Shawn McCraney emphasizes the importance of upholding the Bible as the ultimate source of truth, acknowledging its historical and prophetic reliability, and warns against the dangers of seeking leadership outside God's authority, as illustrated by the biblical account of Israel's desire for a king. He also stresses the need to challenge claims of truth that rely solely on subjective experiences, contrasting them with the substantiated truths found in the Bible, particularly in the context of Mormonism and contemporary religious figures like Christopher Nemelka.
Shawn analyzes Christopher Nemelka's teachings as a derivative and even more distorted continuation of Joseph Smith's approach, emphasizing that Nemelka's claims directly contradict biblical teachings and redefine Christian concepts. By promoting his own unsubstantiated book as a new source of truth while dismissing the Bible, Nemelka replicates Smith’s pattern of undermining biblical Christianity to gain a following.
In evaluating the credibility of religious leaders like Christopher Nemelka, it is crucial to compare their claims and personal conduct against established religious texts, ensuring they consistently point followers to Christ rather than themselves, and to scrutinize their character and teachings to determine their trustworthiness. While Nemelka claims to hold a prophetic role similar to Joseph Smith, both figures have been associated with personal controversies such as polygamous relationships and questionable teachings, raising doubts about their reliability as spiritual leaders.
The teaching describes issues in the "Sealed Portion" or SP, a supposed extension of scripture, highlighting errors and contradictions in translation and content, such as incorrect historical or cultural references. It further critiques the depiction of Jesus, attributing negative characteristics and actions to him, which contradict traditional Christian beliefs and the biblical account.
Shawn challenges traditional religious teachings by suggesting that Satan, not God, plays a significant role in granting happiness, guidance, and answering prayers, while portraying religious practices and temple services as misguided. He also asserts controversial ideas such as the permissibility of homosexuality, the ability of individuals to choose their gender and resurrection, and criticizes Church leaders as servants of Satan, urging Latter-day Saints to question the teachings of their founder.
Heart of the Matter: Where Mormonism Meets Biblical Christianity
Introduction
“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 42 Christopher Nemelka – Part II October 16th, 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.
Quickly, some tickets available to our first two callers.
Biblical Context
In 1st Samuel 8:6-7 we read about the Children of Israel coming to the prophet Samuel and saying:
6 “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”
Over the past few weeks we have more and more witnessed believers in this country possessing the same attitude. “Give us a king to rule over us.”
For years television show host John Ankerberg has devoted numerous programs to exposing Mormonism for what it really is. Recently his website does all it can to tell visitors to elect a Mormon as king. Additionally, the greatest evangelist since Billy Sunday – Billy Graham – a man who has also stood for biblical truth over the years, came out and told his supporters to vote an active, faithful Mormon into the most powerful office in the land AND! AND he followed his statement that he would do “all he can” to help this Mormon get elected by removing all references to Mormonism as a cult which were ever present just weeks ago. I cannot help but believe these actions only prove that “We have rejected Him, that He should not reign over us.” God have mercy on us all.
Fade to GRAPHIC
Epistemology and the Bible
From a seed comes the tree. From the tree comes the fruit. From the fruit comes a seed. And on, and on, and on . . . .
Christopher Nemelka
Tonight we are going to have our second . . . installation (injection, exposure) . . . of Christopher Nemelka, a man who claims to have produced “the Sealed Portion” of Joseph Smith’s golden plates. Many of you have written in strongly suggesting that we have nothing more to do with Nemelka (who wants to only be called Christopher). Apparently he has offended you and some of you have (once again, said) will never watch the program again. We’ll miss you. But you’ve truly missed the point and benefit of having a man like Nemelka on the program.
Years ago, when we were called to serve the living God here in Utah, I knew that it was imperative that we relentlessly stand for two things: First, I knew I would have to stand for the Bible as being God’s revealed Word to man and the source by which people measure all things. No matter what comes our way, this stance is non-negotiable. Why? Because the Bible stands up to legitimate scrutiny. It’s based in reality. God didn’t have it pop up out of one man’s mind detached from reality. It was forged in real history, written by real people, in real languages, about real subjects, displaying real sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace., and prophesying about hundreds of real events – all of which have been fulfilled – relative to where they are prophetically pointed.
