Mormons worship an angel of light

How can a Mormon, call themselves a Christian?

How the LDS Church makes it plainly obvious that they are not.

I know many Mormons who think they are Christians. My brother is a devout Mormon, the family I was raised in is part of a church that is an off shoot of the LDS church. Growing up I thought I was a Christian. When I run into Mormons I ask them how they can call themselves Christian. They are puzzled as to why I don't consider them Christians and defend themselves with many arguments.

However instead of getting bogged down in a lot of debates, let's just step back and look at Mormons.

2^nd Corinthians 11:3 But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

So with the simplicity that is in Christ let's look at the Mormon church and ask, is it of Christ?

Mormon Baptismal Fonts

I had the opportunity to visit a Mormon temple before it was dedicated to God. So all us “un-godly” as my twin put it, could visit it without defiling “God's sanctuary.” Because you know what God? until the Mormon's say its yours, they can get publicity by letting people view the splendid work they built for you. Ok that is sarcasm, but seriously.

I have never liked Mormons, heck I've never liked the church I was raised in. All the Joseph Smith worship just felt wrong. But upon seeing the Baptism Font the feeling of viewing something entirely evil came over me.  

This is a oval font mounted on the backs of twelve oxen supposedly signifying the twelve tribes of Israel. Different temples have the font made of different materials. Some look gold, some look to be plaster. However the very design seems sinister as you can see below.

This baptism font was designed by Joseph Smith's directions for the baptism of the dead. This is a Temple only Baptism Font specifically for this rite. The “Stakes” which is what Mormons call their weekly church buildings, do not have these. Maybe too much for the new converts?

While researching the significance of oxen online, I found this curious and actually quite hilarious article about the baptismal fonts in the Mormon church at www.utlm.org.

Oxen Cut From Twelve To Six

In some of the newer, smaller LDS temples they are only using six oxen in a half circle, against a wall of mirrors. In 1982 Peggy Fletcher commented:

Some months ago, while perusing periodicals for our section called "Mormon Media Image," I spotted a curious item in the newsletter of a group who call themselves, "Saints Alive in Jesus" (a group fervently dedicated to "exposing the Mormon fraud and reconverting its members to Christianity"). It read:

The LDS church unveiled plans for the smaller, economy size one story temples recently. Ten of the already announced new temples will use the new design. One interesting difference is that the baptismal font will rest on 6 oxen rather than 12, and a mirror will be used to create the other 6.

The newsletter went on to query sarcastically, One can only wonder which of the 12 tribes have been disenfranchised for the sake of a little economy?

Naturally I presumed it to be a false rumor, a bit silly at that, another attempt by this group to discredit the Church, but thought it worth checking out anyway. To my dismay the Church Building Department confirmed it to be a fact. Six oxen and mirrors. The brain reels with the possibilities that introduces. Said one of my editors, "Effective placement of mirrors in local chapels could quickly double sacrament meeting attendance while cutting in half the number of officers needed to staff the ward." Missionaries wouldn't need companions, only mirrors.

What sort of mind, I asked myself, came up with this innovative scheme to save money, substituting tricks and sleight of hand for sacred symbolism?  (Sunstone Magazine, July 1982, p. 18)

Mirrors to deceive people that something is there that is not? Does that seem odd? Shall we just make a pretense of Christianity? Is it enough for me to put up a good show? Apparently it is for Mormons.

But do these Golden Oxen remind you of anything? Think back to the last time there were golden statues of cows? Here is a photo prompt.

This is a depiction of the worshiping of the Golden calf made by the Israelites in Exodus 32. What did God have to say about that?

Exodus 32:7 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

But come on man! Mormons don't worship the baptismal font oxen! You're over reacting. It's just artwork. Chill out. I have no doubt that is what a lot of people think. No big deal right? Tell that to the Bible. It's pretty clear.

Exodus 20:1-4 And God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Okay that is pretty clear. So if you are a Bible-reading-Christian, you know that God isn't that up on engraven images,. especially golden cows. I wonder, is that part IN the Mormon Bible? Oh did you know that Joeseph Smith re-wrote the Bible too? That's another article.

But lets look at some more graven images.

What is this?!........This is the “Angel Moroni”. All nice and golden. And look, it's an angel blowing a trumpet. The trumpet of truth and wisdom across all the world. Hmmmm.....anyone wanna take a guess what Mormons do with this?

There you go! They put it on top of their Temples!!!

Okay so now lets look at the Angel Moroni. This is supposedly the angel that gave Joseph Smith the plates of gold to write the Book of Mormon and then took them back. Is this Moroni ever mentioned in the Bible? No.

