CUL:"Correctly Translated"

   When we visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, we were told
several things concerning the book of Mormon. We were told by our
Mormon tour guides...

   'That there was nothing written in the Book of Mormon that would
contradict with the Holy Bible. We were told that the two books were in
total agreement with each other. In fact, that the two books compliment
each other.'

   We also saw engraved on fine stone the 'Articles of Faith' that the
Mormons believe. Article of Faith, number 8 reads,

   'We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is
translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the Word
of God.'

   Upon returning home we began to examine the Book of Mormon with the
Holy Bible to see if these things were true. Were there no
contradictions? Is the Mormon doctrine 'correctly translating' the Word
of God? The answer to these two fundamental questions is examined below.

   THE FALL OF MAN

   What we found is that the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible
contradict each other starting in chapter 1 of Genesis. We hadn't even
gotten started and already we found a sinful contradiction in the Book
of Mormon. For we read in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:18 and 22-25,

   "Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent who is the
devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said 'Partake of the
forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing
good and evil...And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would
not fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all
things which were created must have remained in the same state in which
they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever,
and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they
would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they
knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin...Adam fell that
men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."

   WHAT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS SAYING

   Mormons and the Book of Mormon are saying,

   1. That man had no choice but to sin if we were to have babies and
fill the earth with humans. In short, there would be no sex without the
fall. 2. That without the fall, man had "no joy". 3. Without man
sinning we could not do any "good" and would not have any knowledge on
how to grow into the image of God.

   In summary, the book of Mormon is saying Adam fell that he might
gain a wisdom on how to have babies with joy and to be able to do good.

   WHAT MORMON's SAY

   Upon investigating the theology of the Mormons we find them being in
agreement with the book of Mormon and the 3 points listed above. They
state,

   "Adam fell, but he fell in the right direction...toward the
goal...he fell upward." -Sterling W. Sill, Assistant to the Council of
the Twelve

   "It is necessary for man to learn by actual experience the
difference between good and evil...He must feel the influence and power
of death before he can appreciate eternal life. He must comprehend the
effects of sin before he can enjoy the rest promised to the
faithful..." -The Plan of Salvation

   It is easy to see that Mormons agree with the 3 points listed above.

   THE IMAGE OF GOD

   Not only does the Mormon doctrine teach that Adam and Eve could not
have physical children before the Fall, (Moses 5:11), but that before
the Fall we would have no opportunity to become as God, that is, to be
a God ourselves. We have been told by Mormons that the goal of every
good Mormon man is to become a God himself, and the goal of every good
Mormon wife is to become a goddess. Together they will rule over their
own earth. They will be God to that earth. They say Satan was not lying
when he said that they "would be like God". Indeed, for them to have
the opportunity to be a God they must fall and then prove their
worthiness by obeying the Mormon church. So if all goes well they too
will not only be in the image of God, they will be a God!

   President Spencer W. Kimball has said, "This progress toward eternal
life is a matter of achieving perfection. Living all the commandments
(there are over 4300 in Mormonism) guarantees total forgiveness of sins
and assures one of exaltation through that perfection which comes by
complying with the formula the Lord gave us." It follows then, that if
each of you can become a God, then God was human like us at one time
too. That He too had to obey the laws of godhood if He was to be
exalted. In fact, one of the favorite sayings within the Mormon church
is..."As man is, God once was; and as God is, man may become."

   The President of the Mormon Mission in England puts it this way: "As
one of our great prophets and President of the Church has indicated,
'As man is, God once was; and as God is, man may become.' So you see
why the Temple is so important to the LDS; because if he is worthy to
go into the Temple and there receive the secret ordinances and
covenants and keep them, he can eventually grow into becoming a god
himself." -Dr. Harold Goodman

   Because the temptation and fall of man was such a blessing we now
have the opportunity to become a god if we join the Mormon church.
Mormon President Spencer W. Kimball whose picture is displayed in Salt
Lake City Utah said in 1974, "In each of us is the potentiality to
become a God - pure, holy, true, influential, powerful...Man can
transform himself...he has in him the seeds of Godhood that can grow."
To the Mormon, Satan is telling the truth when he says, "ye shall be as
God." Is all this true? Will the Holy Bible support the first teachings
of Mormonism? Have they "correctly translated the Bible"? Are the Holy
Bible and the Book of Mormon in agreement? We were told to check it out
and so we shall.

   THE HOLY BIBLE

   "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the
Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, `You must
not eat from any tree in the garden?' The woman said to the serpent,
'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You
must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden,
and you must not touch it, or you will die." "You will not surely die,"
the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat of it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from
evil." -Genesis 3:1-5 NIV

   POINT #1

   Remember point #1 of Mormon teaching? "That man had no choice but to
sin if we were to have babies and fill the earth." This cannot possibly
be true! Adam and Eve knew "how" to be fruitful in producing babies.
For on the 6th day when God made Adam and Eve what did he tell them?

