Heart of the Matter

Meeting of Faiths

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 34 Seventeen Points XVI By their fruits – Part II

And I’m Shawn McCraneyFounder of TGNN and developer of the fulfilled perspective—calling people to faith outside of religion., your host.

Adam's Road and Upcoming Events

As we speak, five young men, four of which are returned missionaries for the LDS church, are traveling by bus from Florida to Salt Lake City. Collectively they make-up “Adam’s Road”, a Christian band (those Returned Missionaries all came to know the Lord and abandoned ship for the Lord!). We’ll, they're going to lead our worship at Lord’sWord this coming Sunday morning. Come join us and hear and meet, Adam’s Road. Then, next week here on Heart of the Matter, these young men will share their stories with us before we go to the phones. So, again, this Sunday, 9:15 at the Gateway Movie Theaters and then next Tuesday, here on set with Adam’s Road – four LDS RM’S who came to know the Lord.

Burning Heart 08! This coming Sept 20th – a Saturday at Sugarhouse Park. Music. Food. Fun. Worship. Put it on your calendars. It’s a great way to congregate, invite your LDS family and friends, and hear a message of salvation. We’re even going to have a baptismal pool for open water baptisms. Plan on coming. Burning Heart 08.

Hey… (beat) How’s project Abandon Ship going? Have you requested your name off the records of the LDS Church yet? If not, take the time, go to UTLM.org, and inform yourself about how to do it. We have read from dozens and dozens of people who seem to say the same things once they’ve done it – “A huge weight was lifted off our backs.” “A peace came over my life.” “I felt free for the first time… free to really love and follow Jesus as He would like.” Send a message: Take a stand: (Audience) ABANDON SHIP!

Insights into Mormonism

Alright, over the last eleven days I received 314 emails. Many of them were full of really good insights, information, and thoughts. We thank you. I’m going to review some – not all – but some of the best.

The first came from two different sources – my good brother Brandon and a writer named Ken. Ken wrote to say that he had the LDS missionaries over, and they opened the Bible – King James Version – and as they were reading learned that in Mormonism, the KJV has an additional 15 verses added on to Genesis! There are verses added all through the Bible, my friends, and they were added by Joseph Smith in what the LDS refer to as the JST (or Joseph Smith translation). Now I used to tell people that the KJV of the Bible the LDS use is the same as others because they have not included the JST into their version. But Brandon pointed out that there are other LDS influences added into their KJV. (Show Ezekiel verses)

Not only have they biased or loaded their KJV of the Bible with an LDS slant, they have also added many of the JST additions, changes, and subtractions in the footnotes of the Bible they use. Lesson? As Fall comes upon us, and you go to build the first fire in your home, take the LDS version of God’s word – and BURN the little freak to deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God..

This past week, according to the Deseret News, Robert A Rees, a former editor of the LDS periodical Dialogue, delivered a speech at the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium. In my opinion, his speech was one of the most important speeches a Latter-day Saint has given in the past thirty years. According to the Deseret News article, dated August 9th… (see article)

Diana M. sent me an interesting email which she claims was taken from the LDS handbook of instruction relative to the topic of issuing temple recommends to people who have family members considered apostate: (Read it)

A person who identified themselves as "a Salt Lake person" wrote: (see email)

A number of viewers forwarded this AP article to me from KTVB.COM News Now. The Title: “Polygamists fight church to be called Mormon.” Really interesting. It talks about how the Fundamentalist LDS are sick and tired of the mainstream Mormon church’s attempts to control the media defines each sect. (read report)

Finally, we have had a great group of kids from Bellflower CA here sharing, singing, and supporting the local Christian churches. I wanted to take a moment before they return home and ask one of their leaders Nathan some questions about their experience here in Utah doing missionary work. Thanks for going live, Nathan. So first some questions: How old are you, Nathan? How long have you been a Christian? How long have you…

Exploring the Legacy of Joseph Smith and the LDS Church

been in ministry? Have you ever been to Utah before? Tell us the places where you have been witnessing, you’ve been to Logan right? Now generalities can be dangerous, but if you could sort-of summarize your perspective of the LDS – again, generally, what would you say? What approach did you use when you were out on the street teaching? From what you’ve seen and experienced – and you can say whatever is in your heart here, Nathan – do you think there are Latter-day Saints who are, in fact, saved? Who do, in fact, know and have saving faith in the Jesus of the Bible? One last question: What do you see as the greatest obstacle to the LDS Church becoming an acceptable sect or denomination of Christianity proper? Is there anything you would like to say to the viewing audience?

And with this, let’s have a word of prayer.

Teachings on True Prophets

The Seventeenth Point of what the LDS call “The True Church” is a paraphrase of scripture that says:

“By their fruits ye shall know them.”

Last week we pointed out several things relative to this passage: First, the passage was spoken by Jesus and it was in reference on to how to tell if a self-proclaimed prophet was true or not. Secondly, we discussed how the Lord was very clear that a tree (which represents a true or false prophet of God) CANNOT bear both good and bad fruit – it either bears all good fruit or all bad fruit and it is by this fruit that we can tell if the tree (or prophet) is of God or not. Finally, we talked about how the individual fruits a person bears are indicative of his or her Christianity – or personal relationship with Jesus – and that they’re NOT fruits of a single or particular religion. We pointed this out because it shows that the Body of Christ – which is the True Church – is made up of believers tapped into the Vine and NOT an institution that claims to be His Church. Got it?

