MG-15 - No Need for a Restoration of Gospel Authority

Witnesses for Jesus

MG-15 - No Need for a Restoration of Gospel Authority

Christina R Darlington

By what authority do you or your Christian pastor perform gospel ordinances, such as baptizing new believers or laying hands on someone to receive the Holy Spirit? Mormons often challenge Christians with this question because they believe that gospel “authority” was lost when the apostles died and that it had to be “restored” through their Prophet Joseph Smith. But what does the Bible say?

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus told His followers, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… . And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)

Because Jesus holds “All authority” and has promised to be “with” Christians “always, to the very end,” how could gospel priesthood authority be lost from the earth for eighteen centuries until Joseph Smith “restored” it?

Not only was authority not lost with the death of the apostles, it had been transferred to thousands of new believers in Acts, who received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the moment that they first believed. This priesthood authority of all believers, or “power” as it is also called, has allowed Christians of all centuries to carry the message of Christ to “the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

This is why the “authority” to carry out gospel ordinances that Jesus transferred directly to the apostles, was no longer limited to them, and as a result, that authority was never lost when they died. Indeed, we can be confident that Jesus fulfilled His promise to us when he said that He would build His church and “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

MG-01 - Witnessing to Mormons Using Their Own Church History

Christina R Darlington

Have you ever considered sharing your Christian Faith with a Mormon friend, coworker or neighbor? For the first time in the History of the Mormon Church, authentic and realistic Mormon Doctrine and History are now available to you and the Mormon People on the Gospel Topics’ section of the Mormon Church’s official website. These incredibly insightful documents now state as a Fact of Mormonism, that Joseph Smith repeatedly lied to his first wife Emma. That he, Joseph Smith had up to 40 wives to include 12 to 14 wives of other men, whom he secretly married behind Emma’s back. Many of these relationships the Mormon Church now admits included the “possibility” of sexual relationships. Why does this information matter? Because it reveals the character of Joseph Smith, that he was NOT qualified to be called as one of God’s latter-day prophets. The Bible proclaims that a Bishop or Elder in a Christian church “…must be blameless, the husband of one wife…” (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:5-6). If you are a Mormon or you have friends and loved ones involved in Mormonism, We stand with you in reaching them with the Truth of Christ as proclaimed in the Bible.

MG-02 - Is Black Skin a Curse in the Book of Mormon?

Christina R Darlington

Have you ever read the Book of Mormon? Did you know that even the version of the Book of Mormon that is in print today, and given away by the Mormon Missionaries, is the most racist set of Scriptures of any religion in the world? Hundreds of Mormons have never really read the Book of Mormon which is a bit strange, because the Book of Mormon claims to be the very foundation of the Mormon faith. The Book of Mormon clearly states, several times, that black skin is a curse from God. Yet the Bible teaches in John 3:16 that God so loved the world…not just the people with white skin. The Book of Mormon tells of a violent struggle between two groups of people somewhere in South, Central or North America. In the Book of Mormon story, the good, hard-working people are white and the violent and lazy group are black. 2 Nephi 30:6, in the Book of Mormon, claims that if the bad black people repent, then they too will become white like the good people. The current Book of Mormon warns both groups of people that they should not “mix” their seed between the blacks and whites or God will curse them. Since our ministry works with many former members of the Mormon Church, we know very well that most Mormons are not racist. Yet, in over 180 years of changing many other parts of the Book of Mormon, the Mormon leadership still prints and reprints 35 remarkably racist statements found in the current Book of Mormon. Past Mormon leaders have taught that the black race was permitted to come through the Great Flood and remain on earth to represent “the devil”.[1] We have worked very closely with several black communities around the world, and we are just astonished, that any person of color would join the Mormon Church. We are equally amazed and stunned that any white Mormon would continue to endorse, admire or much less teach from the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is wrong. Black skin is not now and never was a curse from God. The plague of racism and bigotry may be promoted within the Book of Mormon, but it is not found in the Bible. [1] John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, vol. 22, pp. 303-304 (below).

MG-03 - Does Mormonism Teach that God was Once a Man?

Christina R Darlington

Mormons often wonder, “Why would anyone feel the need to question if Mormons are Christian? Even the name of the Church reflects the Mormon belief in Jesus Christ.” They are proud to be called a members of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Yet fundamentally, the Mormon Church teaches a different Jesus Christ than the One proclaimed in the Bible. In Mormonism, Jesus Christ is called our Elder Brother and the Brother of Satan. Believing that He is literally the Son of God, they teach that He is the product of a physical relationship between “Heavenly Father” and one of his so-called “Heavenly Mother” goddess wives. As a result of this teaching, Mormons deny the eternality of God the Father and claim that He earned his godhood by living upon an earth like us. Teaching that every human being has the opportunity to progress to become a god like God the Father, the Mormon Gospel Topics Essay entitled, “Becoming Like God,” quotes the Mormon Prophet Lorenzo Snow, as stating, “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.” It is the very nature and character of God that sets Mormonism apart from Christians. The God of the Bible says at Malachi 3:6, “For I am the Lord. I change not.” God also tells us in Isaiah 43:10, “…before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” Mormonism clearly does not agree with God’s Word in the Bible. He never progressed from a mortal man to become a God because He has always been God (Psalm 90:2). So, I do not see how the Mormon Church can claim that they are Christian when they have changed the very nature and character of God as spoken of by God Himself in the Bible. ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: If the Mormon teaching were true that God was once a man “like” us, wouldn’t that make him once a sinner “like” us? Since Jesus was “without sin,” (Hebrew 4:15), how could He do something His Father couldn’t do? Mormonism perverts the nature of God and falls under the condemnation of Romans 1:22-23, which teaches that fools “changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man.” The Bible is clear that no gods were formed “before” or “after” the God of the Bible (Isaiah 43:10). He alone is the “…Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” God, the “Almighty” at Revelation 22:13 and Revelation 1:8. Being the “Almighty” God, He can have no equal.