentence the heavenly messenger would use language to correspond with your understanding, and this very objection to the Book of Mormon is an evidence in its favor." (Journal of Discourses 12:335, November 16, 1868)

Forget that God will say and convey exactly what needs to be said. George Albert Smith said that if an angel came to anyone with a message from God, that angel would adopt your improper use of words and language according to how badly you spoke. This is why the Book of Mormon came out the way it did. So if I crawled out from under a rock, and an angel of the LORD appeared to me and said, “Shawn?” And I replied, “Well golly Ollie Murphy-moo, lookie here! Issa angelical bean?” The ANGEL would adopt my way of speaking and say: “Yaaaa-eeeeeeppi! Hee and haw, Shawnie boy, the Lawd has sumpin for you ta know.”

Finally, before we wrap it all up with another topic, I have to say something about the insipid and frankly juvenile attempt by Mormons to find parallels in the Book of Mormon to ancient Israel or other ancient cultures and civilizations.

This junk-scholarship was popularized by this now dead Mormonite named Hugh Nibley. How parallelism works is a person scours the land for ANY – I mean ANY – parallel to what he or she wants to prove true. Let’s say you want to prove, through parallelism, that Santa Claus is a living, flying through the air on a red sled being who truly delivers presents on a single night to all the children in the world.

Understanding the Myth of the Book of Mormon

You establish a blog. And you present photographs from objects, events, and situations that support your premise. Your blog contains pictures of half-eaten cookies on a plate found Christmas morning, scuff marks inside a chimney or two, video of people who swear they heard, “ho, ho, ho” echoing through the neighborhood on Christmas eve. And at the end of it all you say, “See, Santa Claus is real.” Well, there is no bigger group of “I really really really want to believe this myth” people on earth than true believing Mormons. Hence, the popularity of the sardonic Broadway play, “The Book of Mormon.” Using parallelism to prove their faith true, LDS people take photographs of pyramids in Mexico, flat, hammered-out Gold pieces from Guatemala, and a story taken from Native American folklore about white men once being in America to confirm their embarrassingly errant beliefs. God does NOT work this way, my friends. He works in truth.

The Issue with Evidence in Mormonism

And there has NEVER been a single solitary reliable artifact ever found that truly supports the LDS trust and faith in their Book of Mormonion. Their bloggers and defenders and pseudo-scholars down at Farms and Fairs will use all sorts of “could be” evidences to influence you – but NONE of it has EVER, EVER scientifically proven one single story told in the Book of Mormon. This isn’t how God works, my friends. Just the opposite. He provides us with scripture founded on facts. Real places, real people, real genetics, real writings, real characters. They are verifiable. Certainly, there are a few things we are still proving (amidst the millions) but there are millions proven. We have the exact OPPOSITE relationship existing with the Book of Mormon.

Finally, before we go to the phones, let’s look at one more fascinating fact we discover when taking a glance at Joseph’s Book of Mormonion:

Fascinating Place Names

ACTUAL PLACE NAMES
*Agathe, Saint
Alma
Angola
Antrim
Antioch
Boaz
*Conner
*Ephrem, Saint
Hellam
Jacobsburg
Jerusalem
Jordan
Kishkiminetas
Lehigh
Mantua
Monroe
Minoa
*Moraviantown
*Morin
Noah Lakes
Oneida
Oneida Castle
Omer
*Rama
*Ripple Lake
Sodom
Shiloh
Land of Midian
*Tecumseh/Tenecum

What is really significant about this is when we take Joseph’s description of the Book of Mormon geography (FOUND in the BOOK of Mormon itself) and look at it when placed on a map – it might look like this: (EXPLAIN AND SHOW MAP of proposed Book of Mormon locations on WHITE BOARD)

Then let’s take a look at an actual map of the area from around Joseph’s home! It looks like this: (EXPLAIN AND COMPARE MAP HERE)

Callers and Conversations

Alright, let’s open up the phone lines:
(801) 973-8820
(801) 973-TV20

First time callers only. LDS callers preferred.

We could not make it without your support. We thank you for your prayers, your emails of information, your financial allegiance, and your sharing the ministry with others.

Take a look and prayerfully consider the following: (Run Partner’s Spot Here)

From: dyers momo.nota@yahoo.com
Subject: preppers

Is it biblical to be a prepper? With “prepper” being a person that stockpiling food and other things in preparation of any litany of catastrophic events i.e. economic failure, earthquake, ect.

From: randy thegreatwhitehype18@yahoo.com
Subject: final thought

Message Body:
just wondering if you we're witnessing to a mormon, what would be your "final thought" in a sense. if you had a few last words to say to an LDS person, what would you say to get through to them? maybe you can point me to a show to watch where u answer this question. thanks shawn

From: Joe Seely jseely219@bigstring.com
Subject: Priesthood Rules

Message Body:
If a person is elected to serve as president in this country (U.S.A.) are they required to put the church first or the state first and would that cause a conflict…In other words… would his / her leadership be influenced by outside sources not viewed as one who has the country's growth in mind and an expediential religious growth in power / dictatorship?

