Apostasy

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A Response to Mormon History Revisionists

Pentagram in the Modern LDS Church

Was the pentagram on Solomon's Ring?

Why is the Pentagram on the Nauvoo Temple?

Apostasy Rages within LDS Church - (2/16/03)

"Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies - because of the praise of the world?"

The Testimony of a True Saint in the LDS Church vs. Recent Trends

Throughout the history of the LDS Church, it has been common to hear words such as the following, bearing testimony: "I know that this is the one true church founded by God, and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of Christ-like qualities, who endured much unjust persecution, and was falsely imprisoned for no crime - he was a completely innocent man; he was a true prophet who then willingly gave his life to seal his testimony of the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ; Joseph Smith was murdered at the hands of corrupt and evil men; the revelations and scriptures in the Book of Mormon are true, and are the words of God and constitute the most correct book on earth today."

We are currently in the time where the following metamorphosis is taking place with many LDS Church members:

"Testimony" of many current LDS: "We believe we are the true and select people, we have the true church teachings and the church will never go wrong, and that Joseph Smith and early church members did a great work creating our religion in spite of what we believe to be their lack of knowledge and education, and what we have now been shown was their connections to the occult and other evils which we are not now ashamed of, but seek to show that although we believe this foundation to be faulty we believe we are moving it to a state of enlightenment. We are proud of our improved relations with much of the world who used to persecute us, and are grateful for the many contributions of these worldly neighbors to help us as a people rediscover and redefine our history, as we no longer denounce the stories of these people as slanderous lies as was the church position of our forebears; we now seek to understand and make peace with the works of all, including those that formerly persecuted and slandered our church, as we believe there is value in our history in the stories of the slanderers, mobocrats, and murderers that is equal to the side of those Saints whose blood they thirsted after."

Apostasy Gaining a Firmer Stronghold in Current LDS Church

Many have mistakenly concluded that they may find truth with groups such as the Sunstone organization and other modern Mormon Church scholars, who trumpeted the efforts of Mark Hofmann when he customized forgeries to suit their cravings for the mythical historical documents linking Mormonism to the occult. They once again are intensifying their efforts to repaint early church history, discussing their own purported religious beliefs in terms much the same way a college medical research student discusses experimental laboratory rats for a graduate thesis paper.

Using information from a mixture of sources, much of which are originally gleaned from enemies and apostates of the LDS church, their research is more than ever gaining a stronghold among Latter Day Church members and even given dignity by what many would consider to be reputable church resources within the LDS Church. Using a secularized mind-set to analyze the origins of the Mormon religion, an increasing amount of what are referred to with trendy terminology such as the "religi-scholar", the "religio-intellectual" community of Latter Day Saints are flaunting their "colleg-ese" vocabulary skills to dupe their audience with an educated sounding manner of crafted words, to effectively portray the early Mormon people as uneducated and ignorant occult seekers.

What many unquestioning faithful members aren't aware of is that these "oxymormon" scholars and their versions of history have only recently been accepted and adopted by Mormon Church historians and placed into standard history resources. It is becoming common for what were once unquestioning and faithful church members to uncover horror stories of shocking proportions regarding the origins of the Restored Church and it's leaders, supported by what they consider to be reputable sources within the church and public media. Conveniently ignored facts of history are that men holding some of the highest elected offices (such as governor) were complicit in the slander of early Saints and murder of Joseph and his brother, Hyrum Smith. The Governor (Lilburn W. Boggs) of Missouri issued the only extermination order in U.S. History to murder innocent American citizens, based solely on prejudice for their religious beliefs. Read about Joseph Smith's final days and the prejudice he endured by clicking the following link: Teachings of Joseph Smith

D&C 123:10 "Which dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble with palsy."

True Saints and church historians once could always be counted on to defend the religion as well as defending early leaders until recent generations, siding with the stories of the innocent who endured vicious persecution and placing the anti-Mormon versions and their murderous origins in the proper context. It is clear we have reached that time prophesied by Moroni in Mormon Chapter 8:

"O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies - because of the praise of the world?

The Motives of Mark Hofmann Still Carried On

One of the most notorious apostates in LDS Church history was honored with VIP treatment while openly "uncovering" apostate anti-Mormon information that was destroying the credibility of everything sacred to the Mormon religion. He successfully broke down all barriers previously in place in the church to defend and protect the honor of the sacred origin of the religion and its early leaders; when he was later exposed, he honestly admitted to these motives, yet the road he paved has allowed many to follow in his footsteps. Only after he committed murder and was exposed for fraud was it deemed he had apostatized and committed an act that affected his church membership. Although he is imprisoned for life, many church members of his ilk, continue the revisionist works he was performing against the church while participating in the church.

Many LDS faithful have found a comfort zone once again after the specter of the heinous works and motives of Mark Hofmann cast a shadow over the present LDS Church. With his life sentence, many breathed a sigh of relief, feeling there was the proof of divine intervention that church members could reassure themselves they would not ever be allowed to be caught off guard. In accepting the version of Hofmann over that of Joseph Smith, many Mormons were thrown onto a course of blindly accepting whatever revisions to their history that is served up to them, merely submitting their beliefs and eventually possibly their souls to the course chosen by the educated sounding opinions of others. Joseph Smith taught that any man who taught a different doctrine than what he taught will be cursed. The current church members need to return to nourishing the tree that was planted by Joseph Smith.

Alma 32:38-40"...because it has no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out. Now, this is not because the seed was not good, neither is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable, but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof.

"And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life.

"But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life."

A Response to Mormon History Revisionists

Why the Current LDS People Have Lost Their Capacity to Reason