When Jesus was ministered to by Angels who was it that came to him? Moses, Elijah and Moroni? Nope! No Angel Moroni. Hmmmm.....maybe this Moroni just got a promotion so that HE got to minister to up and coming prophets in the 1830s? Yeah Moses, Elijah, Paul and Peter were all busy that day so Moroni got to talk to little Joe Smith? That's it!

What is the Angel Moroni Statue?

Wikipedia says this. “Because of his instrumentality in the restoration of the gospel, Moroni is commonly identified by Latter Day Saints as the angel mentioned in Revelation 14:6, "having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

The image of the angel Moroni blowing a trumpet is commonly used as an unofficial symbol of the LDS Church. Moroni appears on the cover of some editions of the Book of Mormon, and statues of the angel stand atop many LDS temples, with most statues facing eastward.

And supposedly Joseph Smith himself calls this Moroni “An Angel of Light”. Well he got THAT part right. However lets see what the Bible says about this. Hang in there because I'm going to take you the long way through it.

2^nd Corinthians 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

This is Paul warning of false prophets. Lets continue at verse 12.

2^nd Corinthians 11:12 But what I do, that I will do, “that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion: that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Okay that's pretty clear. There will be people teaching a different Christ (read the KJV and the Book of Mormon or any of my Bible vrs Book of Mormon blogs, and you'll see it does teach a different Christ.)

So Mormon's have an Angel of Light on their temples. Graven images of oxen holding up their baptism fonts for their baptism of the dead rituals, if you even dig into their teachings they are teaching a different Jesus.

So are they Christians? Ask yourself what this looks like? Mirror tricks, engraven images, and at the very top of their temple a golden statue of an angel of light. On Christian churches if there is anything it's usually a cross which ties to Jesus Christ and salvation. Mormons worship an angel of light though. If you don't agree with that statement, why is that statue the most lifted up image in Mormonism? Pretty hard to make it more obvious.

But the cleverness is in it's obviousness. So plain that no one thinks that Satan would make it so clear that that he is atop those temples. He's the master of deception! And the best deceptions are those that are in plain view.

Are Mormons Christians?

In Mormonism we're told that we are Christians. We just have more books of truth than the rest of the Christians. Where Baptists and others only have a Bible, we have the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine in Covenants. The Book of Mormon itself which is supposedly a document written 600 years after Christs death even perpetrates this saying in the later days those who reject God's further truth will say; "We already have a Bible we don't need anything else."

Sounds bad. Who wants to reject God's increased knowledge and blessings? And of course man always hungers after greater knowledge. Plus teachings show that God likes the number three. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, etc. Well look! Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. 

So Mormonism gets all tied up in how much more knowledge we have. And in defending our knowledge (which no one wants to looks stupid) we kinda overlook some critical thinking. But we'll get to that. 

The next thing even in Mormonism we don't agree. The LDS Mormons will tell the RLDS Mormons they don't have the "true" Book of Mormon. And the RLDS vilify the LDS Mormons by saying his right hand men arranged the "murder" of the prophet Joseph Smith to they could run away with the church and we the Reorganized Church of Later Day Saints are the true church therefore our version of the Book of Mormon is the correct one.

First we have three problems. Mormonists are being suckered into slavery because the three book make us feel special, smarter, more knowledgeable than all the other Christians. So right from the get go, there is a great trap. How easy is it to want  to believe YOU have more knowledge than everyone else by choosing Mormonism. Very easy. It appeals to our desire to be right. 

I myself fell for this trap so hard. In opening my eyes God asked me. "How can you hold on to the Book of Mormon and believe it is true, when you don't agree with the Mormon church and that is the fruit of this book?" Just because it in MY hands and MY church doesn't make it better. 

Then the biggest problem. I agreed with my then girlfriend who wasn't Mormon to test my faith. We agreed to not involve our families or let them get involved and influence us. We where going to compare each book side by side. Try our faiths. We both felt we couldn't lose. Either way, we would be made stronger in our faith. 

So in comparing the Bible to the Book of Mormon which the Book of Mormon is touted to have the "plain and precious" parts that were taken out of the Bible by the "great and abominable church" we found just the opposite. The Book of Mormon not only did not agree with the Bible, but in finding the comparable scriptures altered the Bible verses and removed plain and precious parts. It watered it down or completely took it away. This is a simple thing to do. Open your King James version, and open your Book of Mormon and compare them. Study the words. Words are very important, if they don't say or mean the same, it's not the same. 

In the next few posts lets go over these scriptures. Bible and Book of Mormon, hand in hand. I want to show you what I found that startled and scared me. Things I didn't even know, and for being in the religion for thirty years, that is kinda bad. But if you never take a critical look at things and just believe the sugar coated golden sounding words, it's easy to take the wide easy path to hell. 

-J. Lindsey Marshall