About This Video
Shawn McCraney's teaching emphasizes that Christianity should remain separate from politics, as political involvement can divide believers rather than unite them. He urges individuals to focus on following Jesus and not rely on human leaders, highlighting his belief that personal failures should not detract from one's faith and calling for transparency and reliance on God rather than human institutions or figures.
Shawn emphasizes that the Mormon religion has historically aspired for broader influence through figures like Glenn Beck and Mitt Romney, highlighting a tendency for the Evangelical church to uncritically support such candidates. He points out past and current temple practices in Mormonism, urging individuals to scrutinize these practices against the fundamental teachings of Christianity, particularly the simplicity of salvation as depicted in Romans 10:9.
Shawn emphasizes the Christian perspective on Jesus as God in the flesh, requesting the Father to glorify Him as He did before the creation of the world, with support from biblical scripture like John 1:1-14 and Philippians 2:5-8, indicating the preexistence and divinity of Christ. He critiques the traditional view of the Trinity as "three in one," suggesting instead the concept of "three from one" to better illustrate God manifesting as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully God yet distinct in persona like masks in a play.
Shawn critiques the Book of Mormon, comparing its experience unfavorably to the Bible and highlighting unresolved historical and scientific discrepancies, notably concerning the ancestry of Native Americans, as contrasted with LDS teachings that have evolved over time. He recommends several resources, such as Simon Southernton's examinations of DNA evidence, the Tanners' documentation of numerous textual changes, and works by authors like Dan Vogel and Grant Palmer, to further study the disputed origins and claims of the Book of Mormon.
Shawn highlights that just as followers of various religions are often firmly convinced of the truth of their sacred texts, many choose to ignore contradictions or truths that challenge their beliefs, likening it to willfully ignoring reality. To address this, Shawn encourages praying for these individuals, sharing biblical teachings with them, and hoping for a revelation that guides them away from deception.
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., where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity, face to face. Show 47 BOM 60 – Cooking the Onion November 20th 2012. And I’m your host, Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion.. We praise the True and Living God for allowing us to participate in this ministry. May He be with you (and us) tonight. Got LOTS to talk about so hang on.
Learning the Word
Want to learn the Word of God? Join us SUNDAYS at the University of Utah either at 10am or 2:30 as we go through the Word verse by verseTGNN’s Bible teaching series—book-by-book, through the lens of fulfillment and spiritual liberty.. Go to www.c-a-m-p-u-s.com for more information.
Hey? Ever listen to AM 820 – the best Christian radio programming in Utah. Well, on Sundays they air Heart of the Matter from 1 to 2. Check AM 820 out.
We are in the midst of sending out our fourth Quarter Newsletter – hope you all get one and take a moment to read it. It’s always an interesting adventure sending these emails out because we sometimes inadvertently send one or two out to people who are either a long time enemy of the ministry . . . or they have become our where they were once supportive (this is especially the case after these recent US elections). I want to point out to those Christians who once supported our efforts but now refute us due to the recent political situation you perfectly illustrate the point we have been making for the past seven years – which is Christianity should not be involved in politics – why – because it serves to DIVIDE the Body, rather than unites it. Your anger toward us over this is living proof.
Questions and Responses
One of the more humorous (but revealing) emails we’ve received came from a Latter-day Saint who asked four questions:
“Shawn, what was your 2011 income from your ministry? Or do you support yourself by some other means?”
- My answer: $58,000.00 – which all came from developing and serving in our church and ministry full time. All proceeds from donations, book sales that I’ve written, and products go into the ministry not to me.
“I have watched your programs and you say you have a checkered past of drinking and drug use. Is that still the case?”
- ANSWER: Yes, it is still the case I still have a checkered past – and present – doesn’t everybody?
“You also mentioned you have been involved in adultery in the past. Are you married now and are you faithful? Just looking for a little transparency.”
- ANSWER: Still married and still committing adultery – every time a scantily clad women gets in my line of vision – sorry Lord. Looking for transparency? A Latter-day Saint looking for transparency? I have done my very best to be transparent. I like to live transparently. How about you, you whited wall?
“One last thing, did you vote for Barack Obama?”
- Answer: No. Why? My Kingdom is no more of this world than it was for my King. It does not matter to me who rules this nation in terms of allegiance. I will be obedient and subject to whomever God puts on the throne. But I am personally thrilled He didn’t elect an active Latter-day Saint.
It was interesting to me that this woman didn’t ask me about the fruit of the ministry, or my thoughts about the Lord Jesus Christ, or if we have had any reportable success in reaching seeking people for Him. All she wanted to know was insights about my person, my failures, things she could attack about me. See, when a person questions or outright challenges Mormonism, that is their method and mode of response – attack the questioner. There CAN’T possible be something wrong with our religion so therefore there MUST be something wrong with you. In valid Christianity, everyone knows everyone around them is a failure and sinful in some sense or another – which is why Jesus is always the solution.
Emphasizing Faith
Listen – for every accusation of which I am innocent I am probably guilty of ten others that go unsaid. You will always find proofs that I am less than reliable – which is why I never ask you to rely on me. But we DO challenge you to go to and rely on Him. Not a Bishop, not a Pastor, not another man – but the King.