Examining Joseph Smith's Influence

Okay, tonight, we are going to apply the Lord’s teachings in Matthew Seven to the self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. He claimed to receive revelations from God’s mouth to his ear. His believing contemporaries claimed he was a prophet. Latter-day Saints today still refer to him as, “The Prophet.”

Referring to Joseph Smith, the Mormons today heartily will sing:

“Hail to the prophet Ascend into heaven Traitors and tyrants Now fight him in vane Mingling with gods He now plans for his brethren Death shall not conquer the hero again.”

Interestingly, almost ALL LDS doctrine, practice, and I would suggest even culture, comes from the things Joseph Smith claimed were from God. Relatively speaking, all of the LDS prophets after Joseph Smith have provided very few (ahem) doctrinal revelations to the members of the Church. I can think of tithing being implemented. And the end of the earthly practice of polygamy. Brigham Young’s Adam/God doctrine (which the LDS today say never was official doctrine). Joseph Fielding Smith’s dream revelation of Christ organizing the spirits in the spirit world, and the revelation that all worthy males could have the priesthood in 1978. Almost EVERYTHING else came from Joseph Smith.

In my opinion, which is certainly not fact or truly reliable, but in my opinion, everything Mormons do today – whether they are mainstream LDS, Fundamental LDS, crazy-fool LDS, or faithful LDS – is fruit from the tree called Joseph Smith, Jr.

Evaluating the Fruits of Mormonism

So we’re going to take the next two shows and apply the Savior's teachings to Joseph Smith and see if his fruit was all good and therefore all from God or if the fruits have ever been evil, and therefore were not of God. I am going to progress through this chronologically. I am going to begin with Josephs early dealings with people and his representing himself as God’s servant, and try and point out fruits that were established from him as “the prophet.”

Let me say from the beginning that the World might look at MormonISM, and say they are a tree that may have once produced some strange fruit, but today they have grown into a tree of exceptional fruitage. I would remind you of a couple of things. First, it depends on your perspective. From an earthly perspective – a humanist perspective – Mormonism is perhaps the best producer of fruits. They are hard workers (generally). They have thrift and industry down pretty well. They are organized. Good at keeping records. Are self-disciplined. Appear to have family values. Expect a high standard of behavior. And produce good theater, choir, and performance arts.

But remember, Karl Marx could have been the author of their underlying philosophy. Or Sun Yung Moon, or

The Fruits of Deception in Mormonism

L. Ron Hubbard, or Mother Teresa, or any leader bent on a human course that leads to action.

The QUESTION is, do the fruits of Mormonism come from God?

Looking way back to 1820, I would suggest Joseph, who was failing at making a living searching for buried treasure with his father, transferred his skill at money digging to religion – and with it was born the fruit of deception. He deceived people about his claims to “see” money and treasure buried in the earth with a stone. This very same stone was used to produce the Book of Mormon, according to him and other witnesses. He deceived people into believing he saw God. And then God and Jesus. Then angels. Then finally God the Father in a body of flesh and bone with the Son standing next to Him. He deceived them relative to the origins and contents of the Book of Abraham. He deceived them with convenient ad hoc revelations that make up the Doctrine and Covenants. He deceived young women about God telling him that they must be his wife, and he deceived his wife by hiding these women from her. This “fruit of deception” completely enrages the God of Heaven and earth.

Warnings from Scripture

Remember his words in Deuteronomy 13:

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And what does God say to the Children of Israel who teach such things:

Verse 5

“And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God.”

The fruit of deception, introduced by Joseph Smith to the world, has bore seeds, and the spirit of deception is alive and well in the hearts of Mormonism everywhere. It is no wonder that the State of Utah is known by the SEC as the securities fraud capital of the nation – if not the world!

The Concept of "Lying for the Lord"

Mark Hoffman, a returned missionary, temple attending Mormon, was able to deceive all sorts of LDS people – especially the higher-up leadership – because he knew they had no ability to discern a lie! He ended up killing people in the end. The concept of Lying for the Lord is well established among many of the faithful LDS – who believe there are times when a lie – especially a lie to protect the Church – is justified AND OF GOD HIMSELF – who scripture says cannot lie. Sadly, because of Joseph’s teachings, deception is alive and well in the lives of every local level member.

Self-deception. Whenever they take the LDS sacrament, they make a covenant with God to obey all of His commandments fully aware – fully aware – that they are going to break them. And yet they promise, by sacramental covenant, to keep all of His commandments. This is not lying for the Lord, it’s lying TO the Lord.

We had a caller a number of months ago state something to the effect that:

“When I left the LDS Church, I stopped lying.”

Sad but true. In order to be worthy to enter the temple, you have to answer a series of questions. They are presented in a way that the only way to pass them is to be both deceiving and self-deceptive.

“Wherefore, by these fruits, ye shall know Joseph.”

Let’s open up the phone lines.

(801) 973-TV20
(801) 973-8820

(Emails)

Jonah 2:8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

Hosea 10:1 ¶ Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.

Hosea 10:13 “ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.”

Matthew 13:22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised

Spiritual Reflection

from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Galatians 5:-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Upcoming Event

CONCLUSION

Okay, now don’t forget – THIS SUNDAY, at the GATEWAY THEATERS in downtown Salt Lake City, come and see “Adam’s Road” a music group that includes four faithful returned LDS missionaries who have come to see the light – and abandoned ship. It will be worth the experience.

Next Week's Feature

Then next week, we’re going to feature Adam’s Road here on Heart of the Matter and hear about their journey, the differences between being LDS and a Christian, and why they would leave what they Mormon’s claim is “The Only True Church on the face of the earth.”

Until then, we’ll see you next week, here on Heart of the Matter.