From: chad hites jchites@yahoo.com
Subject: who do u vote for.

Message Body:
If Romney is a mormon and Obama is a musslim who should i vote for for President? I know mormons are wrong

From: kristian Christiansiordia@yahoo.com
Subject:

Message Body:
DId Jesus Christ have any biological brothers?

From: Jeffrey Hodge jeffahodge@yahoo.com
Subject: Former Ogden/U of U non mormon Discriminant

Message Body:
Dear Shawn, I was a non-Mormon from CT that moved to Ogden during my sophomore year to Ogden High School. I was an outcast as a non-Mormon by the way I talked to the way I dressed. I was like Kevin Bacon on Footloose. In Utah, you are labeled either LDS or a total burnout, there is no middle class. Being raised Episcopalian I had no idea who was Christ

Personal Journey and Outreach

either. My girlfriend tried to take her life after 4 years of dating due to the pressure from her family to get rid on me not being a LDS. I soon went on in a long life of seeing more of the world having a need to find truth. I even went to India to study meditation and found myself getting more "spiritual" but more lost. Thank God at the age of 36 that someone had the courage to bring the Gospel to me at work in CT where I now live. I currently am a born again Christian and love to give the Gospel as much as I can. I just lost my job because I offered a Christian Fitness Class being the Gym Fitness Manager there.

Anyways I recently found your site and ministry and want to reach to the LDS community as well. MY heart feels for them now knowing the closed community of Utah and the deception. The one thing I do know that is that each person must seek truth first. The Lord will send someone with the truth of his word. You also must be willing to give all to follow Christ as he said. Sometimes that means those closest to you will not like you. God bless you all and feel free to contact me to help out the ministry in Danbury, CT. Love,

P.S. I sometimes where my cowboy hat when street witnessing so they know that I am not a LDS or Jehovah witness thanks to your influence of many great looks. Jeff

Glen Eames

eames@atcnet.net

Church and Politics

Shawn,

Just found out the paper will not print your op-ed letter about the first lady and president because according to their rules you are not local.

The only word to describe most mormons is "hubris" (If you say something they don't like they give you that smirk smile with all is arrogance and walk away)

For those of you who are unaware, everything the LDS church does publicly has an unseen and typically unspoken motive. If you read a public statement from the church about the importance of a matter, you have to ask, what are they really trying to say. You have to ask: TRANSLATION?

LDS Influence on Political Engagement

On Monday, Feb 13 the following ran in the Salt Lake Tribune: MORMON CHURCH TRIES TO BOOST PARTY CAUCUS TURNOUT It says (in part) The LDS Church’s top leaders are telling their Utah congregations, in stronger-than-usual language, to cancel meetings when parties hold their caucuses next month and strongly encouraging Mormons to attend those political gatherings instead. (For those of you who don’t know, a party caucus is just a meeting where people of a certain political party get together and discuss candidates and policies.) The article continues: Critics of the caucus system praised the move, saying it may help prevent extreme groups from controlling parties —which can happen when only activists attend the neighborhood meetings that select convention delegates. Democrats also applaud the church’s statement for wording they say reinforces that faithful Mormons can belong to their party.

"Precinct caucuses are the most fundamental grass-roots level of political involvement," says the letter from the church’s governing First Presidency. "They are best served by a broad representation of Utah citizens." Dated last Thursday, to be read in LDS worship services in Utah, the letter asks that no evening meetings be held March 13 — when Democrats hold their caucuses — and March 15 — when Republicans and the Constitution Party hold theirs. "We are concerned with the decreasing attendance at the caucus meetings in Utah in recent years," the letter adds. "We therefore ask that local leaders not schedule meetings on these Tuesday and Thursday evenings so that members may attend a caucus meeting of their choice." The letter is more direct than in the past. LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said that at least since 1998, local LDS leaders were asked to arrange meeting schedules "in such a way that adult members may also participate in these important meetings." When caucuses were scheduled on a Monday in 2002, the Utah-based faith asked families to reschedule Family Home Evenings they normally hold then to attend caucuses.

Community and Institutional Influence

"It is a very significant step by the LDS Church," said Kirk Jowers, director of the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics. Jowers has been part of the Alliance for Good Government — which includes former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt — that is seeking reforms of the caucus system. The group worries that strident partisans

Voter Influence in Utah

have taken over the delegate system and driven down voter turnout by selecting candidates who are more to the left or right of mainstream Utahns.

End article

Motivation Analysis

TRANSLATION?

Political Intentions

You decide what the Mormon machine is really trying to accomplish.