Heart of the Matter: Defending the Bible – Part I

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 Christianity Face to Face.”
Show 49 Defending the Bible – Part I
November 25th 2008

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

Born-Again Mormon

Our approach in the book is to set religion aside and introduce the Christian relationship to God, and then to examine Mormonism from a reasonable position of one having been there.

IWABAM is available at:

• Oasis Books in Logan
• Christian Gift and Bible in Sandy
• New Life books in Layton
• Sam Weller’s downtown
• SLC Calvary Chapel and other CC book stores
• Dolly’s Books in Park City
• Gift of Grace Bible in Springville
• ULTM.ORG or in the store itself.

. . . and at www.bornagainmormon.com

Remember Friday, December 5th from 7 to 9 pm – for the second annual KTMW Christmas open house! Food, give-aways, Christmas cheer. Come by and say hello to all the hosts here on their sets. Friday, December 5th from 7-9 pm, right here at 314 South Redwood Road.

Last week I read a blog from Bill Marrriott of Marriott Hotels who stood against Mormonism’s support of Prop 8. In that blog, Brother Marriott gleefully stated that the Marriott Hotel Corporation has had the pleasure of hosting numerous conventions or festivals for the LGBT – and at the time I said that I didn’t know what this acronym stood for. A faithful viewer – Richard T. – wrote and explained – LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, bi-sexual transgendered. So . . . there you have it.

The Mormon Practice of Baptizing the Deceased

We had seven hundred emails that went unanswered until Sunday of last week when we finally got through them all. Out of those we had a number of really good and insightful things offered – truly inspiring stories of faith and/or wonderful bits of information and insights. We appreciate all of you who take the time to write and share informative things. Before we go into our topic tonight, let me share a few emails that I think will add dimension to the program.

The first few share a common thread or theme – I’ll call it “Mormon chutspa” nerve – their unapologetic and relentless infliction of the “Mormon way” over everybody else’s. FoxNews recently ran an “E” article titled “Holocaust survivors want Mormons to stop baptizing their dead.” It seems that 13 years ago there was an uproar over this practice and the LDS church entered into an agreement to stop baptizing living Mormons in the name of deceased Holocaust victims. According to holocaust researcher Helen Radkey, the agreement didn’t last long as there have been thousands of breaches since.

Holocaust victims' families and survivors themselves are especially appalled by the LDS posthumous practice because these people all lost their lives as a direct result of their faith, which is Judaism, NOT Mormonism. Ernest Michael, honorary chairperson of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors said, “We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion.”

What did the LDS church spokesman say in response to reporters on Monday, November 10th of this year? “Ending the practice outright was not part of our agreement and would essentially be asking Mormons to alter their beliefs.” Listen to this: He said, “We don’t think any faith group has the right to ask another to change its doctrines, if our work for the dead is properly understood, it should not be a source of friction to anyone. It’s merely a freewill offering.” Can you take it? In other words, they’re saying, “We’re going to do whatever the hell we want using the name of your dead family members, and if it angers you, you simply don’t ‘properly understand.’”

Actions Against Unwanted Posthumous Baptisms

From where does this audacity come? From the ego-centric ideation that they and they alone are in possession of all of God’s truth and therefore they have the right to do whatever they want. In May, the Vatican ordered Catholic dioceses worldwide to withhold member registries from Mormons so that Catholics could not be baptized. I would suggest here and now that the leaders of ALL faith groups unite and officially voice the same demands as the Jews and Catholics. If they’re baptizing our dead relatives and giving them their Mormon endowments, have you ever wondered if they are also marrying our dead mothers and daughters to themselves too? Now, I don’t think they go this far, but I am willing to bet that it has happened somewhere in Mormon history.

What can YOU do? First, abandon ship. If you and your family's names are on the rolls of that Church, abandon ship and get them off while you’re still alive. Secondly, make your voice known. Now on the screen is the…

Protecting Family Names in LDS Ceremonial Practices

LDS Church headquarters address:

LDS CHURCH HQ – Temple Records 50 East North Temple Salt Lake City, Utah 84150

Inundate them with written instructions that they are never to use ANY of your deceased families names in their temple work without prior written consent. Get your family members to sign it.