   "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him; ...male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to
them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue
it...God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was
evening, and there was morning-the 6th day." -Genesis 1:27-31

   No fall of man had taken place yet, and God told them to "Be
fruitful and increase". Adam and Eve already had the knowledge of
sexual reproduction otherwise God would be asking the impossible. In
fact, if you will read all of Genesis 1 you will find that things were
already reproducing according to their "own kind" right after their
creation. Let us read in Genesis 1:11,

   "Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed- bearing
plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it according
to their various kinds.' And it was so."

   Already the vegetation and trees are reproducing, for God had given
such wisdom to plants and trees when He made them saying,
"seed-bearing"! In addition, when God first created birds and the
creatures in the sea He said,

   "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and
fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."
-Genesis 1:21

   Now this all took place on the 4th and 5th days, a full day before
man and woman were created by God. A full day before Adam and Eve the
birds and bees were already busy. Yet Mormonism tells us that things
would have "stayed the same for eternity". That is, the same number of
things would always be if the fall had not taken place. Indeed, man
knew how to make babies, the big difference was he was naked and
intimate, but he felt no shame for his natural condition.

   "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."
-Genesis 2:25

   The only thing Satan brought was the twisted perspective that the
way God had made things was shameful! To sinful man sex is not
pleasurable unless it is shameful. It is from this shameful desire for
sex that polygamy and eternal marriage come from. Satan did not bring
to us the blessings of a sex education course. Satan brought us
shameful passion and lust.

   POINT #2

   2. That without the fall, man had "no joy".

   How absurd! How can one eat day after day from the tree of life in
the garden of the Lord and not experience pure joy?! How is it possible
that we could enter into the presence of the Almighty God without sin
and not feel endless joy? With such a teaching, Mormons ought to be
telling everyone to go out and sin as much as possible, then come to
the teachings of Mormonism. You would better appreciate it that way.
What was the nature of the punishment given to Adam and Eve? They were
driven AWAY FROM JOY -AWAY FROM PARADISE!! (Revelation 2:7). Indeed,
when Cain was being driven further away from God, what did he complain
to God about? What did Cain fear the most?

   "Cain said to the Lord, 'My punishment is more than I can bear.
Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your
presence..." -Genesis 4:13-14

   There is no joy without the presence of the Lord. That Cain knew all
too well. It is finding the path of life that leads to the presence of
God and so to eternal joy. "You have made known to me the path of life;
you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your
right hand." -Psalm 16:11

   POINT #3

   3. You can be a God, like God too.

   To believe this we must believe that Satan was telling the truth
when he told Eve she would be like God. Did Satan mix in some truth
here? Jesus says there is 'NO" truth in Satan. NONE! -John 8:44, "You
belong to your father, the devil...He was a murderer from the

   beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him."
Jesus is saying there is not one word of truth that comes out of the
serpent, the devil! Satan is pure lies. Therefore, what he told Eve was
ALL A LIE.

   DOWN TO BASICS

   Why was Satan punished and cast out of heaven? What sin did he
commit? What was so bad a thing that Satan did that God created hell
just for him and his followers? -Isaiah 14:12-15, "How you have fallen
from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down
to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your
heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars
of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost
heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the
clouds; I will make myself LIKE THE MOST HIGH (ye shall be as God).'But
you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit."

   Satan was cast down to the depths of the pit for seeking to "become
a God". What sinful pride and haughtiness of spirit lies within the
soul of man! It is the spirit of the Antichrist that says man can be as
God.

   It is the root of what is called sin that tells man to be his own
god. It is the basis for the fall away from God to strive to be as God.
When sin finally reaches its peak, one man will stand up and say that
he has achieved in this world what Mormonism teaches. He will say, "I
am God" or "as God".

   "He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is
called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple,
proclaiming himself to be God." -2 Thessalonians 2:4

   If God really approves of us striving to be as God why would he
condemn any man for seeking to practice his future godhood now? Yet, it
is the spirit of rebellion and of the Antichrist to strive to be as
God. We were created to be nothing more than worshipers of God. We were
created for God's pleasure.

   GOD SAYS THERE WILL NEVER BE ANY OTHER CREATED GODS!

   It is a pure lie of Satan to tell us that we too one day will
achieve Godhood; having worlds of our own to rule over and be as God
there. The Almighty God says it will never, ever happen!

   "...understand that I am He. Before me no god was formed, nor will
there be one after me." -Isaiah 43:10

   In the same book that tells us about why Satan fell from heaven it
tells us that no god will ever be "formed" (including you, Mormon
friend) after God!

   FALLEN RELIGION

   After careful study and prayer and asking God for wisdom, (James
1:5) the Holy Spirit has shown us that Mormonism is based on a lie,
that Mormonism is a fallen religion that appeals to the awful pride in
man. It has just been shown that the Book of Mormon has nothing in
common with and the Holy Bible. Your pride has deceived you.

   This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'In the pride of your heart
you say, 'I am a god". -Ezekiel 28:2

   For an idea of what it really means to follow Jesus please contact
us today or write for the tract, "Which road to salvation?". We love
you. Our address is:

   SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH P.O. Box 460206 Aurora, Colorado 80015