The “prophecy angle” alone (and the impossibility for the numerous writers spread out over 1500 plus years to collude on content) places the Bible on a level unsurpassed by any other book or philosophy in existence. Every imaginable attempt has been made to challenge it, mock it, legitimize it, and replace it. Why? Remove the yardstick by which we measure all things, and anything and everything is subject to MANipulation. So we knew we would always defend the Word of God as THE source by which we would measure all truth.
The second stance we knew we would have to take in this ministry was to relentlessly challenge epistemology – which is a big word for “how men and women are able to determine truth.” Where God has provided us His Word in terms of real time, places and participants, religious charlatans have LONG sought to undermine it with ideas and claims that cannot be substantiated by ANY measurement other than feelings, impressions, dreams, and mesmerism.
Last week on this very program we had the opportunity – the opportunity – to actually see, hear, observe and witness a self-proclaimed “special messenger of new religious truths” as he…
Analysis of Christopher Nemelka's Teachings
Employed the very same tactics used over and over again by men and women out to gain a following. In a little while I am going to deconstruct him and his methods, and show how they are both highly unoriginal (as they mirror everything Joseph Smith did) and worst of all, incapable of providing anyone with the peace, joy, hope, and genuine love available by and through the biblical Jesus.
It’s important to realize a couple of things relative to what we have witnessed (and will witness) tonight from Christopher Nemelka. As I said, he is but the fruit of what Joseph Smith did before him – only he and his product are far more rotten. Where Smith tweaked almost everything about biblical Christianity in his supposed restored gospel, he did try and retain elements of biblical Christianity in order to attract Bible-believing Christians over to his new-fangled revelations. Being far removed from this original tree, Nemelka has taken “Smith’s myths” and launched out much further away from the cross. But whether people miss the cross by an inch or a lightyear, it is still missed. Nevertheless, Nemelka’s con is far more darkly rotten than the work of Mormonism’s founder.
Statements by Nemelka
How badly has he strayed off Mormonism's already crooked course? Here are some of quotes from Nemelka he shared last week:
He said that, “God is simply a human beings’ self reality.” He said, “there is no God, but merely advanced beings from other solar Systems.” He said, “There is nobody out there except yourself.” He said, “Lucifer is simply mortal human nature – that’s all Lucifer is.” He said, “The Bible is myth.” He said, “The only answers we ever get, no matter who we are praying to, is from ourselves.” (And he used Joseph’s temple endowment to support this)
About this point in the program I stopped and told the audience that “Christopher was teaching things that were absolutely contrary to the Bible” and he said, “that’s exactly right.” And then he went on and ridiculed the authenticity of the Word of God. Then after besmirching the Bible, the guy actually looked in the camera and said: “All I’m saying is read the Sealed Portion.” A book written from thin air! A book that cannot be proven true or false! A book that teaches things contrary to the Bible!
First, he attempted to say that the Bible cannot be trusted. Joseph Smith did this too. Second, he said that HE is providing the world a book that they CAN trust. Joseph Smith did this too.
Later, he described “his version of Jesus” – saying He is “an ecumenical being” who is, “nothing more, than a governor of this solar system.” Smith re-defined the Lord too, calling Him “a created being,” “our elder brother,” and a spirit sibling of Satan. He then derided the “little Christians watching who read their little Bible” something Mormonism has long done, and then in an attempt to somehow compare his truth-claims against biblical Christianity, he asked the audience to look at me and my demeanor and compare it with him and his handsome smiling face. Mormonism continues to do the same with itself and other Christian churches.
Critique of Claims
Finally, after redefining God, denying the biblical Christ, ridiculing the Bible, and presenting his book as the ultimate source of truth, Christopher looked at the audience, and like Golom of the Lord of the Rings, pathetically uttered: “Christ never treated people like Shawn has treated me,” appealing to the Lord and Savior to serve his own purposes, while denying the reality of who Jesus Christ is and what He really said and did. Mormonism…does this too.
We are now going to give Christopher his last 15 minutes of fame where I have asked him to share what he calls the “real truth” about his book known as the Sealed Portion. While he speaks, I want to ask every active Latter-day Saint what makes Nemelka’s claims ONE WHIT different from their own and how they determine his false and theirs true. Christopher?
(Please count down 15 minutes and signal to Christopher when he is two minutes, one minute, 30 seconds, 15, 10 and 5 from being done.)