Send a message loud and clear:

“I do not want anyone at anytime in Mormonism to ever to use the names and/or genealogies of anyone in my family for their secret ceremonies. If any of my deceased family member’s names have been used without our expressed written family permission, we demand this work to be retracted immediately.” Ask them to respond with verification that your request has been put into immediately effect.”

Why go to all this trouble?

Because it will check the LDS Church in thinking they can use our deceased family members as fuel to help fire their religious machine.

Questioning LDS Historical Practices

In a similar vein – and as an interesting aside – Jan wrote and told us that in her American History class she learned that Wilford Woodruff, one time president of the LDS church, was baptized in the St. George temple on behalf of Christopher Columbus, Jon Wesley, Ben Franklin, and George Washington, then had each of them endowed and ordained as Mormon High Priests vicariously.

The Chutzpah! The Pride?

Why wasn’t he baptized for Benedict Arnold, Black Beard, or Jesse James?

Why the successful?

SICKNESS!

LDS Church Actions and Power Dynamics

Then there is the story of the “Men on a Mission” calendar where a Las Vegas entrepreneur was excommunicated by the LDS church because he put a calendar together of returned Mormon missionaries with (children, cover your ears) their shirts off. I suppose a church has this right – ridiculous and controlling as it sounds – to take such action. But this isn’t the real issue. It seems the entrepreneur had graduated from Brigham Young University in August but the LDS Church retroactively yanked his diploma too! Officially, the charges against the kid were a failure to pay tithing and lapsing in other church duties and for this they ex’d him – but to then rescind his college diploma!

Unrelenting abuse of power – but arbitrarily administered.

Recall Brother Marriott? Has any church action occurred against him.

Nay, nay said the goat.

But little old BYU grad is used as a living breathing sacrifice upon the altar of conformity for all the western world to see.

How can you take it? (beat)

Arthur wrote and said he found it so intriguing that Mormons today claim to “love the Bible” and to “be Christian” that he decided to check things out firsthand and for himself. So he went to a Sunday Service at an LDS ward and did a survey of everything that was said and what resources were used. If something was quoted, he recorded it. This is what he heard in his sample-Sunday visit:

Former LDS prophets were quoted 5 times. The Doctrine and Covenants was quoted 4 times. The Book of Mormon 2 times. And the current Prophet 1. Joseph Smith was also quoted once. Zero references from the Bible. Zero references from Jesus.

Then he went to the basic gospel doctrine class and there they used:

The BOM 3 times Former LDS Prophets twice And a General Conference Talk once.

He noted that the Book of Mormon quote was actually taken from the Bible itself.

Arthur says that it is baffling to him how a group of people can call themselves Christians but run services that never quote Jesus or the Bible!

Great question.

Reevaluating Family and Faith

We also received at least fifteen emails that talked about how wonderful the LDS church is – especially with its support of families. I would like to suggest a couple things related to families and God. First of all, and this may sound radical, but families can become as much of an idol as anything else in this fallen world. Families are NOT the end all of existence.

Jesus, author of brotherly love, had much to say about “families that are placed out of kilter.” He said in Matthew 10:

“For I have come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”

When he was told that His Mother and Brothers wanted to see and speak to Him He said:

Matthew 12:48 “Who is My mother? And who are My brothers? And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, Behold, My mother and My brothers!”

The Teachings of Jesus and Their Impact on Family and Faith

"For whoever shall do the will of My Father in Heaven, the same is My brother and sister and mother."

You want more, you LDS who relentlessly send me emails that paint sickly sweet pictures of Jesus? When a guy whose father died came up to him Jesus and wanted to go and bury him before going with the Lord, Jesus said to the man, who surely was in the midst of grief: "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."

Can you imagine being invited to the "funeral of a general authority of the LDS church" and saying the same thing? "Ahhh, let the dead bury the dead." I wish we heard more of this.

Individualism and the True Church of Jesus Christ

Because of Jesus – His Gospel, His Truth – he said: "And brother will deliver up brother to deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., and the father his child. And the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death." The point in this is the true Church of Jesus Christ is made up of individuals. And to be quite frank, such individualism is antithetical to the family unit. Families can actually serve to keep people from a relationship with Jesus because they become Religion in and of themselves.

There was this Chinese sage named Mo_Tzu who went about advocating brotherly love and the Confusionists – who worshipped the family unit – hated and condemned him, arguing that the principle of universal love would dissolve family and destroy society. Heavy stuff, eh?

