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Joseph Smith claimed that the American Indians were the lost tribes of Israel. God knew that after the Catholic church had gotten through with the New Testament, much of it would be destroyed[1] and they would only leave 27 books therefore to protect his word, in 148 BC or before, God wrote many “plain and precious things” on golden plates and gave them to the lost tribes. These lost tribes eventually migrated into North America and brought the golden plates with them. These plates were found by Joseph Smith in the 18th century in the Indian mounds near Palmyra NY. On these plates were inscribed words in the Neo Egyptian language. (There is no such language in the history of man. No one but Smith has ever seen these plates.) He later stationed himself on one side of a curtain and read aloud, one letter at a time, to a friend on the other side of the curtain. This friend wrote down these words and they became the book of Mormon. When all was written he gave the plates to an angel, who disappeared with them. (Later ten reliable witnesses testified that the contents of the so-called “Book of Mormon” were actually productions of Solomon Spaulding and a deposed Baptist minister, Sidney Rigdon, who were trying to create a new religion.)

When Smith was a boy he often tricked people into hunting for treasure by pretending he could read of these treasures when he looked into a stone called a “Peep stone.” Years later, as Smith did his “spiritual” dictating, he put stones in his stovepipe hat, put his face in the hat, and on each stone, supposedly, appeared one of the characters from the plates. Under this character appeared the English counterpart.

· They have more Bible than anyone else. They claim that the book of Mormon and the New Testament contains the complete New Covenant. The book of Mormon includes 2,500 verses that are quoted from the 1611 AD. King James Version of the New Testament but according to Smith were written that way on the plates 148 years before Christ.

· Organization: The First Presidency, which is made up of a president, 3 high priests, and 2 counselors. Under this is the council of the 12 apostles, then below this is the council of the 70.

· Did Joseph Smith claim that the Book of Mormon in no way contradicts the New Testament?

· Can you show me one thing the book of Mormon teaches, that the New Testament does not teach, which is necessary to be born again, to live a Christian life and to keep saved? (THEY CAN NOT DO IT.)

· I have heard the gospel. I believe the gospel. I have repented of my sins, confessed Jesus as my Lord and savior and been baptized by immersion for the forgiveness of sins. What more must I do to become a Christian? (THEY AGREE THAT WE ARE SAVED IN THIS MANNER. IF THEY ASK IF WE YOU WERE BAPTIZED BY AN ORDAINED MINISTER, SAY YES, ONE ORDAINED BY GOD.)

· What does the book of Mormon offer me? THEY WILL ANSWER, MORE EXALTATION (GLORIFICATION).

Philippians 3:20, 21 “But our citizenship is in heaven... the Lord Jesus Christ, will transform our lowly bodies so
that they will be like his glorious body.” HOW MUCH MORE GLORIFICATION CAN THERE BE?

Webster defines elders as: older; senior; an aged person; a forefather; ancestor.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon: elder, of age; the elder of two people; advanced in life, an elder, a senior; forefathers.

· Titus 1:6 “An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.”

(You may need to say, “I’ve listened to your view and now I’ll think that you are rude if you don’t listen to mine.)

John 20:31 “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

3. The book of 1 John is enough to provide the believer with confidence that he has eternal life.

1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

2 Tim 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

Matthew 5:18 “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

Psalms 119:89 “Your word, O LORD, is eternal it stands firm in the heavens.”

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

1 Peter 1:23 “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (Enduring = surviving. permanent)

· If we believe that God did not protect his original Bible (making sure it was not corrupted or lost) how can we believe that he protected the book of Mormon from being corrupted?

· If the book of Mormon was inspired, why were there over 3,000 changes in it since 1830?

2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

Galatians 1:8 “But even if we or an angel (Maroni) from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”

Revelation 22:18-19 “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

· The compass was not invented until the 12th century AD. yet Alma 37:38 speaks of its use 73 BC. (Each book is dated by the writer).

· Horses were brought to America by the Spanish explorers, yet I Nephi 18:25 speaks of horses in America in 589 BC.

· Mosiah 18:17 speaks of the Lord’s church being in existence in 147 BC yet in Matthew 16:18 Jesus speaks of the church being still in the future. “I will build my church.”

· Alma 46:14f speaks of Christians in America in the year 73 BC, yet the Bible says, “The disciples were FIRST called Christians at Antioch” Acts 11:26 (during the first century AD.)

Micah 5:2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.”

Matthew 2:1 “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea.” (Joseph Smith missed the location by 8 miles.)

· Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 “God is an exalted man having flesh and blood.”

John 4:24 “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Luke 24:39 “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as Ye see me have.”

John 1:14 “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.”

· Doctrine of Salvation pg. 74 stated that the Garden of Eden was located in Independence, Missouri.

Genesis 2:10-14 “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters… The name of the third river is the Tigris...And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (The garden was plainly near the present Mesopotamia.)

· Baptism for the dead: The book of Alma 34:32-35 implies that after death there is no hope for salvation.

· “The Gospel is a system or plan of laws and ordinances by strict obedience to which people are assured they may return again into the presence of the father. Galatians 5:4 “You who are trying to be justified by law have been
alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

· The Mormon church believes that the gospel was proclaimed before Christ came to the earth. The following verses show that it was concealed until Christ came.

Galatians 1:6-9 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”

The church of Christ accepts the following fundamental blocks to understanding God’s word. The Mormons do not.

· The inductive/deductive approach to Bible study is the approach that God taught us to use.

I believe the best way to study with Mormons is to study the three subjects above. First, they are less offensive than directly confronting the person with problems in his present church. Second, these three subjects form the foundation for all future study. Third, a point of reference will be established when it comes time to point out the errors the denomination.

[1] a. There are ancient manuscripts of Bible which Catholics have never had.

(1) The oldest and most important Bibles are: The Sinaitic, The Alexandrian, and The Vatican.

(2) The Catholic church has never had control of the oldest, and they do not rely on their own Vatican manuscript. They use the Latin Vulgate translation.

b. The oldest know copy of the Bible is called the Peshitta Syriac Translation. This book was written around 90 AD. This translation includes all the Old Testament books, and all of the New Testament books except II and III John, II Peter, Jude, and Revelation (Dickson pp. 17). Several of these books had not even been written at the time this translation was compiled. The Peshitta Syriac translation proves that the books of the Bible, which we have today, were gathered and compiled during the life of the inspired apostles. The collection was not made in later years by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church did not decide which books were inspired and which were not.