Speaking of the election, we have tried, since 2007, to warn viewers (especially Christians) the motivators that move Mormonism – what they think and feel and say behind the
Mormonism and Political Influence
We have ardently maintained that from the onset of the religion their desire is to usher in a world-wide reign . . . led by men like Glenn Beck and Romney. Few listened. In fact, like hungry fish, the Evangelical church as a whole swallowed the Mormon bait hook, line, and sinker.
Last night I received a copy of an email that was sent out to a number of active LDS believers around the globe. I’m sure they thought it would be read by LDS eyes only.
The date? November 8th 2012 6:48 PM
The Subject? The real winner in campaign 2012.
This has also been published on the LDS-led websites like “Freedom Forum,” “Strong Armor,” and “the Cause of Liberty.” The email was given to me by an inactive Latter-day Saint who is still on the email list of a bunch of active LDS friends. The author is said to be Dr. Ed Lauritsen, a noted LDS author. I could not confirm this.
This is what it says:
(READ EMAIL)
I hope the Christians out there who blindly supported this LDS candidate heard loud and clear the mindset present in this article . . . and remember it the next time a Mormon runs for office.
The LDS Temple Practices
Of course, we receive a number of emails concerning the call we got last week from “Nancy” who, when I said people are touched in special places in the LDS temple, called in and freaked out by screaming, “you’re a liar, a liar, a liar!”
In reference to my statement about what will forever be known as touching-touching, Sandra Tanner of UTLM.org emailed me and said:
“You should have clarified with the LDS woman that they changed that in 1990. They no longer touch the skin, just the forehead. If she did not go through the temple before April 1990 she has not experienced what you did.”
Changes in Temple Practices
Jim, another faithful viewer wrote:
“My brother, I guess you have realized (since Tuesday's program) how out of touch you looked not knowing about the change in the temple regarding the way initiatory is done.
No, you did not lie–so you don't have to eat anything (LOL), but you must have sounded wacky to those members who have had their endowments since the change.
With respect to touching prior to that change, you were absolutely correct.”
Let me share a couple of points on this issue and how I think and operate:
First, I do NOT purposefully lie on this program. I do my best to share what I know to be factual and/or have personally experienced myself. When people accuse me of lying they are mistaken – I might be in error – but to me, lying is purposeful. Any error I make is not out of an attempt to lie – it’s just an error.
Now, when I went through the temple they did have us strip nude and they did touch my body in strategic locations – skin on skin. (And yes, my Dad, as an active member who underwent a similar experience, did actually walk out of the place and say, “Somebody touched my dork.”)
But they changed practice. And some of you have suggested that I should bone up on such changes.
Reflecting on Past Practices
Why should I? In my estimation, to talk about what is presently done in Mormonism without referring to what they have always done in the past allows the LDS leaders to control the rules of engagement. No way. I am going to let out what comes out because in almost every case it creates an opportunity for everyone involved to THINK!
To ask themselves:
“If they used to do things this way, why did it change? Is what I’m agreeing to really of God or is it of Man?”
And it allows those who agreed to let a stranger stroke their inner thighs while sitting naked on a plastic community chair to ask:
What was that all about?
In the end, I hope that an important principle jumps out at all who choose to stop and think:
The true Gospel of Jesus Christ, which says:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9
. . . does not include anything like the stuff done in Mormon temples of the past . . . or the present.
Differences in Views of Jesus
17 verse 4.
One of the major differences between Mormonism and biblical Christians is our respective views of Jesus. Since its establishment in 1830, Mormonism has said a number of very deleterious things relative to our Lord – things which Mormonism takes in stride but Christians shudder to even consider. This brings us to John 17:5, where Jesus, in prayer, says:
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
From this we learn a few things: We hear Jesus, God in flesh, requesting that the Father glorify Him with the glory Jesus had with him before the world was.
Scriptural Support for the Trinity
The Christian manual supports this completely: Listen to John 1:1-3 & 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
-AND-
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
In John 10:30 Jesus said, plainly, “I and my Father are one.” When Philip asked Jesus to show Him the Father, Jesus said (in John 14:9):
“Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-8
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., even the death of the cross.
Colossians 1:15, speaking of Christ Jesus says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.”
In His prayer to the Father, Jesus, having finished the work given Him to do as a man in the flesh, is asking God to now glorify Him WITH THE GLORY HE SHARED with Him before the “world was.” You know, I have to admit, even among Christian believers, the identity of Jesus can get confused. We (Christians) have a centuries-old concept established by men called the trinity. It is traditionally and typically defined in some way or another as God being “three in one.”
Concept of "Three from One"
This statement automatically causes many humans to try and visualize three “persons” and then to try and cram them into one God. I think there is a better way to summarize the incomprehensible God and that is to say God is three from one. “God is three from one.” “Three from one” creates a very different image than “three in one” and in light of all the scripture I read, I see God in (and as) the Father, God in (and as) the Son, and God in (and as) the Holy Spirit. This imagery is supported by the Latin word persona which is where we get the word “persons” used and applied to the ancient descriptions of the trinity. But the Latin epistemological origins of the word Persona means “mask or character.”