“Let me begin with a prayer to the True and Living God.”
I’ve already asked the LDS to explain how Christopher’s claims are any less true than Joseph Smith’s since both are contrary to the Bible, both come from angelic sources, and both redefine Christian terminology. But how should a Christian (or even a non-believer)…
Analyzing Claims of Religious Authority
For that matter) determine whether Nemelka speaks truth or not. Of course we compare what he says and does with the Bible. And I would start by examining how a person actually describes themselves.
In the beginning of the Sealed Portion Nemelka admits that he practices deception. He also says he is a man called as a “translator and revelator to the world.” (SP 10:13) He calls himself “the last prophet of the latter days,” (SP 61:125) “the second prophet since Joseph Smith” (SP 35:57) and pulled this huge publicity gig where he says he has assumed the identity of a reincarnated Hyrum Smith.
Nemelka also told me personally that “there was not a man alive who knew the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith” better than himself. The apple does not fall far from the tree as Joseph Smith said of himself: “I am learned and know more than all the whole world put together.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 350-352). And the ever familiar “I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam . . . neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from him, but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.” (History of the Church, vol. 6. Page 408-409)
Examining Personal Life and Teachings
We might then look at the personal life of men like Nemelka to determine the validity of his extra-biblical message. In this I must make something clear: In Christianity, a believer's job is to always point all others to Christ and Christ alone—never to themselves. Why? Because we know we are sinful, failures, and only strong in and through Him.
2 polygamous wives. 4 married women. 9 kids.
But when the outside world embraces a philosophy of a man and considers his teachings and insights worthy of allegiance, that man must WITHIN HIS PERSON show He is worthy of their trust. Christians can trust Christianity because it always ought to be founded on the teachings and person of a perfect Christ. To trust in the teachings of Smith or Nemelka, we must be able to trust in the character of these men.
So, was Joseph Smith worthy of our trust? We’ve already talked about this ad nauseam in other shows but what about Nemelka? Like Smith, Nemelka has had numerous wives. In a phone conversation today he said four. He then added in more that were had through polygamy (which he has renounced). He said he has never had an affair but added that he does not believe in marriage.
I’ve had interviews with women who have stated for the record that Christopher convinced them that spiritual marriage was created through the act of intercourse, and who then considered themselves his wife through this consummating act. From his own mouth he has fathered nine children, and court records prove he has spent around a year in prison for refusing to support them financially.
These facts shouldn’t surprise anyone, should they? I mean, Christopher’s new religion is ALL about “happiness”… so I guess we can deduce that it just didn’t make him happy to support all his wives… and many more children.
Questions of Credibility
One woman, who will remain nameless, told me that after Nemelka convinced her to become his spiritual wife (through his ha-penis philosophy) he said he needed to have his “jealousy” tested by God. As light of this, he convinced her to take on a number of male partners, some of whom even paid Nemelka for their special little visits to her.
Like Joseph Smith, who, while secretly married to a number of women, said: “What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers.” Nemelka denies any such activity and warned me with threats of perjury.
Finally, after examining what a religious leader says about themselves, what they have actually done with their lives, I would actually look at their writings and see what they convey. This is what we do with the Koran, the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon, I think we ought to examine some passages from Nemelka’s Sealed Portion.
To begin, where the BOM
Examination of Claims in the Sealed Portion
The book presented by Nemelka, supposedly translated with the use of the Urim and Thummum like the Book of Mormon, contains claims that are reminiscent of Joseph Smith's works. However, the accuracy and theological assertions made within raise significant concerns.
Nemelka claims the record contains all God's revelations and will be the greatest source of scripture, as indicated in SP 35:63. Among notable points, Nemelka's work allegedly offers contentions, such as whether it contains errors—questionable given its supposed divine origin. For example, SP 59:41 inaccurately states that the firstborn among the children of Israel were destroyed by an angel, rather than among the Egyptians. Similarly, SP 45:7 and SP 25:79 present assertions that conflict with established traditions and historical contexts. Additionally, literary errors are evident through phrases like "empirically invisible," and others that contradict logical coherence.