Brooke Adams, in The Law of Civilization and Decay said that when "St. Bernard preached, his influence was so strong that "mothers are said to have hid their sons from him, and wives their husbands, lest he should lure them away." In fact, writes Adams, "he actually broke up so many homes that the abandoned wives formed a nunnery." This is what Jesus was saying. If you get to a place where the opinions and sway of your family take precedence over Me, you are not worthy of me.

Finally, Eileen wrote:

(READ EMAIL)

And with this, let's have a prayer.

PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER

Examining Mormonism and Biblical Authenticity

Well, I’ve been doing this program for a while now. We’ve received a lot of mail, email, plenty of phone calls, and we’ve sat with a lot of very tired, frustrated, and searching people regarding Mormonism. This year I’ve had the gnawing impression to present the best, most definitive way to prove Mormonism false. The study of LDS history goes a long way to show its warts, but warts are often explained away and often not even believed.

Unable to sleep a month or so ago, I reached up into my bookshelf and pulled out a small paperback written in 1956. These words caught my attention:

(Read quotes)

The Bible's Role in Christianity

The LDS defense against their believing and practicing things that are in opposition to the Bible is to claim that the Bible is not a trustworthy source of Truth, that it has been altered, bastardized if you will, and therefore Mormon inspiration is needed to deliver unto man the "fully restored Gospel." This being the case, we are going to spend the last few weeks of 2008 taking a fairly close look at the Bible – where it came from, how it was compiled, what makes it reliable, trustworthy, and the most amazing book ever given to human-kind.

We will also look at early Christian church history to see what happened to the church Jesus established over the ages and how the Bible faired during this time. It is our hope that these next four or five weeks will help open your eyes to the value of God’s Word and/or give you enough ammunition to not only trust it completely, but to defend it against the LDS claim that it is inferior to their Book of Mormon.

Now the word Canon literally means "cane" (canon) or a measuring stick. In the Christian times “canon” came to mean a written rule (or ruler) of faith. Tonight, we’re going to look at the Old Testament as a written rule of faith. Let me remind you all that Jesus Himself trusted the Old Testament canon and quoted from it relentlessly, illustrating the importance of God’s Word even in His mortal life. Jesus never referred to Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, or told us to trust anything else than what was written before, and what would be written by His chosen witnesses. This Old Testament was in some ways OLDER to Jesus than the New Testament is to the gentile nation – and yet He trust it’s “translation.” This Old Testament, which the Jews called The

The Evolution of Sacred Writings in Jewish History

Word of God and/or The Scriptures was read, trusted, and constantly used in their gatherings and synagogues. Early in Jewish History, God used writings as the medium for His Word to be handed down to His chosen people. First, the ten commandments were written on stone. (Deut 10:4-5) Then Moses Law, which was written in a book (Deut 31:24-26) Then copies were made of this book (Deut 17:18) The Joshua added to this written book of law (Joshua 24:26) Then Samuel wrote in a book and “laid it up before God” (1st Sam 10:25) where other scripture was kept – in the Ark.

Ask yourselves a question here: Why would God tell these chosen men and prophets to write if what they wrote could not be trusted?

(beat)

According to II Kings 22:8-20 this book of compiled writings was well known 400 years later! Ask yourself: “Why would God be able to preserve it for them . . . and not for us?” Prophets too, wrote in books (Jeremiah 36:32 and Zechariah 1:4; 7:7-12) which were also added to the sacred writings. Ezra, after the captivitiy, read from this book publicly (Ezra 7:6).

Josephus and the Establishment of Canon

So jump way ahead for me in time for a second. There was this guy named Josephus. He was born in 37 AD in Jerusalem in full priestly aristocracy. He was highly educated in Hebrew and in Greek culture. He was a Governor of Galilee and a military commander in the wars with Rome. He was present at the destruction of Jerusalem. Being one of the most reliable historians, Josephus asserts that the collection of Hebrew books accepted as canon then AND NOW! – were decided upon and set four hundred years earlier “from the days of Artaxerxes, in the time of Ezra.” All the books of Old Testament canon accepted then are accepted now, except they were re-classified from being 22 books to becoming 39 and placed in a different order. Now these writings were not known as the Old Testament until after the “Christian scriptures” were compiled, and were then so-called to differentiate them from the New writings of the apostles.

