Heart of the Matter: 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.. 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 Gatherings and Unique Features

Join us on Sundays for a "deconstructed" church experience. We meet at 10 am and 2:30 pm. This Sunday, we share in communion. If you would like to experience church in a wholly different way, go to www.c-a-m-p-u-s.com for more information. One of the things that makes CAMPUS unique is our music. No, it is NOT hyper appealing. No, it does not come with a light show, major amplification, or human beings standing before you to admire. It’s the Word of God put to music.

Now, people who come to CAMPUS get what we are about to show you free. If you want a copy, you can get one by going to www.hotm.tv – I think the cost is $9.99 plus shipping. Check it out: (PLAY PROMO VIDEO OF “In His Words” HERE) We sincerely believe that Church ought to be focused on Him – His Word – not man and man’s interpretation or interpositioning on it – whether in teaching or music. Nothing wrong with Christian Music – it’s often a wonderful artistic expression of people’s hearts toward the Lord, but we think church went askew with its direction in music and worship and are doing something about it.

Alright, also on Sunday afternoon, AM 820 replays Heart of the Matter every Sunday from 1 to 2. I think AM 820 is the best Christian Radio in Utah. Check them out.

Open Water Baptism Event

Okay, in two weeks, on March 10th, we’re going to be holding our annual Open Water Baptism. That’s Saturday, March 10th, at the following locations: 9 am in Logan at the Alpine Church, 12 pm in Riverdale at the Alpine Church, 3 pm in Salt Lake City at the Adventure Church, and 6 pm in Provo at the Provo Baptist Church. Bring a towel, a change of clothes, and a desire to publicly commit your life to the Lord. We thank Alpine Logan and Riverdale, the Adventure Church in Salt Lake City, and Provo Baptist for opening up their facilities and letting us use them free of charge.

Friday nights at 8 pm, 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.

This coming summer, we are going to try and reach out to any place in the Nation that wants to hear the facts about the Mormon/Christian debate. Take a look at our NEW and IMPROVED non-boring announcement. (SHOW CLIP of New and Improved Clip here)

Clarifications on Faith and Religion

Got a letter in the mail (believe it or not). This is what it says (in part): (READ LETTER HERE)

Okay, it’s time for some strong clarifications. Okay. We may lose support and friends from this, but “peace if possible but TRUTH always.” I can assure you that if I had been raised a Catholic, the book I wrote would have been titled, Born-Again Catholic. If I had been raised a denominationalist, who cut his teeth on religion, legalisms, or crazy charismatic stuff, I would be doing a program on that . . . “shhhhhhhtuff.”

Our Lord’s message was similar. Saving faith is NOT tied to any one religion. On the contrary, religion MAY even contribute to a person turning from God rather than leading them to Him. Catholicism – MAN MADE. Does God love Catholics? Absolutely. But much of its doctrine . . . of men and Man.

Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Wesleyans, Pentecostals, yada, yada, yada – organizations run by men and women – many trying to do good, some evil. I think church and religion is good, it is commanded, “we gather,” we seek God, we hear His words (to some degree or another) but brick and mortar edifices or robed priests with pointed hats or collared shirts or sacerdotal duties – never.

So, listen, if you enjoy what I “supposedly do to the Mormons,” understand that I do it to the Mormons because I was one of them, I understand them, and so I speak to them. But much of what I say about them…

Understanding True Prophets

is very easily transferable to ANY and EVERY organized religion on earth and if you think that you are in a position to defend any earthly organization as being “God’s Church” you need to really take a close look at what you’re believing.

Alright, how about a moment . . .

“From the Word.”

Tonight we continue reading on in the Gospel of John chapter four.

Here at verse forty-three Jesus is departing from Samaria and verse 43 says:

43 Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
44 For Jesus himself testified, “that a prophet hath no honor” in his own country.

The Nature of True Prophets

The implication here is that a true and living prophet has no honor in his own country. Jesus said this Himself. On what basis? Truth.

You see, true prophets say things and live in such a way that their own reject them. They are NOT of the things of this world. See, the world loves men who love the world, who are successful, wealthy, attractive, dress well you know the type.

False prophets will fit these bills. And false prophets are loved in their own country. But not true prophets. They represent God at all costs. They have “no place to rest their heads” and openly shun the things of this world.

The prophet often ran the risk of being called or thought insane. They suffered, doing things that men of the world reject, mock, and abhor. They speak biblical truth without fear, mincing words, obscuring the facts.

But the prophet who is loved in his own country. Find him, and there you will find a man or woman who appeal to the flesh. Who make themselves a loveable stand-in for Jesus. Who boast in their own strength.

(Long Beat)

And with that let’s have a word of prayer.