Jesus in the Sealed Portion
The portrayal of Jesus within Nemelka’s work deviates significantly from traditional understanding. The character of Jesus as identified in the Sealed Portion seems multifaceted beyond traditional beliefs:
- Jesus is depicted as dishonest and misleading, commanding others to lie (SP 15:4,5).
- He is portrayed as lawless, causing contention and confusion (SP 59:13).
- In SP 53:69, Jesus is labeled as unreliable, cowardly, underhanded, and duplicitous.
- His role and actions extend to the controversial, like ordaining women in secrecy and being branded as mutinous and sodomistic (SP 60:43, SP 59:13, SP 39:82).
Critiques on Jesus' Characteristics
As absurd as these depictions might seem, Nemelka extends this portrayal to suggest negative attributes unfounded in canonical texts:
- Jesus is called adulterous and impotent (SP 45:46-53, SP 45:42).
- Notably, it challenges his familial and heavenly lineage, asserting personal and parental deficiencies.
The radical alteration of Jesus' role and character leads to questions about the Sealed Portion’s authenticity and intentions. The texts provided suggest a narrative inconsistent with conventional Christian theology.
Doctrine and Teachings
conspires to coverup adultery. SP 15:39
His Father in Heaven "limit(s) the ability of the children of men." SP 16:9
The Father "cannot speak," SP 36:9 is blind to evil works SP 99:99-100 and deaf to prayers SP 8:44 while Satan hears them. SP 11:93 And His Father commands Jesus to disobey the first commandment given to man. SP 45:11
Historical and Religious Perspectives
Mortal beings lived and died before the arrival of Adam and Eve. SP 7:4-5
The priesthood of God is not eternal. SP 9:4
Lucifer has powers that are eternal. SP 32:23
Temple service is an abomination. SP 47:48
Performing ordinances, keeping the commandments, and making sacred covenants are part of Lucifer's plan. SP 29:64,65
Satisfying the lusts of the flesh is paramount to discovering who you really are. SP 99:ff
"Homosexuality is permitted by the Lord and is not contrary to his commandments." SP 39 intro.
Two apostles performed sodomy "in the presence of the Lord" and He called it "love." SP 39:82
Family units are not part of the Lord's gospel. SP 50:21
Gender and Spirituality
There are no males or females in parts of Heaven, SP 5:10; 50:22 neither as premortal spirits SP 11:50 nor as resurrected beings SP 11:49
By force "All spirits are without gender." SP 44:9
You choose your own gender upon birth. SP 99:7,6
You can choose resurrection or not. SP 22:30
People are returned to mortality for not learning everything the first time around. SP 8:27,29
In the millenniumA symbolic period of Christ’s reign—fulfilled by 70 A.D., not a future thousand-year timeline. More people can do whatever the hell they want because of the reign of the Lord and the dissolution of the laws of men. SP 99:ff
Prayers of blessing over the food are forbidden because the food is already blessed. SP 11:96 (See 2Ne 32:8)
"Our prayers are not heard by the Father, nor are they heard by the Son." SP 8:44
"There is not the Father to hear and answer their prayers." SP 8:48
Satan hears SP 11:93 and answers prayers. SP 15:14
Lucifer has "the power of the Father." SP 44:35
Satan is a revelator. SP 28:intro, 15:78, 44:5
Satan is a provider of happiness. SP 8:33
Satan's "plan can bring happiness and joy." SP 31:5
Satan is a teacher of things of the Father. SP 15:72
Satan's plan is glorious: There is "glory" in the plan of Lucifer. SP 31:11
Satan gives power. SP 48:43
Satan gives strength. SP 48:43
Satan gives wisdom. SP 15:70
Satan causes time. SP 25:14
Satan has power to procreate: "Lucifer became incarnate," SP 15:24 and impregnated Eve SP 15:36 before the fall SP 15:58 with her first son. SP 16:2
Eve conspires with her first son to hide things from Adam. SP 16:13
Eve's first son prays unto Satan for guidance and blessing. SP 16:14
Leadership and Authority
Leaders of the Church "are servants of Satan." SP 39:36
I think we’re done – though I have hundreds and hundreds of pages and interviews indicting Nemelka and his works.
But the point, the Heart of the Matter remains:
Latter-day Saints – what makes Nemelka any different from the non-biblical teachings of your founder?
And how can you explain the difference?
Let’s open up the phone lines:
(801) 973-8820
(801) 973-TV20
