The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his075/lds14.lzh/LDS14.TXT

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CUL:The Nature of God.  There is but ONE GOD

   The BIBLE states that there has been, and presently is, and always
will be only ONE GOD. History and the BIBLE show that the Jewish people
always believed in ONE GOD of the UNIVERSE. The Jewish nation however,
was lured time and time again, into going after "other gods" that were
worshipped by the people surrounding Israel. That was the sin GOD hated
and punished them for practicing. (Jeremiah 2:11, 11:9-13, 19:13)

   In direct contrast, MORMONISM has a basic belief in many gods. The
Father, Son and Holy Ghost (in Mormonism) are three separate gods.
There were gods before them and will be gods to follow:

   "If we should take a million worlds like this and number their
particles, we should find that there are more gods than there are
particles of matter in those worlds." (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 2,
page 345 [Feb 1855] Orson Pratt)

   "Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit are only one God. I say that is a strange God, anyhow - Three in
one and one in three. It is a curious organization ... all are to be
crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It would make the
biggest God in all the world .... he would be a giant or a monster."
(TEACHING OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 372) (HISTORY OF THE
CHURCH, Vol 6, page 476)

   "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the
Gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world
and people it." (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Joseph Smith, Vol 6, page 5)
(HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 308)

   Mormons will say they worship only one God. But, whether they
worship them or not, believing in the valid existence of many gods --
of the same authority and reality of the one God -- makes you a
polytheist! False Prophets have always led the people of history (and
the current peoples of the earth) to go after other gods (Deuteronomy
13:1 to 13). God's strongest wrath was then and is now upon people who
worship or believe in other gods (Jeremiah 16:10-13 and 22:8-9).
Mormonism teaches that "Father God" is married and has many wives:

   "In the heaven where our spirits were born, there are many Gods,
each of whom has his own wife or wives, which were given to him
previous to his redemption while yet in his mortal state." (THE SEER,
Orson Pratt, page 37)

   Look up John 10:34 used by Mormons to justify a belief in "many
Gods". Jesus there, is quoting Psalm 82 in which the judges were
referred to as "gods" -- but were wicked and unjust and "die like all
men". Anytime the word "gods" occur in the BIBLE it must be verified in
context as referring to the idols, satanic princes or counterfeit gods
- (Isaiah 41:23 and 24 and 45:20).

   IN CONTRAST

   The BIBLE states throughout there is but ONE GOD! Look up these
verses:

   ISAIAH 43:10-11 "Before me NO god was formed, nor after"

   44: 6-8 "I am the first and the last, beside me no other"

   45: 5-6 "I am the Lord, and there is no other"

   45:18-22 "HE created the heavens and earth-there is no other" DEUT.
6:4 "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" 32:39 "There is no
god beside me" PSALM 86:10 "Thou alone art God" MARK 12:29 "Jesus said,
the Lord our God is one; no other" GAL. 3:20 "God is one" JAMES 2:19
"You believe God is one - you do well" EPH. 4:5-6 "One God and Father
of us all" I COR. 8:4-6 "There is no god but me"

   GOD IS INFINITE

   The BIBLE states that God has always been the same from all time in
eternity past and does not change. In direct opposition to this, the
Mormon Church has the basic belief that God was once a man, with many
gods before Him and many gods to come after Him. They further believe
that God is progressing to higher levels of power and ability:

   "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits
enthroned in yonder heavens ...... it is necessary that we should
understand the character and being of God, and how He came to be so;
for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and
supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea,
and will take away the veil, so that you may see .... he was once a man
like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth
the same as Jesus Christ did." (TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH,
page 345) (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES Vol 6, page 3) (HISTORY OF THE CHURCH,
Vol 6, page 305)

   "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." (THE GOSPEL
THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 105 & 106)

   "Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation and
Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression ... was once a
mortal man who passed through a school of earth-life similar to that
which we are now passing." (THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R.
Hunter, pages 12 & 104)

   "Through modern revelations we learn that the universe is filled
with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn that Elohim is
God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain him as
such --- But God acquired the honor and sustaining influence of 'all
things'. It follows as a corollary that if He should ever do anything
to violate the confidence or 'sense of justice' of these intelligences,
they would promptly withdraw their support, and the 'power' of God
would disintegrate --- He would cease to be God. Our Heavenly Father
can do only those things which the intelligences under Him are
voluntarily willing to support Him in accomplishing." (THE FIRST 2000
YEARS, W. Cleon Skousen *,pages 355,356)

   FREEMEN INSTITUTE PRESIDENT & B.Y.U. Professor of Mormonism teaches
that God is confined to a body of flesh and bones. He is at a
particular place at a particular time. The Mormon "god" is a SMALL
"god." You can have tremendous faith in a god - BUT, if that god is not
THE GOD, then all that tremendous faith is meaningless. Elijah once
challenged the priests of "another god" to start a fire, and the "god"
who was able to do so would be recognized as THE GOD. The priests for
this wooden idol, with great faith and efforts prayed and prayed to
their god to bring down fire to prove his godhood. Elijah even became
somewhat sarcastic when he asked a rhetorical question of "Maybe your
god is asleep? Maybe you should cry out louder to wake him up?". After
all these efforts, nothing happened!