Examination of Book of Mormon Names

(Run “From the Word” here)

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PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER

So we’ve been casually skimming through the Book of Mormonion. We’ve observed some really unique “problems” with it – and we haven’t really even examined the content yet. One thing the Mormon’s like to hold up in the Book of Mormon as proof of it being from God AND an ancient civilization is because of the proper names found in it. Within the Book of Mormon there are over three hundred Book of Mormonion names. That is impressive.

I’ve tried my hand at fiction over the years and struggled with more than five characters so over three hundred characters with almost all having a unique name and then with most having a tie to Hebrew – wow – the Book of Mormonion MUST have been taken from a real ancient record . . . or not?

Analyzing the Authenticity of Names

So let’s take a look at some of the names found in the Book of Mormon and see what we can find. Now, understand, this is really a side issue that has very little meaning at all. I mean, JRR Tolkien came up with many more totally unique names in his fictional writings from a totally new alphabet so it’s not unheard of.

The most important issues relative to the Book of Mormonion being a fraud are, at times, obscured when we give attention to insipid matters like this – but . . . we’re trying to cover everything about the book so here goes. Admittedly, it would be faith promoting to find all these Hebrew-like names in the Book of Mormon IF . . . IF . . . Joseph Smith didn’t have access to a King James Bible. But if he did, the miracle of the Book of Mormonion is GREATLY diminished.

Pretend that I just came from the deepest darkest parts of the Amazon and had never seen modern civilization and I possess a book that I claim is a history of my people there in the Amazon. Opening it, you find the main characters bearing the following names
• Goofusi
• Donnea Dukala
• Daffuka
• Mickeroo
• Minniupa
• Pluplu and,
• Uncki Scroosuss

Now, giving me the benefit of the doubt, you might say: “Well, if Shawn here (from the Amazon) never had access to a Walt Disney book, film, or cartoon, this book MIGHT – MIGHT be legit. But what would you think if you discover that I possessed every Walt Disney book ever written because of a plane crash! That makes the names in my book less . . . “impressive,” doesn’t it? In fact, it actually points to my taking names originating from another source and changing them to write my book, doesn’t it? So we have to ask, Did Joseph Smith and his family own a

The Influence of Apocryphal Books on Naming in the Book of Mormon

Abso-freaking-lutely. A King James Bible? Yes-siree-Bob. In fact, the copy of the KJV of the Bible that Joseph Smith owned in the 1820s was a bit different than the one most LDS use today. Why? It is almost certain that it contained what is known as the Apocryphal books of the Bible. One support for this is when Joseph and his wife Emma purchase their own family Bible (which was recently put on sale for 1.5 million) it too, contained the apocryphal books. Now, we’re not going to take a lot of time to explain the Apocryphal books of the Bible but suffice it to say that they are still included in most Catholic Bibles and are excluded from Protestant Bibles. The word Apocrypha in the Greek has several meanings but maybe the best is it means “hidden, secret, or better yet, "something hidden away." Secret knowledge sources and sects is a major study of early religious history. Because there are divergent opinions on what books are apocryphal there is no universally consistent list.

Nevertheless, generally speaking, the Apocryphal books included in the King James Bible during Joseph’s time included the following: Tobias, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch, and 1st and 2nd Maccabees.

Nephi and Names in the Book of Mormon

Why is this important relative to the Book of Mormon? Well, one of the Book of Mormon’s main characters, and the first named character’s name was Nephi. And the name Nephi is found . . . in the Apocryphal book of 2nd Maccabees 1:36. Hmmmmm. Okay, well what about the other 299 plus names?

Sandra Tanner at UTLM.org writes this: “Many LDS assume that this is evidence that Joseph Smith could not have made up the Book of Mormon. However, when we examine the list of names at the end of the Book of Mormon we notice that 141 of the names are taken from the Bible.” “For example, the Book of Mormon has Abraham, Ammon, Bethabara, Esrom, Ether, Gomorrah, Ishmael, Jared, Jonas, Judea, Lemuel, Madmenah, Nazareth, Pathros, Pekah, Rama, Shinar, Sinim, and Zebulun.” But then, she goes on and says (and this is important): “Many names not found in the Bible seem to be made up by re-arranging various syllables or changing the ending of Bible names.” For example, the Bible speaks of Abinadab, the Book of Mormon mentions not only this same name but modifications of it in “Abinadi” and “Abinadom.”

“The Bible,” she states, “mentions Kish. And the Book of Mormon has Akish and Kishcumen. The Bible has Gimzo, the Book of Mormon speaks of Gimgimno.” Smith not only borrows the Biblical name Helam, but gives different derivations of it like “Helaman.”