The Septuagint and Apocryphal Writings

Now around 400 to 300 years before the birth of Christ these Hebrew scriptures – which Jesus called “The Word of God” were translated into a Greek version called the Septuagint (which is a Greek word referring to the seventy Greek scholars who came together in Alexandria to translate it from Hebrew to Greek). The compilers of the Septuagint chose to include some other books which came to be known as the “Apocraphal writings or books). These typically refer to 14 books and are often found in between the Old and New Testaments of some Bibles. Their authorship is uncertain and they were NOT ever included or accepted in the Hebrew Scriptures. They were written AFTER the oracles and revelation had ceased, when God was quiet for 400 years between Malachi – the last book of the Old Testament and Matthew – what we use as the first book in the New. Josephus rejected the Apocraphal books wholly. They are never quoted in the New Testament or by Jesus Himself. They were not recognized by the Early Christian Church as of canonical or of divine inspiration.

Got all that?

Now when the Bible was translated into Latin in the second century AD, they didn’t translate it from the Hebrew scriptures but from the Greek Septuagint version, which remember, included these apocraphal writings. Well, these writings were carried over into the Latin Vulgate, which became the common Bible version for western Europe until the Reformation began.

Protestant scholars automatically rejected these apocraphal books as not belonging in any way to God’s inspired word (just as the Hebrews had done, just as Jesus had done by never quoting them, and just as the Early Christian church fathers had done) but . . . BUT . . . the Roman Catholic Church held a council (called the Council of Trent) to stop the protestant movement from progressing, and at this council, they declared the Apocryphal books to be canonical. They remain in the Catholic Bible today (which is called the Douay Version).

Outside the 14 (or so) Apocraphal books, which include:

1. I and II Esdras
2. Tobit
3. Judith
4. Additions to Esther
5. The Wisdom of Solomon
6. Ecclesiasticus
7. Baruch
8. The Epistle of Jeremiah
9. The Song of the three holy children
10. The History of Susanna
11. Bel and the Dragon
12. The Prayer of Manasses
13. I, II, III, and IV Maccabees

there are other writings which like the apocrypha, are interesting reads, but are rejected (understandably so) as inspired of God. These books were written by authors generally unknown, are quite imaginative in nature, and often deal with the Coming Messiah.

Apocryphal Writings

and Day of Judgment.

They were compiled around the time of the Maccabean Revolt. They include The Book of Enoch (which is a compilation of fragments), Assumption of Moses, Ascension of Isaiah, The Book of Jubilees, Psalms of Solomon, Testament of the 12 Patriarchs, and the Sibylline Oracles.

Old Testament Texts and Preservation

Now Old Testament writings were originally written on skins and kept in the temple until the Babylonian Captivity. Afterwards, copies were carefully – tediously – made for use in Synagogs. The Hebrew version of what Jesus called the “Word of God” is called the Massoretic text. In addition to these versions there are even more supportive addendums that validate the Old Testament manuscripts.

First there is the Targums which are the Old Testament and commentary on the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Aramaic replaced the Hebrew as the prevalent language after the Babylonian captivity. The Jews also wrote commentary on the Old Testament and additionally included their traditions in writings called the Talmud.

The Role of Scribes

Now before the days of printing, a most honorable position among the Jews was that of scribe. Fully and completely committed to the fact that the texts they were working with were God’s Word, these men – also known as lawyers because of their knowledge of the law – tediously spent all of their lives learning, interpreting, and recording God’s Word.

Finally, there are the Dead Sea Scrolls. Prior to their discovery in Kumran caves in ________, the Old Testament was substantiated only so far back by the Septuagint, Massoretic texts, the Talmud, and the Targums. But the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls supplied manuscript versions of much of the Old Testament as much as a thousand years earlier. Guess what they found? The preserved writings were WORD for WORD accurate in 99.9 percent of the texts, and if there was a variation, it was always found in a single non-doctrinal word like “and, but, and or.”

Questioning the Word of God

Do you realize what you are doing and saying when you call the Word of God into question? When you disparage it? Demean it? Regarding His Word, God said:

Let’s open up the phone lines: (801) 973-8820 (801) 973-TV20

Please, FIRST TIME CALLERS LDS Preferably Have a question/comment ready Turn down your tv and listen to your phone – don’t watch the tv!

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