In this sermon, the speaker strongly criticizes the teachings of Mormonism, calling them false and unscriptural. They argue that the fall of man, which Mormons view as a blessing, is actually a negative event with severe consequences for mankind. The speaker also highlights the belief of Mormons that life on earth is a probationary period and that only through a physical body can one attain celestial glory. They conclude by emphasizing the importance of the Gospel and the truth found in the Word of God.

Verse 34, Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, saying, I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now we've been looking together at what I have termed and what others have described as Maori Mormonism. Of all the cults and all the false religions, Mormonism, or as they call themselves wrongly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, must be one of the worst because of the things that they believe as well as the things that they don't believe, especially concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. The last time we quoted from a Mormon hymn which was published in 1856. And really, unless you were to read this, you can hardly believe that anybody would believe this, let alone sing it. But the hymn is entitled, We Believe in Our God. And if ever there was a misnomer, that's it. A wrong title given to a hymn, it's that. In that hymn, it's plainly taught that Adam was the Father of Christ. Here's what it says. We believe in our God, the great Prince of His race, the Archangel Michael, the Ancient of Days, our own Father Adam, Earth's Lord as is plain, who will counsel and fight for His children again. We believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, who in love to His brethren and sisters came down from above. So in other words, Adam is God, God is Adam, and Adam is the Father of Jesus Christ. According to Mormons, Christ existed in the spirit world with us, and He is actually our elder brother. And He is greater than us, only by virtue of His progression, not His nature. One Mormon writer called Milton R. Hunter stated, quote, Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer. Can you imagine anybody who would call themselves a church of Jesus Christ, believing something like that? But that is what they believe. That is taken, by the way, from a publication called Gospel Through the Ages. What this man is saying, and it's blasphemy, obviously, is that Christ is the brother of the devil. Now, Brigham Young, who was, of course, one of the early leaders of Mormonism, he said in his Journal of Discourses, Volume 1, page 51, quote, Now remember from this time forth and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. Unquote. Okay, so Brigham Young is quite unequivocal. Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. Look at what the Bible says. Look, chapter 1, verse 35. The angel answered to Mary, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now, if you go back to Matthew's record of the birth of the Lord, that is in Matthew chapter 1, the Holy Spirit Himself, who is the author of the Bible, in speaking of the birth of the Lord Jesus, makes it clear that it is a birth which is very much in contrast to other births. That's why, after giving the genealogies in the early part of Matthew chapter 1, he starts in verse 18, talking about the birth of Jesus, and here's what he says. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this way. It was after this manner. He's now talking about a different birth. He's now talking about a unique birth. And here's what he goes on to say. When, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, that is, engaged to him by a very strong engagement among the Jews, it was equivalent to a marriage almost, it says, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. He was going to go through what was the equivalent of a divorce proceeding, to put her away in a very private way. He was going to protect her and shield her from the shame and the reproach of having a child out of wedlock. That's what was in his thinking. Now, verse 20 says, But while he thought on these things, Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Then go to verse 25. It says of Joseph, And he knew her not, that is, in a carnal sense, till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. Now, who do we believe? Do we believe Brigham Young and the Mormons? Or do we believe the Word of God? Well, I know what I believe. But let me go on, just to quote further blasphemies from these people. Joseph Smith, not the original one, but Joseph Fielding Smith said, in his Doctrines of Salvation, published in Salt Lake City, not surprisingly, 1959, volume 1, page 18, quote, The birth of the Savior was a natural occurrence, unattended with any degree of mysticism, and the Father, God, was the literal parent of Jesus in the flesh as well as the spirit. He was not born without the aid of man, and that man was God. Now that, again, is almost unspeakable blasphemy. To say that man is God, God is man, and Christ was not born of the Holy Ghost, He was not born, to quote this man, without the aid of man, and that man was God. That's a denial of what I've just read in Matthew chapter 1. It's also a denial of the prophecy there in Isaiah chapter 7, and verse 14, where we read, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. The Mormons, obviously, don't believe in the virgin birth of Christ, even though the virgin birth of Christ is one of the cardinal doctrines of the faith. If you don't believe in the virgin birth of Christ, then you