Variations and Derivations

The Book of Mormon uses the Biblical name of Antipas (which is of Greek origin) and Joseph builds on it to form these Book of Mormon names: Antion, Antiomno, Antiparah, Antionah, Antionnum, Antipus, and the legendary “Anti-Nephi-Lehi.” Melech is found in the Bible and Joseph just spells it with a K (Melek) in the Book of Mormon instead of with a “CH”. Then Joseph creates a whole bunch of names by adding “hah” as a suffix to names he has already used.

So, if Joseph had taken my name from the Bible, “Shawn,” he might have also come up with “Anti-Shawn,” “Shawn-a-man” and even, “Shawn-hah.” In the Book of Mormon, therefore, we find both Nephi and Nephihah; Moroni and Moronihah; Ammon and Ammonihah; Mathoni and Mathonihah. Then there are the expansion names and altered names. For example the Book of Mormon name Shim is expanded and/or altered to Shimnilon. Corianton is slightly changed to make the additional names of Coriantor, Coriantum, and Coriantumr. Smith's also uses the Biblical word Gideon and shortens it to Gid, expands it to Giddianhi, Giddonah, Gidgiddonah, and Gidgiddoni. The name Riplah, Tanner points out, seems to be the base for Riplakish and Ripliancum.

Of course, there are the straight across names taken directly from the Bible, with Lehi coming from Judges in the Old Testament. Enos is taken from Genesis 4:26. And then there are even names used in the Book of Mormon that were popular among people who lived in his day and age. For example, the name “Zenos” used in the BOM, was the name given prior to Joseph Smith even being born. In fact, one “Zenos Gurley, Sr.,” born in 1801 at Bridgewater, New York, joined Mormonism later in life.

Cities and Places in the Book of Mormon

Then there’s the names of cities and places found in the Book of Mormonion. One of the biggies is the FACT – the fact – that there is a set of islands, near Madagascar, off the South-east coast of Africa and the name of them is the Comoros Island. Comoros /Cumorah? Maybe. But there is a city in the Comoros Islands called

Moroni and the Book of Mormon Connection

Coincidence? Come on. Smith was looking at maps of the world, looking for inspiration, sees these Island, sees cities on the island – BOOM – Direct Revelation! Now, the city of Moroni was made the capital of the Comoros Islands AFTER the Book of Mormon came out. But this is irrelevant. It was still a city on the Comoros Islands prior to being made the Capital.

Not enough for you? Still buying into this con? Let’s look at some other city names and places in the Book of Mormonion. As a means of perhaps a better comparison, let’s look at the names of places and cities in and around the home of Joseph Smith with the names and places found in the Book of Mormon.

Actual Places and 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

But what REALLY makes this comparison interesting is what a man named Holley did back in the early 1990’s. He went into the Book of Mormon and read about the geographical descriptions found within. From these descriptions he created a map. Now, this map is imperfect – so don’t take the comparative literally in EVERY sense. But there are enough TRUTHS presented here that make his work very compelling. What did his work show? Take a look.

Holley's Map Theory

In the first map compiled by Holley, we have BOM descriptions of where land masses looked like relative to bodies of water and city locations. Holley believes the map created out of descriptions found in the Book of Mormonion correlate to what a map of part of the United States and Canada would look like. So here is his “Book of Mormonion” map.

Then, let’s look at a blown-up map of the areas taking in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Canada. Now granted, this is a large area. But the point is not so much how big the area might be, but if this was the source of some of Joseph Smith Book of Mormon names.

Apostle Jefferite Hollandhah, back in 1994 said, quoted LDS Prophet Ezra Taft Benson, who said "The Book of Mormon is the keystone of [our] testimony. Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The enemies of the Church understand this clearly. This is why they go to such great lengths to try to disprove the Book of Mormon, for if it can be discredited, the Prophet Joseph Smith goes with it. So does our claim to priesthood keys, and revelation, and the restored Church…"

I guess it's time for the Mormon church to crumble, repent of its false doctrine, and come fully to the author and finisher of our faith.

Book of Mormon Place Names

Ogath?Alma, Valley of?Angola?Antum?Anti-Anti Boaz?Comner?Ephraim, Hill?Helam?Jacobugath Jerusalem?Jordan?Kishkumen?Lehi?Manti Moroni?Minon?Morianton?Moron Noah, Land of?Onidah?Onidah, Hill?Omner?Ramah?Ripliancum, Waters of?Sidom?Shilom?Land of Midian?Teancum

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First time callers, please. LDS callers if at all possible.

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Remember, Saturday March 10th – Open Water Baptisms. Go to www.HOTM.tv for more information.

We’ll see you next week here on HOTM!

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