See, a single actor would anciently take to a stage and there assume several persona’s by placing different masks before his face. So it is with God presenting Himself in the persona’s of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Father is not singularly God in God’s manifestations to Man (though He is fully God). Nor is the Son singularly God in His manifestation to Man (but He is fully God), and the same is true with the Holy Spirit, who in His work among men today is not singularly God (but is fully God). Therefore, we are able to see that singular God manifests Himself in three distinct personas – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – who, in the end, are one. The widely accepted definition of God as a “three in one” trinity have, in my estimation, led many to errantly see the Father is God while struggling with including (or outright excluding) the Son and/or the Holy Spirit. I blame this, as I said in part, to the three in one description, preferring, in all humility, “three from one.”
And with that, let’s have a prayer.
PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER
Examination of the Book of Mormon's Construction
More than sixty hours of information we have presented relative to the construction of Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormonion. I’ve made mention that by and through this examination I have grown very tired – bored, quite frankly, because the book is a bore. It’s like I have been riding on the greatest amusement park rides in history (reading the Bible) but have been forced to go and ride on one of those rancid little mechanical horses found at a Tijuana storefronts in examining the Book of Mormonion. After a while, it can make a guy pretty nauseous. So tonight, we’re cuttin’ the onion up and putting it where it belongs – in the past. We’re done with it. Admittedly, there are a number of things we have not examined about its content that would have been beneficial. We’re going to lay them out here so if you’re so inclined you’ll know where to go. All of the resources we’re about to list are available at www.utlm.org.
Resources for Further Study
First, there is Simon Southernton’s "Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church." The basic concept of the book (which is very complex in my opinion) is that the mitochondrial DNA taken from a group of surviving Native Americans demonstrates that they were descended from Asians and not the “ten lost tribes of Israel” as the Book of Mormon claims. Now, here’s the thing – I’m not sure this study of Southernton’s nails the coffin shut in terms of DNA and the Book of Mormon TODAY (beat) but IF this study was conducted back, say, in 1950, it would have. Let me tell you why. Back then, and while I was a member, we were taught by every LDS leader (from zealous prophet down to over-zealous Sunday school teachers) that the remnant people of the Book of Mormon were the American Indians. Period. They fortified this schnit with Indian placement programs, paintings (which were in every Book of Mormon at the time) and all sorts of other stuff.
In 1971, LDS Prophet Spencer W. Kimball said that Lehi, the BOM patriarch, was: “the ancestor of all of the Indian and Mestizo tribes in North and South and Central America and in the islands of the sea." In 1981 LDS Apostle Bruce McConkie wrote in the introduction of the Book of Mormon that: "After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians." This was changed in 2007 to read: “After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are among the ancestors of the American Indians.” Today, many LDS apologists are suggesting that the Book of Mormon tale didn’t even OCCUR in the Americas – a far, far cry from what their founding prophet Joseph Smith presented emphatically about the book being about the native AMERICAN Indians. Oh well.
Books for Comparative Analysis
Another book that demands further attention is the Tanners "3913 Changes in the Book of Mormon." For the Most Correct book on earth, as the LDS call it, that is certainly a lot of changes. Go to UTLM.org and see for yourselves. Author Dan Vogel’s wrote a very insightful book about the Book of Mormonion which I highly recommend. It’s called: "Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet." "The Creation of the Book of Mormon" by La Mar Peterson is a good read. "An Examination of B.H. Roberts Secret Manuscript" by Wesley Walters is another great read. Of course, there is M.T. Lamb’s "The Golden Bible – Is it from God?" Frankly superb as an early indictment of the Book of Mormon. David Persuittes, "Joseph Smith and the Origins of the Book of Mormon" is a great read when comparing it with the View of the Hebrews. Very compelling. "An Insider’s View of Mormon Origins" by Grant Palmer is one of my favorite books because of how well Grant Palmer writes. Plus, he comes from the inside. A mind-blower.
Another book by the Tanners worth getting is "Joseph Smith’s Plaguerisms of the Bible in the Book of Mormon." "Quest for the Gold Plates" by Stan Larsen – well worth it. "Quetzequatle – Was Jesus in the Americas" by Eric Johnson – good stuff. "Studies of the Book of Mormon" by BH Roberts (even more) and any book or compilation by Michael Marquardt will do nothing but add to your knowledge of the religious fraud known as, The Book of Mormon. Of course, facts – no matter how apparent and convincing – mean very little to the true believer. There are still people who are convinced, no matter what they are shown, that the world is flat . .
Understanding Belief
Just as Muslims are convinced the Koran is from God, and the Witnesses believe the New World Translation is from God, and every single believing Mormon accepts the Book of Mormon was the most correct book on the face of the earth. They choose to be blind to truth, deaf to facts, and committed to a lie . . . because it’s what they love – to be lied to.
Jesus' Words on Perception
Jesus said in numerous ways and at different times: “For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
Responding to Deception
His solution? Pray for them, share the Word with them, and hope the Lord will reveal Himself amidst the deception.
Announce special guest next week.