haven't got a Savior. Because if you have one who is born of natural generation, who is affected by human sin, by nature, then you haven't got a Savior. But I thank God we do have a Savior, and He is pure, and He is righteous, and He is without spot, and without stain, and without sin. He is Emmanuel, which being interpreted, Matthew tells us, means God with us, and He was born of a virgin. But in the Desert News, the 10th of October, 1866, Brigham Young said, again, a direct quote, The man Joseph, the husband of Mary, did not, that we know of, have more than one wife. But Mary, the wife of Joseph, had another husband. Now where he gets that from, I have no idea. He certainly doesn't get it from the Bible. But of course, this led the Mormon Orson Pratt to say, Quote, Whether God the Father gave Mary to Joseph for time only, or for time and eternity, we are not informed, inasmuch as God was the first husband to her. It may be that He only gave her to be Joseph's wife, while in this mortal state, and that He intended after the resurrection, to again take her as one of His own wives, to raise up immortal spirits in eternity. That is awful, awful blasphemy. But we're not surprised, at least I'm not, by anything that the Mormon Church comes out with, when you read some of this stuff. Do you know that Mormonism teaches that to become a God, Jesus would have needed to be married, and to raise children? And Mormon prophets and apostles, so called, have taught these very things. For instance, a man called Orson Hyde, H-Y-D-E, in the Journal of Discourses, volume 2, page 82, believed that. Orson Pratt even believed and taught that Jesus was a polygamist. Can you imagine? That the Lord Jesus, the pure, holy Son of God, was a polygamist. He not only had one wife, he had plural wives. Now, from these statements, it's obvious that Mormonism completely and utterly denies the deity and the virgin birth of Christ. It's also clear to me that the Jesus of Mormonism is not the Christ of the Scriptures. It's another Jesus. By the way, that term is used by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. We should look at that for a moment. The second book of Corinthians, chapter 11. We'll read verses 3 and 4. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. And before we go any further, isn't it good to know that the Apostle Paul believed in the literalness of the early chapters of the book of Genesis? The Apostle Paul believed that there was a person called Eve. He also believed there was somebody called Adam. Not presumably, definitely, because you go to Romans chapter 5, he talks about Adam and how that he sinned and all men fell in him. He also believed that it was the serpent who beguiled Eve. And he, speaking of that fall of man, says he was afraid that your minds, that's the Corinthian believers, should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For, if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. Another Jesus. And there are people in the day in which we live who are preaching another Jesus. They believe in another Jesus. They can talk all they like about believing in Jesus and all the rest of it, but if it's not the Jesus of the Bible, then it's not the Jesus that we worship. In fact, there is no such Jesus as the one that they believe in. The Mormon Jesus is another Christ, another Jesus. And again, we should note the words of warning in 1 John chapter 4, verse 2 and verse 3, Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And that, of course, is a reference to the virgin birth. Every spirit that denies that is not of God, and this is that spirit of antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. So Mormonism is most certainly antichrist. They can talk all they like about being the church of Jesus Christ, and being the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints, but they're not the church of Jesus Christ, nor are they saints. There's nothing saintly about Mormonism. It's an evil system. Any system that would believe and publish these beliefs is not a Christian system. But what about the doctrine of man? We're talking about the creed of Mormonism still? Well, the creed of Mormonism is erroneous on this as well, not surprisingly. If they're wrong on the doctrine of Christ, you wouldn't expect them to be right on many other things, and sure enough, they're not. They're wrong on the doctrine of man. They're wrong on where man came from. Now, what does the Bible say about where man came from? Well, obviously, we go back there to Genesis to the chapter 1, which is a chapter that talks about creation, and chapter 2 then enlarges upon that. But when we talk about the original creation of man, here we have it recorded. Genesis 1, verse 26 and 27. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. Now, that's what the Bible says about the creation of man. God created man in his own image. Male and female created he them. You come to chapter 2 of Genesis, and verse 7 and 8. It says, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. That's what the Bible says in that original place about the creation of man. Now, what do the Mormons say about man? Well, his pre-existence according to Mormonism is clear. They believe in that. Man existed first as an intelligence. In Mormon doctrine we read that man came down from the midst of all intelligences. There's a book called The Pearl of Great Price, and here's what it says. Now, the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was, and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. The denial of creation was something that