   It didn't matter if the priest and believers of that "god" had a
great faith because the OBJECT of that faith was incapable of
fulfilling the promise of that faith. The ONE and TRUE GOD fulfills our
prayers.

   "If God possesses a form, that form is of necessity of definite
proportions, and therefore of limited extension and space. It is
impossible for Him to occupy at one time more than one space of such
limits." (ARTICLES OF FAITH, James E. Talmage, pages 42 and 43)

   "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all
description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me,
calling me by name and said, pointing to the other - 'This is my
Beloved Son. Hear Him!" (PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, Joseph Smith 2:17)

   "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's."
(DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, 130, v:22)

   "God himself is increasing in knowledge, power, and dominion and
will do so, worlds without end." (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES,Prophet Wilford
Woodruff, Vol 6, Pg 120)

   "We were begotten by our Father in heaven; the person of our Father
in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His Father; and
again, He was begotten by still a more ancient Father ...." (THE SEER,
Orson Pratt, Page 132)

   The BIBLE states throughout that GOD IS INFINITE! We ask that you
look up these proofs: II CHRONICLES 6:18 "Heaven and the Heaven of
Heavens cannot contain thee." PSALM 41:13 (90:2) "God is from
everlasting to everlasting" PSALM 102:25-27 "created heavens, always
the same without end" PSALM 139:4-8 "Omniscient and Omnipresent"
JEREMIAH 23:24 "I fill heaven and earth" HOSEA 11:9 "I am God, and not
man" MALACHI 4:39 "I do not change" NEHEMIAH 9:6 "made Heaven, Heaven
of Heavens and all their host" PROVERBS 15:3 "His eyes in every place"
ROMANS 1:22-23 The sin of changing God into image of man is addressed
ACTS 17:27 "He is not far from each of us" JOHN 4:24 "God is Spirit"
LUKE 24:39 "A Spirit has not flesh and bones" HEBREWS 4:13 "All things
opened unto His eyes" I JOHN 4:12 "No man has seen God at any time" I
TIMOTHY 6:15 "No man has seen, nor can see ..." JOHN 1:18 "No man has
seen God at any time" EXODUS 33:20 "There shall be no man see me and
live"

   It is clear that the BIBLE refutes the Mormon church's claims and
the claims of its prophets and leaders in a most specific manner.
Brigham Young, second Prophet and President of the Mormon Church taught
that ADAM was "our Father and our God...":

   "When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it
with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him ...
He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do
... When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had
begotten Him in His own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy
Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family...."
(JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 1, page 50, April 9,1852)

   "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that
pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this earth
- the first man. That first man sent His own Son to redeem the world
..." (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 4,pg 1,June 29,1856) Prophet &
President Heber C. Kimball

   "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-Day Saints in
regard to a particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God
revealed to me -- namely, that Adam is our Father and our God ... Our
Father, Adam helped to make this earth, it was created expressly for
him .... He brought one of his wives with him, and she was called Eve
... Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds the
keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children.." (DESERT
NEWS, June 18,1873: Discourse by Prophet and President Brigham Young)

   Today, the Mormon Church adamantly denies the "ADAM-GOD" doctrine
taught, and as seen above, and affirmed by "Prophet" Brigham Young.
There is overwhelming evidence that he did teach, believed and strongly
defended this belief. By any, reasonable, interpretation of the BIBLE,
Brigham Young must be classified as a FALSE PROPHET (see Deuteronomy
13:1 -10 and 18:20-22 - also Jeremiah 23:16-17) ADAM is not OUR god and
NEVER will be! The BIBLE states:

   ".... then the Lord God formed man of dust from the earth, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
being." (Genesis 2:7)

   GOD is ONE and ETERNALLY the same. Creator of the Heavens and the
Earth ... All powerful, all knowing, all present. Despite the fact that
HE is INFINITE, he knows every hair on our heads and has a plan for
each of our lives (John 3:16 & 10:10). It is far better to have a small
faith in THE TRUE GOD of the universe than to have a great faith in a
small, counterfeit god. One should keep in mind that faith in a
"counterfeit" god is really no more than a misplaced faith in the false
prophet and the teaching of a false Prophet. Remember - a counterfeit -
to be called a counterfeit - must "resemble" the GENUINE item. If there
are many "counterfeit" gods, then there must be a REAL GOD, and HE is
found in the scriptures and in everything that surrounds us.