Joseph Smith certainly proclaimed. Here's what Joseph Smith said, and again I'm quoting from another publication called Times and Seasons, Volume 5, page 116. Quote, The soul, the mind of man, the immortal spirit. All men say God created it in the beginning. The very idea lessens man in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine. I know better. The mind of man is as immortal as God himself. Their spirits existed co-equal with God. God himself could not create himself. Intelligence exists upon a self-existent principle, and there is no creation about it. So the Mormons don't even believe in creation. They don't believe that man is a creation at all. In the book of Zechariah, in the Minor Prophet, chapter 12 and verse 1, we read another statement about creation. This is what the Holy Spirit says. Zechariah 12, verse 1. The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him. And formeth the spirit of man within him. Joseph Smith says, The soul, the mind of man, the immortal spirit. What all men say, God created it in the beginning. The very idea lessens man in my estimation. I do not believe the doctrine. I know better. He knows better than the Bible, in other words. He knows better than the Scriptures. And so for all their great professed belief in the word of God, the Mormons are found out when you look at their doctrines carefully. They don't believe the Bible at all. Milton Hunter again, he said, In the first stage, man was an eternally existent being, being termed an intelligence. We do not know how long he lived in this first realm, but it must have been ages and ages. There came a time, however, when we completed our work in that realm and were permitted to go forward in the eternal process of progression. The next realm where man dwelt was the spirit world. And that's taken from Gospel through the ages, page 127. It is hard to read some of this stuff without getting angry. But nevertheless, you have to know what these people believe, what they teach. And this is what Mormonism teaches. All men were literally born as spirit children of God and his wife, who once lived on another earth and are resurrected beings. All men and women are literally the sons and daughters of deity, as spirits they were the offspring of celestial parentage. These spirit beings, the offspring of exalted parents, were men and women appearing in all respects as mortal persons do, accepting only that their spirit bodies were made of a more pure and refined substance than the elements from which mortal bodies are made. Further evidence of their belief in this is taken from Mormon doctrine by McConkie. Quote, To understand the doctrine of pre-existence, two great truths must be accepted. One, that God is a personal being, an exalted, perfected, and glorified man of holiness, and not a spirit essence that fills the immensity of space. If I might just stop there. How did the Lord Jesus define God? John chapter 4, verse 24. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. But the Mormons deny that God fills the immensity of space. They believe that God is a glorified man. And then number two, that matter or element is self-existent and eternal in nature, creation being merely the organization and reorganization of that substance which was not created or made, neither indeed can be. If there had been no self-existent spirit element, there would have been no substance from which those spirit bodies could have been organized. That's just another way of denying creation from nothing. We believe in, to use a Latin term, ex nihilo, creation. That is creation out of nothing. The Bible tells us about that. It says that God spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. God spoke all things into existence. But the Mormons don't believe that. They deny creation from nothing. In fact, to them, creation is just a reorganization of the substance which was not created or made, neither indeed can be. It's kind of a gobbledygook to me, that. But they believe, listen to this, I know it's hard to believe that folks who would call themselves the Church of Jesus Christ would say this, but this is what Mormons believe. Two of God's sons, Jesus and Lucifer, proposed different plans for man's earth experience. When Lucifer's plan was rejected, he led one-third of God's spirit children to open warfare and was cast out as a result and became an evil force on the earth with no chance to get a body. That's what Mormons teach. McConkie, one of their writers, put it this way, In the pre-existent state, various degrees of valiance and devotion to the truth were exhibited by different groups of our Father's spirit offspring. One-third of the spirit hosts came out in rebellion and were cast out without bodies. The other two-thirds stood affirmatively for Christ. And that's just a twisting of Revelation chapter 12 where rightly the Bible does speak of Satan being that great dragon who drags down one-third of the angels of heaven. That much is true. But the way they're putting it is that these were all God's spirit offspring and they were cast out without bodies. That was their judgment. Now, McConkie goes on to say, Of the two-thirds who followed Christ, some were more valiant than others. Those less valiant in pre-existence and thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as Negroes. That's what the Mormons taught. Now, when you think about this, this is just racism. And it was institutionalized by the Mormon church. They believed that Negroes, black people, that they had no souls. That's what they believed. No souls. But you know what? A revelation from God changed this. Because the Mormon church realized that their tax-exempt status was going to be removed from them if they continued to present this racism as part of their doctrine. So they had this great revelation that this wasn't true anymore. And this is very nicely covered up. It might be interesting just to ask some Mormons who are of dark skin what they thought of that doctrine. They'll probably, as is their wont, deny that they ever believed that. But that's a fact. That's a fact. Those less valiant in pre-existence, thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality, are known to us as Negroes. And that's taken from the writings of McConkie, who deals with Mormon doctrine. Where man came from. They're completely wrong on that. And then why man is here. That's another interesting belief that they have. If you look at Revelation 4, verse 11, you'll see the reason for everything. Now, we don't have the answer to everything. God does. But we do know why everything exists. We do know why God created all that He created. Revelation 4, verse 11, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Everything for God's glory. But, of course, why man is here on the earth, McConkie, this Mormon writer, tells us the reason for that. It's actually man's second estate. Because, as he said, in that first Edenic day, that is in Eden, Adam was still in the presence of God. And what was tremendously important in the eternal scheme of things, he could have no children. But all these conditions in the providences of the Almighty were soon to change, according to the foreordained plan. Adam was to fall. He was to introduce mortality, and all that attends it, so that the opportunity for eternal progression might be offered to all the spirit children of the Father, in conformity with the will of the Lord, Adam fell, both spiritually and temporarily. So, Mormons believe that life on this earth is a probationary period. At physical birth, we are given bodies in which we can exercise our free will in choosing right or wrong. It is only in a body that man can receive fullness of joy and also attain to celestial glory. Conduct in this life determines condition in the next. We are going to get into the purposes for man being here and for attaining celestial glory. We will speak of that next time. But just to recap a little bit here from that particular statement that I just read, this is why Mormons extrapolate that the fall of man was a good thing. What they believe is that if man had not fallen, then he could not have had the opportunity for eternal progression. Because of the fall, this opportunity can be offered to all the spirit children of the Father, who is actually God or Adam. And so, in conformity with the will of the Lord, Adam fell, both spiritually and temporarily. As one of the early Mormons said, this cannot really be viewed as sin because it has conferred such blessings upon our race. What awful teaching this is! What blasphemy this is! The Word of God has nothing good to say about sin. The Word of God has nothing good to say about the fall of man. How can you call the fall of man a blessing when it has introduced such awful, not only behavior, but consequences for mankind? The fall of man was in no way a good thing. Mormons believe that it was. Their whole view of man's existence, why we're here, eternity, salvation, God, Christ, all of these things are skewed. Their view of these things is so completely unscriptural, unbiblical, as almost to warrant us saying, just chalk it off. I do believe that when I do say yes, I do chalk it off. You've got to have reasons for doing that and they're condemned out of their own mouth. We believe that the Word of God is true. When you bring teachings like the Mormon teaching to the scripture, you realize just how false a system it is. And how benighted, how dark are the souls who are caught up in that system. We're going to be looking further at some of the other excessive beliefs of Mormonism in terms of their creed, but again, as we always do when we're looking at cults and false religions, we thank the Lord for the truth of the Gospel. We thank the Lord for the revelation of His Word and what we have recorded there. It's sufficient for us for time and for eternity. And we thank God today for the truth. Jesus said, the truth shall set you free. And it is our prayer that many who are even caught up in the Mormon system, might be brought to the knowledge of the truth. And if they are, they'll certainly depart from the Mormon church. Let's have a word of prayer. Again, Lord, we are thankful for the truth of Thy Word. We praise Thee that we may stand upon it. Lord, we do again pray against the falsehoods of Mormons and other cults. Lord, it grieves our soul even to contemplate the things that they believe, the things that they propagate in their teaching. But Lord, we know that in scripture is that clear prophecy that such things will be. There will be those who will arise to draw away disciples after them. There will be those who will come claiming to be of Christ, who will bring in damnable heresies and denying the Lord who has bought us as His people. Many shall follow their pernicious ways. But, O Lord, we thank Thee today that we're not following in that way, that we're following Thee. We pray that You would help us, Lord, to be a good witness for our blessed Savior. Help us to stand up for Him, to stand against all that would besmirch His holy name. We thank Thee again for the truth, and we pray that today we might cling to it by Thy grace, in Jesus' name. Amen.